Introduction - The Braes Context
Our Pupil Equity Fund update this year is a little different from previous years. This current session has been a huge challenge in education and across our society. This update focuses on the amazing work undertaken by the Braes community of pupils, Parents/Carers and staff before and after lockdown as part of our Onwards & Upwards - A Braes Attainment Challenge programme.
In session 2019-2020 Braes High School received £58,800 in Pupil Equity Funding.
Continuing our three year plan we focused on building on the positive relationships already established to engage learners and achieve excellence through community engagement. Our approach to community engagement aims to provide the skills necessary to ensure families feel confident in supporting their young person's learning journey and feel part of our Braes community. We continue to strengthen relationships between home and school through a focus on reducing the cost of the school day and maximising income for families.
Whole School
- 966 pupils
- 93 entitled to FME (9.62 % of total)
- SIMD 1-4 21%
- SIMD 5-7 19%
- SIMD 8-10 60%
Our Strategy
Onwards & Upwards as a strategy to close the attainment gap understands that FME is not the only indicator of need among our families. With this in mind, our programme of interventions supports young people both in targeted and universal ways through inclusion of all pupils in SIMD 1-3 and an open referral system to O&U interventions where all staff can highlight the need for support.
Barriers identified through consultation with staff, pupils, Parents/Carers and partner agencies were:
- Attendance
- Confidence
- Engagement
- Exclusions
At the centre of our “Onwards & Upwards” strategy are three key focus areas tackling these barriers:
- Building strong, positive relationships
- Engaging learners and raising aspirations
- Community engagement
Our focus in Year 3 of PEF is “Community Engagement” with emphasis on Family Learning and Engagement and reducing the cost of the school day. This year we planned to build on progress made in family engagement and provide support to Parents and Carers to address the barrier they identified through consultation highlighting a lack of confidence when supporting their young person in learning.
Our strategy focuses on interventions that:
- get all pupils attending and achieving more
- increase confidence in our learners through engagement and participation
- build resilience and encourage mindfulness
- de-escalate and explore alternatives to exclusion
- raise learner aspirations and facilitate Family Learning
- reduce the cost of the school day and maximise income
Impact
- 1.6% reduction in attendance gap between most deprived 20% and least deprived 20%
- Attendance in session 2019-2020 shows a 4.24% improvement for the period August-December
- Exclusion in session 2019-2020 1 in 7 (14.2%) in comparison to 1 in 2 (50%) for the period August-December
- 3 Family Learners currently studying for a Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health
- 13 families engaged with Braes Learning Together group
Maximising Income for Families
Education is free but a lot of school things are not" - S1 Pupil Glasgow, CPAG
At the centre of our work this year has been the aim to reduce the cost of the school day and maximise income for families.
We began the year by presenting to all staff to raise awareness of the hidden costs of education and to encourage staff to reflect on how we can reduce this cost at departmental and classroom level.
A Cost of the School Day working group was formed to review the cost of the school day across Braes, and to devise and direct our whole school strategy.
Consultation with Partners
Consultation with Parents/Carers and pupils has been key to introducing measures to reduce the Cost of the School Day. As well as presenting to the Parent Council we consulted with Parents/Carers to identify what more we could do as a school to support families with the costs of school. We have also worked closely with our Pupil Council who led a pupil consultation to identify Cost of the School Day Priorities for next year.
More regular pop up shops and advertising existing schemes more around the school - S4 Pupil
so happy with the supports being offered, can't believe the kindness of this school -Parent/Carer
Pop Up Shops
A series of reduce, reuse, and recycle pop-up shops were held across the school year. These focused on the environmental impact of "fast fashion" and encouraged people having a clear out to donate items in good quality to be used again.
Our first pop-up shop focused on winter clothing and was closely followed by a Prom pop-up which not only gave pupils access to free prom suits, dresses and accessories but also established a partnership with Forth Valley College's Hair & Beauty Therapy courses to provide free hair and make-up appointments for young people before prom.
These events were organised by Miss Binnie and Miss Godfrey with support from students. Both events were highly successful and we have taken on board feedback from our young people and look to develop these events in the future.
Braes Backpacks
Braes Backpacks developed from a previous Onwards & Upwards project (Braes Boxes) into a legacy project where our Senior students put together a backpack of resources for school to donate to our S1 pupils as they begin their journey at Braes. Each school bag will be filled with useful items but will also include a “Hero Message” of advice for our new S1s to welcome them to Braes and encourage them to “be part of it”. The Braes Backpack team is student led and facilitated by Dr Quinlan and Miss Mackie.
