Targeted Academic Support for Pupil Premium Students
How successful schools invest in academic interventions to support their disadvantaged students
Evidence consistently shows the positive impact that targeted academic support can have, including for those pupils who are not making good progress across the spectrum of achievement.
Not many would argue with that.
But what does targeted academic support look like in practice? And what types should you roll out?
To understand how successful schools approach it, Researcher and English Teacher, Helen Coyle, has taken a deep dive into the ‘targeted academic support ’ sections of Pupil Premium Spending Plans published by 33 successful schools.
We hope it offers you reassurance about the challenges you face as well as insights to help every student you teach achieve their goals in your curriculum area.
To learn more about these schools’ track records of securing positive outcomes for their disadvantaged students click here 👇)
Below we summarise answers to some of the questions she asks across Part 1 and Part 2 of her report:
What are the biggest academic challenges PPM schools report?
What strategies do they employ most frequently?
Which external organisation do they work with to provide academic support?
What research do they lean on to support their decisions?
Which subjects do they invest in most heavily?
1. What are the biggest academic challenges to PPM students that schools report?
Before you intervene you need to know what you are intervening with.
Schools reported 36 unique challenges to disadvantaged students achieving higher.
So what were the most widely reported ones?
Reading age - 13 schools (42% of schools sampled)
Covid learning loss - 10 schools (32%)
Literacy - 9 schools (32%)
Cultural capital - 9 schools (32%)
Low attainment - 8 (32%)
Discover the others and how often there were reported here and which schools reported them here.
2. What strategies do they employ most frequently?
Once you understand the challenges you face, you can roll out the interventions.
Schools reported 79 unique academic interventions they used to support disadvantaged students.
The article distills them into a number of categories and outlines how frequently schools repost using them.
Here are the top 5:
Reading interventions (tech and data enabled) - 18 schools (55% of schools sampled)
1:1 tuition - 11 schools (33 %)
Small group intervention - 11 schools (33%)
Adult mentoring - 10 schools (30%)
Our of hours tuition - 8 school (24%)
Discover the others and how often there were reported here and which schools reported them here.
By the way, premium members of the Curriculum Thinkers Community can discover which schools employ which strategies here. You can also:
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3. Which external organisations do they work with to provide academic support?
Schools partner with a range of external organisations to support their Pupil Premium students.
Schools reported working with 104 different organisations to support the students academic outcomes.
Here are 13 types of targeted academic support providers schools spent PPM funding on (and how many of each kind we noticed)
Standardised testing (6 organisations)
Ed tech learning platforms for students (6 organisations)
Tuition (18 organisations)
Alternative Provision (3 organisations)
Resources for teachers (9 organisations)
Maths specific support (14 organisations)
English specific support (3 organisations)
Science specific support (3 organisations)
Languages specific support (3 organisations)
Several subjects offered under one room (33 organisations)
Reading specific support (21 organisations)
Phonics specific support (4 organisations)
SEND specific support (7 organisations)
Assessment specific support (6 organisations)
Discover the full list of 104 organisations here. 👇
4. What research do they lean on to support their decisions?
If you want to pick the right intervention, you need to be able to point to the evidence that supports your decision.
(It’s pretty handy when you’re pitching to leadership about why your curriculum area needs more funding too ;)
Schools we looked at cited 38 unique sources of evidence.
But which sources did schools cite the most frequently in their spending plans?
Here are the top 5:
Highly recommended reading if taking an evidence based approach to your teaching is your thing.
Discover the others and how often they were cited here and which schools reported them here.
5. Which subjects do they invest in most heavily?
Wouldn’t you like to know?!
Read Part 1 here to read the trends we found across schools.
Read Part 2 here to discover which schools employ which strategies here in the exclusive paying members only version.
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