ANNUAL REPORT TO PARENTS - Y Pant School

In the mean time, Mrs. Griffiths, as Head of Year 10, introduced AM to thepupils and outlined the mentoring process to them. Mr. Davies gave a moredetailed presentation to pupils in October at a Year 10 assembly, to parents atthe Year 10 Achievement Evening and also to the Governing body. Year 10pupils were allocated to mentors. SMT members are responsible for morepupils (11/12 each) than other members of the team (4/5 each).In November data became available from the Fischer Family Trust (FFT) andthe Type D data was used to produce aspirational targets for all pupils in allof their subjects. This provided the standard against which all pupil progresswould be judged in the AM process. Some of these targets were amended inthe light of a professional discourse with Heads of Departments but once setthey are only able to be amended upwards by agreement between thestudent, the mentor, the teacher and the AMSL.Pupils were issued with their targets and the initial meeting between mentorand students took place in December where these targets were discussed andthe process again explained in detail.There were three mentoring meetings held, in February, April and July. Priorto these meetings the individual class teachers entered a “currently workingat” grade for each pupil. This grade should reflect the grade that “the pupilwould be expected to achieve at GCSE if they continue working in thismanner” and requires careful professional judgement using all the evidenceavailable. Departmental time was made available for this process to takeplace.The vast majority of the pupils have been very enthusiastic about the wholeprocess as have the mentors and feedback from parents has also been almostwholly positive. Only one parent, of a very capable pupil, was concernedabout unnecessary pressure being placed on her child. In most cases thispressure is seen as a positive way of helping to motivate and focus pupils.For some pupils it has been necessary to implement interventions into theirlearning to help overcome barriers to progress. These have taken the form ofthe simple quick word with the class teacher to the imposition of anacademic detention. On the whole pupils have responded well to theseinterventions as they can see the beneficial effect on their progress.20