The Covid-19 crisis has been a real challenge and our young people have approached it with a positive, caring and generous attitude. We recently revised our Braes Backpack plan to give some of our young people and their families the best start to the new school year by beginning with a really good summer.
Our Braes Holiday Backpacks include items to help young people to get out and about in the local community. Also included is an activity pack with a series of active, health and wellbeing focused challenges for young people and their families to take part in. Working with Community Learning and Development (CLD), each week a new Summer Challenge will be posted to maintain a link with school during the holidays.
This project enables pupils leaving Braes to welcome a new generation of young people and their families into our school community and supports young people to develop positive approaches to mental and physical health.
We are extremely grateful to all those who donated to this project especially The Ernest Cook Trust whose grant enabled us to include food vouchers and more recreational items.
Inspiring young people to achieve better educational and life outcomes by learning from the land - The Ernest Cook Trust
A huge thank you to all those who contributed donations to our Braes Backpacks:
- Cala Chem Ltd.
- The Ernest Cook Trust
- Sanam Tandoori
- The Skin Geek
- Taylor William Letting & Estate Agents
- Tesco Reddingmuirhead
Family Learning & Engagement
Family Learning
Our focus on community engagement and family learning began with the appointment of Ruth Kelly to PT Family Learning & Engagement.
Successful previous family learning programmes "Flourish" and "Reach for the Skye" with Columba 1400 were highlighted at the Scottish Learning Festival in September 2019. Pupil participants Elise and Chloe were joined by Parent, Denise, to discuss the impact of these programmes as part of the Health & Wellbeing Live Exhibition at the SECC.
Both our Flourish and Reach for the Skye programmes continued this year. Flourish now covers the BGE with a new S1 cohort looking at Health & Wellbeing, an S2 group focusing on Numeracy and S3 on Literacy.
These groups give our young people and their families the opportunity to participate in a series of different activities and learn together.
S1 Flourish and families had a visit from Quality Meat Scotland who taught them to make a stir fry and burgers!
One of our Parent members created the fantastic leaflet below which is now given out to Parents/Carers to outline the programme for new participants.
Along with 42 members of staff 3 Parent members of our Reach for the Skye group have undertaken a Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health provided through distance learning from North East Scotland College.
Braes Learning Together
This session also saw the first meeting of our (Parent/Carer named) Braes Learning Together group.
This year the BLT group has created a Family Room for Parents/Carers and families to use when in school.
This space is designed to be a warm, welcoming, and accessible space to help Parents/Carers and family members feel comfortable in school.
Working with CLD we ran a successful holiday programme in 2019 providing activities one day a week throughout the Summer break. The programme has been adapted this year given the Coronavirus crisis to a digital model that still provides a link to school and access to free challenges and activities.
Barnardo's
A key partner again this year in supporting our young people has been Barnardo's. The positive impact of Barnardo's Listening Service last year was clear for our young people. This year Barnardo's have worked with a small group of pupils and their families to support engagement and access to learning opportunities both in school and out. Next session we're delighted to continue working with Barnardo's to help all our learners reach their potential.
READing Week, Ascent, Braes Brains & Making Positive Choices
READing Week & Ascent
We have continued the success of READing week which this year provided support for 21 pupils to complete and catch up on National courses and qualifications. The Ascent programme offers small group support for young people studying National Qualifications.
This programme has been expanded to provide targeted small group tutoring for pupils in S1-S3 to support learners whatever their needs may be. Young people in small groups will have a member of staff responsible for tracking and monitoring engagement and supporting them to reach their goals. This support is particularly important in the current climate where the barriers to young people accessing education have increased and where one to one support is even more necessary.
Braes Brains
Our Braes Brains- Peer Tutoring programme continues to utilise the experience and knowledge of Senior students to provide support to our young people. Students, identified by staff as subject specialists, work with small groups through our Homework group, Supported Study Cafes, or as support in class. This session we have had students supporting English and Maths classes as well as working one to one with individual students. This support is an excellent way for students to gain a new perspective on their learning and to ask questions that will be answered in their own voice. It also provides an opportunity to build strong relationships and strengthen our ethos and school community.
