Transcript Working together to tackle the impact of poverty on

Last ESTYN report in 2008
Treorchy Primary is a community school catering
for an age range from 3 to 11 year olds
It is situated in the centre of the busy town of
Treorchy at the upper end of the Rhondda Valley.
The school occupies a large site with separate
infant and junior buildings at the end of a very
large yard
The school serves a mixture of mainly private and
rented homes but the area can be described at
predominantly disadvantaged- many children come
from homes with no working parent and many have
single parents
I’m not a salesperson.
I’ve been invited here today because what we do in
Treorchy works for us.
I’m not an expert.
But I now know an awful lot more than I did 2
years ago.
I’m not a social worker.
But sometimes it feels like I am!
I’m a Teaching Assistant.
I’m a facilitator
I’m a ‘sign-poster’.
I’m a multiagency partner.
And I’m very, very nervous about standing here now!
In Treorchy Primary we feel it means ...
Not just monetary poverty
Poverty of experience
Lack of parenting skills/knowledge
Poverty of family values
No aspirations and goals
Low self esteem
In Treorchy Primary School we believe that the causes and
consequences of deprivation are complex, and therefore, the
solutions are equally complex. We have adopted a multi
faceted approach which focuses on three key areas.
Interventions
Enhanced
Experiences
Improved
engagement
with families
I’m here today to talk about how we have attempted to engage with families.
Staff
• Wellbeing issues
• Attainment
• Attendance
Pupils
• Conducted pupil questionnaires on Wellbeing
• Piloted the Wellbeing in Education programme
• Targeted year groups for Building Safer
Relationships
Parents
• Parents of FSM pupils
• Harder to reach parents
We looked at the pupils on the FSM register that were under
achieving. In addition to this we looked at pupils attendance and
parents attendance of meetings and SEN reviews.
Whilst in many cases these pupils were receiving interventions
and enhanced experiences, we felt that these would only be
truly effective if parents were confident in supporting their
children with their learning at home.
As a whole school, including support staff, we discussed the
possible barriers to parents engaging with school – and we
identified the following...
Negative
experiences
of school as
children
Lack of
confidence
in
parenting
skills
Barriers
Low
expectations
for their
children
Poor
literacy/
numeracy
skills
Coffee
Mornings
Family
Learning
Cooking on a
Budget
Baby Massage
Language and
Play
Charity
Events
Team Building
Educational
Visits
Men Behaving
Dadly
Healthy
Lifestyle
Early intervention with
new families
Focussing on
communication, language &
literacy through holistic
play
Giving parents idea’s on
free, enjoyable activities
with their children
Child led, open-ended
experiences & activities
Engages with Dad’s in a
non-threatening, non
judgemental, relaxed
atmosphere
Allows estranged Dad’s
to spend time with their
children on neutral ground
Varied activities to suit
all
Managing emotional
health and wellbeing
Taking charge
of your families
health
Managing
stress
Healthy Eating
Cookery lessons
Work/life
Balance
Focuses on improving
parents literacy and
numeracy skills
Gives parents the
opportunity to spend
one to one quality time
with their children
Sometimes be cast in the role of agony aunt and never knowing
what issues parents are going to come up with.
True multi agency work is sometimes difficult to achieve.
Being adaptable with my approach depending on who I am working
with.
Getting to all the ‘hard to reach’ parents.
Parents becoming overly dependant on the support.
The uncertain future of the Pupil Deprivation Grant – sustaining
the funding of the role?
Measuring the concrete educational outcomes is a challenge.
Instant
impact on
standards
Longer term
impact on
standards
• Literacy interventions
• Improved attendance
• Enriching experiences for
learners.
• Increasing parental engagement
‘In house’ well being training arranged for whole
school approach.
Provide bespoke interventions by specialist
services.
Conduct regular meetings with multi agencies.
Evaluate all programmes and initiatives.
Nearly all positive outcomes from parental surveys relating to
school/parent initiatives.
Improved relationships between parents and school staff.
Improved attendance of parent evenings and SEN reviews.
Attendance on courses in the family room is high.
Improved attendance of targeted children.
Testimonies from parents and children.
“I have gained recognised
qualifications for the first
time in my life”.
“I have realised that I
have an interest of working
with children with Special
Needs”.
“I now have a lot more
confidence helping my child with
his learning”.
“I now have a lot more
confidence with my English, as I
only used to speak Turkish at
home”.
“I now feel more confident about
finding a job”.
“I approach life with a more
positive attitude”.
“I now feel a lot more
confident speaking with my
child’s class teacher and other
professionals”.
“I have taken great pride in
being involved in fund raising
events at the school for the
first time”.
“I have learnt so much from
the courses I have attended at
the school”.
Celebrating empowered parents – parent partners.
F.A.S.T. Programme.
To introduce the Vulnerability Assessment Profile ensuring across cluster alignment for transition.
New courses, new parents.
To prepare for merger of 90 new pupils attending our
school September 2015
Any Questions?