Bucks Challenge Letter September 2022

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12th September 2022

Dear Headteachers and Chairs of Governors of Participating Schools,

 

From Mitigation to Success: Tackling Educational Disadvantage in Buckinghamshire

 

I wanted to say a really big thank you to both you and the staff at your school for your commitment to being a part of The Buckinghamshire Challenge, which aims to address educational disadvantaged on pupils and to build a long term, sustainable, schools-led source of knowledge, experience and application in raising attainment for disadvantage pupils across Buckinghamshire.

 

As I am sure you are aware, The Buckinghamshire Challenge is a two year programme, established last academic year and culminating at the end of this academic year, to develop, launch and publish a Buckinghamshire Disadvantaged Strategy – ‘Addressing Disadvantage in Buckinghamshire’.  The strategy will aim to provide insight, analysis and the establishment of key principles for Buckinghamshire schools to effectively address this issue, aligning with DfE expectations on the use and impact of Pupil Premium and national good practice.

 

I would like to update you of the progress we have made in the first year of this exciting programme, and outline the key actions, activities and timescales for participating schools during this second and conclusive year.

 

  1. Progress Achieved During 2021/22

 

The Universal Offer

Your school was one of 144 Buckinghamshire schools who signed up for the Universal Offer Programme at the start of academic year 2021/22.  The Universal Offer delivered:

  • 3 conferences for school Disadvantaged Leads (and other interested members of staff) over the course of the year. From the feedback we received the evaluation score for the conferences was very high throughout all three sessions.
  • 3 workshops, one after each conference, to further explore and develop the themes arising from the conference in the context of the Disadvantaged Lead’s own school. Again, from the feedback we received these sessions were highly rated and valued by participants.
  • Disadvantaged Leads committed to attending all six sessions, participating in the inter-sessional tasks, and disseminating the learning throughout their school.

 

The Targeted Offer

The aim of the targeted offer is to develop a network of skilled and expert Disadvantaged Champion Schools across the county, who have successfully implemented strategies for addressing disadvantage in their own schools. These Disadvantaged Champion Schools will provide a long term, sustainable, schools-led source of knowledge, experience and application in raising attainment for disadvantaged pupils in Buckinghamshire, targeted at (but not limited to) supporting schools within their liaison group.

 

Each liaison group was asked to nominate a school to become the Disadvantaged Champion School for their group. The following 14 liaison groups agreed to participate in the targeted offer and nominated the below schools as their Champions:

 

 Liaison Group Disadvantaged Champion School
Rye Ash Hill
Aylesbury Town 1 Bedgrove Infant School
Aylesbury Town 2 Turnfurlong Junior
Chalfonts Chalfont St Giles Village School
Amersham Chesham Bois
Wing The Cottesloe School
Cressex The Disraeli School
Bernwode Haddenham Juniors
Evreham Iver Village Infant
Wye Valley Juniper Hill
Princes Risborough Monks Risborough
John Colet Sir Henry Floyd Grammar
Burnham St Nicolas’, Taplow
Buckinghamshire & Winslow Steeple Claydon
Chesham Waterside Primary Academy

 

Owing to the size of the Aylesbury Town liaison group, two Champion schools are participating to enable support for all schools in the town.

 

Each Disadvantaged Champion School has benefited from:

  • An individual ‘Disadvantaged Strategy Progress Review’ in the Spring or Summer term of 2021/22. This entailed:
    • The first of two half day school visits by the Unity School Partnership Adviser for Improving Outcomes for Disadvantaged Learners and Project Lead, Marc Rowland.
    • A focus on how the school can make the best use of Pupil Premium and support wider efforts to address educational disadvantaged.
    • A next steps plan for the school.
  • Participation by the school’s Disadvantaged Lead at termly Disadvantaged Network Groups, led by Marc Rowland.
  • Being the liaison group lead for the Liaison Group Project. All liaison groups should have submitted their project proposal for commencement of the project at the start of 2022/23. The focus for this project is to be on raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, particularly focusing on implementing an element of learning from the 2021/22 universal conference and workshop programme that particularly meets the needs of local learners.  Learning from the projects will form a key element of the Buckinghamshire strategy.

