1. Challenge the Gap In Portsmouth
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2. Where we are in Portsmouth:
Cluster 1:
Arundel Court, Beacon View, Northern Parade, The Victory, Langstone, St Paul’s
Cluster 2:
Ark Ayrton, Ark Dickens, Cottage Grove, Isambard Brunel, Mayfield,
Cluster 3:
Admiral Lord Nelson, Portsmouth Academy, Priory, Redwood Park, Miltoncross, Springfield, Trafalgar

3. Our Portsmouth Mission
To break the link between poverty and poor outcomes in Portsmouth by ensuring underachieving pupils make accelerated, not average, progress.
Average pupil
Underachieving pupil
Attainment x
Expected attainment on leaving school
The pupil journey
The aim of Challenge the Gap
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4. Part of a national project working with Challenge Partners
So how are we doing this?
Practical strategies for improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils that are based on evidence informed practice
Part of a national project working with Challenge Partners
School teams pilot a strategy that can be scaled up for whole school improvement
6 workshops covering a range of themes:
The Academically Competent Pupil, the Self-Aware Pupil, the Resilient Pupil and skill based workshops, tailored to the needs of the clusters.
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5. Practitioner- led workshops
Schools on the Challenge the gap programme, carry out presentations to their clusters.
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6. The latest research and effective practice
Experts, like Nikki Philips an Educational Phycologist, come and work with the cluster groups.
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7. Portsmouth Challenge the Gap
“There was no single intervention that leads to success …more successful schools appeared to be implementing their strategies in greater depth and with more attention to detail”
There is no “one size fits all” solution to closing the attainment gap”
“Have an individualised approach to addressing barriers to learning and emotional support.”
DfE ( 2015) Research - NFER

8. What are our priorities?
Reading and writing Attitudes to learning Being aware of how to improve learning Engagement in learning Academic competence maths Building resilience

9. So what are the projects this year? Cluster 1
Cluster 1 (Portsmouth)
So what are the projects this year? Cluster 1
School
CtG Focus
Impact so far:
Future plans for the project:
Arundel Court
Year 4, reading
Boy’s reading group/ attitudes to reading
Conferencing ( GAPS)
See case study from last year
Roll out whole school due to impact
Beacon View
Year 5, reading
Attitudes to reading
Very early days in project
Langstone Junior
Attitudes to learning – Langstone Learner
Area of excellence in Challenge Partner Review
See comment below from leader
Whole school project
Northern Parade
Maths – ‘Rock Stars’. Tables/Year 5
Early days and looking at hard and soft data to evaluate progress
Improved confidence with some children and enthusiasm
To further develop and cascade on larger scale
The Victory
Year 3, reading
St Paul’s
Year 5, writing
‘Fly High’
Books showing improved writing and basic punctuation from original ‘cold’ task
Improved attendance
Parental support

10. Cluster 2 School CtG Focus Impact so far:
Future plans for the project:
Ark Ayrton
Joint project
Year 4 (AA) 12
Year 4 (AD) 17
Improving writing, cold task letter writing
Ark Dickens
Cottage Grove
Year 3, reading
Attitudes to reading
Isambard Brunel
Year 3 supported by Year 5 buddies. Accelerated reading skills/attitudes to reading
Really showing signs of accelerating reading
Mayfield
Year 3 (9) and Year 1 (8)
Metacognition and improving learning linked to reading

11. Langstone Junior School
Langstone Junior (December 2017) I came back to school yesterday after the workshop to a Prevent Review where the man leading this spoke very highly of the children, how they were able to articulate ideas, show resilience and talk about their learning with confidence. This was very reassuring as it backs up what we were saying about the impact we have seen already for all year groups - even more noticeable in Year 3 who start with us without having had this focus before.

12. Cluster 3 School CtG Focus ALNS
Impact so far:
Future plans for the project:
ALNS
Year 7, (15) independent learning, boys reading
Miltoncross
Attitudes to learning, reading, engagement, confidence (boys)
Portsmouth Academy
Nurture group – ‘Rising Stars’
Supporting literacy skills in reading and writing
Attitudes to learning. Control group
Improved attendance
Improved class discussion
Improved critical thinking skills
Will continue with nurture group and pedagogy if required for another cohort
Priory
Year 9 attitudes to learning, motivation
Redwood Park
Attitudes to learning, motivation, metacognition
Springfield
Self-aware learner
Trafalgar
Year 10, boys, maximising learning, improving homework, reading (boys)

