Thanks to Lynne Rice for highlighting that this is Children's Mental Health Week and for sharing resources for form time that will help raise awareness.

Our Young People

We have 50 pupils receiving Free School Meal (FSM) entitlement (Jan ‘23). These pupils are supported by our Pupil Equity Funding (PEF).  Please have a regular check of the list.  It is particularly important that these pupils are considered when planning any trips or activities which have a cost. Please use the 'Equity Checklist' to guide planning regarding reflective questions to ensure we are fully supporting these young people. 

PEF list & Checklist (reflective questions): FSM 22/23

Targeted Interventions 

Literacy Project

Nicola and our S3 targeted pupils have continued their work with Drymen primary school building reader confidence and reading culture.  From cycle one this year she has gathered some very positive information on impact  Group 1 - Impact Monitoring. All pupils are demonstrating an increase in identification of ‘common words’ in comparison to the control group.  

Targeted FSM pupils in S1 are taking part in ‘That Reading Thing’ 1 to 1 sessions.  This programme allows pupils to work from sound to print using age-appropriate vocabulary and real reading material. The method has its roots in linguistic phonics but has grown its own way of working with older learners for the fastest possible results.

We are also very excited to share that Balfron High’s first pop up Reading Cafe will take place in March.  Pupils and their families from Drymen PS, the paired reading programme and the phonics group will all be invited to join us for an afternoon of literacy, good food and inspiration from author Maisie Chan! 

Family Learning - ‘Good Food Project’ 

Last year David secured funding from the ‘Good Food Fund’ to pilot a family learning project where parents/carers and their children could take part in cooking sessions with our wonderful home economics team.  The first sessions take place in February where families will cook a range of budget friendly meals, receive a recipe guide and a take away food bag for future cooking. We are hopeful that the project not only promotes a culture of learning, but allows us to continue to build relationships with our targeted families. 

H&WB Group - Community Partnerships 

We have now begun project work with Endura Lifestyle Trust.  6 pupils are currently taking part in the ‘Chills & Thrills’ programme to provide opportunities to engage in new health and wellbeing activities, including mountain biking, yoga, orienteering to support confidence growth.  The group will also be involved in delivering early years physical activity sessions with Croftamie Nursery after the February holiday.

Senior Phase Coaching & 1 to 1 Tuition

Senior phase coaching meetings are on-going in the build up to SQA examinations.  The meetings are very attainment focussed this year and we will utilise tracking and monitoring data along with prelim data to establish key priority areas to drive attainment. Coaching will also include one to one tuition for our targeted senior phase pupils.  This will take place for 30 mins, twice a week. One to one tuition will offer greater levels of interaction and feedback compared to whole class teaching which will support pupils to spend more time on unfamiliar or challenging content.

If any staff would be interested in working one to one with a PEF pupil one hour a week for an 8 week period please let me know. This could really make a difference to young people who are impacted by low income.  Prelim results will confirm targeted subject areas however T&M data suggests support may be required in: maths, French, physics, physical education, English and modern studies.

Families First Support Service 

We are on month 3 of  trialing our Families First SMS text service to directly support our FSM families and reduce the impact of the Cost of School Day.  This service allows families to access:

• Balfron Larder (emergency essentials)

• School uniform 

• Sportswear and 'Kit for All' funding

• Support with applications such as Educational Maintenance Allowance & NEC Free Bus Pass scheme

From our free school families 43 percent of parents have engaged with the service between launch during November ‘22 and January ‘23. The majority of support requests are for Larder provision and school uniform.  This reflects the current economic crisis. We did not anticipate this number of requests in such a short period.  Thank you to staff who have donated to our larder provision and for their ongoing support of our PEF pupils. 

Fiona Fisher & the Equity Team