The Braes Context
Welcome to the Pupil Equity Fund update from Braes High school. In this update we bring you information about the supports put in place this session to support our families and to close the poverty related attainment gap.
During session 2023-2024 we received £67, 375 in Pupil Equity Funding from the Scottish Government.
Whole School
- 1081 school roll
- 6 cluster primary schools
- 10.6% of pupils are entitled to FSM
- 8% are living in SIMD 1-3
- 21% in SIMD 4-7
- 70% in SIMD 8-10
- The majority of young people entitled to FME are living in SIMD 4-7
- Just under 25% of our total school roll are included in Onwards & Upwards
Our Approach
Our motto at Braes is "build respect and earn success - be part of it". We are a community focused school who understand we all have a part to play in ensuring the best outcomes for our learners. By collaborating with our pupils, Parents/Carers, staff, and partners we have developed an approach to closing the attainment gap that is targeted towards providing individuals with the right support at the right time and ensuring clear progression pathways towards positive destinations.
We understand that being eligible for free school meals is not the only indicator of need. With this in mind our Onwards & Upwards programme includes all pupils eligible for FME, all pupils in SIMD 1-4 and any pupil referred by a member of staff where they feel there is need. This open referral system ensures that no young person is left behind and that everyone has what they need to succeed.
Through our targeted approaches we continue to build on the positive relationships we have with our learners and their families.
The main areas for development:
- attendance
- attainment
- engagement
- confidence
- health & well-being
Our vision acknowledges and addresses the significant barriers faced by families living in poverty and ensures equity of opportunity for all our Braes community. Our plan creates a space where all pupils feel part of our community. We have a restorative and reflective approach when things go wrong that supports young people to address harm and rebuild relationships. Family learning and engagement are key to ensuring young people have the support needed at home and that our families feel confident participants in their young person's learning journey.
Our Onwards & Upwards strategy to close the poverty related attainment gap focuses on key two priorities as part of our SIP:
- raise attainment
- enhance equity of opportunity and achievement
O&U1: raise attainment to ensure equity and enhance educational outcomes for young people affected by poverty
We will:
- Provide strong progression pathways for pupils and families participating in O&U
- Increase attainment of target attainment groups through Year Lead commissions
- Support and improve pupil engagement
- Continue to develop Family Learning and Engagement
- Strengthen supports already in place
- Continue to provide significant support for health and wellbeing addressing the barriers it presents to engaging in learning
O&U2: develop a whole school approach to equity through Cost of the School Day
We will:
- Encourage DIP action points for ensuring equity
- Raise awareness of attitudes to tackle the stigma surrounding poverty
- Develop and improve communication and increase engagement with current supports
- Reduce the cost of the school day and maximise income for families
Impact
This session we have
- provided 63 additional qualifications in S4
- developed the role of our Pupil COSD group supported by Child Poverty Action Group
- provided additional financial support for 22 families through our Income Maximisation Support Officer leading to over £77,000 additional support for families
- continued our strong links with partners such as Barnardo's, CLD, Canine Concern Trust, Child Poverty Action Group, CAS Falkirk and made new links with businesses in the community such as Forge Coaching
- increased support and opportunities for partnership working with Parents and Carers through our Brew & Blether and Braes Bistro groups
Targeted Attainment Groups
In their fourth year, our Targeted Attainment Groups led by Year Lead teachers support learners to achieve and build strong relationships between home and school.
Working with close and open track groups, Year Leads track and monitor pupils throughout the year to ensure pupils get the right support at the right time.
Year Leads support their group from S1 and progress with them throughout their school career ensuring pupils have a dedicated teacher they can go to for help across their subjects and with the social, health and wellbeing aspects of school.
Each group has core time with their O&U Lead to work together on coursework, additional qualifications, skills development and build relationships. This approach has proven extremely successful and popular with pupils but also with families who work closely with our Year Leads to support their young person in their learning journey.
S1
Our S1 group consisted of 69 pupils this session with 24 pupils supported in our Close Track group. The areas of focus for this group were identified through both pupil and teacher feedback.
These areas were:
- building relationships
- helping build pupil confidence
- encouraging participation
- attendance
Communicating regularly and clearly allowed the development of relationships with families and raised awareness of the supports available through the programme.
Working closely with pupils helped to build a clear picture of where they felt their strengths and areas for improvement were. This enabled the development of strong relationships where pupils raised issues causing them concern and sought help when needed.
