Excellence in Pupil Development Award Verification Report
School name: St Olave’s Prep School
School address and postcode: 106-110 Southwood Road, New Eltham, London SE9 3QS
School telephone: 020 8294 8930
School website: www.stolaves.org.uk/
Head teacher: Claire Holloway
Head teacher’s email: c.holloway@stolaves.org.uk
EPDA coordinator: Anna McNamara
EPDA coordinator’s email: a mcnamara@stolaves org uk
Award verifier: Mark Jennett
Award adviser (if applicable): Mark Jennett
Date of verification: 4th November 2021
Commentary on the evidence provided:
The evidence presented was strong and consistent and help to build a picture of a school that clearly cares about pupil development They began their work on the Award shortly before the first lockdown in April 2020 and are to be congratulated on achieving so much at a time of many additional and unprecedented pressures This is due in no small part to the commitment of the EPDA coordinator and the school’s leadership
The school has used the Award as an opportunity to evaluate and plan provision. There is evidence of their thoughtful analysis of feedback throughout the portfolio.
The coordinator and Head were honest about the ways in which the pandemic has impacted on some of their provision – for example around utilising visits and visitors and links with the local community. However, as well as having clear plans for how they will further develop these links as restrictions ease, they have been extremely creative about ensuring that children continue to see themselves both as part of a wider community and as individuals who can influence its development by their behaviour and actions. © Copyright Optimus Education 2018 2
Conversation with one of the Trustees also confirms the value the school places on being active in the community and involving parents in school life in ways that benefit children and can help to reinforce positive attitudes to learning
Strengths and impacts identified during verification:
St Olave’s clearly prioritises work on pupil development and shares information about its activities widely via social media, newsletters etc. Pupil wellbeing is a standing item on SLT and governors’ meetings where the programme’s impact is monitored.
Regular PASS surveys are analysed and next steps identified. The school also uses things like draw and write activities to assess the impact of work on personal development. It takes note and responds to feedback – for example, work on online safety has been increased after survey responses showed that some lower school students were unclear about the principles involved. Similarly, the school took account of feedback from parents around work on diversity and responded by enhancing work on BLM.
There are high levels of parental engagement with many keen to contribute to the programme. Feedback from parents about how the school promotes their children’s development is very positive. The school also has plans to bring parents on board as members of a diversity group. Recent evaluations also show excellent feedback from visitors about pupil’s attitudes to learning.
A key value for St Olave’s is kindness. This is clear not just from examples of work in classrooms and the school’s involvement in a range of community activities (see below) but is also demonstrated in the way that behaviour incidents are addressed where children are encouraged to reflect on the impact of words and actions.
Pupil and parent feedback confirms that the school’s approach to behaviour management focuses on rewards. ‘Golden Rules’ are displayed in every classroom and playground, are regularly reviewed with students and referred to when discussing behaviour. The school also had a code of conduct for online learning during lockdown. Pupils can talk about how the school helps them to be friends and there was a focus on socialisation and play when children returned to school after lockdown. The portfolio included some fine examples of pupils’ work on the school values.
The school has effectively evaluated their curriculum to ensure that pupil development is embedded across all teaching. The Award portfolio included an excellent overview of this. A strong thread on rights (St Olave’s is a Rights Respecting School) is woven through the work including assemblies which focus on positive behaviour, celebrations of a range of identities etc.
The school has surveyed teachers to assess their confidence around teaching personal development skills. Most are confident and, where the surveys have identified some who would welcome more support (for example around PSHEE), training has been out in place.
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Support planned for the next term includes inputs from Equaliteach and further work on growth mindset and Zones of Regulation. The school is now explicitly monitoring the impact of training on provision and has introduced training contracts to support staff to focus on the impact of training on pupils.
St Olave’s has excellent attendance and so, as part of their work on the Award, chose to focus on further improving punctuality They involved both pupils and parents in work around the advantages of a calm start to the day and arriving at school in good time and have seen improvements as a result.
The school is outward looking and has worked hard to develop strong connections with the community. There is an emphasis on ‘giving back’ – students raise money for local and national charities, help with litter picks and visit the local care home. The school really understands the benefits for children of developing a sense of belonging within a wider community.
The school has taken account of local health concerns – for example, evidence of higher levels of obesity has led to more work on healthy eating. They use their beautiful allotment to involve children in discussions about diet as well as wider environmental concerns. Children can give examples of discussions they have had about the health of the planet and how they can make a positive contribution.
The school uses an established PSHEE curriculum (Jigsaw) but recognises the need to adapt and enhance it both in terms of pupil’s needs and to ensure that it is fully inclusive. An example would be their plan to enhance already strong work on diversity by including more about LGBTQ identities in the curriculum. Pupil feedback about activities that focus on diversity (for example, recent work on BLM) is good.
The visitor policy has been updated to ensure that all trips and visitors are fully evaluated. Work on careers and financial awareness includes visits to Kidzania and inputs from parents and other visitors.
There is a wide range of leadership opportunities such as classroom monitors, school parliament, travel ambassadors, rights respecting ambassadors, anti-bullying ambassadors (who have received training from the anti-bullying alliance), house captains etc. There is a great range of clubs and enrichment activities which is informed by the wishes and needs of pupils. Its scope is particularly impressive in a relatively small school. © Copyright Optimus Education 2018 4
Areas for development:
The school has already identified a number of further enhancements that it intends to make going forward including
● Further developing the EPDA working group with the addition of parents
● Developing a diversity group
● Continuing and enhancing evaluation – for example with termly PASS surveys and additional feedback tools feeding into an annually reviewed personal development Action Plan
● Diarising regular pupil interviews to further monitor impact of provision
● Staff to explicitly map personal development in all planning
● Continuing to assess staff confidence and the impact of training on provision and pupil outcomes
● Providing parent workshops on pupil development
Further recommendations:
● As well as providing direction from the personal development coordinator, working group and senior leaders, in order to further develop whole-school involvement, encourage all staff to identify ‘next steps’ as part of their pastoral curriculum evaluations
● Continue to enhance the school’s excellent work on diversity both within and beyond the PSHEE curriculum to ensure that all protected characteristics (disability, LGBT etc) are addressed and all children and families fully included.
Verifier recommendation:
I am delighted to recommend that the school be awarded the Excellence in Pupil Development Award for a period of three years.
Head teacher comments:
As with the Wellbeing Award, completing the EDPA award has really helped us to evaluate our provision, ensuring that all stakeholders have a voice. It has helped us to become more reflective by evaluating the work we are doing and the impact we are having and has given us clear target to work towards in the future to strengthen the work we already do The process, despite the pandemic, was positive and supportive at every step and I would © Copyright Optimus Education 2018 5
thoroughly recommend working towards the EPDA award. Having Mark as an adviser was invaluable as he really helped us to identify strengths and where we needed to provide further evidence, making the verification process really straightforward and celebratory. We are delighted to have been awarded the EPDA and look forward to developing further in the future
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