PA0015

Written evidence submitted by Steve Waters

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Background

My name is Steve Waters and I am the joint CEO of Teach Well Toolkit (www.teachwelltoolkit.com). We support schools to build a culture of whole school mental wellbeing for staff and pupils.

I have 30 years’ experience as an English teacher and 6 years’ experience as a local authority consultant.

Evidence relating to attendance

While a consultant, I devised a programme called ‘Fit for Reading’ for secondary schools. The aims of the programme were to help pupils who were falling behind with their reading, to encourage their attendance and to ensure that they were given a breakfast to start their day.

Many of the pupils were disadvantaged. Some had attendance and behaviour issues. Most were lacking in confidence; they struggled to learn in class because of their reading problems.

The scheme worked like this:

• Year 7 pupils who required reading support were identified by teachers.
• Year 10 GCSE PE students were asked to volunteer to be Reading Coaches.
• I trained the Reading Coaches in how to help a Year 7 pupil with their reading.
• The Year 7 and Year 10 pupils came into school early at 08.00 one day each week.
• The Year 10 pupils organised a 20-minute fun sporting activity for the Year 7 in the gym.
• Year 10 took them into the dining room and had breakfast with the Year 7 pupils for 20 minutes.
• Year 10 then heard the Year 7 read for 20 minutes.
• Year 10 did all the work: Organising the sporting activity; taking a register so the year 7 pupils didn’t need to be registered by their form tutor; keeping a record of progress in the year 7 pupils’ reading diary and helping them to choose books.
• Depending on the number of Year 7 attending, some year 10 Reading Coaches were able to hear year 7 read on a one-to-one basis. Other reading coaches ran small reading groups.
• A PE teacher supervised the gym activity to meet Health and Safety obligations, but from a distance. Year 10 organised everything, including preparing equipment and organising year 7 to help them put it away.
• A Teaching Assistant supervised the breakfast and reading activity.

Impact

• Year 7 enjoyed attending and made good progress with their reading and their attendance improved. They looked up to their Year 10 reading coaches, most of whom played for a school team.
• Some of the year 7 pupils had formed unhelpful patterns of behaviour with their teachers. Some accepted instructions from year 10 better than from staff.
• The scheme was so successful that the maths consultant developed a similar scheme called Fit 4 Maths.
• Year 10 further developed their leadership skills and were able to use their role as Reading Coaches as evidence for attainment in GCSE PE.

I believe that the scheme demonstrated the power of harnessing the leadership skills of older pupils to enable younger pupils to make progress and to encourage them to attend.

A secondary benefit was to both year 7 and year 10 pupils’ mental wellbeing. They had stronger self-belief and their confidence improved.

Some year 7 pupils were able to move out of the Fit 4 Reading scheme because they no longer needed intensive support, making way for others who also required help.

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January 2023