The value of extracurricular activities
Extracurricular activities can play an incredibly important role in a student’s educational journey. They give children and young people the chance to explore beyond their classrooms, providing them with the opportunities to discover new interests and learn new skills.
Another significant benefit is that they provide wraparound care for children and young people, benefitting working parents/carers as well as the students who attend the extracurricular clubs.
However, it is important to recognise that not all students have equal access to these opportunities. Disadvantaged children often find themselves on the periphery, missing out on the numerous benefits that extracurricular activities offer. So schools must find strategies to open up access to all students, so their background or current circumstances does not impede them.
The benefits of extracurricular activities
A study published in the Economics of Education Review by Stephen Lipscombe found that when it came to extracurricular activities, athletic participation is associated with a 2 percent increase in maths and science test scores. Club participation is associated with a 1 percent increase in maths test scores, and involvement in either type of activity is associated with a five percent increase in Bachelor’s degree attainment expectations.
It’s absolutely crucial however, to not make the mistake of approaching these extra-curricular activities solely as a support for subjects on the mainstream curriculum. Each one has their own intrinsic value and can spark an interest or uncover a passion which students carry with them for years to come, either simply as a pastime, or something that influences their choice of a profession in later life.
Paradigm’s core principle is that its curriculum prepares pupils to lead fulfilling lives and to play an active, positive and productive role in our democratic society. In essence, the value of extracurricular activities lies in the holistic development they offer, contributing to well-rounded individuals ready to face the challenges of the future.
Extracurricular activities often provide an opportunity for the cultivation of social skills and teamwork. Whether through sports teams, games clubs, music ensembles or other activities, students learn to collaborate, communicate effectively, and appreciate the importance of collective effort. These experiences have the potential to not only contribute to personal growth but also prepare students for the collaborative nature of the world of work.
Taking part in extracurricular activities is also a positive way for children and young people to build cultural capital. Participation exposes students to a variety of new experiences and environments, and this exposure can help them develop a broader understanding of different cultures, perspectives, and ways of life. Participating in arts, music, drama and other creative activities can allow students to express themselves and develop an appreciation for various forms of cultural expression. This exposure enhances their cultural capital by fostering creativity and aesthetic awareness.
Finally, clubs can also encourage pupils’ attendance, as they provide something additional that a pupil may look forward to coming to at school.
Removing barriers
As many extracurricular activities come with a fee, cost can be prohibitive for some students. To mitigate this at Paradigm some schools work with organisations such as Magic Breakfast Clubs which allow them to reduce the cost significantly. Others pool resources with nearby schools and run activities jointly, making them more cost-effective for families and schools alike. And through Paradigm’s Hinterland programme activities such as music lessons are subsidised and supported in a way that both reduces costs and also encourages more pupils to take part.
As noted above, extracurricular activities can act as wraparound care, benefitting working parents, however the reverse can also be true. Pupils may have responsibilities at home outside school hours which prevent them from staying late, such as looking after younger siblings, or the parents themselves. Or the early start / late finish may not fit with times parents can do the school run. To accommodate this, schools across the Trust hold many clubs during lunch breaks, which gives students who are unable to stay after hours the chance to enjoy extracurricular activities. The Hinterland curriculum also moves some experiences which would be extra-curricula in many schools into the full curriculum, making them accessible to all.
By having a wide range of extracurricular activities on offer, children and young people have access to learning and experiences they may not receive otherwise, helping them become more rounded individuals for the future. And by putting measures in place to overcome barriers and help every child access them, we can make the biggest difference in pupils’ lives.
School attendance – reversing the decline
Introduction
School attendance is a pivotal factor in a student’s overall development and future success. Yet across the country school attendance has dropped significantly – why is this and what can we do to reverse this trend?
The situation then and now
In 2016, figures from the Department of Education revealed overall absence for both primary and secondary schools had dropped from 4.7% to 4.4% of sessions (either morning or afternoon). This was the highest school attendance record in a decade.
Six years later and government figures reveal over the 2022/23 academic year more than a fifth (22.3%) of pupils in England were persistently absent, i.e missing at least 10% of their school sessions.
