Achievement for All: raising expectations for learning and employment

Case study

To tackle low expectations of pupils’ future opportunities for learning and employment, Stanley Road Community Primary School have set up a project which gives pupils the chance to experience activities and learning opportunities they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to.

Key learning

Doing activities in mixed groups across the school helped pupils improve speech, language and communication skills.
Working in mixed groups made children more aware of the differing needs of their peers.
Experiences used in the classroom to stimulate learning enabled some of the children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) to engage more confidently in their learning.
Many children have gained in confidence as a result of the activities and the increased level of peer support.
Pupils are more confident to engage in class-based work, and are showing increased levels of attainment.

Background

Stanley Road Community Primary School is a mixed gender, 3–11 primary school with over 300 students. Pupils come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds including Pakistani, Bengali, white English and European. The school has a very high mobility rate, and the percentage of children with SEND is currently 30 per cent. Stanley Road is also the resourced provision for hearing impaired children in Oldham.

In September 2006 the school opened its children’s centre which provides care for children from the age of six months. The centre works closely with external agencies such as the primary care trust and family support groups.

All of these factors have a direct impact on the children’s behaviour and development. To tackle this, the school wanted to enable children to experience activities and learning experiences that they wouldn’t normally get the chance to. The Stanley Road University project was set up to achieve this.

Key challenges

Time and money

The scheme is expensive and time consuming to run. It requires a high level of co-ordination and several members of staff are involved in making sure it runs smoothly.

Unable to commit to usual activities

Many children are unable to commit to after school clubs because of religious or family commitments.

Solutions

Identifying and choosing activities

Structured conversations with parents involved in the project generated ideas for activities. Teachers and teaching assistants were asked to run a course based on an interest or area of expertise that they have, for example gardening, cooking or sports. The school also employed external providers for activities such as hairdressing and street dance. Following a showcasing assembly, children decided which activities they wanted to take part in and were put into groups of mixed age and ability.

A range of experiences

Every term the children enrolled on a different activity so that over the year they had gathered a range of experiences. As groups are mixed, children worked with teachers and children that they might not normally come into contact with, including children on the autistic spectrum and hearing impaired children.

Additional activities for children with special educational needs

As well as the other activities, children with SEND had access to additional groups, such as the life skills group. This group involved learning how to prepare simple food (such as sandwiches), use buses and trains, prepare a shopping list and buy food from a supermarket. Groups such as this were not only available to children with physical or learning disabilities, but also children who are identified to have low self-esteem or are struggling to build relationships with peers.

Next steps

Children and parents now need to be encouraged to continue activities outside of school. Research and planning also needs to go into involving parents on a more regular basis.

Further information

For further information please contact Stanley Road Community Primary School.