Transparency data

Altrincham Grammar School for Boys (Trafford) URN: 136458

Updated 14 February 2020

This transparency data was withdrawn on 14 July 2023

The Selective Schools Expansion Fund is closed and there are no plans to run future rounds.

Applies to England

Fair access and partnership plan summary

The above school has made a commitment to deliver the following fair access and partnership plan by 2020 (and in subsequent years) as part of its successful Selective Schools Expansion Fund bid.

Admissions

The school intends to increase its year 7 published admission number (PAN) by 30 places for September 2020 to 202 pupils.

Altrincham Grammar School for Boys (AGSB) has set targets for increased pupil premium admissions. During the period covered by this plan these targets will be:

• 7% of the year 7 cohort by 2020
• 10% of the year 7 cohort by 2021
• 12% of the year 7 cohort by 2022
• 15% of the year 7 cohort by 2023

After the admission of looked after and previously looked after children, the 20 pupil premium (PP) children scoring highest in the test, living in the priority area and attending a named Trafford primary school, will be prioritised for admission.

Next, 10 pupil premium children attending a named Trafford primary school, will be prioritised for admission.

The pass mark in the selection test will be 10 marks lower for all children eligible for the pupil premium.

Outreach

AGSB is a founder member of the Hamblin Education Trust. The Trust was set up two years ago and part of its vision for future growth is to bring within the Trust local primary schools with high numbers of PP children in order to provide the necessary support to raise the number of successful applications from disadvantaged pupils in these schools.

Future outreach work will be coordinated with other local grammar schools (Stretford Grammar and Sale Grammar) in order to avoid duplication.

AGSB will, for the first time, offer pupil premium applicants the option of sitting the entrance examination on a weekday (usually available to applicants who were unwell on the Saturday the test is normally taken or who cannot sit it on that day for religious reasons).

AGSB will build on its current outreach work by appointing a member of staff in Spring 2019 with specific responsibility for outreach in disadvantaged areas. He/she will identify key schools (with assistance from the LA) with which to build partnerships.

Parents will be invited to a ‘Helping parents support their children’ session providing advice and guidance relating to Trafford entrance tests and life at selective secondary schools. This will be open to all parents.

AGSB will hold meetings with parents at their primary school which are designed to break down barriers about application to local grammar schools, building upon the school’s successful Information. Through links with senior staff at partner schools, the parents of able but disadvantaged pupils will be encouraged to participate. Evenings are currently held at AGSB.

Support for numeracy/literacy from Sixth Formers and members of staff will continue to be provided to primary schools with high numbers of pupil premium children on roll. This will both support the raising of standards in schools with an identified need and help raise the aspirations to more able pupil premium pupils therein.

AGSB will support increasing access to the school by continuing to publish free familiarisation materials (to assist with passing the entrance examination) on the school’s website.

The school will continue to publicise, on its website, the availability of free school uniform for pupil premium pupils.

The school will also continue to publicise on its website that free musical instrument lessons are available to all year 7 and 8 pupils and to all year 9 to 11 pupils in receipt of pupil premium.

Financial support will continue to be made available for school trips and Activities Weeks for pupils in receipt of pupil premium.

Maths Master Classes are run after school for years 5 and 6 children from all local primary schools targeting the most able boys and girls. Schools are asked to target the able disadvantaged for places. This activity will continue.

An annual Science Day will continue to be held to which children from all priority admission area primary schools are invited. There is a particular focus on promoting attendance (successfully) from schools in more disadvantaged areas, Broadheath, Broomwood and Oldfield Brow

Building on the above, AGSB will offer five annual curriculum activity days. To date, discussions with primaries have identified science, technology and computing as areas on which the school should focus, but further areas may be identified. The activity days run on Saturday’s and are open to all year 5 pupils within the priority admission area (at present, WA14, 15 and M33). The strategic aim will be to introduce children and their parents to the grammar school environment.

Partnership

As a former specialist school for languages and science, AGSB has effective links with local primaries (e.g. it currently has a service level agreement with 6 primaries to maintain and develop their IT networks and equipment). These links will be developed in future to give sharper focus towards primary schools (and parents) in disadvantaged areas within the immediate Altrincham area and further north in Trafford where there are areas of greater deprivation.

AGSB teachers and support staff will continue to work with teachers and support staff at North Cestrian School to raise standards within the Altrincham area for all pupils.

The Executive Head, working with both schools, will continue to grow current shared working which includes:

• developing strong governance and teaching leadership at all levels
• joint whole school staff development focused on teaching and learning, initial needs identified and targeted by development activity includes deepening pupil knowledge, how memory works and how to develop effective and accurate recall
• subject departments coordinating their schemes of work, sharing best practice and validating assessments; the main areas currently are English, Science, D&T and Computing, the impact has been seen in the strong improvement in outcomes in last year’s year 11 and current outcomes across the school
• shared support services, finance, IT, admissions and grounds maintenance, to increase financial efficiency

• Knutsford Academy’s Studio School will work with North Cestrian pupils from Year 9 who require a broader technical based curriculum. AGSB will assist Knutsford through continuing professional development (CPD) and school to school support to raise aspirations and standards in its Sixth Form. For example, AGSB teachers will work with those from Knutsford Academy to further enhance provision in Knutsford and North Cestrian 6th Forms by:

  • identifying subject specific opportunities for staff development in areas where current provision can be enhanced
  • identifying opportunities for students to benefit from working together on joint subject specific projects