Transparency data

Wolverhampton Girls High School (Wolverhampton) URN: 140798

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This transparency data was withdrawn on 14 July 2023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 36 places to 180 for September 2020. The number on roll in year 12 will also increase by 30 places to 165 in September 2020.

After the admission of looked after and previously looked after children, the 20 highest scoring pupil premium eligible girls who achieve a score equal to or higher than the qualifying score, will be allocated places (11% of places).

Entry requirements will be lowered for these pupil premium applicants in comparison with other girls. Whereas girls not eligible for the pupil premium are admitted in order of their score in the test, a qualifying mark will be set for these pupil premium girls that is lower than the mark expected to be required for other girls to gain a place.

In light of the above actions, the school has set itself targets for admitting girls eligible for the pupil premium:

• 2019, it is aiming to admit 15 girls eligible for the pupil premium
• 2020, it is aiming to admit 20 girls eligible for the pupil premium
• 2021, it is aiming to further increase the number of girls eligible for the pupil premium who are admitted

Outreach

The school (WGHS) will specifically target schools with high numbers of year 4 and 5 free school meals (FSM) eligible pupils for outreach work. This will be an extension of existing work.

With their agreement this will target the following schools, existing partners:

• East Park Primary Academy
• Field View Primary Academy
• Elston Hall Primary Academy
• Grove Primary Academy
• Long Knowle Community Primary
• Villiers Primary Academy

And new partners:

• Whitgreave Community Primary
• Fallings Park Community Primary
• Rakegate Community Primary
• Woodfield Junior Academy
• Spring Vale Primary

Outreach will comprise the following activities:

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) workshops offering year 4 and 5 girls the chance to gain the Industrial Cadet Challenger Award. This is a new activity that will specifically target year 4 and 5 pupil premium children.

Introduce ‘Scientastic’ sessions at the school using the labs. These will involve children participating in science based activities. This a new activity and will target year 4 and 5 pupil premium children.

Creativity workshops to introduce pupils to aspects of drama and music. This is an activity that will continue from 2017 to 2018 and will target year 4 and 5 pupil premium children.

Maths and spelling challenges, hosted at WGHS, open to all year 4 and 5 children in the Wolverhampton schools listed above, along with those invited to attend on 3 separate dates during the year. This is an extension of existing work as the school is increasing the number of events taking place and subsequently the number of children able to benefit.

The senior leadership team from WGHS will seek to attend year 4 and 5 Parents’ Evenings in primaries, particularly those with a high number of pupil premium children on roll and run drop in sessions. This will be a new opportunity not previously undertaken by the school to enable families to find out more about WGHS.

WGHS will develop parental interest and aspiration, by targeting them through their children. Pupils attending outreach and partnership events at WGHS will be given a personal invitation for their parents to invite them back to tour the school and speak with teachers and students. This will be for all children attending the targeted events and familiarisation sessions.

Tours of the school will be provided for staff of those schools attending any of the outreach events and WGHS students will talk to pupils about the school.

There will be a support package for disadvantaged pupils attending the school and this will be publicised so that prospective parents are aware of what is available:

• the school currently uses pupil premium grant to support the cost of uniform, travel, music tuition and trips and will continue to do so
• the school will widen the number of uniform suppliers to ensure improved value for money for parents, with effect from 2019 onwards
• the school will seek to commission bus services running from the most deprived areas of the City direct to WGHS to remove the barrier of travel costs - following investigations during 2019 and 2020 it intends, where feasible, to have this service in place for September 2020

WGHS aims to ensure that those registering to sit the test take it and those eligible for a place take up the place. Developments for the school will include the following actions:

• WGHS to introduce social media alerts to remind parents of the forthcoming entrance test in the days and weeks leading up to it

• at the end of August, WGHS to provide the opportunity for parents and children to visit the school and see a testing room

Once the test has been taken and results are in, follow up communications will be sent from students at WGHS to test candidates. An open event will also be held for all pupils who sat the test and scored highly and their parents to provide further information about the school. In particular, there will be a focus upon raising awareness of the support provided by WGHS to disadvantaged families with respect to uniform, travel, music tuition and educational visits.

In the lead up to the deadline for the common application form to be submitted, the senior leadership team will run a parents’ concern surgery, targeted at disadvantaged families to discuss any apprehensions.

WGHS pupils will lead assemblies and Q&A sessions in primary schools, to encourage attendance at the school’s familiarisation sessions and open events. This is an extension of previous activities undertaken by the school.

Test familiarisation sessions will be run at schools with high numbers of FSM pupils on roll (the aforementioned schools and Trinity CE VC Primary and Spring Vale Community Primary if they all agree). Three to four hours of preparation and sample materials will be provided to attendees to take away. This is an extension of the 1 to 2 hours of familiarisation provided in 2017 and 2018.

Partnership

The school will focus on encouraging leaders and governors to collaborate to strengthen partnership working.

The school will continue to work with other secondary schools in Wolverhampton as part of co-commissioning of A-levels across the city in order to extend the provision and viability of subjects across the city.

Teachers attending the various activities targeting primary pupils (such as STEAM workshops, creativity workshops and Scientastic sessions) commissioned by the school will benefit from the professional development offered by the external providers delivering the sessions to year 4 and 5 pupils. In addition, they will benefit from the opportunity to network with staff from other primary schools. They may then have new ideas and strategies from attending the events that they may use in their day to day teaching, raising standards more generally.