A lunch club open to all S1 pupils supported pupils to widen their social circle, take part in new activities, and get support to complete home learning tasks. Towards the end of term there were over 20 pupils regularly attending and supported by one of our Senior Braes Brains. This has encourage pupils to attend other groups such as Animal Club.
A focus on Literacy and Numeracy was established to target support through small group tutoring. Pupils were identified through tracking and discussion with class teachers. Pupils supported were able to identify areas they found challenging enabling targeted support and encouraged those experiencing anxiety around attending certain classes to feel more confident.
Impact:
- 357 positive referrals
- 32 pupils received recognition at Junior awards ceremony
- 2% improvement in average attendance
- 5 point reduction in the attendance gap
- 82% level 2G or above in Literacy
- 76% level 2G or above in Numeracy
- Increased confidence and improved social skills shown through our End of Year Celebration
To see the pupils so excited about being part of the group and getting other members of the group involved was great. Also having staff members and families attend -from mums, dads, grandparents etc. - it was great to meet them face to face allowing me to spread awareness of the group and supports on offer. The pupils also worked hard to prepare a presentation and also brought in cakes that they had chosen to make. This all showed how much they value the group and opportunities they have had. A particularly special moment was when one of the pupils said she had enjoyed being involved in the group as it had allowed her to make new friends and then she named all the new people she had met. This was special to me as it had always been a core aim of the group to build confidence in the pupils and their relationships with other pupils and staff.
Flourish
Our S1 Flourish programme supports leaners with the transition from Primary to Secondary school and this year has focused on skills such as confidence, helping other, making and doing and leadership.
This year the group have developed their measuring skills by measuring each other for aprons and measuring out ingredients for baking. They have also learned about recycling while creating a bird feeder from recycled materials. They have explored new and unfamiliar mediums for arts and crafts and created a book of budget recipes full of family meals.
Our young people created the tree opposite to describe what Flourish means to them.
Our Flourish lead and pupil Braes Brain supporter highlighted the power of seeing the group come together as a team, helping each other out, looking out for one another and taking the lead with tasks.
S2
64 pupils were included in our open track for S2 with 24 in our close track group.
The focus for this group were:
- attendance
- attainment
- engagement
- behaviour
Strong tracking and monitoring was essential in identifying strengths and barriers towards improving attendance. Support from Helen at Barnardo's and regular communication with families helped to gain a greater understanding of the issues surrounding attendance. This helped to create individualised plans for young people to support their attendance.
Braes Buddies
This year has seen the trial of some animal assisted learning through collaborative working between English, Maths, Pupil Support and Janette (our Canine Concern Trust volunteer) and Jamie (our Therapet). Developing on the Reading with Dogs programme (already running successfully) our Numeracy with Dogs pilot has been incredibly valuable for pupils in our S2 cohort. Through this collaboration and weekly "Jamie Challenges" pupils have gained confidence and resilience which has improved their literacy and numeracy skills. The support of Braes Brains working alongside staff in these classes also developed the social skills and confidence of learners.
At the start of the programme only 17% of pupils stated they felt confident in Numeracy, by the end of this programme this had improved to 67%.
70% of pupils felt comfortable in writing at the end of the programme compared to only 33% at the beginning.
A significant part in improving engagement and the confidence and resilience of young people has been a focus on health and wellbeing through a programme of outdoor learning activities such as gorge walking, coasteering, bush craft sessions and a bespoke personal training programme delivered by Jade from Forge Coaching.
Impact:
- Over 4% improvement in attendance
- Attendance gap has closed by 3.21%
- 86% of pupils are currently working at L3 or above in 8 or more subjects
- Increased confidence in reading aloud in class
- Increased confidence in numeracy
I took part in lots of different things and enjoyed them all. My most favourite was the outdoor learning as I love going outside. The coasteering was the best’
I loved lunch club and working with Jade. she was easy to talk to and wasn't a teacher’
I really liked the hillwalking. Mike brought his dog with us climbing the Pentlands. It was fun"
The resilience group was class it got me out of school and was fun being with folk I got on with.
S3
S3 Onwards and Upwards this year had 53 pupils with 35 learners living in SIMD 1-4.
The main areas of focus for this group were:
- attendance
- attainment
- achievement and participation
- health and wellbeing
With many learners in this cohort struggling with attendance due to anxiety, peer issues or other mental health concerns a significant focus this session was on health and wellbeing.
As well as supporting pupils, Parents/Carers to access mental health support through Barnardo's, Meadowbank, FDAMH and our in school counsellor there was a focus on establishing school as a safe space using activities like cooking to encourage pupils to attend.