 

  1. 2. The Buckinghamshire Challenge – Key Dates for Academic Year 2022/23
Date & Time Meeting Invitees Purpose

 
14th September 2022 at 3.30pm

 

Virtual.

 Disadvantaged Champions Network Group Disadvantaged Champion School Leads Only

 

 ·         For Disadvantaged Champion Leads to regularly meet, share learning and support best practice in raising attainment for disadvantaged pupils across all schools.

 
19th– 30th September 2022.

 

Times, dates and delivery method varies by Liaison Group

 Liaison Groups All Headteachers

 

Disadvantaged Champion School Lead

 ·         Participating liaison groups must have final agreement by their liaison group to the project proposal and submission to Buckinghamshire Council by the end of September.  Any liaison groups where project proposals have not been submitted by the deadline will unfortunately not be eligible for the project funding.

·         Please note, not all schools in the liaison group need to actively participate in the project; please indicate all participating schools on the project proposal form.

 
Throughout November 2022.

 

Face to face school visits

 The second Disadvantaged Strategy Progress Review visit to all Champion schools Disadvantaged Champion School:

·         Headteachers,

·         Disadvantage Leads,

·         Pupil Premium Governors

 ·         More details will be provided before the visit.

·         Final reports will be sent out to all champion schools before the end of the Autumn term.

 
Morning of Monday 16th January 2023

 

The Gateway, Aylesbury

 The Buckinghamshire Challenge – Update Event All schools participating in the Universal Offer;

·         Headteachers,

·         Disadvantage Leads,

 

 ·         To review the progress made on the whole project so far, to share learning, discuss strategy progress review findings and their application across all Buckinghamshire schools.

·         Work collectively as a group to identify themes for the development of the Buckinghamshire strategy.

 
Afternoon of Monday 16th January 2023

 

The Gateway, Aylesbury

 Liaison Group Project Review Event Disadvantaged Champion School;

·         Champion Leads,

·         Headteachers

·         Pupil Premium Governor

 

 ·         An opportunity for the Disadvantaged Lead and the Headteacher and the Pupil Premium governor of Champion Schools to share learning and review the progress of the liaison group projects with Marc Rowland and the School Improvement team.

 
Tuesday 23rd May 2023 at 3.30pm

 

Virtual.

 Disadvantaged Champions Network Group Disadvantaged Champion School Leads Only.

 

 ·         For Disadvantaged Champion Leads to regularly meet, share learning and support best practice in raising attainment for disadvantaged pupils across all schools.

 
Morning of Monday 26h June 2023

 

Venue to be confirmed.

 Launch of the Buckinghamshire Disadvantaged Strategy All schools in Buckinghamshire

·         Headteachers,

·         Disadvantaged Leads

·         Pupil Premium Governors

 ·         For all Buckinghamshire schools – the launch of a Buckinghamshire strategy to deliver a long term, sustainable, schools-led source of knowledge, experience and application in raising attainment for disadvantage pupils in Buckinghamshire.

 
Afternoon of Monday 26th June 2023

 

Venue to be confirmed

 Working meeting – Implementing the Buckinghamshire Disadvantaged Strategy All schools in Buckinghamshire

·         Headteachers,

·         Disadvantaged Leads

 

 ·         For all Buckinghamshire schools – a working session to collaboratively plan the implementation of the Buckinghamshire disadvantaged strategy in your own schools.

 

 

Invitations will be sent to participants for all of the above meeting well in advance of each session.

 

The Buckinghamshire Challenge Board and Unity Research Schools are delighted to be in the second and final year of such a comprehensive and research-based programme of support.  We very much hope that all participating schools will maintain the level of enthusiasm and commitment, which was so evident last academic year, as we look towards building on last year’s development programme and collectively developing a county-wide strategy to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, both for now and the future.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Gareth Drawmer

Head of Achievement & Learning

Buckinghamshire Council