Deneside Junior School

School Improvement and Study Support

Number of students on roll: 200

Age Range: 7 – 11

Status: Mixed Junior

Free School Meals: 50% 

Description of the centre:

Deneside Junior School is a 7 – 11 mixed school covering Key Stage 2, in Seaham, County Durham.  The town is situated about seven miles east of Durham City and three miles south of Sunderland and the school is situated in the centre of Deneside Estate, an area of significant social and economic disadvantage.

There are approximately 200 pupils on roll, one in ten has a statement of special educational needs (SEN) and 60% are on the SEN register.  50% of the school population are entitled to free school meals.  The school also has a counselling service ( Place 2 Be) to support pupils, parents and increasingly staff with issues related to trauma, emotional difficulties and stress.

The school has used study support to underpin school improvement for the last four years and in that time key Stage 2 results have improved dramatically.

Socio Economic Circumstances

The Index of Multiple Deprivation places Deneside in the top 1% nationally for unemployment and long term health problems.  The area also suffers greatly from alcohol and substance abuse and the associated problems of high levels of crime and domestic violence. 

In May 2004, a curfew order was placed on the Deneside Estate by Durham Police in response to the dramatic increase in public disorder offences caused by young people from the area.  The curfew means young people under the age of 16 are not allowed on the streets of the estate after 9pm.

Study Support Programme

In 2000 school attainment was so low that Durham LEA put in place a monitoring programme to ensure that strategies for improving standards were in place.  Along with a variety of strategies it was decided that study support was to be a key feature in this process.  The Senior Management Team of the school began to analyse the reasons for low attainment.

It was very clear that the pupils and the community at large had extremely low expectations, lacked confidence and had very poor self esteem and as a result of this many pupils lacked any real motivation to work hard at school.  The school was working to establish assertive discipline codes, however many pupils were exhibiting extremely challenging behaviour which again was affecting standards in the classroom.

These circumstances meant that traditions of failure and a lack of success not only in the school but across the whole community were established and were obviously a major factor in affecting school performance.  The school realised that to ensure real sustainable improvements this cycle of underachievement had to be broken. 

When talking to pupils it was clear that study support activities were not only very popular but also seemed to motivate and enthuse them.  This led to the school deciding to think about the use of this strategy to facilitate school improvement.

Developing Study Support

Managing the Programme

The first step was to appoint the Deputy Head as Study Support co-ordinator whose role was to manage and develop the programme.  This led to a Study Support Development Plan being created which was built into the School Management Plan.  There were clear success criteria drawn up and dedicated resources were allocated and new sources of funding were sought.

Collaboration in Planning and Evaluating

The programme was designed by identifying the needs of the pupils and by finding out what the staff and community had to offer in terms of study support expertise or interest.  This was done simply by offering all pupils a questionnaire to find out what activities they wanted and by giving questionnaires to staff and parents to audit their skills, and then looking at what links there were with the Management Plans.

The resulting programme consists of a wide variety of sports coaching, health related clubs, creative and performing arts, ICT and film making, environmental studies, outdoor and adventurous activities and homework and revision classes.  This was in response to the pupils’ requests and from the findings of the skills audit of the existing staff.  Any gaps in tutor skills were filled with the support of external coaches and facilitators.

The activities are organised to run before school with the breakfast club and also ICT and sports activities.  This aspect of the programme was designed to meet health development needs as part of the Healthy School Award.  Activities are also run during lunchtime to support pupils who have demonstrated challenging behaviour.  The after school provision is extensive, and the real challenge for many pupils is how to select activities to avoid clashes.  External funding sources from the Easington and Seaham EAZ have also been used to fund weekend swimming lessons and holiday sports coaching sessions.

Each half term the pupils and staff/tutors evaluate the activities by means of questionnaires with the findings collated by the Study Support Co-ordinator.  By analysing the responses and looking at attendance registers, the programme can be altered or changed on a regular basis to ensure its continued effectiveness and reflect the needs of the pupils.  The structure of the programme has a core of activities that have proved highly popular and effective, mainly in sports, creative arts and ICT.  There have however been some highly original ideas for activities which have been both innovative and effective.  The film making projects started off as an idea some Y6 pupils had after a visit to an exhibition.  This original idea has now blossomed and the film making activities are now firmly established at the core of the programme.

