This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Senior Education Liaison Officer, Rachel Cross, for the attention of Headteachers in Slough.
It appears that the April showers have begun and another full term is about to end so I just wanted to bring you up-to-date with the Local School Improvement Fund (LSIF) projects and my work as Senior Education Liaison Officer.
The LSIF is accountable to the Slough School Improvement Board (SSIB) which includes the Chairs and representatives from SPHA and SASH. Reports are given to this board and funding updates shared. At the last meeting we discussed in detail how to optimise the remaining funding; a secondary project hopefully engaging five to six schools is being planned to improve the outcomes for disadvantaged students.
The last two terms have, to be fair, been relatively quiet with few new bids received. New bids include the Virtual School who have been allocated £10,000 for a project running across primary, secondary and special provision for children looked after. This research-based project is reviewing what makes effective provision leading to children and young people making good progress whether they be at the same school or different schools to when they became CLA.
Visits have taken place to Chalvey Nursery, Cippenham Infant, Herschel Grammar, Langley Hall Primary Academy and Montem to review their projects, namely:
- Assessment procedures in EYFS,
- Early language development,
- Young Health Champions,
- Hooked on Books, and
- Improving outcomes for disadvantaged students.
It is really exciting to learn about the quality of work happening in these schools as well as those with whom they are working. Chalvey nursery’s project is working with all five nurseries, Cippenham Infant is working across four settings on the Cippenham campus including the children’s centre, Herschel are working with three secondaries and are about to start pilot work with four primaries. Whilst LHPA have worked independently they are now ready to share their work with other schools who are looking to re-ignite a passion for guided reading. Hooked on Books is a super programme and one that St Mary’s are going to discuss and see in action as I write this today. Montem is working with three additional schools, two of which sit outside the Park Federation.
Schools have really taken on board the spirit of cross-school collaboration enabling all Slough pupils to benefit from shared expertise and training. It is a pleasure to have been able to facilitate this work with the funding available from Slough. Visits to all remaining schools will take place in the summer term so watch out for an email if you are one of these!
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Wishing everyone a happy Easter.
- Rachel Cross, April 2019