The WGSP Pupil Premium Network met this week to share ideas and experiences of supporting pupil premium children by removing barriers to learning. The network consists of heads, deputies and pupil premium champions from WGSP schools and local secondary schools and a Gloucestershire LA performance adviser.

The success of the Pupil Premium Audit Toolwhich was produced by the network earlier in the year and rolled out across Gloucestershire schools was celebrated. Feedback showed that schools felt it was a very useful tool which asked key questions to help improve the management of pupil premium children. It was also felt that the tool would be useful for early years settings which could adapt it for their own use and which may help with transition of young children into school.

The main focus of the meeting was attendance and the group shared strategies to manage and improve attendance rates which had been successful in their own schools. The consensus was that the key to improving attendance was to strengthen parental engagement which could be helped by making use of the recently published EEF toolkit on parental engagement and learning from the EEF funded project on texting to support parental engagement. This project had been established as a result of recent research in the United States which had found evidence that texting information to parents about children’s attendance and homework submission records was successful in increasing their attainment. The latest research on attendance was also shared – this had concluded that the most effective strategies were those which were based on individual approaches i.e. tailored for the child / student. It was also recognised that children / students should be praised for any small improvements in their attendance as small steps lead to big steps over time.

The next meeting on 16^th October, will focus on sharing experiences of Pupil Premium Reviews and reviewing barriers to learning. So please come and join us!