Fair Isle Primary School recognised for attainment and achievement work

Fair Isle Primary School, in Kirkcaldy have been held up as a great example of how to raise attainment and achievement, through the use of PEF (Pupil Equity Funding).

Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth MSP, visited the school this week to see for herself how the school have gone about using the additional funding to help those who are, or are at risk of, getting left behind.

She said: "“It was a real privilege to meet the staff, pupils and parents at Fair Isle Primary School and see some of the fantastic work and targeted support being put in place by the headteacher, with the help of Pupil Equity Funding (PEF), which is funded by Scottish Government.

“We know that this extra funding from the Scottish Government has had a transformative impact across Scotland’s school. The Pupil Equity Fund  is helping to empower headteachers to take the right decisions for their schools - it’s being used across the country to Improve attendance, strengthen school engagement and reduce the cost of the school day.

“We have received very clear feedback from headteachers on the importance of PEF in helping them to be creative and flexible in how they can best provide this support and that’s why we are committed to providing up to £1 billion in the Scottish Attainment Challenge across this Parliament.”

The school received £215,600 through PEF (Pupil Equity Funding) this school year from the Scottish Government. The amount of PEF any school receives is based on the number of pupils receiving free school meals. The targeted funding is for each child in P1-S3 who is eligible, however, the Headteacher has the discretion to make decisions about which children would benefit most from any particular intervention.

Fair Isle have been using some of this funding to raise attainment in literacy, numeracy and health and well-being, in addition, to working to ensure better outcomes for everyone.

Headteacher Victoria Bell explained how they had been using their PEF money and the improvements which have been made so far. She said: "We have used the PEF in a number of different ways, to help individuals and families right across the school. A key factor in the improvement being seen in attainment is certainly the school Nurture Base. The base is aimed at raising attainment for individual children who have difficulties coping full time in class, but it also has advantages for other children in the class, by decreasing interrupted teaching time. Children are supported and mentored in classes to make positive choices about behaviour and learning whilst building skills with self-regulation, social and emotional wellbeing and learning."

The Nurture Base also works with other children to build wellbeing skills, either individually or in small groups. Some of the groups running this year include Lego therapy, gardening, flourish, nurture and music making and bike skills at the YMCA.

Ms Bell continued: "We are building skills with the children to improve self-regulation and social and emotional wellbeing. We continue to rigorously track the progress of our targeted support, all of which has a positive impact on our pupils attainment.

" The funding has allowed us to target work at those most in need, while also having a positive effect on other learners. At the same time we are aiming to make these projects sustainable so that they can continue into the future, without PEF funding if necessary. "

The school has a list of other unique and innovative projects which are targetting inequalities.

• A Family Worker in school Monday to Friday to support families with issues  -such as housing concerns, finance, training opportunities, etc - and to help at the breakfast club, support adult courses, run pupil and parent groups, and other activities.
• A daily breakfast club, to give pupils a healthy start to the day, making them ready to learn.
• Increasing family engagement in school and life skills, through employability skills, workshops to develop skills, adult education classes within the school and to link with agencies to host events such as Woman’s Aid, DAPL, boosting budgets, Our Minds Matter etc
• Oxford Reading Buddy -To increase engagement with home reading,