It makes a huge amount of difference having the Braes Brains in the class. All of the pupils in the class really benefit from having one to one support and we are able to accommodate that now. Their support is hugely missed if they are not in class and they have developed really positive relationships with the class.
Making Positive Choices
We have also continued our Making Positive Choices group with a new cohort. This programme continues to support young people to build resilience, practice mindfulness and provide them with the skills necessary to make positive choices in day to day life.
Braes Breakfast Club
Our Braes Breakfast Club has had a fantastic year winning not only "Best Breakfast Club in Scotland" but "Best Breakfast Club in the UK" in Kellogg's Breakfast Club Awards. The breakfast club is a vital support for our young people in providing the best start to the day for the young people at Braes. Pupils can come along, select ingredients and make themselves a healthy breakfast to start to the day.
PEF funding has provided every pupil entitled to free school meals with a free Breakfast Club loyalty card.
Braes Buddies
Our Braes Buddies Therapet and Reading with Dogs support programme provided by Canine Concern Trust Scotland continues to go from strength to strength with volunteer Janette and her dog, Jamie, in school every Friday morning.
[one pupil who] did not use to read at all before we began reading with Jamie, is now reading confidently, fluently and with expression. Feedback from French also indicates the same improvements there as well. Support staff have also come to me to remark upon [their] progress in this regard
when we do any kind of presenting there is no resistance to speaking aloud whilst many refused to do so beforehand
The Braes Buddies team work one to one with pupils as well as supporting an English class one period each week. Jamie has had a remarkable impact on the health and wellbeing of our young people as well as their literacy skills. He has also been joined this year by a new member of the team - Dexter!
Dexter is a golden retriever and belongs to Mr Yeates and Miss Tapley. As well as gaining school experience from starring in last year's school show "Annie", Dexter regularly visits Forth Valley Hospital and has been supporting students as part of the Open Doors programme led by Cheryl Butler, our school counsellor.
Onwards & Upwards Support During COVID-19
With school closure imminent we sought to ensure our young people had the right support they needed to adapt to life in lockdown and succeed with a new style of learning.
Our young people jumped into action to set up a "Pass the Time Pop-Up Shop" to provide books, activities, games, as well as food and toiletries free and available to all.
With such a significant shift to online and home learning we have sought to ensure every young person has access to the resources they need and every family feels supported. Young people at Braes have been provided with digital technology such as iPads and alternative home learning activities where appropriate.
The Coronavirus crisis has made it even more vital to support and build our community and look out for each other. Each week throughout lockdown our Pastoral, Pupil Support, and Onwards & Upwards staff have been contacting families to identify any support required and find out how we can best help.
Support provided includes emergency food packs, referrals to local supports available such as Support for People and The Braes Storehouse.
Since Easter we have been providing all Braes families streamlined information and links to local and national support available as well as home learning activities and support through our Onwards & Upwards - A Braes Community Challenge Sway.
Our Sway has been viewed over 1,100 times and contains more than 100 links by category to useful resources and activities.
Our Home Economics Department provided Braes Bake at Home packs for our young people during the lockdown and also provided Meal Packs for families to cook together.
Since lockdown began we have provided over 60 emergency parcels, Bake at Home and Meal Packs. Before the end of term 35 young people will receive a Braes Backpack.
Moving Onwards & Upwards 2020-2021
Braes High will receive £59,915 in Pupil Equity Funding for session 2020-2021.
Our primary focus next session will be on the health and wellbeing of our young people: ensuring our Braes community is physically safe and emotionally supported.
We will provide support that helps our young people feel safe and confident to attend school and that gives them what they need to engage with blended learning to achieve their potential.
Programmes for next session include:
- Small group working through Flourish, Explore, O&U Challenge & Ascent
- Continuing to develop our work with Barnardo's
- Providing in-school support from a Benefits Advisor
- Continuation of the Pupil Premium to provide support and equity at classroom level
- Strengthening supports already in place
We will continue to work to raise attainment and to reduce the cost of the school day for our Braes Community.
If you would like to get involved or find out more about "Onwards & Upwards" at Braes please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Email: emma.taylor@falkirk.gov.uk Tel: 01324 719 551
School Website: https://www.braeshigh.com
Twitter: Follow @On&UpBHS @BraesHigh
YouTube: Subscribe Braes High
Credits:
Created with an image by Ben Carless - "The Kelpies"