Skip to content ↓

Larwood School

Part of Larwood Academy Trust

Sports Premium

SPORT PREMIUM 2018 - 2019 

Larwood School is a primary school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) and all pupils have an Educational Health Care Plan. Pupils are referred to us as part of a panel system organised by Hertfordshire. Key factors to consider as part of this year included:

  • During the course of 2018-19, we added to our capacity from 64 day pupils to 80 day pupils. This was due to a residential unit consultation that concluded by closing that unit and opening an additional 12 day places. The extra day spaces are all for pupils who have an SEMH diagnosis and autism. This is called The Space Hub
  • During the course of the year, around 60% of our pupils either had a formal diagnosis of autism or had the traits of autistic behaviour
  • We started to provide an outreach service for primary schools within Stevenage. This was contracted via our Developing Specialist Provision Locally (DSPL) group, and we have staffed this appropriately.
  • Throughout the year, we supported a local secondary SEMH School (Brandles) that had gone into Special Measures following inspection in 2018. Continued discussion and work has taken place for use to be able to sponsor them and for them to become part of Larwood Academy Trust.
  • We reviewed and changed our curriculum ready for implementation in September 2018 alongside a new assessment system. This is the Chris Quigley Essentials curriculum and the Depth of Learning assessment that works alongside the CG curriculum. This all took place before the big Ofsted focus on the curriculum!
  • All of our pupils have all experienced exclusion and at least 1 term away from education.
  • The vast majority of pupils arrive at Larwood having been receiving part time education. One hour a day quite often being the norm.
  • 3 pupils last year attended 5 schools.  2 pupil has been at 4 schools, 32 pupils had been at 3 schools and the rest of the cohort had been at 2 schools. Therefore, 49% of the cohort had been at, at least two schools before Larwood. 1 pupil had been permanently excluded from both mainstream and specialist provision.

It is appropriate to state that all of our pupils have experienced the challenges and issues that any officially designated pupil premium pupil may have.

Please note there are specific characteristics of this cohort which include family related breakdown including pupils witnessing violent incidents, legal proceedings, medication issues, family upheaval/displacement, and drug and alcohol related issues.

Overall general profile for the school during 2018-19

Year

Number of pupils and % change over the year

Boy/girl

% Autistic Spectrum Condition

% 2years plus at Larwood

Profile

Low/Mid/High

1

2-100%

Boy

100%

0

100/0/0

2

6-50%

Boys

67%

0

80/20/0

3

9-44%

Boys

78%

22%

77/11/11

4

20-35%

19 B 1G

65%

5-15%

75/15/0

5

17-53%

13B  4G

70%

6-35%

72/12/6

6

27-22%

25B  2G

52%

11-48%

80/15/5

      Key points arising from this profile with impact on future practice:

  1. The biggest ‘in year’ pupil variation took place for Yr 1 (100% but only 2 pupils) followed by Year 5 (53%). The range of in-year variation with pupil growth was between 22% (yr 6) and Year 1. Limited growth in Year 6 is helpful for established pupils and staff but is impossible to predict or control. Our current pupil induction process seems to allow the vast majority of pupils to arrive and settle down quickly, many of which then make rapid and sustained progress. We need to continue to refine and replicate this practice.
  2. We remain heavily boy orientated with 7 girls in the school during 2018-19. We must continue to review our provision for girls and their needs as individuals and as a group as the year progresses. Our practice evolved this year, and additions such as girl only PSHE sessions and a broader range of activities were met positively by pupils.
  3. We continue to have a high proportion of pupils with autism, and with the opening of The Space Hub, this has got even higher! This varies from 52% in Year 6 to -100% in year . Pursuing best practice for autistic children is in the best interests of all and our Hub needs to develop into a beacon for potential replication across Hertfordshire
  4. We are dominated by a low ability profile across the school based on very sketchy previous assessments. However, our own internal assessments also prove that there are huge gaps in learning and development for all pupils upon entry to Larwood.
Continuation of high class, Wave 1 teaching-funded via our core-staffing budget (See Headteacher for costings)

All of our pupils have experienced school break down. Therefore, every element of their curriculum has been affected by this, including PE. Alongside every other curriculum subject, we aim to promote revitalised engagement and progress by our teaching. Many of our pupils have greater confidence and ability in areas of sport, yet for some it remains a major challenge. We note the same gaps, for some pupils, in the same manner as any other subject.