The lesson we have learned as a school is that to continually look for innovative ideas and suggestions is very powerful.  As a means of broadening horizons and raising expectations, this is a system which empowers the pupils and gives a real sense of shared ownership.  Activities that start out as wild ideas and end up as mainstream activities, often improving classroom practice, demonstrates how far the school has come in terms of expectations and confidence and how powerful study support can be as a school improvement tool.  This principle of collaborating in the planning and evaluating of the programme allows the pupils and staff to have a real voice in the process and has proved highly successful and effective.  The pupils understand that the school will try to respond to their needs and requests, and the staff know that the school will attempt to support them in terms of training and resources.  Staff have included Study Support development into their performance management objectives.

Sustaining the Programme

The school has been developing the programme for four years now sustained by a variety of funding sources.  In addition to school budget allocation, there has been funding and support from a variety of organisation including, The New Opportunities Fund, Seaham EAZ, East Durham College, Playing for Success Centres, East Durham School Sports Co-ordinators, Seed Challenge Funding, Neighbourhood Regeneration Funds and the breakfast club sponsor Greggs the Bakers.  The funding has been used to provide resources and equipment, to fund training for staff and pupils and to hire specialist coaches and artists, NOF money has been used to pay staff for some activities.  The school is constantly identifying new partners and building this funding and support into the Study Support Development Plan.

Impact

The fact that pupils have been given a chance to succeed has led to a massive improvement in confidence and self esteem resulting in a much more motivated enthusiastic school community with far higher expectations.  Between 2000 and 2002, there was a 43% improvement in the number of pupils attaining Level 4+ in the English KS2 SAT and 24% improvement in the equivalent Maths SATs results.  Science results for the same period maintained a steady level of over 80% achieving Level 4+.  Attendance stands at 97%, a 10% improvement over the previous 5 years and a significant achievement in this area.

The school has achieved regional and national recognition for the programme and its effect on attainment.  Over the past three years the school has received DfES School Achievement Awards, Durham LEA Achievement Awards, Healthy School Award, Sport England Active Mark Gold Award and significantly became the first primary school in the country to achieve QiSS Established status.  The school has also entered national competitions and events and has created a film editing suite to produce DVDs.

In November 2003 the school was visited by OFSTED who rated the school as very good with some excellent features, one of which being the Study Support Programme.

The report stated:

·        The range of activities provided outside school hours is outstanding and a real strength of the school

·        Excellent use has been made of the expertise and funds from the EAZ to support such a rich and rewarding programme.

The quality of the Breakfast Club was also commented on:

·        The excellent Breakfast Club is run by governors and parent volunteers and has a tremendous uptake of around 80% of the children.  This not only extends social skills, but also provides access to homework resources and computers to help children learn more effectively.

A final comment stated:

·        All staff show very strong commitment to providing as many exciting opportunities as possible.

In Conclusion

The confidence of the whole school community has been greatly improved.  Expectations are high and standards of achievement and attainment have risen drastically.  The Study Support Programme has helped to develop a process which has allowed the school to learn together and many of the features of the programme are beginning to appear in the mainstream classroom.  The school community is now willing to take risks and evaluate progress with increasing confidence.  Interestingly the programme consists of very few purely academic activities but results indicate great academic progress.  This is something the school is researching, although obviously increased motivation and expectations are a crucial factor.  The school’s aim of creating ‘New Traditions’ and breaking the cycle of failure has proved highly successful and the process is continually evolving to adapt and meet the changing needs of the community.

The Future

The future of the programme is highly promising mainly because of the way it is embedded into the whole school planning and reviewing process.    The school’s aim of raising and maintaining levels of achievement is always going to be challenging because of the nature of the pupils and the particular SEN issues within the school.  However, by promoting achievement for all through a wide range of activities, jointly planned and reviewed with the pupils, the adage of success breeding success will continue to be at the centre of our school improvement strategies.

For more information on this case study contact:

Simon Marshall, Deputy Head, Deneside Junior School, The Avenue, Deneside, Co. Durham SR7 8PD

Tel: 0191 581 3360

Quality in Study Support, CELSI, Salomons, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, TN3 0TG

Tel: 01892 507 657