What changed? The subject is far too complex to have a sole cause, but it’s obvious the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on children and their school attendance. A study by consultancy Public First discovered there has been a massive shift in parents’ attitudes towards school attendance since the lockdowns, with a significant proportion choosing to take their children on holiday in term time. It also revealed these breaks are now being seen as socially acceptable. In its conclusion the report states: “Pre-Covid, ensuring your child’s daily attendance at school was seen as a fundamental element of good parenting. Post-Covid, parents no longer felt that to be the case, and instead view attending school as one of several – often competing – options or demands on their child on a daily basis, against a backdrop of a more holistic approach to daily life.”
Head of Ofsted, Amanda Speilman, noted in her final annual report that the pandemic had ‘left a troublesome legacy’, which is partly shown in lower attendance numbers.
Health issues, both physical and mental, are also exacting a heavy toll on attendance. Illness was the main cause of absence amongst pupils (and staff) in 2023, and much of this can be linked directly or indirectly to Covid.
The Benefits of Regular Attendance
One of the primary advantages of regular school attendance is academic success. Students who attend school consistently are more likely to stay on track with their studies, grasp key concepts, and excel in examinations. The continuity of learning that consistent attendance provides is fundamental for academic achievement.
Data from 2019 shows that 84% of pupils in Key Stage 2 who had 100% attendance achieved the expected standard, while only 40% of pupils who were persistently absent managed to hit their target.
The pattern repeats at secondary school. Pupils who didn’t achieve a grade of 4 to 9 in maths and English on average had missed 10 more days over the key stage than those students who achieved grade 9 to 5 in both maths and English. It’s estimated that just 17 missed school days per year will result in a drop in GCSE grade.
Beyond academic results, school is also a crucial environment for social and emotional development. Regular attendance allows students to form lasting friendships, engage in extracurricular activities, and develop the essential interpersonal skills they’ll need in adult life.
School attendance also instils discipline and a sense of responsibility in students, qualities that are invaluable for future success. Employers often seek people who demonstrate reliability and commitment—traits that are cultivated through consistent attendance from an early age.
Strategies to Improve Attendance
Implementing effective strategies to improve attendance requires a comprehensive whole-school approach that addresses the root causes. However, it’s key to treat each case individually, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Focus on Success
Because students are less likely to attend school if they find lessons unengaging and irrelevant, we take great efforts across Paradigm Trust to teach in a way that results in students feeling they are doing something worthwhile, but also secure enough that they feel safe. This feeling of achievement then helps them become more engaged in lessons. The methods we use to do this are continually reviewed in all our schools to find ways we can refine and improve, which are then shared across the Trust.
Parental Involvement
Parents play a crucial role in ensuring their children attend school regularly. We promote parental involvement through regular communication, parent-teacher meetings, and highlighting the importance of attendance for their child’s future. In some cases we have found it beneficial to help set up a timetable for the home, and found offering to collect pupils from their home in extenuating circumstances to be effective in supporting families to break some of those barriers to good attendance.
Early Intervention and Support
Identifying attendance issues early on is essential for effective intervention. Paradigm goes to great lengths to establish a supportive environment in all its schools where students feel comfortable discussing their challenges can lead to early intervention and prevent prolonged absences.
This can take many forms, such as a large pastoral team as at Ipswich Academy, our secondary school in Suffolk; or Home School Support Workers and Attendance Teams as at Culloden Primary Academy in East London. School nurses provide another contact point for children struggling with issues that restrict their attendance, or there may be other avenues to take, such as bringing in external agencies. Paradigm’s London schools for example are working with external Impact Ed. to try and address the core issues behind poor attendance.
Communication is also key to understanding and taking effective action. Old Ford Primary Academy has recently surveyed pupils and parents, and is now using that feedback to create an informed action plan which supports pupils with attendance.
Positive Reinforcement
Recognising and rewarding good attendance can motivate students to attend school regularly. Schools can implement attendance awards, certificates, or even small incentives to celebrate students with high or significantly improved attendance. Examples used at Paradigm schools include weekly attendance competitions, half term parties for classes with the best attendance, non-school-uniform days and prize draws.
