The Clifton Partnership Education Action Zone started through the government-funded Excellence in Cities (EiC) strategy on the 1st April 2000. The Zone is part of the Local Authority’s School Effectiveness Service an is responsible to the Rotherham Learning Without Limits Board.
The Clifton Partnership works with one comprehensive school, seven primary schools and The Arnold Centre.
The overall aim of the Zone is to provide additional support to its schools to raise attainment, achievement, attendance and aspiration for all pupils. We provide resources, training and support, and deliver an agreed plan across all our schools as well as engaging in wider community based activities.
Our current focus is on four key areas:
Attainment - To provide curriculum support in all schools to improve the attainment of all pupils, with specific work within literacy and numeracy through the Zone team and the additional provision of a Maths Advanced Skills Teacher funded through the Local Authority. The provision of CPD at Zone, school and class level will continue to feature highly in our work. We are aiming to reduce the number of our schools in the Intensive Support Programme (ISP); to do this, in the long term, we will have to address the needs of a changing and increasingly challenging community.
Achievement - As well as maintaining our rich programme of activities to engage and enthuse our pupils through sport and performance we are focusing on the development and implementation of our Learning Skills Curriculum. We are looking to give all our pupils the appropriate skills to access their learning. This exciting initiative has been devised and written by the Zone Team drawing upon all the current approaches being brokered across our schools; we are looking to pick the most appropriate skills and aptitudes to empower our learners. Children will learn how to reflect upon their work, how to be resilient about their learning, how to communicate and work within a team. They will become critical and creative thinkers as well as developing problem solving skills and techniques.
The development of Expressive Arts subjects, linked to specialist status, should increase participation with direct links back to attainment, especially the drama links to oracy and ultimately writing.
Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP) - Having worked with two separate and distinct primary and secondary BIP packages we now intend to work to develop a holistic Behaviour Improvement Programme across all key stages and schools. We intend to include and develop the family and community learning programmes into the BIP provision to help increase the proactive approaches to engage children and moderate times of conflict through enhanced parenting support. We will then be able to reduce the need for reactive work and the managing of excluded pupils as well as supporting them, and their families across the key points of transition.
Networks - We will continue to develop our own internal networks through our Professional Learning Teams (PLTs), our Deputy Headteachers group, the Learning Skills Champions group and our newlt created Initial Leadership Development (ILD) group. We are already committed to share our best practice across the Local Authority. Our role in developing the Electronic Mapping Attainment Grid, Visual Literacy, Learning Skills Curriculum and Drama activities is already recognised as having a contribution to the work of the School Effectiveness Service. We continue to support individual Clusters who wish to develop some of our systems and structures. The need to further develop our family and community learning work has been highlighted by the many and varied changes to the ethnic profiles in our schools. This work will be a focus for our participation within both the new Locality Team and the Area Assembly.
What does this mean for our schools/pupils?
The Action Zone works with teachers, pupils and parents to provide additional support, resources and opportunities to help raise attainment and provide a range of activities to engage pupils in wider aspects of their development.
Staff from all schools are brought together, at regularly for in-service training provided through whole school closure days, twilight sessions, staff meetings, year teams, subject areas and individual modelling. The provision of high quality is at the heart of our work.
Staff from all schools meet regularly through subject-based Professional Learning Teams (PLT) to share good practice, collaborate on planning and manage the curriculum continuum from Reception to Year 11. They work together to share strengths and address barriers to learning.
Regular meetings held for all Headteachers have been held to develop a shared view across the Zone schools. Common policies have been developed to provide an agreed ethos in all our schools. Zone meetings and Cluster meetings are one and the same, thereby providing a capacity to manage and broker new initiatives.
We aim to provide music, dance and drama support in all schools for curriculum delivery and give pupils the opportunity to perform within their schools and across the Zone. This links directly to the Specialist Performing Arts Status at Clifton.
The Behaviour Improvement Programme, developed from ourMulti-Agency Support Team (MAST) works to support children and families. It brings together the statutory providers and voluntary sector groups to provide a range of services for our children.
We are co-ordinating Zone-wide opportunities to develop strategies to deal with poor attendance, PSHE and Citizenship, Out-of-Hours study support and build into the Zone the capacity to deal with other initiatives as necessary.
The Zone helps to manage the overview of the key factors in the transition of pupils across Key Stages, focusing particularly between Junior and Secondary phase.
We try to give all pupils the opportunity to succeed and celebrate their achievements in academic, sporting and performing activities, thereby raising their self-esteem and motivation to develop further skills and widening their involvement in their on-going education.
How is the Zone managed?
All the school's Headteachers come together with other interested parties to form the Wider Partnership. This group meet on a monthly basis to share common issues. We hold two residentials each year when Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers and the Zone team come together to address needs and shape activities to address them.
All the Zone activities are set out in the annual Action Plan, which is compiled in conjuction with all partners. The Rotherham Learning Without Limits Partnership Board have overall responsibility for agreeing the annual Action Plans as part of the LA’s strategic plan.
