Executive Deputy Headteacher, Lyndsy Killip, at Queen’s Park Federation tells us about their experience of being an early adopter of wraparound childcare and the benefits wraparound has brought to their school community. The Queen’s Park Federation Community Queen’s Park Federation comprises of Dorothy Gardner and Mary Paterson Nursery Schools, Queen’s Park Primary School, and Queen’s Park Family Hub. Set within one of the most diverse communities in Westminster with high levels of deprivation, we cater for children aged 2-11 within our schools and support children and young people up to the ..read more

The Imperium Federation is a community of two special schools in London; Waterside Social Emotional Mental Health Needs (SEMH) Primary and King's Oak School, previously called Moatbridge. Executive Headteacher, Meic Griffiths, shares his experience using the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) to support pupils at the federation. Selecting pupils for tutoring When selecting which pupils to bring forward for tutoring, we firstly considered our disadvantaged pupils in the year groups that had missed the most learning during COVID-19. We looked at assessment data to identify knowledge and skills g ..read more

The Monitor Your School Attendance (MYSA) Service is a free, secure tool that helps schools to monitor pupil attendance. Schools, their local authority and trust can use the service. In this blog, we hear from attendance leads from a school and a trust explain how they are using the service to improve strategies to attendance and have more meaningful conversations with families, head teachers and local authorities. Sam, a multi academy trust executive leader shares how they use MYSA data to improve school policy I’m Sam, an executive leader of a trust with 10 urban primary schools, some in ar ..read more

The Harvey Grammar School in Kent is a selective grammar school for boys aged 11 to 18. Assistant headteacher, James Chamberlain, shares how he used the school’s National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funding to introduce holiday tuition. Why we delivered tutoring during the school holidays We’ve been using NTP since it began in 2020, in response to the educational challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having observed the benefits it had on our pupils, and identifying further areas that needed intervention, we expanded our tutoring offer and delivered a ‘Head Start’ tuition programme durin ..read more

Liz Kenny, english hub lead, and Vanessa Hill, headteacher, at Whiston Worrygoose Primary school in Rotherham talk about their approach to encouraging reading, and the benefits it’s brought their pupils. Reading is at the heart of everything we do Whiston Worrygoose is a ‘Reading School’. Reading drives everything we do and it’s at the centre of our whole curriculum offer. Teachers, parents and children all understand the importance of reading and the benefits it brings. Our staff regularly read with all our children, and we really encourage the children to talk about their reading with passi ..read more

Oliver Brotherhood, Curriculum Lead for Computing and Computer Science at Penrice Academy, discusses the importance of adopting a whole-school approach to addressing gender imbalance in computer science. The gender imbalance I began teaching computing four years ago, after transitioning from working in the tech industry. Computer science can be a great accelerator of social mobility, and I want to equip all young people at our academy with a skillset that will enable them to take up the opportunities the subject offers. Since I started teaching, I’ve always seen an obvious gender imbalance in ..read more

Like other schools, Hall Mead School in Havering saw their attainment begin to fall following the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, they’ve been using small group tutoring through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), and it’s proven to be effective in boosting pupils’ preparedness for exams. We asked assistant headteacher, Martin Leslie, how he, and other staff at Hall Mead, used tutoring to help pupils prepare for their GCSE exams. Why did you use tutoring to support exam preparation? We had some pupils who were looking like they wouldn’t achieve 4s in their GCSEs and so we were committed to e ..read more

Polly Ross, Headteacher at Shefford Lower school explains how the Behaviour Hubs programme helped improve behaviour at their school.  Our School Shefford Lower school is at the heart of the local community of Shefford. We strive to instil core values to support pupils to be happy, positive and contribute to the community.   Two years ago, we began our journey to further improve behaviour standards at our school. We were aiming for the best possible behaviour standards. That’s why we signed up to the Behaviour Hubs programme.   The programme provided training and netwo ..read more

Charles Dickens Primary school, in central London, is part of The Charter Schools Education Trust and is one of the 12 Flexible Working Ambassador Multi Academy Trusts and schools appointed by the Department for Education to help school leaders implement flexible working. Emily Crow, deputy director at London South Teaching School Hub, shares Charles Dickens’ approach to flexible working and her experience of the benefits it has brought to the school community. Our approach to flexible working As an organisation, we understand that colleagues’ commitments and demands on their time will change ..read more

Nottingham Emmanuel School have found that small group tutoring is helping to overcome issues with pupil absence rates, which have risen since the Covid-19 pandemic due to a variety of reasons - including lack of confidence, mental health and social factors. In this blog, a teacher, tutor and pupil from Nottingham Emmanuel School explain how they’ve seen tutoring improve attendance. A teacher at Emmanuel School “At the start of the academic year, one of our pupils was nervous about coming into school and attending lessons. As a result of 1:1 sessions with a tutor from YipiYap, a Tuition Partn ..read more