We value the delivery of high quality Physical Education, alongside other areas of our broad and balanced curriculum. We are also very aware that this tends to be an area of weakness for many primary trained practitioners.

 This will be reviewed by lesson observations, pupil voice, participation rates and assessment of progress. Consistency of staffing is a key consideration for our pupils.

(School Development Plan-Progress, well being and sustainability)

Evaluation:

Lesson observations for Physical Education ran alongside the whole school approach and calendar for such events. Inline with previous years, we conducted all of our own lesson observations with our PE Teacher rather than relying on J and C Academy to deliver this. The member of staff acts and is considered very much part of the Larwood team of staff and has since transferred onto the Larwood Team staff from Sept 2019 PLEASE SEE WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT OURSELVES TEACHING, LEARNING AND CURRICULUM REPORT FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Actions:

  • To monitor the quality of Physical Education provision and to review this annually
Membership of Stevenage Sporting Futures Program (approx. £2000)

Stevenage Sporting Futures is a program run for Stevenage schools enabling a range of training opportunities, alongside access to special events and local competitions. As a special school, it is impossible to enter all events, however, our staff do attend training and information sessions and we do take part in a number of activities.

This will be reviewed by lesson observations, pupil voice, participation rates and assessment of progress, alongside external provider input.

(School Development Plan-Progress, well being and sustainability)

Evaluation:

Two staff attended a number of training events last year and then shared this information with colleagues. The ongoing support has been valuable to the PE member of staff, as he is an agency registered worker, whose network is based in London. This locally based network provides some help with issues and directives pertinent to our school and other mainstream schools within out locality.

We took part in a range of events last year. This included:

  • Bell Boat competition
  • Dragon Boat competition
  • Quick Cricket
  • Tag-Rugby
  • Tennis
  • Sports hall athletics

Therefore, over 75% of our school population took part in in inter school event last year. For a small SEMH school, with pupils attending from across the East of Hertfordshire, this is an outstanding participation rate.

NB-Larwood School gained recognition during 2017-18 with the Stevenage Sporting Futures prize for school with best sportsmanship qualities in all competitions, across Stevenage.

Actions:

Monitor and review the number of events that are accessible for our pupils due to rules associated with entry (girls/boy ratio for example).

Curriculum Enhancement (£2500 plus)

We improved our curriculum offer by use of the following facilities/venues and coaching opportunities (evaluation):

  • Fairlands Valley Outdoor Education centre-Friday afternoons. Qualified staff leading various outdoor challenge type activities such as crate stacking and high ropes. This team also led 6 week courses for sailing and canoeing
  • Gosling Ski Centre. 6 week course for pupils to learn skiing
  • Stevenage Leisure Zone-Bowling. Reward activity
  • Stevenage Leisure Zone-360 Play area. Reward activity
  • Dragon Boat racing. Inter school competition across Stevenage
  • Larwood School site. Use of facilities to deliver football, basketball, football golf, tag rugby, fitness, athletics, sports day, dance, gym,

Actions:

  1. Continue to enter and participate in as many Stevenage Sporting Futures events as possible
  2. To seek and establish an alternative to Stevenage 360 play centre due to ongoing concerns with the use of this facility.
Inter-house competition (£1500)

Common factors shared by many of our pupils and their families include:

  • A taxi journey to and from school, therefore not being able to share in locality based events
  • Previous school breakdown
  • Difficulty forming and maintaining relationships
  • Low levels of engagement and participation

Due to the above, we place a high emphasis on creating sporting opportunities at school to help bridge the gap identified. Whilst this may not be perfect, it does help. Therefore, we provide a range of inter-house competitions, some of which are sport based, throughout the year. Such events include:

  1. A full day dedicated to athletic based sports including some traditional events
  2. Other sports that feed into the Stevenage Sporting Futures program such as cricket and tag rugby
  3. Non-sporting events such as singing assembly that takes place every Wednesday and house points are awarded for dancing and participation.
Swimming (1500)

During the course of 2018-19, we continued to use a facility for swimming in our locality. This has always proven to be very challenging as local pools, with local instructors struggle to be able to cope with the demands that our pupils may exhibit. Therefore, we have trained our PE Teacher to be able to teach swimming and secured the use of a private pool, with an additional teacher, who is able to work with our pupils.

Evaluation:

Number of pupils in Year 6 who accessed the swimming program:   25/27

Number of pupils able to swim a length of front crawl:11/25

Number of pupils able to swim other types of stoke for a length: 6/25

Number of pupils deemed to be ‘safe’ in terms of water-based skills and self-rescue: 9/25

Actions:

Continue to provide this opportunity for pupils, but also start to consider a ‘back up plan’ if the pool allocated becomes unavailable for some reason in the future.

How the sports premium will be used at Larwood School in 2019/20

The funding will be used in the following ways:

  • Direct employment of Physical Education coach for Larwood pupils
  • Continuation of swimming provision -£1500
  • Creation of opportunity for pupils as part of the Stevenage Sporting Futures program. (Cost £1500 for membership and £500 for staffing/access to events during the year)
  • Creation of after school club opportunities which will also improve provision for residential pupils (Staff costs/resources £2500)
  • Curriculum enhancement opportunities-
  • Ongoing training for staff focusing on team building and development of skills based on need (£2500)
  • Inter-House Competitions-staffing and resources - £1000

Sports Premium Funding allocation for 2018 - 19: £9707.

Larwood School expenditure on enhancing sports related provision over £35,000 

 sport premium 2017 - 2018

Larwood School is a primary school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) and all pupils have an Educational Health Care Plan. Pupils are referred to us as part of a panel system organised by Hertfordshire. We have capacity for 64 day pupils, but finished the academic year with 66 pupils on roll. The additional pupils were inducted due to the crisis that Hertfordshire has with too many pupils without suitable placement, and recognising that our school could cope with such demands. Please note that we had already agreed to move to 68 as our designated day school number for 2018-19.

As part of our provision, we are also a residential school and this operates from Monday through until Friday, with pupils returning home at the weekends. We are the only residential (primary) special school for SEMH pupils in the county. This aspect of our provision underwent full review and strategic discussion during the year and it culminated with a full consultation process. Please see the website/associated letters for more information in relation to this matter. Our pupils display the following characteristics:

  • They have all experienced exclusion and at least 1 term away from education.
  • The vast majority of pupils arrive at Larwood having been receiving part time education. One hour a day quite often being the norm.
  • 2 pupils last year attended 5 schools.  1 pupil has been at 4 schools. 19 pupils had been at 3 schools and the rest of the cohort had been at 2 schools. Therefore, 36% of the cohort had been at, at least two schools before Larwood. 1 pupil had been permanently excluded from both mainstream and specialist provision.
  • Although all pupils have SEMH as their designated need, ASD ranged between 50% and 80% in different year groups, and those pupils with 2 or more identified needs within their statement ranged from 50%-83%.
  • In year referrals meant that, the size and dynamics of every year group changed during the year. This varied from the lowest amount of change for Year 6 with 13%, Year 5-40%, Year 4-11%, Year 3-85% and Years 1 and 2-50% of pupils were new during the year.
  • 26/66 pupils were new to the school at the start of the academic year, which equates to 40% of the school population.

It is appropriate to state that all of our pupils have experienced the challenges and issues that any officially designated pupil premium pupil may have.

Please note there are specific characteristics of this cohort which include family related breakdown including pupils witnessing violent incidents, legal proceedings, medication issues, family upheaval/displacement, and drug and alcohol related issues.