13. It is early days for the projects this year but all schools have seen progress using this assessment tool:

14. Mayfield
Name of School: Mayfield Name of project: Building Learning Superpower Main area of focus: Developing metacognition and improving reading Impact so far: 15 children have been selected in Year 1 and 3. We have completed a baseline self-reflection questionnaire where the children reflected on their own strengths and areas for development as learners. We have met with the children and parents and have explained the aims and scope of the project: • Understand how they can become more effective learners. • Make accelerated progress in reading. We have 6 Learning Superpower character stickers (Ready, Respectful, Resourceful, Resilient, Reflective and Responsible) and the aim is that the children achieve one of each of these stickers at least once during the week. They also need to show that these characteristics through their approach to reading at home where the expectation is that they will share a book at 5 times per week. Next week is Week 1 of the project and the children seem very enthused by it. We have also rolled out the Progress Tracking Matrix from Challenge the Gap across the Primary school and are now using this with all classes. Future plans for the project: We are going to repeat the self-reflection questionnaire at the end of each half-term to see how the children are developing as confident and effective learners. We have promised the children a reward trip at the end of our project if they are able to maintain the good habits of achieving the superpower stickers every week and read 5 times at home each week. If this project is successful, we will roll it out across the Primary section for September and will trial a similar approach with a target group of Year 7s.

15. Passionate about their project!
Sir Ben’s talk helps inspire students to dream big and go far

16. Feedback from schools on Challenge the Gap…..
Cluster 2: Team Feedback: Workshop 1: 9.9 Workshop 2: 9.7 Workshop 3: 9.9 Workshop 4: 10

17. What happened last year? What impact did Challenge the gap make?
Positive Competition: A Race to the Top The Flying Bull Academy, Portsmouth A holistic points system introduced positive competition into the classroom - motivating children to learn and reinforcing understanding

18. Flying Bull
How we did it • Competition was introduced into the cohort with a certain amount of points being awarded for use of certain grammatical features • The amount of points awarded could be temporarily upwardly adjusted to reflect lesson focus, increase motivation in periods of flagging or could also be adapted at an individual level to reflect child circumstances • This was combined with one-on-one peer marking whereby pupils reviewed each other's work and recorded scores based on identified grammatical features: ○ pupils would therefore be building knowledge through the ability to identify different features. Children were encouraged to question each other’s marking as having to explain would deepen understanding. • 'Padlet’ provided children with an online platform to showcase and celebrate their homework, with additional points being added for its use • Cross class competition would also be used, with children working to increase their class score

19. Flying Bull

20. Craneswater School
An effective approach to pupil conferencing Craneswater School, Portsmouth Cluster A flexible system of one-to-one pupil conferencing has allowed for a continual focus on individual pupil learning gaps and the provision of additional tailored support

21. Craneswater School
How we did it • All children in the cohort had regular one-to-one conferencing time with their teacher to work on specific areas of need - this was used flexibly to meet the needs of the learners • Each week pupils and teachers jointly set SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic/relevant and time bound) go to which children practise and work to achieve over the case of a week. Goals were not just based on current class work but were unique to pupil needs • Yellow stickers were used in writing and maths books to flag and address gaps in learning. Regular opportunities were given to practise the goals and a record of each child's goals were kept in each book • At the following meeting the children and teachers discuss if they have achieved their goals and where necessary revisit and amend them or provide additional support to reach them • Pupils in the cohort that did not respond well to the one-on-one dynamic would take part in outdoor games to build knowledge for learning around the principal of practising to reach goals. Having developed these skills children would then be re-introduced into the pupil conferencing programme more able to take advantage of one to one support

22. Craneswater School
Our impact • All children in the cohort made at least expected progress • 8/10 of cohort pupils made accelerated progress. • When compared to the rest of the class, the cohort made more than or equal progress. • Year 5 Progress (cohort - Rest of class) ○ writing ○ maths • Year 6 Progress (Cohort - Rest of class) ○ writing ○ maths • One pupil began Year 5 at the lower end of expected level for Year 4. Over the course of the year she closed this gap - making 10 steps of progress

23. Pupil Progress & Attainment 2017
All children in the Cohort made at least expected progress
8/10 of Cohort pupils made accelerated progress.
Craneswater Junior School
Pupils became more motivated to learn and more continually aware of the application of their learning.
The project also engaged boys as we had hoped
81% of the children improved their attendance
69% of the target group made accelerated progress in Reading.
63% of the target group made accelerated progress in in Writing and Maths.
Flying Bull Academy

24. Impact on staff:
Northern Parade: Para Professional: Training to be a teacher this year. Teacher: Now a leader of a Behaviour unit. Leader: Went on to become an SLE, support with moderation, facilitate Challenge the Gap and train student teachers.

25. Any questions? © columinate 2013 CONTACT THE CENTRAL TEAME
W challengepartners.org
@ChallengePartnr
CHALLENGE THE GAP 15th Floor, Tower Building,
Elizabeth House, 11 York Road
London, SE1 7NX
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