Number of pupils

640

Age range

3-11

Date of Inspection

June 2015

Pillgwenlly Primary School in Newport offers numerous highly effective family engagement initiatives to welcome and assist families who have arrived from overseas. The initiatives have improved standards for disadvantaged learners and have provided those learners with the literacy and social skills they require to achieve at school.

Information about the school

Pillgwenlly County Primary School is a large, inner-city school in Newport.  It has 633 pupils aged from 3 to 11 years, 94 of whom attend part-time in the four nursery classes.  The school has 21 mainstream classes, six of which are mixed-age.  The school houses a local authority learning support unit that caters for up to 10 pupils with moderate to severe learning and communication difficulties.  

Context and background to sector-leading practice

The three-year average of pupils eligible for free school meals is just over 40%.  This is well above the national average (21%).  The school identifies about 36% of pupils as having additional learning needs.  This is above the national average of 22%.  All pupils in the learning support unit and a very few pupils in the mainstream school have a statement of special educational needs.  Around 90% of pupils at the school are from ethnic minority groups or non-British backgrounds.  Many pupils have English as an additional language and around 20% start school with little or no English. 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

Pillgwenlly Primary works effortlessly to welcome and assist families who have arrived from overseas.   Many of these have not experienced the United Kingdom Educational System and many who had little educational experience in their home country.  As an attempt to help both the parents and children with the transition into full time education, Pillgwenlly offers numerous highly effective family engagement initiatives.

These initiatives include:

• Family Nurture Group

• Nurture Groups

• Open College Network Qualification Family Learning Course specialising in English

• Family Intervention Learning: Reading Booster Classes and Maths Games Classes

• Family Lending Library

• Practical Parenting Sessions

• Language and Play and Number and Play

• Reception Parents Literacy Club

Family Nurture Group

There has been a significant increase in learners arriving at Pillgwenlly Primary School, who do not speak English and have had little or no previous school experience.  The school recognised the particular needs of these learners and needed a strategy to engage the families in the life and work of the school.  The school established a Family Nurture Group to provide the families with social and emotional support while assisting them to settle into the local community and school.

The family Nurture Room provides a place where pupils and their families (parents or grandparents) can join them for part of the week.  All learners have a base class.  The pupils access the Family Nurture Room for 55% of their week, working alongside their family members for 10% or 20% of the week and attending their base classes for the remainder of the week with home language support.  As soon as the learners have acquired the skills to support them with their learning and wellbeing, they transfer into their base class full time.  The Family Nurture Room has also provided a forum for parents to have access to support resources; for example - school nurse, midwife, dentistry and other professionals.  

Nurture Groups

Pillgwenlly Primary offers a Nurture Group to provide a suitable learning environment for some of the most vulnerable pupils and the ‘hard to reach’ parents.  Parents fully engage with the Group and attend ‘Play and Stay’ sessions.  These sessions involve the parents/guardians attending class for half a day and working with their child and the Nurture Group adults.  The school also offers reading guidance sessions to parents/guardians on a regular basis.  These opportunities assist parents/guardians in becoming confident in attending school events and having a clearer understanding about their child’s learning.  This year, Pillgwenlly Primary School also piloted a project: ‘Engaging Parents Through Ipad Learning’.  This was popular, and parents stated that it provided them with information on purposeful Ipad use at home.  Attendance at all events was good.  Parental responses included: ‘you get a sense of family in this school’, ‘he knows how to take turns now and how to learn in the class’; ‘ as a parent I am not concerned about asking the school questions now – nurture group has developed my confidence as well as my child’s’.  The Foundation Phase Nurture Group has been in operation since 2004.  The school has achieved the Boxall Quality Mark Award.

Open College Network (OCN) Qualification Family Learning Course specialising in English

Pillgwenlly Primary offers weekly Family Learning Sessions for parents within the Foundation Phase, with a focus on basic skills in literacy and numeracy.  The first part of the morning session focuses on developing the parents’ knowledge and understanding of the English Language and during the second part, the parent learns alongside their child in a classroom situation.  Parents attending this workshop had a desire to gain a qualification; hence, the school new calls it the OCN (Open College Network).  This parent group currently consists of twelve families.  Many parents who have completed their OCN qualification in previous years, are now ‘parent mentors’ and support new families in achieving their OCN qualifications.  This has encouraged parents to extend their training and gain additional qualifications at college. 

