Category

• Promising Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Mitigation

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Poverty driver

• Provide benefit in-kind (experience)
• Non-driver - improving quality of life

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Keywords

• Attainment gap
• Barriers to learning
• Equal opportunities
• Stigma
• Education

Aim

To remove barriers to education and to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap for pupils attending Braes High School.

Summary

The Onwards and Upwards programme aims to close the poverty-related attainment gap. This is done by removing barriers to learning and providing targeted support with the hope of allowing all pupils at Braes High School the same opportunity to excel to their fullest potential. The Onwards and Upwards programme also helps to build strong and positive relationships, to engage learners and raise aspirations, and to encourage community engagement. The programme has consulted with pupils, families, and staff to ensure a clear and shared vision is in place to implement improvement and positive change.

What difference does it make?

The project has improved school attendance and reduced educational exclusion at Braes High School for young people in the Onwards & Upwards cohort. It has also improved participation and engagement with learning and generated over £47,000 in additional funds for upwards of 50 families. Since the start of the project, 89% of the cohort have achieved an improvement in literacy and 70% of the cohort have achieved improvement in numeracy in the Broad General Education (BGE) at Braes High School.

Key take-aways

• Poverty can act as a barrier to educational attainment.
• Community engagement and building strong and positive relationships between home and school are key to overcoming the barriers which poverty can present.
• Removing stigma from poverty and raising the aspirations of pupils is useful in ensuring pupils can reach their fullest potential.

 

Organisations

Braes High School, Barnardo’s, Canine Concern Trust Scotland (CCTS), Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Community Advice service, Benefits Advice Team, Community Learning and Development, Columba 1400, a local Taekwondo group, Outdoor Learning, and various other organisations.

Location

Falkirk (Braes High School)

Contact