Assistant Principal Rachel Lewis explains how she used SAM Learning’s Three-wave (individual student, class and whole-school) Intervention Programme to close the gap between Pupil Premium students and their peers at Darwen Aldridge Community Academy…

The Challenge
As coordinator for Pupil Premium, I had been looking for a while for an effective intervention programme with proven impact to improve what we do and close the gap between Pupil Premium students and their peers.

The Implementation
Students have been placed in intervention groups based on need, and work with our Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) on key topics. This has helped considerably with personalisation, and enables them to work on tasks and activities tailored to their needs. Students love our SAM Learning tool, especially the element of competition, which inspires most students to complete additional tasks at home independently. Reports are then shared with the staff that teach them so that they can see progress being made and where the strengths and difficulties for students lie. This allows the teacher to personalise work in class and pinpoint what they need to do next to improve.

The Impact
By the end of last term, all students on the intervention programme had improved by at least one sub-level for the subject on which they were working. Previously the progress for this cohort had been static. SAM Learning has really improved engagement, personalisation and intervention as a whole across the school and I would definitely recommend this excellent study tool.