Conclusion
By having a range of tools available, and taking the time to understand each student’s particular situation, it’s possible to respond effectively and improve school attendance. After implementing a soft start room for students to come into at the start of the day with a member of the pastoral team, Ipswich Academy is now seeing students come into school everyday this year who didn’t attend school at all the previous year. Similar success stories are happening across the Trust.
Through this work more pupils are spending more time at school, and as a result are better educated and better prepared to succeed in their adult lives.
New Principal appointed at Culloden Primary
Following a rigorous Principal recruitment process, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Tahreena Ward as the new Principal of Culloden Primary Academy.
Tahreena has been working as Interim Principal at Culloden since last December, when previous Principal, Ben Carter, took up the role across our Trust of Director of School Improvement. She is a very experienced leader, having also worked across the Trust’s other London schools, and we are confident she’ll continue the good work at Culloden and take the school to many further successes.
Woodbridge Road Officially Opened
After years of planning and preparation, the new school building for Woodbridge Road Academy was officially opened yesterday.
Woodbridge Road Academy is a special school in Ipswich that makes a significant difference to the lives of pupils with communication and interaction needs. It excels in breaking down barriers so pupils can access the mainstream curriculum in a structured, low-arousal setting, helping them to fulfil their potential.
The school opened in September 2022 with an initial intake of 16 pupils, at a temporary location in Murrayside Community Centre. Now its purpose-built building is complete, bringing student numbers up to 62, and offering a host of benefits for pupils and staff alike.
The new building has been planned to be an ideal learning environment for the pupils, so every aspect of the school, from layout through to the choice of paint colours, is designed to be low-arousal and to help pupils focus. Woodbridge Road Academy also has a high staff to pupil ratio, with classes of around eight children being taught by one teacher and supported a teaching assistant. This means pupils get plenty of adult support and teachers have the flexibility to adapt lessons to the individual needs of the pupils.
Suffolk County Councillor Rachel Hood cut the ribbon, and staff and pupils then showed visitors around the school. BBC Look East was there to capture it all and you can read the article here.
Suffolk has seen a 200% increase in applications for EHCP plans over the last eight years, and the total number of pupils in England with special educational needs is rising every year, leading to a greater need for SEND provision than ever before. In partnership with Suffolk County Council, Paradigm Trust has opened Woodbridge Road Academy in Ipswich to bring more SEND places to the area.
Teacher Teaching at Paradigm Trust
With a recruitment crisis in the industry no longer looming but in full blown effect, delivering training that is effective for the trainee and the school is more important than ever.
Recent figures show that the government has been unable to meet its recruitment targets for trainee secondary teachers, only reaching 59% of the target for trainees recruited for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the year 2022/23, down from 79% in 2021/22. For primaries the target is predicted to be missed by over 20% this year, so it is essential the training for the people who do sign up for the course is effective.
To deliver high quality teacher training Paradigm has formed strong partnerships with several ITT providers. And as the national ITT framework is closely aligned with the Paradigm framework, it allows trainees to fit in with the Trust’s approach to education and have a good grasp of the pedagogy from the start.
I have been with the Trust for 16 years now, and I have been able to develop myself from a class teacher to principal.
Tahreena Ward, Culloden Primary Academy
Paradigm strongly believes in giving trainees a wide range of experience as they learn. Ben Rogers, Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy at Paradigm Trust says: “During training, Paradigm ensures each trainee spends time in classes across the different Key Stages so they get an understanding of teaching at every level. They will also split their time between different schools to gain a greater range of experiences.
At primary level, this is done at Solebay, Culloden and Old Ford in London, and Murrayfield and Piper’s Vale in Ipswich. Students training to be secondary school teachers will start at Ipswich Academy, and then do an exchange with one of the Trust’s partner schools in the town for the second half of the year.
At Woodbridge Road, our special school for young people with communication and interaction difficulties, from September we will be using a mixture of courses depending on the experience of the teachers we are training.”
The training at Paradigm is led by highly experienced members of staff, with subject leads each delivering the portion of the training which relates to their specialism, so trainees are often as well informed as the teachers of any new developments.
