Equalities & Additional Intervention

We believe that all children should be equally valued at our academy. We will strive to eliminate prejudice and discrimination, and to develop an environment where all children can flourish and feel safe.

Harris Academy Orpington is committed to inclusion and part of the academy’s strategic planning involves developing cultures, policies and practices that include all learners.

We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging and to offer new opportunities to learners who may have experienced previous difficulties. This does not mean that we will treat all learners in the same way, but that we will respond to learners in ways that take into account their varied life experiences and needs.

We believe that educational inclusion is about providing equal opportunities to all learners, whatever their age, gender, demographic group, ethnicity, additional need, attainment or background. We pay particular attention to the provision for and the achievement of different groups of learners:

• Students from families that are financially disadvantaged, who will receive Pupil Premium (PP)
• Lower ability pupils who arrive with below nationally expected ability in any area
• Students from minority faiths and ethnicities, and travellers, asylum seekers and refugees
• Students who have English as an additional language (EAL)
• Students who have special educational needs or a disability (SEND)
• Students who are gifted and talented (G&T)
• Students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT)
• Students who are looked after children (LAC)
• Young carers, sick children, children from families under stress.

For additional guidance on EAL please also see:

• EAL Passport Office - http://www.ukpassportoffices.co.uk/resouces/eal-parents-guide/

Literacy catch up

Catch up funding is used to reduce the size of English classes, create additional ‘literacy’ lessons each week for Year 7 and Year 8, buy in additional speech and language therapy sessions and provide additional literacy sessions with a specialist Higher Level Teaching Assistant. Lucid testing and GL assessments are in place to ensure that students receiving support make progress. We provide specialist literacy support for students who arrive with a reading age below seven years and/or Key Stage 2 score below 4. We have targeted reading intervention for any student who has a reading age below seven years and will be targeting a small group through the introduction of the online reading programme LEXIA.

We have a dedicated English specialist who provides mentoring and subject specialist intervention for all students who arrive in the academy with a reading, writing and speaking score of below 4.

Numeracy catch up

For all students, there is dedicated individual tutorial time and for students who are finding Maths difficult there is dedicated intervention and mentoring. Our strongest Maths teachers teach the lower sets to ensure that they achieve the best possible support.

There is a numeracy section in the students’ planners, which the students have out in all lessons to help them in all their subjects. During Maths lessons we ensure our strongest teachers are with the students who need more support with basic numeracy. We have employed a dedicated Maths Higher Level Teaching Assistant who provides support in and out of lessons to ensure that all students who arrive with a Key Stage 2 score level below 4 make at least expected progress.

16-19 Tuition Funding

The Department of Education announced funding to support students whose learning was disrupted as a result of the COVID pandemic. This 16-19 Tuition Fund is available to all 16 to 19 providers including Harris Academy Orpington and is ring-fenced for 16 to 19 small group tuition only.  For Harris Academy Orpington this amount is £8,371 for the academic year 2023/24.

The allocated £8,371 funding shall be used to support small group tuition for 16 to 19 students in English, Maths, and other courses where learning has been disrupted. The guidance indicates that the supported students must be on a 16 to 19 study programme and have not achieved grade 5 or above in GCSE Maths and/or English by age 16. The subjects covered in the small group tuition will not be limited to English and Maths but will be identified according to need and existing programmes.

Harris Academy Orpington commits to using the tuition funding it has been given to mitigate against the impact of the pandemic on our students. Sessions will have between three to five students and will be above and beyond normal timetabled hours. Students will be prioritised for small group tuition based on the guidance released by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

The full guidance can be accessed here

Support sessions will be prioritised for the following students:

• Those with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan
• Those who have a grade 4 or below in GCSE Maths and/or English

Examples of some of the Tuition Support on offer will include:

• GCSE exam re-sit preparation
• Functional skills assessment preparation
• Bespoke subject support/catch-up

Tuition Support offered will be based on an individual need’s assessment, the identification of an individual starting point, clear learning goals, expectations and outcomes.

Our commitment

Harris Academy Orpington is committed to ensuring the tuition fund is used in accordance with the Government’s guidance on the 16 to 19 tuition fund by:

• producing this statement setting out how the fund will be used to support the most disadvantaged students
• publishing this guidance on the Academy website
• recording the use of the fund, including references to individual students who receive support, the needs of those students, the number of hours of tuition delivered and retain evidence of the tuition provided
• deliver the extra tuition and spend the allocated funds in the academic year 2023/24
• notify the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) of any underspend from the Fund for it to be reclaimed