3.11. Targeted support - disadvantaged socio-economic background

Beanstalk, a Children’s Literature Charity in England, was founded in 1973. Working closely with partner schools, they recruit, train and support volunteers to provide reading support for children between ages 3 and 13
The volunteers work one-to-one with children (with each volunteer working with one to three children), coming to the school for three hours each week over the course of a school year. To help build the child’s confidence and create trust, they may read, play and talk with the children. The Beanstalk book box is an important resource with appropriate books and games
Volunteers are asked to make a commitment to work with children for a full school year. Over time, the volunteer and the child build a trusting relationship, and the volunteer is able to learn more about the challenges children experience as they are learning.
The Charity currently reaches approximately 11,000 children across England annually.

The Care to Learn scheme in the UK-England can help with the cost of childcare, including deposit and registration fee, childcare taster session for up to 5 days, keeping childcare place over the summer holidays, and transport to the childcare provider. This paper provides a short description and results of the most recent evaluation of the measure.

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Discretionary Bursaries provide support for disadvantaged students who don?t come within the remit of the vulnerable bursaries annual one-off payment for support for studying for items such as clothing, books and other equipment, transport, meals, study visits for disadvantaged 16-18 year old students who are not defined as ?vulnerable?. It also covers young offenders who are not in custody.

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The project goal is to provide a comprehensive analysis of best practices for preventing ESL in partner countries in the areas: of ESL monitoring systems; and, methods of counteracting ESL and reintegrating students.

Project partners were from Poland, the UK and Italy. Outputs include a report on ESL monitoring systems, a report on prevention and reintegration methods, and a training pack.

Magic Breakfast, a registered UK charity, aims to end hunger as a barrier to learning through the provision of healthy breakfasts for vulnerable children. The charity believes that a hungry child cannot concentrate so will miss out on half of the day’s lessons. The charity provides healthy breakfast food and expert support to qualifying primary and secondary schools. It works with 480 primary, secondary and special educational needs schools, plus Pupil Referral Units, to make sure that more than 40,300 children start their school day in the best possible way. The charity’s motto is ‘no child too hungry to learn’. According to a recent survey:
- 96 % of respondents reported that provision of breakfast had led to improved energy levels/alertness amongst the participating pupils
- 92 % of respondents reported that provision of breakfast had led to improved concentration levels amongst the participating pupils
- 91 % of respondents reported that provision of breakfast had led to improved educational attainment levels, for the participating pupils
- 81 % of respondents reported that the behaviour of participating pupils had improved, as a result of breakfast provision

Manchester Communication Academy (MCA) works to improve outcomes for children, families and the community. This secondary academy opened in 2010 to serve one of the most disadvantaged inner-city neighbourhoods in England. From the outset, the academy’s sponsor, a large employer in the city, wanted the school to help to contribute to a vibrant and sustainable neighbourhood, and committed to addressing the many inter-related economic, social and physical challenges which characterise the neighbourhood. This mission has directly shaped the academy programme, which places equal importance on ‘teaching and learning’ and ‘social investment’. The school’s social investment department is a highly distinctive feature of its overall strategy for addressing the impacts of disadvantage on young people’s education and wider life chances.

The programme “Poverty Proofing the School Day” is run by the organisation Children North East. It supports schools through an audit which aims to identify and overcome the barriers to learning faced by children and young people from low-income families. Team members speak with all students in the school and interview staff, parents and governors about the effects of poverty on their daily lives in school. An action plan is then tailored for each school to address any unintended stigmatising policies or practices and to celebrate and share excellent practices. Poverty Proofing has reached over 30,000 children and young people in the North East and across the country. An independent evaluation by Newcastle University found that “poverty proofing” has helped improve the most disadvantaged pupils’ attendance and attainment, as well as their take-up of free school meals, trips and music tuition.

The Prometheus project addresses the need for career counselling and guidance to be more relevant to the needs and attitudes of a new generation of digital natives. It provides an online platform with peer networking opportunities and offers a repository of best practices and online guides and toolkits for counsellors.

The main project results include:
• Career Pathways Research and Analysis Report
• 100+ Enlightenment Best Practices e-Book
• PROMETHEUS Peer Network
• Empower Talk Movies
• PROMETHEUS-EU.NET
• Online Career Counselling Guide
• PROMETHEUS Toolkit
• PROMETHEUS Final Multipliers’ Conference
The project team includes organisations from 6 European countries: BFE (Bulgaria), CIAPE (Italy), BEST (Austria), IED (Greece), Aspire-i Ltd. (UK) and CIT (Ireland).

The school’s approach to teaching and learning is based on attaining educational excellence and achievement for all students. The school developed a stimulating curriculum which seeks to provide its students with an understanding of the learning processes in which they are involved (meta-cognition) – and to build their self-belief. The provision of specialist teaching in certain subject areas (science, music, art, physical education) is a key element in this process, as is the development of maths teaching throughout the school (for 6th graders). The teaching of philosophy to all students is also a vital element in developing students’ thinking skills, resilience and self-confidence. Curriculum innovation is undertaken on the initiative of the school, working in co-operation with its Federation partners at Whitmore Park Primary School. All staff, the governing body, students and parents are regularly consulted and made part of the process of curriculum development, and the school is strongly engaged with community partners in developing broader learning activities.