Pupil Mobility

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Little Ilford (Secondary), Newham

Context

Little Ilford is an 11-16 secondary school in the London Borough of Newham. The school has 1,310 pupils on roll with boys slightly outnumbering girls.

54.4% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. This, like the number of minority ethnic pupils, the number of pupils for whom English is an additional language and the percentage of pupils who have statements of special educational need, is well above the national average. The total number of pupils placed by the school on the special educational needs register is slightly below the national average. Data available on pupils' reading ages and their Key Stage 2 tests indicates that attainment on entry to the school is well below the national and Newham averages.

The school is part of the London Borough of Newham Excellence in Cities programme and has been part of a mini-achievement zone with local partner schools from April 2000.

Type of mobility

Using the JPL formula, pupil mobility in the academic year 2000-01 was 19%. Around 15% of the pupils have a refugee background, the majority of Somali origin, and for 98% of pupils, English is not their first language.

Target setting

The head describes the school approach to target setting as follows:

"We prefer to talk about 'predictions' and we depend on good pupil level data. There are unknown variables affecting pupil success - it is very difficult to know what factors have led to success or failure. Our predictions are based on known evidence and are all the more challenging and vigorous for that.

"Our teachers negotiate and agree shorter-term predictions with pupils and their parents on our 'academic review days', daytime events which successfully replaced parent evenings. Experience shows that pupils might not stay long when they arrive so we do a quick and efficient assessment straight away (using EAL Assessment). From this - or from the academic review days for settled pupils - we can derive the termly and annual targets for day to day teaching and learning. We also offer accelerated provision for mid-term entrants through a variety of 'clubs' in and out of school hours.

"For the end of key stages it only makes sense to set targets on the basis of the pupils who are there at the time of target setting.

"Analysis of what has worked or not is how we learn our craft and begins on the day the GCSE/GNVQ results are published. On the first day of the autumn term the Senior Management Team (SMT) and the Curriculum Teams receive a subject by subject analysis from each of my Curriculum Team Leaders which then goes to the governing body. The SMT and governors discuss the report with each individual Curriculum Leader. The approach is rigorous and - importantly - focused on what they (SMT and governors) can do to help move achievement forward.

"By the end of the key stage, only some of the pupils sitting the exams and tests are those we made predictions for two years earlier, so our analysis focuses on those we did make a prediction for and the gap - either way - between what we predicted and what the pupil achieved. We are happy to be accountable for that and I protect my staff from being accountable for what is beyond their control."

Ethos and activities to ensure good progress for the high mobility pupils.

The school has a post with a particular responsibility for mid-phase arrivals (job description available from school) and one period per week is allocated for the assessment of casual admissions.

The school sets a high priority to working with parents, particularly offering English classes - a strand of the mini-achievement zone which has funded a home-school liaison worker who does a lot of casework with refugee families.

There is a regular audit of staff to see who speaks - and so can help with - what languages.

The school has a clear approach to mid-term admission set out in the handbook and available in ten languages. It says that welcome and induction is a 'whole school' responsibility, describes the different roles people can play in that and how the curriculum can be planned, prepared and used to support that.

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