Family Intervention Learning, Reading Boosters Classes and Maths Games Classes.

Pupils taking part in the Maths Catch Up Programme have some learning sessions with their parents.  Staff explain to parents how to use resources such as a ‘hundred square’, ‘multiplication grid’, and number lines to help their children with mathematics  The family session also involves playing maths games; many of which the parent makes to take home.  As a result, parents have gained a clear understanding of the content of the Maths Curriculum and children have the opportunity of sharing their numeracy skills.

Family Lending Library

Families can borrow games, puzzles or books on a weekly basis.  Staff show pupils how to play the games in order for them to share the activity with their families.  This is a really exciting and popular project and is now available in both the Foundation Phase and key stage 2.

Practical Parenting Classes

Pillgwenlly Primary School offers families help and guidance in supporting them with their routines and boundaries at home.  It gives parents the opportunity to make visual timetables for the home, routine charts to support them in getting their children to bed and to school on time, positive behaviour charts and healthy eating strategies.  Trained school-based staff work with the pupils in order for them to engage in the home activity.  Parents who have accessed this support speak very highly of the support it has given them organising their family home.

Language and Play/ Number and Play

In the Autumn term, new Nursery parents attend Language and Play sessions.  Parents attend practical sessions alongside their children in order to gain a better understanding of how their children learn, and how they can support this learning at home.  A Numeracy and Play programme follows this in the Spring term.  A fully trained in-house facilitator runs this parenting programme.

Reception Parents Literacy

As a continuation of parental engagement in Nursery, though Language And Play and Numeracy And Play, parents of pupils in reception classes attend literacy sessions on a Wednesday in the Family Learning room.  Parents continue to develop their knowledge of how they can support their children’s learning at home.

Pillgwenlly Primary School recognises that there is always more to do to engage parents in their child’s learning and attitude to school life.  This year the school has also produced the following information leaflets:

• Attendance: Every Day Counts

• How to Help your Child with Maths: Every Day with Numbers

• How to Help your Child with Reading: Every Day with Word

Outcomes / Impact on learners:

The outcomes have included forming trusting relationships with new families.  Their participation in school life has resulted in improved standards for disadvantaged learners and has provided those learners with the literacy and social skills they require to achieve at school.  Learners’ attitude to school has developed positively; pupil attendance rates have improved (range of 47% to 71% to a range of 84% to 96%), parent attendance at family learning sessions is between 94% and 100%, parental attendance to consultation evenings has also significantly improved.

How have you shared your good practice?

The school has shared its practice in both the Family Nurture Group and the Foundation Phase with schools across Wales and some schools from across the border.  Staff from Pillgwenlly Primary School attend Nurture Network Group Meetings and have presented at the National Nurture Conference and at a local Neglect Conference.

Using the haka as part of a topic which helps pupils to make links in their learning Context Pillgwenlly Primary School is a large inner city school of 681 pupils serving a multiethnic population in Newport. Around 41% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, and approximately 40% of pupils have additional learning needs. These proportions are much higher than the national average. Strategy The school’s leaders promote the arts as a means of celebrating cultural and linguistic diversity within the school and wider community. Teachers’ thorough planning for the arts ensures that all pupils have a wide and progressive experience. Leaders also take good account of different groups of pupils whose circumstances may make them vulnerable to under-achievement. In particular these include pupils with limited or, in the case of new arrivals to the country, no English, who are immediately included in the practical activities and can participate on an equal footing with their peers. Additionally, leaders consider that the arts help more withdrawn pupils with social or emotional difficulties to grow in confidence, as a result of participating and working collaboratively in groups. Action Year 6 pupils study the topic of ‘Islands’, which involves reading about myths and inventing their own heroes. The class watch a recording of the haka battle dance performed by the New Zealand rugby team and discuss the cultural importance of this ritual. They analyse different features of the performance including the important role of body positioning, movement, sound and facial expression in order to plan their own battle dance sequences. Best practice in teaching and learning in the creative arts at key stage 2 14 After a lively warm-up session, pupils work in groups of four or five to plan and rehearse their own battle dances. Within the session, pupils have the opportunity to perform their work and to receive feedback from their peers as well as from the teacher. They then have an opportunity to try out fresh ideas and to incorporate the suggested improvements into their subsequent attempts. Outcomes All pupils participate enthusiastically in this lesson. They apply themselves with confidence, discipline, energy and enthusiasm. They have a clear idea of what they are trying to create and discuss a range of features and success criteria that would make their dances effective. Throughout the lesson the teacher takes opportunities to draw out appropriate words and phrases from the pupils to describe movements and gestures. As a result, the lesson makes an excellent contribution to pupils’ oral language development, including the significant proportion of pupils for whom English is an additional language. Pupils show good ability to work as teams and discuss, exchange ideas, negotiate and plan collaboratively. They show growing confidence and inventiveness in rehearsal and make good progress by the final performances at the end of the lesson.