Parents/Carers were supported to attend our Braes Brew & Blether group. Learners worked with Jade from Forge Coaching on physical and mental fitness. This has led to strengthened relationships between home and school with pupils, Parents/Carers actively seeking support when needed. It has also enabled us to support learners with school work where they had previously disengaged.
A flexible approach to the Core Group allowed us to be responsive to the needs of learners and adapt our structure to support learners.
Impact:
- 91% of learners working at L3 or above in 8 subjects
- 20% working at L4 in 8 subjects
- 35% increase in attendance at core group
- 100% received recognition at this year's Junior Award's Ceremony
- 22 learners gained recognition for going above and beyond gaining a suite of awards including: building respect, earning success, being part if it; John Muir Awards and Turin Award winner for Excellence.
S4
This session there has been 66 pupils in our S4 programme with 35 if those pupils being closely tracked and 15 pupils in our Core Group.
The focus of the interventions for our S4 Group were:
- raising attainment
- attendance
- increasing engagement
Impact:
- 63 additional qualifications
- 64 National qualifications at Level 3,4 and 5
- 97% on track for 5 qualifications at N3 or above
- 85% on track for 5 qualifications at N4 or above
- Increase in staff accessing and supporting pupils through our Core Group
- Attendance gap between O&U and whole school has been reduced to 3% in line with council stretch aims
‘At the end of last year, I really didn't think I would do well in S4. O&U has helped me so much. It has been good to have support and also feel like my voice is heard. Ms Godfrey has been helpful and has supported me when I was struggling to get to school. I feel proud of myself and I’m excited for my apprenticeship'
‘Onwards and upwards is a wonderful support system for both students and their families. We are very grateful for this service and for Ms Godfrey’s support’
‘They have been a great emotional and financial help. A great team and very helpful. I personally can’t thank them enough’
Pupil Premium Funding
Providing funding directly to departments across the school has seen increased awareness and understanding of the barriers faced by learners experiencing poverty allowing us to address these barriers in the classroom.
The most popular use of PP funding continues to be the provision of intensive study sessions or small group tutoring providing targeted support for learners working towards SQA qualifications.
Some other uses of PP funding this session were:
- study resource packs
- White Rose Maths resources
- the provision of micro amps in Music so pupils can practice at home
- whole school access to Digital Theatre allowing pupils to access practical performances and theory resources online
- a whole school license for Achieve Learning which can be accessed from home and provides revision resources and allows pupils to set targets for improvement and test their knowledge over a variety of subjects and levels
Braes Brains
This year has seen Braes Brains (our peer tutoring programme) expand to over 50 students supporting in excess of 70 periods a week.
We continue to see an increase in requests for support from Braes Brains both from individual pupils and from staff. A major benefit highlighted by both staff and students is the peer relationships and confidence gained by having a Braes Brain in class.
Challenge Poverty Week
To continue our focus on challenging attitudes to poverty and raising awareness of the difficulties caused by poverty we planned a week of activities tied in with the themes of Challenge Poverty Week from the Poverty Alliance.
Pupils across the school took part in daily lesson starters such as planning and budgeting for a low-cost school backpack and creating nutritional meals with items from a food parcel. To raise awareness of the location of our Take What You Need trolleys there was a scavenger hunt and, working with our local primaries, our Braes Pantry we also set a challenge to "see how far we CAN go" by donating a canned item to our Braes Pantry.
We had a great response to these activities with pupils contributing to our word cloud and pupils from our COSD Pupil Group attending Faculty meetings to discuss hidden costs around school and give a reminder of the ways we can support young people living in poverty, in the classroom.
Our Brew & a Blether Parent/Carer group also provided a week full of budget-friendly recipes:
To encourage pupils to sign up for free bus travel our COSD pupil group created a stall showing how easy it was to apply.
One of the most significant supports helping to maximise income for families has been our Household Support Officer, Pauline. The focus on "adequate incomes" was a great opportunity to introduce Pauline to our community and raise awareness of how she can support families by applying for grants and ensuring they get all the financial support they are entitled to.
COSD Pupil Group
We were lucky enough to welcome to Braes Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth MSP, as part of Challenge Poverty Week and Child Poverty Action Group's "The Big Question" event.
Our pupil COSD group aims to:
- be the pupil voice around cost of the school day and reduce costs for pupils and families
- improve communication and increase uptake of the supports already in place
- look for opportunities to provide further support to our school community
Designing and leading all the activities for Challenge Poverty Week was only the start of the year for our COSD pupil group.
