At King Edward VI Five Ways School we are committed to supporting all our students and mitigating the effects of social and environmental factors which might be barriers to achievement.  At Five Ways our mission is to develop exceptional people through growing talent, investing in each other and caring about every person within our school community. This is why we are committed to improving the social mobility of our students who face the greatest challenges in their lives outside of school. We will support our less advantaged students so that they may achieve the same levels of academic success as everyone else.

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The ‘State of the Nation’ report in 2019 suggested that there were 500, 000 more children living in poverty than in 2012. A figure that will have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic and recent cost of living crisis. In fact, statistics released by the Department for Education in 2022 suggested that 22.5% of pupils in England qualify for Free School Meals (FSM), with 187, 641 of those children of secondary age here in Birmingham. The figures are even higher in families from Black, Asian and Minority Ethic (BAME) communities.

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Children living in these circumstances face challenges in their lives that can significantly reduce their chances of educational success, and in turn, reduce their social mobility. These barriers can include:

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·         Living in overcrowded housing, which might make in difficult for a student to have a private study space

·         Being a young carer

·         Inadequate access to the best health and emotional care 

·         Limited funds and family opportunities for extracurricular activities to supplement studies.

·         A lack of role models with further and higher-level educational qualifications

 

Five Ways is committed to supporting the King Edward VI Multi Academy Trust’s vision of making Birmingham the best place to be educated, and to do this we must work to make sure that children attending our school from less advantaged backgrounds receive equitable access to opportunities and support to aid their social mobility. 

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At Five Ways we will make the following commitments to our less advantaged families and their children:

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·         We will focus our pupil premium strategy and availability of the Post-16 bursary fund to support our already highly achieving, less advantaged pupils in reaching their academic goals.

·         We will continue to deliver quality first teaching to all students regardless of their vulnerabilities, and to invest in teacher development so that all children are supported within the classroom and across all subjects and key stages.

·         We will use the government’s catch-up funding to further develop the support available to our less advantaged students from Year 7-13.

·         We will engage with strategies and other work to narrow the attainment gap between vulnerable and less vulnerable student groups so that every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

·         We will take a research and evidence-based approach to supporting all children and to providing appropriate interventions to aid their success

·         We will follow guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and The Sutton Trust in allocating our Pupil Premium budget- 50% towards quality first teaching, 25% towards small group and one-to-one individual support, and 25% on wider school strategies.

 

Different funding streams that are available for removing barriers to educational success here at Five Ways. For a more detailed picture of how these funds are administered, please see our policies section and pupil premium strategy statement.

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Below is a short summary of the different financial support available to our learners at different stages of their education here at Five Ways. 

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Key contacts:

·         Enquiries regarding pupil premium, uniform support and Post 16 bursary: Mrs L Heath. lc.heath@fws.kevibham.org

·         Enquiries regarding bus passes and reimbursements: r.jokhia@fws.kevibham.org