'Onwards and Upwards' is a positive attainment strategy that consists of a number of programmes, both targeted and universal, that focus on removing and reducing barriers to learning, to support families and ensure all young people have the opportunity to reach their potential for excellence.

Background

Establishing and branding our Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) programme as “Onwards & Upwards – A Braes Attainment Challenge” we set out to encourage all partners to get involved in learning and take an active role to support our young people. Our strategy stems from 3 key focus areas: building positive relationships; engage learners and raising aspirations; community engagement.

“Flourish” and “Reach for the Skye” with Columba 1400 focus on family learning and engagement to explore how we can encourage families to get involved and can provide the skills, support, and confidence necessary for them to participate in the learning journey.

How to use this exemplar

Flourish:

Flourish aims to bring families together, build on relationships and strengthen school-parent partnership. The project is shaped by activities around aspects of Health and wellbeing including Food and Health, Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport (PEPAS), Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical wellbeing.

Key outcomes include:

• pupils can access all services and support available to them and use some of them to develop and sustain healthy habits
• pupils have an increased sense of belonging to Braes High School and take an active part in the life of the school
• pupils take an increasing responsibility to achieve a Dynamic Youth Award in Health and Wellbeing
• pupils increase their knowledge of skills for learning, life and work to enhance their job prospects

Columba 1400: Reach for the Skye

Our project, developed with Columba 1400, focuses on lifelong learning and encourages families to work together to build positive relationships, raise aspirations and gain accreditation through Family Learning.

After a week spent on Skye exploring core values and working together the group returned to Braes to begin the next phase of the programme: developing a project that will benefit the Braes community.

Since returning to Braes the group has taken part in 2 refresher sessions with Columba 1400 to refine their ideas and plan their project. The group are currently planning a presentation to Senior Management. A number of our Parent participants have been encouraged to get more involved in the school community by contributing to Health Day, joining our family group and signing up to complete a Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health.

Reflective questions

1. How can we effectively engage families in the school environment?
2. How can we support parents/carers to support their young person?
3. How can we ensure meaningful family engagement?
4. How is family learning improving participants’ capacity to learn?
5. How well are families supported in developing strategies which lead to positive relationships, better earning and better behaviour?
6. Are there any aspects of the programmes highlighted which could transfer to my context?

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What was done?

Flourish:

Flourish focused on our new S1 intake and identified pupils through professional judgement of staff as well as working closely with our associated primary schools to target pupils who may benefit from extra support during the transition between Primary and Secondary.

Using PEF to support the programme Flourish pupils met two periods a week to take part in practical cookery sessions and physical activity.

Activities included:

• family Learning inputs
• community sports hub opportunities and developing their interests in PEPAS
• practical food skills and cooking healthy meals on a budget
• connecting to the outdoors and local green spaces, exploring mental health
• chefs in Schools provides employment prospects in the local food industry

Reach for the Skye: Columba 1400

Reach for the Skye aimed to build on the positive relationships built through the Flourish programme and to use these relationships to establish stronger links between family and school.

Participation was open to all pupils in our Onwards & Upwards group and their families. Families already in the Flourish programme were targeted specifically due to prior existing positive relationships and experience of family learning.

13 pupils, 3 staff and, 3 Parents/Carers travelled to Staffin to take part in Columba 1400's Leadership Academy. Participants undertook activities such as hillwalking; search and rescue; tent building and also spent time working together reflecting on their core values as individuals. Participants are currently developing a project to benefit the community.

SWAY presentation: Braes High School Pupil Equity Fund Update 2018-2019

Why?

A key priority in our SIP when O&U began was 2.5 “ensuring families are engaged in learning”. This led to the inclusion of “community engagement” as a key focus for our O&U strategy. This continues to be a cornerstone in our School Improvement Planning for the current session.

Feedback from consultation with pupils, Parents/Carers and teachers identified the main barriers to learning for our O&U group as attendance and confidence.

Parents/Carers also stated that the main thing they would like their young person to achieve from learning is “confidence” followed by “qualifications” and “skills for work”. A number of Parents/Carers also identified their own lack of awareness and understanding of what young people were learning in school as a barrier to helping support their young person.

With this in mind we sought to expand and develop opportunities for family learning and engagement across the school through activities such as subject information evenings, handouts at Parents’ Evenings and online short video tutorials to support families in supporting their young person.

We also developed more targeted programmes with activities that specifically focused on getting pupils in school, in the classroom, and that would allow pupils to gain confidence and develop skills through participation in new experiences and challenges.

Participants were targeted based on this information and in combination with cluster information, discussion with Pastoral Heads, Key Teachers or through referral from classroom teachers who felt specific pupils may benefit from more one to one support in literacy, numeracy and or health and wellbeing. Flourish and Reach for the Skye were developed as programmes that would be key to targeting these areas.

Supporting Evidence

In J. Goodall’s review of parenting support the following are highlighted as characteristics of successful programmes to support parents

• focus on parents’ behaviour as well as attitudes and needs
• includes both parents and children
• offers group based programmes

What was the impact?

Flourish seeks to strengthen school parent partnerships and get pupils more involved in the wider school life, build their confidence from primary to secondary. Support vulnerable learners and their families and encourage positive relationships within the family with a focus on literacy and numeracy skills to gain confidence and support parents’.

Key Impact Messages

• pupils demonstrating better confidence in literacy and numeracy skills
• evident that the parents/carers with the targeted pupils are developing positive relationships
• friendships created with families and pupils
• families are actively using the ingredients boxes at home and replicating recipes used in school

Reach For the Skye: Columba 1400

We understand the positive impact of partnership working and by engaging with Columba 1400 we provide a buffer between school and home as well as providing support and encouragement. Columba 1400 has a strong concept of how to support change and the “Onwards & Upwards” programme has demonstrable outcomes for both pupils and parents:

• increased engagement with the school and wider community
• increased participation in school events such as “Health Day”, improved skills and confidence

Parent Quote:

“I’ll take back from Columba a lot more confidence, strength and courage. I’ve been looking at my values and I have realised that I want to work with children and I’m now going to look at ways in which I can do that”

Pupil quote:

“I’ve learned a lot about my self-confidence and that I should always believe in myself. We also learned a lot about creativity and I can’t wait to get home and teach people about core values.”

Teacher quote:

This was a good opportunity to build relationships with pupils and their families. It was rewarding to see pupils and families confidence grow throughout the week and watch their leadership skills develop. Great to see parents actively involved.”