Birmingham Council - IDL Literacy Pilot Introduction

Data regarding progress was collected for all the pupils who took part in the pilot, however, information regarding the groups represented by the study was not provided by all settings. See Appendix One for detailed data regarding the specific groups represented in the Pilot Study.

A total of 160 pupils were tracked using the Birmingham Language and Literacy toolkit. 81.3%% were of primary age and 18.7% were secondary.

Gender – Data was provided for 147 pupils, of these 32% were girls and 68% boys.

Year Groups – 14% of pupils in the pilot were in Years 1 and 2 (KS1), 67% in Years 3 – 6 (KS2). 15% in Years 7 – 9 (KS3) and 4% in Years 10 & 11 (KS4).

SEN Code of Practice – Information was obtained regarding the level of support identified for the pupils on the SEN Code of Practice. Some pupils who participated in the pilot were not identified as SEN. This information was provided for 150 (93.7%) of the pupils in the pilot. Of this 150, 76% were identified as SEN support and 6.6% as having an Education Health Care Plan. To note, 17.4% were not identified as having SEN needs.

Pupil Premium – Data regarding eligibility for Pupil Premium was provided for 149 (93.1%) of pupils in the pilot. Of these 49.6% were eligible this additional funding.

Ethnic Groups – Data regarding ethnic groups was provided for 139 (86.8%) of pupils in the pilot. Of this 139, 47.5% were White British/English, 11% were Other Pakistani, 5.3% were White and Black Caribbean and 5.2% were Gypsy/Roma with the remaining 31% spread across another 25 categories. (For full details see Appendix One)

English as an Additional Language (EAL) – Information around identification of EAL was provided for 36 pupils.

Schools were asked to track pupils using the Birmingham Language and Literacy Toolkit.

2 bands progress over a year is considered to maintain the current gap between them and their peers.

3 bands progress over a year is considered to be ‘accelerated’ progress and begin to close the gap between them and their peers.

As the pilot took place over the equivalent of 10 weeks then any progress identified on the threads was considered as accelerated (closing the gap) progress.

The results of the pilot were collated in a number of ways:

• The number of bands progress made by all pupils in the pilot
• The number of bands progress made by girls
• The number of bands progress made by boys
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as SEN support
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as having an EHCP
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as not SEN
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as AOPK
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as WBRI/WENG
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as MWBC
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as WROM
• The number of band progress made by pupils identified as in receipt of Pupil Premium funding
• The number of bands progress made by pupils identified as EAL

* Tables detailing the results outlined above can be found in Appendix Two

Results were also analysed in order to compare the progress made by pupils based on their starting points on the Language and Literacy Toolkit threads:-

• Phonics
• Understanding (optional)
• Spelling

* Detailed results can be found in the tables in Appendix Three

Progress was analysed in relation to Language and Literacy Toolkit starting points to identify whether this impacted on the amount of progress made. (See Appendix Three)

For the pupils who were assessed pre-intervention as bands 1- 4, 6 – 10, 12, 13 and

15, 65% made accelerated (1 band or more).Those on entry bands 1 and 15, 100% of pupils made accelerated progress.

Pupils who started at bands 5, 11 and 14 were not as successful, with a lower range of accelerated progress being made. It should be noted that there were smaller numbers of pupils recorded at these bands so this data is not as reliable. (See Appendix Three for details of around specific bands).

The results on the understanding thread were very good as a whole with 76% of pupils making accelerated (1 band or more) progress. Within this a further 32% of pupils made between 2 – 7 bands of progress within the intervention period.

100% of pupils whose starting points were bands 5, 7 and 13 made accelerated progress, with 75-85% of pupils making accelerated progress whose starting points were bands 8 and Band 9.

Those pupils whose starting point was band 7 appeared to do particularly well with 3 pupils making 1 band progress but also 5 pupils making between 2 – 7 bands accelerated progress.

The results for the spelling thread were also good, with 58% of pupils making accelerated progress in entry bands 2 – 11 ranging from 100% at band 2, to 50% at bands 4 and 10. The only entry band which had below 50% of pupils not making accelerated progress was band 11. Pupils starting with bands 7, 8 and 9 had 24 pupils making between 2 – 7 bands accelerated progress.

Data regarding groups Represented in the Pilot Study

Year Groups

SEN Code of Practice

Free School Meals/Pupil Premium

Ethnic Groups Represented

Appendix Two – Tables of Results

Appendix Three – Tables to compare progress made on the Language and Literacy Toolkit based on starting point