At St Matthias CofE Primary School, we are committed to promoting equality of opportunity and ensuring that all pupils, regardless of their background or characteristics, can thrive and achieve their full potential. We have identified two key equality objectives that guide our work:
Equality Objective 1: Narrowing the Attainment Gap Between Girls and Boys in Writing
Girls are outperforming boys in writing, both at the expected standard and writing at greater depth. This is a pattern seen both in KS2 outcomes and EYFS end of year levels of development.
Our Approach
We are taking a comprehensive approach to engage boys more effectively in writing and close this attainment gap:
In Early Years Foundation Stage:
- Moving from a specific writing area to more purposeful writing in all areas of provision (e.g. mark-making or writing in the construction area)
- Embedding more engaging activities to develop fine and gross motor skills involving risk or messier activities (e.g. obstacle courses, letter formation in paint/glitter, throwing and catching opportunities, manipulating play dough, scooters and bikes)
- Using Talk4Writing to help with oracy, in turn helping with sentence structure
Across the School:
- Providing flexible, targeted interventions across all year groups
- Sharing representative, high-quality texts that empower and engage children, as children are more engaged in texts where they can see themselves
- Embedding more opportunities for shorter, incidental writing – our writing curriculum has lots of opportunities to embed grammar, punctuation and spelling elements with a range of purposes around one book; this will have a particular impact on boys, as the writing can be shorter and more focused
- Creating more cross-curricular writing opportunities (e.g. essay writing in Humanities) – subjects that often engage more boys because of the content
- Using our writing blog, where children can write app/game reviews, sport commentaries, lyrics etc. – subjects that will engage more boys
- Encouraging courageous advocacy – children writing as agents of change
Our Inclusive Approach
While this objective focuses on closing the gender gap, all the strategies and interventions we implement benefit every child at St Matthias. Our engaging texts, varied writing opportunities, cross-curricular approaches, and targeted support are available to all pupils who need them. We believe that by creating a more inclusive and engaging writing curriculum, we improve outcomes for all our learners, regardless of gender.
Progress and Impact
We are making strong progress through:
- Raising standards in writing as a focus for training and school improvement reviews
- Speech & Language Therapy (we have paid for an additional 1.5 days)
- Project Reader for Years 2 & 3 to develop readers and ensure secure writers
- Tutoring for Year 6 with targeted writing workshops to close gaps
- Literacy Pirates (Years 5-6) to increase engagement for writers
- Shape coding/Colourful semantics training for all staff
Equality Objective 2: Ensuring Excellence for Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
We are committed to ensuring that pupils with SEND have a rewarding school experience which responds to their learning needs and enables them to progress and attain as highly as possible. At St Matthias, 40.5% of our pupils have special educational needs, and we recognise that supporting pupils with SEND should be part of a proactive approach to supporting all pupils, it is not an ‘add on’.
Our Approach
We are committed to ensuring that leadership, teaching, intervention and wider provision for pupils with SEND leads to children making excellent academic progress and securing strong emotional and social foundations:
Quality Teaching and Monitoring:
- Focusing on provision for pupils with SEND in all monitoring and responding to any identified areas for development swiftly
- Providing detailed and thorough handovers to discuss key needs of pupils, sharing one-page profiles to support effective transition between year groups
- Ensuring that children with SEND are a focus of termly Pupil Progress Meetings
Staff Development and Support:
- Providing responsive CPD for teachers and support staff, including high-quality CPD delivered at INSET with an adaptive teaching focus
- Increasing our SENCO time from 0.6 to full-time to improve adaptive teaching across school and secure additional funding for those with most need
Partnership and Communication:
- Ensuring effective communication with external agencies, referring pupils promptly where we have concerns about learning or other needs
- Embedding WAMHS provision to support pupils and families
- Making effective use of pupil and parent voice to inform our actions
- Discussing support plans for children with SEND with families at parents’ evenings for their input, reflections and questions
Our Inclusive Approach
Our commitment to pupils with SEND reflects our broader commitment to inclusive education for all. The strategies we use to support pupils with SEND—such as adaptive teaching, high-quality interventions, strong transitions, and partnership with families—benefit all learners in our school. We understand the specific barriers pupils face to learning and what they need in order to thrive so that they can be included in all that the school has to offer.
Progress and Impact
Our monitoring of lessons, planning and books shows that all children with SEND are making good progress from their starting points. We regularly review support plans to ensure quality-first teaching and intervention groups are responsive to the emerging needs of children with SEND, and we work closely with a range of external agencies to provide comprehensive support.
You can view our full Equality Objectives and progress updates for more detailed information about our commitment to equality and inclusion at St Matthias CofE Primary School.