The Queen Mary’s Grammar School (Walsall) URN: 136773
Updated 14 February 2020
Applies to England
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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 Queen Mary’s Grammar School (‘QMGS’) intends to increase its year 7 published admission number (PAN) by 30 places to 180 for September 2020.
The school has set itself a target of 30% of the intake being eligible for the pupil premium by September 2020.
After the admission of looked after and previously looked after children, children eligible for the pupil premium will be allocated the next 54 places (around 30% of places). Priority for admission within this criterion will be given to those pupil premium pupils attending a named Walsall primary school.
The entry test pass mark for year 7 will also be lowered for pupil premium pupils. Pupil premium applicants will need to achieve a minimum qualifying score of 305. To put this into context, between 2015 and 2017, the lowest scores in the test, for children admitted to the school, ranged from 318 to 324.
Outreach
The School will build on existing primary partnerships and will establish new partnerships. The school is working (along with Queen Mary’s High School) with 7 hub primary schools, representing the majority of the primary clusters in Walsall. Each school will communicate with other schools in their cluster to promote the planned outreach events and by this means QMGS will reach as many schools as possible.
The clusters selected are chosen according to the areas they serve, particularly focusing on schools with high deprivation and those where children do not normally gain paces at the school focus clusters are:
- Alumwell and Birchills
- Bentley
- Blakenhall
- Bloxwich
- Broadway
- Brownhills
- South Walsall
- William
The specific primary schools involved as hubs in these areas are:
- Lower Farm
- Walsall Wood
- Woodlands
- Meadow View
- Rushall
- Blue Coat Junior
- Pinfold Street
- Birchills
The Trust’s School Improvement Director will work with Heads/link teachers from Partner Primaries in an overall quality assurance role.
QMGS will appoint a social mobility champion to promote and coordinate outreach. This will involve auditing the need for support in partner primaries, regularly meeting with heads and link staff to plan appropriate intervention for pupil premium pupils.
New primary curriculum days will be established (such as core subjects, languages, sport and performance) at Queen Mary’s Grammar School to work with pupil premium pupils, alongside other high prior attainment (HPA), pupils
New STEM outreach activity (for example, delivering Maths/Science through the established Project Horizon, which is a nationally recognised near-space programme) will be delivered for pupils at the partner schools set out above.
New Mandarin Clubs in primary partners will be provided by QMGS (lessons in language and culture through Confucius Classroom status. (QMGS is a Hub School for the Mandarin Excellence Programme).
New arrangements will be put into place to fund pupil premium pupils in partner primary schools to travel to the above events (or to provide transport).
New test familiarisation events both in the Grammar School and in partner primary schools using trained volunteers from the school (students, staff, parents, alumni) will be established for pupil premium pupils.
The school will provide transport to the test. This would be free for pupil premium children and at a small cost for other children.
The school will encourage aspiration in partner primaries by inviting primary staff for the first time to trust careers events organised collaboratively with Business in the Community (BITC). BITC has recently agreed a project providing aspirational Talking Head videos.
There will be a fair access fair to be publicised through primary partners from January 2019. It is intended that this will be an annual event held in primary schools.
Through its Alumni and Development Officer, the school will use present and former pupils to go back to their own primary schools for the first time underlining the compelling narrative of social mobility and how the school welcomes pupils from all backgrounds, dispelling myths about selective education. It is intended that this is part of the launch event, preceding the mentoring support
The school is looking into the possibility of new residential weekends at field centre for high performing pupil premium pupils at partner primary schools.
The school currently runs mental health outreach programmes in primary schools and it is intended that ambassadors will be established to work with pupil premium pupils in partner schools to consider issues related to transition between primary school and secondary.
Partnership
Continuous Professional Development (including Leadership courses and access to a market place of one-off events under the auspices of the Trust) will be offered to teachers in primary partners. The Trust has an established leadership development programme for both middle and senior leaders. This would be made available to primary colleagues and, where required, specifically tailored to their phase. A particular area to focus upon might be ways in which high prior attaining students can be stretched and challenged through a bridging programme for the school’s year 7 curriculum. In addition, where needs are highlighted by QMGS’s primary partners, bespoke training courses would be established.
The Trust’s Pupil Premium Champion will work alongside an external reviewer throughout 2018 and 2019 to audit existing provision for disadvantaged pupils in trust schools and expertise gained used to assist partner primaries in assessing their own provision.