This year they have...
- taken part in a round table discussion on school uniform at the Scottish Parliament
run successful pop up shops to provide clothes from Prom as well as to refresh your winter wardrobe and PE kit
led efforts in fundraising and organising deliveries of from our Braes Pantry
- surveyed pupils to find out how we could improve the resources we already have available such as our Take What You Need/Share What You Can trolleys
- led an activity at our Pupil Voice Festival to highlight the barriers that make it hard to succeed in school and to get ideas for how we could help
- presented to Child Poverty Action Group's Pupil Voice Network about some of the work they have undertaken at Braes.
The group would like to thank everyone for their support this year and are excited to get started on the ideas and suggestions for the new term.
The video above provides a quick reminder of some of the supports on offer at Braes. Please get in touch if you'd like to access any of these supports or if you have an idea for a support we could be offering.
Family Learning & Engagement
This year saw the expansion of our Braes Brew & Blether Parent/Carer group but also the introduction of our Braes Bistro.
The Braes Bistro follows on from our Slow Cooker project which ran during COVID. Parents/Carers from our Brew and Blether group completed their Level 2 Course for Food Hygiene to be able to cook a hot meal for pupils to take home and eat later. After a successful trial run, of the very popular cheesy macaroni pasta, the Bistro provided food every second week throughout our winter term.
Run by Helen (our Barnardo's Support Worker) and Cheryl (school counsellor), a significant impact of the Brew & Blether group is the support it provides families from other Parents/Carers. Having a chance to get together and chat can make parenting feel less isolating.
I look forward to coming along to Brew and Blether, it has given me the confidence to meet new people, while gaining new skills and qualifications
I've made a new friend and didn't feel as isolated as I did, really enjoy coming along.
This session has seen a series of different workshops and activities for Parents/Carers to take part in from acupuncture to First Aid.
It was amazing that how reading a couple of pages of a book could open up conversations.
We have completed food and hygiene qualification and now run Braes Bistro, making hot meals for children to take home.
Household Support Officer
A successful project that ensures families and our young people have all they need to succeed in school has been our Income Maximisation Project working with Falkirk Community Advice Service Benefits and Advice team. Now in it's third year this project provides families at Braes with access to a dedicated Household Support Officer. Our HSO, Pauline, works with families to ensure they are getting all benefits to which they are entitled.
This session Pauline has supported 21 families. As a result of this support, Braes families have received an additional £77, 767.85. We have also noted an increase in families requesting support from our IMO and accessing other supports in school. There is greater participation in school life and a stronger relationships between home and school as we work to be seen as a safe space for families to get support.
Since beginning this project in excess of £130,000 has been allocated to Braes' families.
Barnardo's Home School Partnership
Barnardo's Home School Partnership relies on developing meaningful relationships with children, young people and families. Working at Braes one and a half days a week Helen, our support worker, is an integral part of our school community and works closely to support Braes families.
I know I can do the work now it just needed you to make me believe it - Pupil
The year at a glance:
- 15 young people have received 1 to 1 support since August
- 530 offers of support made
- 110 meals made by Parents/Carers in our Brae Bistro
- 8 financial supports made via Barnardo's to purchase Food & Clothing
- 22 group work sessions such as Team Building, Holiday Activities, CBT skills, Resilience and Mindfulness
- 178 one to one sessions: managing emotions, Outdoor Theraputic Learning, Mindfulness, Talking Therapy, Arts & Crafts, Anxiety management
- 22 Parent contact sessions
Common themes that have risen are mental health and wellbeing, peer and social relationships, parenting support.
Impact:
- 80% increased their resilience
- 60% improved their access to education
Because I'm coming into the school for the parent group it has encouraged my daughter to come to school too. I'm setting a good example and my daughter's attendance has improved -Parent
We are delighted to be increasing our time with Helen next year and welcoming her back to Braes two days a week.
Aims for session 2024-2025:
- ensure all our learners and their families feel supported to engage in school and be successful
- strengthen attendance
- support the development of positive mental health and emotional regulation strategies
- Continue to develop our Literacy & Numeracy recovery programmes in S1-S2
- maintain our approach to additional qualifications for S3 & S4 pupils
- increase learning opportunities for Parents/Carers
If you would like any more information on the Onwards & Upwards programme at Braes High please see our previous updates or get in touch.
School Website:
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Instagram: braes_cosd
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