Sports Premium Allocation 2017 - 2018: £9707.00

Continuation of high class, wave 1 teaching-funded via our core-staffing budget (See Headteacher for costings)

All of our pupils have experienced school break down. Therefore, every element of their curriculum has been affected by this, including PE. Alongside every other curriculum subject, we aim to promote revitalised engagement and progress by our teaching. Many of our pupils have greater confidence and ability in areas of sport, yet for some it remains a major challenge.

We value the delivery of high quality Physical Education, alongside other areas of our broad and balanced curriculum. We are also very aware that this tends to be an area of weakness for many primary trained practitioners.

This will be reviewed by lesson observations, pupil voice, participation rates and assessment of progress. Consistency of staffing is a key consideration for our pupils.

(School Development Plan-Progress, well-being and sustainability)

EVALUATION

Lesson observations for Physical Education ran alongside the whole school approach and calendar for such events. During this year, we conducted all of our own lesson observations with our PE Teacher rather than relying on J and C Academy to deliver this. The member of staff acts and is considered very much part of the Larwood team of staff.

PLEASE SEE: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT OURSELVES TEACHING, LEARNING AND CURRICULUM REPORT FOR MORE INFORMATION.

ACTIONS

  • To review the role of J and C Academy in such provision and to consider/potentially implement member of staff transfer to Larwood staffing structure.

Membership of Stevenage Sporting Futures Program (approx. £2000)

Stevenage Sporting Futures (SSF) is a program run for Stevenage schools enabling a range of training opportunities, alongside access to special events and local competitions. As a special school, it is impossible to enter all events, however, our staff do attend training and information sessions and we do take part in a number of activities.

This will be reviewed by lesson observations, pupil voice, participation rates and assessment of progress, alongside external provider input.

(School Development Plan-Progress, well-being and sustainability)

EVALUATION

Staff attended a number of training events last year and then shared this information with colleagues. The ongoing support has been valuable to the PE member of staff, as he is an agency registered worker, whose network is based in London. This locally based network provides some help with issues and directives pertinent to our school and other mainstream schools within out locality.

We took part in a range of events last year. This included:

  • Bell Boat competition
  • Dragon Boat competition
  • Quick Cricket
  • Mini Olympics
  • Tag-Rugby
  • Tennis
  • Sports hall athletics

Therefore, over 70% of our school population took part in in inter school event last year. For a small SEMH school, with pupils attending from across the East of Hertfordshire, this is an outstanding participation rate.

NB-Larwood School gained recognition during 2017-18 with the Stevenage Sporting Futures prize for school with best sportsmanship qualities in all competitions, across Stevenage.

Curriculum Enhancement (£2500 plus)

We improved our curriculum offer by use of the following facilities/venues and coaching opportunities (evaluation):

  • Fairlands Valley Outdoor Education Centre-Friday afternoons. Qualified staff leading various outdoor challenge type activities such as crate stacking and high ropes. This team also led 6 week courses for sailing and canoeing
  • Gosling Ski Centre. 6 week course for pupils to learn skiing
  • Stevenage Leisure Zone-Bowling. Reward activity
  • Stevenage Leisure Zone-360 Play area. Reward activity
  • Dragon Boat racing. Inter school competition across Stevenage
  • Larwood School site. Use of facilities to deliver football, basketball, football golf, tag rugby, fitness, athletics, sports day, dance, gym,

ACTIONS

  • Continue to enter and participate in as many Stevenage Sporting Futures events as possible
  • Review the use of the 360 Play Centre as there were some concerns with this facility and other users during the year.

Extra-Curricular Club Opportunity (£2000 plus)

In line with its successful operation in 2016/17, we arranged for pupils to operate in this after school club again in 2017-18. Due to the vast majority of our pupils travelling into school via taxi, this is always a challenge with transport. However, we did manage to create a series of sessions and this was attended by a small group of 8 pupils.

EVALUATION

This ran during January, February and March. In comparison to the previous year, numbers were fewer, however any reasonable group size (5+) will always be enough to warrant such a club being organised.