Full document can be read Here  

The following case study shows how Pillgwenlly Primary School provides a learning centre for disadvantaged families. A family nurture room in Pillgwenlly Primary School Context of the school Pillgwenlly Primary School is a large, multi-cultural school in Newport. It serves the inner-city ward of Pill. The catchment area, which contains Newport docks, is one of the most economically-deprived areas in Wales and has a high rate of unemployment and ethnic diversity. There is a transient population of pupils. The school prides itself on being a ‘Nurturing School’ and offers a nurture class both in the Foundation Phase and in key stage 2. Working together to tackle the impact of poverty on educational achievement December 2013 10 Strategy Since 2010, there has been a significant increase in learners arriving at Pillgwenlly who do not speak English and are new to the UK and its educational system. The school recognises the particular needs of these learners and has a strategy to engage their families in the life and work of the school. In partnership with Gwent Ethnic Minority Support (GEMS), the school established a family nurture room to provide these families with social and emotional support while settling into the local community and school. Action The family nurture room provides a place where children can learn in a nurturing setting and their family (parents or grandparents) can join them for part of the week. All learners have a base class. They attend the family nurture room for 55% of their week initially, learning alongside their family for 10% to 20% of the week and attending their base classes for the remainder of the week with home language support. As soon as learners have acquired skills to support them with their learning and wellbeing, they transfer into their base class full-time. Learners start their day by having breakfast, during which they use their home language as well as English and plan for the day. This provides an opportunity to address any worries about their planned areas of learning. The rest of the morning is focused on acquiring the necessary literacy skills and knowledge to support the children when learning alongside their base-class peers. Once or twice a week, their families come and learn alongside them. Parents also have the opportunity of attending other family learning workshops while their children are in their base classes. Outcomes The school has successfully engaged with some of the most ‘hard to reach’ and vulnerable families in this way and has formed trusting relationships with them. Their participation in school life has resulted in improved standards for disadvantaged learners and has provided those learners with the literacy and social and emotional skills they require to achieve at secondary school. Learners’ attitudes to learning develop positively and they participate fully in homework activities and school visits and trips. There has been an increase in attendance rates. The attendance of those learners attending the family nurture room has risen from between 47% and 84% to between 71% and 96%. Parental attendance at joint learning sessions is between 94% and 100% and it is more than 96% at parental consultations and year-group assemblies With the support of the nurture room staff, all families have registered with doctors and dentists. All school-based paperwork is completed on time, such as high school application forms and parental consent forms. Within four months, four learners returned to their base class full-time. Working together to tackle the impact of poverty on educational achievement December 2013 11 Learners value the additional support as demonstrated by the feedback from two pupils below, translated from the home language. “I like it when I come to school and I have breakfast. I am learning with my friends. I can help them. I am learning to speak English and how to look in people's eyes when I give them something. And it is only one person talking. When Miss is talking we have to sit nicely and listen. When we won't listen we won't know what to do. Our work won't be good.” “I really like to be in this class. We all help each other and Miss also helps us when we do not understand. Mrs Y teaches us English.”

Full document can be read Here