Overcoming Disadvantage

Creating opportunities, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, by:

• Offering all students the chance to collaborate and work together across partner schools to improve attainment and social skills
• Providing higher achieving students with opportunities to access additional subjects
• Supporting the city-wide objective to raise outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Current BEP projects to overcome disadvantage

Oracy Project

The Oracy Project was set up to train year 10 and 12 students from participating partner schools, who were identified as having good oracy and confidence skills, to support younger students to develop these skills. We also have a staff training programme to support the further development and integration of oracy-based approaches in the classroom.

Our partners in this project are Unique Voice and Voice 21.

Debate Days

Debate Days are informal events which enable students from different schools across the partnership to meet and work together to develop their speaking and debating skills. These events are not seen as competitive in any way: rather an opportunity for students from different partner schools and from different backgrounds to meet as a contribution to building community cohesion.

Mentoring

We recognise that mentoring supports young people to fulfil their potential. A pilot mentoring project is being run in collaboration with the University of West of England’s Department of Education and Childhood Studies. Students on the Initial Teacher Education course are working with BEP school students who are identified as “coasting” to help improve their study-related skills such as organisation, time management and problem-solving.

In a different mentoring project sixth form students at Clifton College receive training to provide support and guidance to younger students in different partner schools, particularly targeting younger students who are identified as requiring additional help.