Appendix 1
Perth and Kinross Council · 2 November 2022
Back to Learning and Families Committee — 2 November 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Pupil Equity Fund Report 2021-2022
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1 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose of the Report This report provides an update on progress made in Perth and Kinross to raise attainment and ensure equity for learners affected by poverty through the use of Pupil Equity Funding (PEF). 1. 2 Background PEF is part of the national Scottish Attainment Challenge programme and has been in place since 2015. In 2022, the Scottish Government launched a refreshed programme which is outlined in The Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress. This framework explains that the Scottish Attainment Challenge aims to: • use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap; and • support educational recovery from Covid-19, increase the pace and reduce the variation in progress towards tackling the poverty related attainment gap. The Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress, page 3 PEF must be used to improve outcomes for children and young people affected by poverty. The funding should specifically target improvement in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. The Scottish Government ask local authorities to use the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) to identify learners living in poverty. This tool indicates that 11% of pupils in Perth and Kinross are classified as living in the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland. SIMD can be supplemented with local measures as appropriate. In Perth and Kinross, schools also use the ACORN system. This is a demographic tool which takes into account the dispersed nature of rural communities. Using ACORN indicates that over a third of children and young people in Perth and Kinross live in households subject to some level of deprivation. 1.3 PEF Allocations PEF is allocated directly from the Scottish Government to schools. This allocation is made using school census data on the basis of the estimated number of registered free school meals in P1 to S3. £1200 is allocated for each child or young person. In 2021-2022, an additional funding grant of 15% was added to PEF allocations. This was to support schools to address the emerging needs and additional challenges for children and young people as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that in the year 2021-22, schools in Perth and Kinross received a total of £2,037,808 from the Pupil Equity Fund. 80 out of 81 schools in Perth and Kinross received PEF. Allocations varied between schools and are summarised in figure 1 below.
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2 Financial Range Number of Schools £0 1 £1-£9,999 34 £10,000-£19,999 15 £20,000-£29,999 8 £30,000-£39,999 5 £40,000-£49,999 3 £50,000-£59,999 3 £60,000-£69,999 5 £70,000-£79,999 2 £80,000-£89,999 2 £90,000-£99,999 1 <£100,000 2 Figure 1 1.4 Guidance and Planning The PKC Raising Attainment Strategy 2020-2023, sets out a shared vision, priorities, and expectations in relation to raising attainment and achievement for every child and young person. This strategy reflects the national ambitions of attaining excellence and achieving equity. It outlines the approaches used to address all attainment gaps including those identified for learners affected by poverty. PEF local guidance has been developed in line with The Pupil Equity Funding National Operational Guidance 2022. This guidance is shared with all schools. It includes local information including planning, tracking, monitoring and reporting expectations as well as information on finance processes and the central support that is available to all schools. 1.5 Tracking and Monitoring In 2021-2022, A Tracking and Evaluation Tool1 was rolled out to all primary and secondary schools in Perth and Kinross. It has enabled schools and the local authority to enhance their understanding of how PEF is being used and the impact of interventions. 2. Support and Professional Development Professional support from Education Scotland and Central Officers is key to effective deployment of PEF together with relevant professional learning. 2.1 Support for Schools and Settings Quality Improvement Officers (QIOs) provide PEF support to all schools at termly meetings. Targeted support was also provided to identified schools by the Education Scotland Attainment Advisor. The focus of these visits included: PEF planning; selecting appropriate interventions; addressing underspend and supporting schools to carry out a data analysis to identify learner needs. The impact was evident in improved PEF planning; a reduced underspend within targeted schools and clearer school PEF plans. 1 The Closing the Gap Tool was featured in the national document Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards (education.gov.scot) as an example of tracking and monitoring. Several local authorities have expressed an interest in finding out more and two have reported that they have developed their own systems based on the case study.
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3 2.2 The Equity Network The Perth and Kinross Equity Network provides regular opportunities for school leaders and practitioners to meet and engage in a range of professional learning. It has approximately 80 members and provides a forum for good practice to be shared across schools. 2.4 Improvement Methodology The local authority has worked with the Education Scotland Attainment Advisor and the Children and Young People’s Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC) team to develop a strategic plan for the implementation of Quality Improvement Methodology (QI) across the authority. The QI programme provides training to school leaders and practitioners which enables them to deliver targeted improvement projects to improve outcomes for identified learners.
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4 Case Study I: Quality Improvement Project at Goodlyburn and City of Perth Early Child Care Centre (COPECC) ELC Background Practitioners at Goodlyburn and COPECC ELC, took part in quality improvement training and completed a project to close gaps for identified learners. Practitioners followed a process of: using improvement tools to identify learner needs; creating an improvement aim; identifying ‘change ideas’ or interventions that they could introduce and test for improvement; regularly monitoring and tracking improvement and evaluating progress. The project focused on supporting learners to develop self-regulation strategies to support learning. Self-regulation is an important skill for learners. It focuses on the ability of children and young people to control their behaviours, emotions and thoughts in appropriate ways for their age and stage of development. Project Aim The aim of the project was that: By April 2022, all identified learners will increase their self-regulation skills to successfully transition from play into group time and complete a short follow up task for 5 to 10 minutes. ‘Change Ideas’ Four different ideas were introduced and tested for improvement: Impact • The transition time from learners moving from play to a group task significantly decreased using visual cues, scripts and timers. • Children were more focused to start their learning at group and the majority were familiar with what ‘ready to learn’ looks like. • When completing a task individual learners increased their focus and attention from 2-3 minutes to 5-10 minutes. Impact Change idea 1 Practitioners will use a visual prompt to support transition from play to group. Change idea 2 All practitioners will use shared visuals/scripts to model a task. Change idea 3 Change where groups are situated to reduce stimulus and noise. Change idea 4 A visual timetable will be used at group time to keep children on task.