ACTIONS

  • Dependant on residential review and its outcome, there may be increased opportunities in this rea during 2018-19
  • Consider who attends and ensure that pupil voice surveys are taken to rate enjoyment of opportunity.

Inter-house competition (£1500)

Common factors shared by many of our pupils and their families include:

  • A taxi journey to and from school, therefore not being able to share in locality based events
  • Previous school breakdown
  • Difficulty forming and maintaining relationships
  • Low levels of engagement and participation

Due to the above, we place a high emphasis on creating sporting opportunities at school to help bridge the gap identified. Whilst this may not be perfect, it does help. Therefore, we provide a range of inter-house competitions, some of which are sport based, throughout the year. Such events include:

  • A full day dedicated to athletic based sports including some traditional events
  • Other sports that feed into the Stevenage Sporting Futures program such as cricket and tag rugby
  • Non-sporting events such as singing assembly that takes place every Wednesday and house points are awarded for dancing and participation.

SWIMMING

During the course of 2017-18, we managed to gain access to a facility for swimming. This has always proven to be very challenging as local pools, with local instructors struggle to be able to cope with the demands that our pupils may exhibit. Therefore, we have trained our PE Teacher to be able to teach swimming and secured the use of a private pool, with an additional teacher, who is able to work with our pupils.

  • Number of pupils in Year 6 who accessed the swimming program: 12/17
  • Number of pupils able to swim a length of front crawl:  7/12
  • Number of pupils able to swim other types of stoke for a length: 5/12
  • Number of pupils deemed to be ‘safe’ in terms of water-based skills and self-rescue: 6/12

HOW THE SPORTS PREMIUM WILL BE USED AT LARWOOD SCHOOL IN 2018/2019

The funding will be used in the following ways:

  • Continuation of swimming provision £1500
  • Creation of opportunity for pupils as part of the Stevenage Sporting Futures program. (Cost £1500 for membership and £500 for staffing/access to events during the year)
  • Creation of after school club opportunities which will also improve provision for residential pupils (Staff costs/resources £2500)
  • Curriculum enhancement opportunities
  • Ongoing training for staff focusing on team building and development of skills based on need (£2500)
  • Inter-House Competitions-staffing and resources-£1000

Sports Premium Funding allocation for 2018 - 2019: £9707.00

 sport premium 2016 - 2017

Continuation of high class, Wave 1 teaching

All of our pupils have experienced school break down. Therefore, every element of their curriculum has been affected by this, including PE. Alongside every other curriculum subject, we aim to promote revitalised engagement and progress by our teaching. Many of our pupils have greater confidence and ability in areas of sport, yet for some it remains a major challenge.

 This will be reviewed by lesson observations, pupil voice, participation rates and assessment of progress. Consistency of staffing is a key consideration for our pupils.

(School Development Plan-Progress, well being and sustainability)

Evaluation

Lesson observations for Physical Education ran alongside the whole school approach and calendar for such events. As Physical Education lessons are provided by J and C Academy, they also observed their own member of staff with our staff and independently. Within our self evaluation program, we do not highlight nay individual as part of the process, but an oversight of all lesson observations is available via:

  • What we know about ourselves
  • Teaching, learning and assessment report

We continue to be delighted with the standard and quality of delivery in this area and further details relating to observations are available from the Headteacher. A period of absence due to injury caused some concern in systems operated by J and C, however, these have now been rectified. Assessment of individual progress made with pupils was conducted via lesson observation evaluation.

Actions

  • Ensure that continuity for our SEMH pupils is provided by regular ‘drop in’ sessions from the substitute teacher so that there are no surprises when cover is needed.
  • Enhance the assessment system for PE so that individual progress is tracked and monitored in greater detail.

