Pupil Mobility

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Oakthorpe County Primary School, Leicestershire

Context

Oakthorpe is a small primary school with 85 pupils on roll that has doubled in size over the past few years. Almost all the pupils are of white ethnic origin. The village suffered considerable hardship when the local pit was closed and almost a third of the pupils are entitled to free school meals. Over 30% of the pupils are on the register for special educational needs.

When inspected in June 2000 the school was commended for its rising standards and its work with SEN. Also praised was: "The shared commitment of the headteacher, staff and governing body to the raising of standards, effectively supported by the thorough analysis of test and assessment data and the setting of challenging yet realistic targets for each pupil."

Type of mobility

The school's current high mobility score (25% on the JPL formula) is as a result of pupils joining - rarely leaving - the school. The roll is increasing as parents, in a village fast expanding with new owner occupied housing, regain confidence in a school with a troubled past, but which now, according to the 2000 Ofsted report, is "moving positively forward". Until recently, the migration of traveller families added to the mobility factor.

The LEA funding formula does not have an element based on pupil mobility.

Target setting

Norman Jones, headteacher at Oakthorpe, describes his school's approach to target setting:

"Because we have fewer than ten pupils, our end of key stage results are not aggregated and published as they are for larger schools. This year (2000-01) only two pupils had been right through the school but even if all ten pupils in Year 6 had been here all through, each pupil's attainment would make so much difference that aggregate targets for the cohort would not have helped either to plan our teaching or to evaluate our performance.

"So, teachers set annual targets at the beginning of the school year, or for new entrants, soon after they arrive using previous teachers' assessments and any new insights from, for example, QCA Optional Tests. We record progress on a pupil tracking IT file that we have designed for ourselves. A very important part of the tracking is the half term meeting when all staff get together, including classroom assistants, to discuss progress, or impediments to progress. These are time-consuming meetings but, given the number of new children arriving, they are very valuable. Our ability to fit all staff into these meetings is one of the advantages of being a small school."

Support for these initiatives comes from two main sources:

• Firstly, and most importantly, there is a local consortium of small schools that meets regularly and has devised a common approach to the tracking of pupil progress. This group also moderates judgements of pupil achievement and is developing and trialling IT based systems; and
  
• Secondly, support from the LEA is increasing as a result of the appointment of an adviser for small schools.

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

Norman Jones believes that Oakthorpe's success in circumstances of high mobility owes a great deal to the school's commitment to inclusion, summarised in its overall aims statement:

"Everyone connected with the school strives to achieve a common aim - that each child is given the opportunity to develop his or her full potential in a caring environment where individual needs are considered and co-operation is actively encouraged.

The school puts this into action by helping new parents and new pupils to settle in to their new communities.

The school involves the parents closely in the life and work of the school and in each child's progress. Parental involvement is considered to be fundamental to the effective settling in of the new pupils. Norman believes, "If the parents new to the village settle in well and are happy in their new environment then the children will progress well." To support parents the school has:

• regular meetings on the curriculum;
• an imaginative web-site that both updates parents and gives access to prior communications;
• a Parents' Room with computer access;
• courses run for parents after school on, for example, literacy and cooking;
• familiarisation visits for new parents and children within the locality;
• recently been successful with a £140,000 bid to be a UK online learning centre, to be run jointly with a local secondary school. This adult learning centre is for parents and the local community.

As well as having parents who have settled in well, the school considers the other key to good progress for pupils changing school to be a high quality induction programme. Oakthorpe's programme has the following elements:

• before the child starts, an extensive interview with parents that informs the school about the child but also provides the opportunity to spell out an informal 'partnership deal';
• contact with the previous school if records do not contain up-to-date targets;
• a broad assessment of the child by a SENCO (who works across the four-school consortium) followed up by a more detailed assessment if special needs have been identified. These assessments are shared with the parents at a meeting once the child has been in school for a month, and 'notes are compared';
• targets are set for the end of the school year. These targets are reviewed each half term with all staff (of this small school); and  
• a pupil 'buddy system'. Once a child effectively settles in he/she receives a 'Settling In' certificate in a school assembly. The 'buddy' is briefed on the role and also receives a certificate for helping the new entrant to settle.

When a child leaves, comprehensive records are forwarded to the receiving school along with the targets.

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