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5 3. PEF Interventions Summary In 2021-2022, an analysis of PEF plans identified attainment as the most frequently targeted area of support. When analysed by subject, the majority of these interventions were targeted towards reading. Figure 2, PEF Plans Intervention Analysis, August 2021 Figure 3 demonstrates the range of needs targeted by PEF interventions. After attainment, learner achievement (wider curriculum), engagement, participation and mental health were all areas most frequently identified for intervention. Figure 3, Closing the Gap Tool Analysis, 2022 4. Impact 42% 25% 5% 21% 7% % PEF Interventions Targetting Learner Attainment by Subject Reading Writing Listening and Talking Numeracy Early Learning 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 % PEF Interventions by Targetted Area of Learner Need PEF
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6 By the end of 2021-2022, 73% of all schools were recording interventions on the tracking tool; an increase of 43% from 2020-2021. The tool provided information about 675 interventions delivered to over 7,500 learners across the authority. This included 145 PEF interventions delivered to over 1330 learners. 4.1 Headline Outcomes • 89% of learners fully or partly met* the intended outcomes for all PEF interventions 80% of recorded literacy interventions were fully or partly successful. • 83% of recorded numeracy interventions were fully or partly successful. • 80% of recorded Health and Wellbeing (HWB) interventions were fully or partly successful. *For all data analysis ‘fully met’ indicates that 100% of learners met the intended outcomes. ‘Partly met’ indicates that the majority or >50% of learners met the intended outcomes. Figures 6-8, Closing the Gap Tool Analysis, 2022. 4.3 Impact of Specific Interventions Figures 9-11 illustrate the % of learners who successfully met the intended outcomes in specific literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing interventions. This has allowed the central team to begin to identify those interventions that are most successful and may be effectively spread further across the authority. Precision teaching is an example of an intervention that was rolled out across schools as part of the local authority’s strategic recovery plan as referenced in section 2.1 of this report. Training was provided to practitioners through the Educational Psychology Service. It is an approach that can be applied to literacy or numeracy. In literacy and numeracy interventions, 91% of learners receiving precision teaching met the intended outcomes. HWB Yes Fully Yes Partly Insufficient Evidence No Literacy Yes Fully Yes Partly Insufficient Evidence No Numeracy Yes Fully Yes Partly Insufficient Evidence No
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7 Figures 9-11, Closing the Gap Tool Analysis 2022 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Precision Teaching Targetted Number Facts Power 1/Power 2 % Learners Meeting Outcomes in Specific Numeracy Interventions Fully Met Partly Met Insufficient Evidence Not Met 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Precision Teaching Targetted Phonics High 5 Speech and Language Targetted Reading Targetted Spelling Wave 3 % of Learners Meeting Outcomes in Specific Literacy Interventions Fully Met Partly Met Insufficient Evidence Not Met 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Emotion Works Self Regulation Counselling Family Support Nurture Support % of Learners Meeting Outcomes in Specific Health and Wellbeing Interventions Fully Met Partly Met Insuficient Evidence Not Met
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8 4.4 Case Studies
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9 Figure 12 5. PEF Expenditure 2021/22 In line with guidance, funding was allocated by schools for a range of purposes as identified through their self-evaluation processes. This expenditure focuses on two main areas of staffing and resources. The breakdown of this allocation for session 2020/21 is shown in figure 12 below.
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10 Item Spend Staff costs 1,138,357 Resources 660,318 Transport 8,186 6. Conclusion Significant progress has been made in 2021-2022 in developing systems to effectively plan, track and monitor PEF interventions. Case studies and data as well as information gathered through quality assurance systems have provided evidence of improved outcomes for learners including in specific interventions such as precision teaching. This evidence has also demonstrated some of the positive impact of programmes of professional development and training as delivered through Quality Improvement training, the Equity Network and the Educational Psychology Service. It is important that this progress is built upon to ensure that schools effectively spend all PEF monies and can evidence the way in which evidence-based interventions have effectively closed attainment gaps for learners affected by poverty. As a result, the following actions are planned for 2022-2023: • A full analysis of PEF planning will complement individual feedback given directly to all head teachers. • Data gathered from the PEF planning analysis will be used alongside financial information, contextual evidence, and attainment data to inform targeted and universal support to schools. • Strengthened guidance and support for all head teachers • Closer collaborative links between staff supporting schools with PEF planning, tracking, and monitoring and the finance and HR teams will support increased impact. • The Tracking Tool will be refined further with support provided to ensure all schools are effectively tracking interventions and evidencing impact by the end of the academic session. • A professional development programme tailored to identified needs was launched in September 2022 with a full day for school leaders focused on the next phase of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and PEF. • Updated guidance and expectations shared with school leaders complemented by opportunities to meet with partner organisations offering services that may support in the delivery of PEF interventions. • Professional Learning for all staff involved in closing the poverty related attainment gap will continue to be developed and refined. • A PKC interventions toolkit will be launched to support and signpost schools to effective evidence-based interventions.