Page 9 - Athelstan Argus - May 2022

PUPIL PREMIUM UPDATE

This year at MALMESBURY SCHOOL we have implemented our PP charter to give greater
clarity to all staff, students and parents about what we can do to close the gap for PP students and
help them thrive and achieve.

✓ Independent learning: Each student will be supported to foster independent learning,
greater autonomy and self-directed learning throughout their learning journey. Support in
KS3 to access the curriculum. Access to relevant online revision and learning platforms
for GCSE study.
✓ Academic support: Each student will be provided with personalised academic
mentoring that meets their needs. Regular meetings with academic leaders to review
progress.
✓ CEIAG: Each student will understand the progression routes and opportunities post 16.
Pupils will have an interview with a careers advisor every year from Y7 through to Y11/
Sixth Form. Every PP student in Y10/12 will have a WEX experience.
✓ Cultural capital and enrichment: Each student will have memorable experiences that
will support engagement and grow. Attending at least three off site experiences in KS3/
4, Taking part in at least 3 experiences within school.
✓ Attendance and progress: Each student will be supported to make at least national
average progress in English, Maths and Science. Each student will be supported to
achieve at least 95% attendance each academic year.

In December Y11/ 12 and selected students
(PP) from Y10 had workshops from Resilient
Me to help prepare for exams. It looked at the
key areas of self-belief, organisation, reviewing
and stress management all wrapped up in a
powerful workshop. Students began by looking
at self-belief and examining their own reasons
for wanting success in their exams. This was
followed by a comprehensive set of revision
techniques – a toolkit, if you like, that
guarantees to offer something to suit everyone. Organisation, including the study/life balance and
pacing is next with a rigorous look at how to maximise the impact of every revision session to
boost exam results. The workshop ended by building confidence through a range of stress-
management techniques.

In January, Mrs Daniels our DofE instructor was able to secure some funding exclusively for this
year’s Duke of Edinburgh Award Programme which means our Pupil Premium students (including
Service Children) were able to receive a reimbursement of £108.80 towards their programme
costs. The Duke of Edinburgh kindly agreed to cover the £23.00 enrolment fee for Pupil Premium
students through its Resilience Fund. A to Z Expeditions has kindly provided £85.80 per Pupil
Premium student.

Our academic leader and pastoral team have set up a breakfast club for our PP students. We
found that many PP students were using the money allocated on their lunch cards to buy drinks
and breakfast and then subsequently had no money for lunch. Breakfast club provides juice and
breakfast bars to students, and we have recently purchased environmentally friendly water
bottles for our students to fill up with.

One key aim of closing the learning gap with PP is focused on literacy. Malmesbury School has
introduced tutor time reading twice weekly for Y7/8/9/ students. This has been incredibly
successful and there are plans to expand this focus on reading further next year. We also used
funding to buy every Y7 and 8 a book to take home with them via Book Buzz.
Finally, now with Covid restrictions lifted, we can run school trips, all PP students have their
places paid for. Some exciting opportunities have been: Royal Opera House, Tate Modern,
Bristol Old Vic, sports events and competitions to name just a few.