Targeted academic support
At the start of this academic year, the government released notification to all schools in England that, following the introduction of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) last March, schools would have the opportunity to run their own 'Catch-up' programme. Here at King James's School we have adopted the opportunity to run the programme 'in house' as we feel that our committed teaching staff know their students best and can tailor their support to their individual needs.
How progress is measured
Students' individual prior attainment data is used as a baseline to track their expected progress in all year groups. If a student has been identified as not making the progress their prior attainment data suggests that they should following a progress data input, the member of teaching staff who teaches the student is expected to ensure that appropriate interventions are made to get the student back on track.
Possible intervention strategies are detailed in the table below:
|
Intervention Strategy |
Detail |
|
Assessment for Learning |
ensuring that the students who are not making the required progress have a clear understanding of what it is that they need to learn and evidence about their current level of performance, so that they can close the gap |
|
Making things manageable |
breaking the learning down into manageable chunks/steps, so the road ahead appears less daunting and targets achievable |
|
Exam success |
providing clarity and detail regarding how to succeed in your exam(s) |
|
Use of effective feedback |
it should be about: |
|
Students encouraged to think more explicitly about how they learn |
Strategies to ensure that students think more explicitly about how they learn in the classroom and providing opportunities for them to discuss/articulate this and, subsequently, apply it to their independent work |
|
|
Classroom Organisation
|
Intervention Strategy |
Detail |
|
Ability grouping |
a departmental approach to ensure that students of similar ability with the same progress issues receive targeted intervention |
|
Classroom organisation |
ensuring students are placed in seats that encourage learning |
|
Positive Behaviour policy |
strong use of the policy, but with an emphasis on how their behaviour is impacting on (their own) learning, rather than simply as a sanction |
Outside the Classroom
|
Intervention Strategy |
Detail |
|
Peer tutoring/peer-assisted learning strategies |
|
|
One-to-one tutoring |
Students are identified for additional one-to-one support in timetabled lesson time. |
|
Access to digital technologies |
Providing direct access to digital technologies to support learning |
|
Focused homework |
providing tasks to support areas of weakness |
|
Required participation in after-school programmes |
achieved by identifying specific areas of weakness for students and targeting support through the delivery of tailored content |
Relationships
|
Intervention Strategy |
Detail |
|
Unrelenting positive focus on subject |
ensuring a climate in which students are continuously encouraged to think positively about the subject, how to improve and never allowed to opt out |
|
Identifying barriers |
knowing the specific barriers to each child making good progress |
|
Parent involvement to support students’ learning |
achieved by establishing and maintaining a dialogue with the parents of under-achieving students, so that they can lend support in ensuring that students enjoy an environment and ethos conducive to learning |
|
Conversations with students about their work |
ensuring positive engagement with you and the subject and discussion about how performing well will benefit them in the future |