Curriculum review and entitlement

The curriculum will be adjusted to incorporate the following where possible:

  • Rugby coach delivered sessions on Thursdays (Saracens Rugby Club In association with Stevenage Sporting Futures)-DFE example of how you could use this funding.
  • Review of swimming provision and continuation of model delivery as in 14/15 if at all possible.
  • Use of local facilities/different sports to enhance the curriculum offer and motivation of pupils –*DFE example of how you could use this funding

This will be reviewed by lesson observations, pupil voice, participation rates and assessment of progress, alongside external provider input.

(School Development Plan-Progress, well being and sustainability)

Evaluation

It was possible to extend the curriculum provision during 2015/16 via a Saracens rugby club project, and some extra-curricular clubs. The Saracens project was a resounding success and has been evaluated. This is available in:

What we know about ourselves

What we know about ourselves-rugby intervention project

Swimming did not take place in the same manner as the previous year, due to the new Physical Education teacher not being qualified in this area. There were some recreational swimming opportunities, however, this was not to the level or quality that we would want.

Our curriculum was enhanced by use of the following facilities/venues and coaching opportunities:

  • Fairlands Valley Outdoor Education centre-Friday afternoons. Qualified staff leading various outdoor challenge type activities such as crate stacking and high ropes. This team also led 6 week courses for sailing and canoeing
  • Gosling Ski Centre. 6 week course for pupils to learn skiing
  • Stevenage Lesiure Zone-Bowling. Reward activity
  • Stevenage Leisure Zone-360 Play area. Reward activity
  • Dragon Boat racing. Inter school competition across Stevenage
  • Larwood School site. Use of facilities to deliver football, basketball, football golf, tag rugby, fitness, athletics, sports day, dance, gym,
  • Ware Outdoor Education centre for use of high ropes and team challenge activities-reward activity
  • Golf centre –Stevenage Leisure Zone-reward activity

Actions

  1. Explore options to get current J and C academy member trained to deliver swimming or source swim lessons from elsewhere
  2. Seek to continue to gain additional sports courses via the Stevenage Sporting Futures Trust

Review of the events associated with the House program

This has composed of intra-house school based events (such as sports day) and supplementary events connected to curriculum content (Pancake relays).

(School Development Plan-Progress and well being)

This will be reviewed by internal review as part of the schools self evaluation process.

Evaluation:

There was a mix of events for this area and it was pleasing to see that some non sporting events took place alongside the sporting ones. It remains a vital part of our school and a successful area for some pupils when compared to other areas of school life. Events that took place included:

  • Sports Day
  • Cake making for the Queens anniversary celebration lunch-new
  • Singing assemblies-new and weekly event
  • Maths Challenge-new
  • Poetry relating to Armistice day.

Actions:

  1. To consider the extension of sporting related activities to supplement above

Consider extra curriculum enhancement via the trialling of an after school club

(School Development Plan-Well being)

This will be reviewed by internal review as part of the schools self evaluation process.

Evaluation

A member of staff did trial this as the year progressed and it was received positively by a small number of pupils and parents. Clubs included a sports club, gardening, and forensic science. This type of activity causes some issues due to the fact that so many pupils arrive at our school in taxis. Although recognised as an issue, we didn’t let that stop us!

Actions

Extension of activities for 16/17

Trial combination of day and residential pupils to help with flexibility of options, and social engagement for residential pupils.

How the sports premium will be used at Larwood School in 2016/17

  • To continue to provide high class PE provision via our allocated teacher from the J and C Academy. The associated cost for this is far greater that the total allocation of the grant.
  • Ensure that the regular PE teacher is supported by the back-up teacher at key points during the year, even if there is no need. This allows for greater continuity and understanding from our pupils. (Paid for as above)
  • Extension of sports related activities for the House points system. (£250)
  • Create consistent curriculum based opportunity for swimming delivered by our own staff  (£459 allocated for hire of pool, plus associated costs of teacher led lessons paid for as above)
  • Creation of opportunity for pupils as part of the Stevenage Sporting Futures program. (Cost £1500)
  • Creation of after school club opportunities which will also improve provision for residential pupils (Staff costs/resources £2000)

The opportunities created will cost in excess of the Premium allowance however, Physical Education has and will continue to play an important part of life at Larwood School for our