Paradigm also provides an alternative pathway for training, suitable for those who have considerable classroom experience, but didn’t qualify with QTS. After five years they are eligible for an Assessment Only route, which means they can qualify much more quickly than taking the traditional path.
This approach to quality training and career progression is embedded at all levels across the Trust, starting with a thorough programme that is continually reviewed for its effectiveness. New teachers are made to feel part of the Trust on day one, and will gradually be encouraged to take part in network groups formed of staff at different stages of their careers, up to and including members of the SLT. Not only does this familiarise new teachers with other members of staff from across the school, it helps them gain a deep understanding of how the Trust works.
After their first year, teachers can look to move into a subject lead position at Paradigm. This builds experience and confidence as a middle leader. They get the benefit of working with more experienced colleagues and as a team across the wider Trust. It improves their understanding of the curriculum, of how the Trust works as an organisation and how to develop teacher resources, all with peer support from across the Trust.
I started as a cover supervisor after university to gain some experience, and then did teacher training in Geography. The school was extremely supportive, helping me do my Subject Knowledge Enhancement, allowing me to become the geography teacher I am today, career progression here is really good, anyone you talk to is very supportive.
Nicole Tricker, Ipswich Academy
As teachers progress further in their careers at the Trust, they can take advantage of training opportunities funded and delivered by Paradigm programmes for middle, senior and principal level training.
Weekly CPD plays a large part in career development for everyone at Paradigm. This can include a ten-minute observation every fortnight to share teaching practice. This is further supported by feedback and advice. During this process, the experienced teacher may decide to model other approaches and the less experienced member of staff can then try this out in an empty classroom in front of the assessors.
Ben adds “We take professional development very seriously in the Trust. We make effective use of regular coaching, allocating time for instructional coaching and peer coaching. Our peer teaching programme is a continuation of the highly regarded Embedding Formative Assessment programme. Time is given to teachers to observe and coach each other each half term. Our instructional coaching model has been developed to support both new teachers and experienced teachers in a supportive and challenging way. We believe that teachers make the most difference to pupil outcomes and we prioritise teacher development.”
The Trust also coaches leaders for improvement, giving them ownership of their development – as well as accountability.
Through providing the right training and the right support network, Paradigm enables teachers with the right skills and the right attitudes to achieve the level of career progression they aspire to. One of the most notable examples of this is Abbie Thorington. She joined Paradigm Trust in 2014 as an NQT and took advantage of the career development opportunities available, progressing continuously to become principal of Ipswich Academy in 2020.
By ‘growing its own’ the Trust can ensure every teacher is a dedicated and professional individual, who shares its values and matches its ambition to leave a legacy of high achievement and excellence in all it does.
Coaching for Improvement
Coaching is a key part of the school improvement process. In my role, I have often seen how important it is to effect change by using a coaching approach with those I work with.
When I first started working as a school improvement advisor, I noticed that a top-down approach would not be effective in order to create the necessary transformations needed in the schools which had newly joined the Trust. This was why I first started looking into coaching practices and went ahead to train and become an accredited coach.
Coaching allows people to have ownership of the changes they want to see in their settings and be the key lead in their transformation. Here are a few key highlights of coaching which make me a big fan of the practice:
- It’s highly personalised, giving the leader being coached a great deal of ownership—and accountability over the process and its success.
- Coaching’s personalised nature makes it constantly applicable, allowing the leader to tackle timely real-world problems during coaching sessions and to swiftly apply the lessons in the workplace for immediate impact.
- Unlike a number of other development methods, coaching can create sustainable learning and lasting behaviour change.
Additionally, leadership coaching provides leaders with a safe space for exploring and addressing difficult emotions such as anxiety, stress, and even anger. Recognising and reorganising these emotions with a fresh perspective can be key to developing strong leaders who are able to withstand the demands of their role without compromising the mental health or wellbeing of themselves and others while pursuing the desired outcome.
As a Trust, we are committed to developing a coaching culture to support all staff and are currently in the process of developing our practice for the future.
Ana Silva