The John Frost School

School Focus: Transition from school to community, development of community clubs and exit routes into the sporting pathway. Provision of additional transport to enable pupils to return home later in the day.

Expression of interest overview

The John Frost School is a multi-cultural school (41.5% of pupils from an ethnic minority background) and serves multiple areas of deprivation within Newport, South East Wales. As part of the approach to developing an active education setting, the school conducted a pupil voice survey to help the senior management team identify what pupils perceived the barriers were in accessing extra-curricular provision. Based on the survey findings, regarding what barriers the pilot should seek to remove, the school’s intention was for the AEBSD funding to be spent on the following three overarching areas to support increasing the offer of the school to the community in an inclusive manner:

Late bus from secondary school to the feeder communities
Pack lunch for pupils attending clubs
Fees associated with delivery including sports hall fee, providers, and registration fees

Programme implementation

The school received funding from November 2021 to July 2022. Attendance numbers, recorded by the school, fluctuated across the months with the greatest attendance in March (1,243 participants) and May (1,128 participants). The lowest attendance was in January (307 participants), which was notably lower than most months, suggesting that once knowledge of the sessions circulated, attendance increased. Monthly learning logs listed activities the school had been offering as Late bus, free ‘Pound Fit’ sessions for mums, variety of sports clubs, including netball and football and basketball, behaviour interventions, Well-being Wednesdays, and recreational sessions. Through the monthly completion of learning logs, the following key reflective points were highlighted, and the school’s implementation of the programme was documented in the timeline shown in Figure 2.

What worked well:

A free bus removed the major barriers of transport and cost of participation
Improved participation rates from female pupils in Key Stage 4
Using leadership opportunities to address pupils’ behaviour and improve their well-being
Using community providers who are familiar to pupils improved trust and participation levels

Learning points:

Identify better ways of communicating with pupils to raise awareness of offers
Challenges remain in supporting pupils to attend community sports clubs - cost and travel barriers will continue to need support

next Steps:

Continue to collaborate with community partners and offer the late bus provision
School intends to prioritise pupil leadership across the school (not just in physical education lessons)

Perceptions of staff and pupils

Figure 3 shows the positive experiences and the areas for improvement drawn from the focus groups and interviews with pupils and staff, respectively. Overlap in pupils’ and staff’s positive perceptions was observed; for example, both reported the positive aspect of transport provision and the continuity of teachers. Pupils also reported that having competitive opportunities, learning new skills, and enjoying the social aspect were positive experiences. The member of staff also noted how the “buy-in” from other members of staff was excellent. However, there was no overlap between pupils and staff suggestions for improvements. Pupils discussed that to improve the AEBSD sessions, there needs to be more consideration of the collaboration between schools, participation numbers, the provision of new sports, the advertisement of clubs and opportunities and the timing of clubs. The member of staff made suggestions such as the project being sustainable, further bridging the school-community gap, and employing an active education officer. There was concern around the sustainability of the programme.

Next steps – September 2022 onwards

The school seeks to embed the learning from the pilot into a sustainable long-term model.

The following data was not available for reporting for this school: Pupil’s survey

Positives

Pupils	Pupils and Staff	Staff
Learn new skills	Continuity in Teachers/Coaches	School staff buy in
Competitive opportunities	Transport provision	“People who had relationships with our students – that has been the thing that has been most successful.”
“It gives me more confidence to do it out of school.”		“Funding is being used for a late bus so some of our students can stay to try and encourage them to.” stay.”
“We do a lot of games against other schools.”		“So positive, so positive, we’re really lucky our head is an ex head of PE, so enthusiastic about pupil wellbeing, so really positive our governors are all invested.”
“I didn’t want to just go new to a proper club…it was much better especially as the same coaches [as in school clubs].”
“Get to be with your friends and have fun.”
“On Wednesday there is a late bus so it helps us get home.”

Improvements

Pupils	Pupils and Staff	Staff
Participation numbers		Sustainability
Timing of clubs		Bridging the School-Community Gap
Collaboration between schools		Active Education Officer
Advertisement of clubs and opportunities
New sports
“I know a lot of people find it inconvenient…4:30pm – 6pm.”		“The issue is that schools operate, and then you’ve got a community operation and then there’s nothing in the middle.”
“Basketball, we have a lot less numbers. So it’s quite hard if we do full court.”		“I would like to have an Active Education Officer.”
“People want to go out with friends, instead of being in a sweaty sports hall.”		“So much positive progress and my biggest concern is that it will be all undone by there being no longevity to the project.”
“It would be good to play against other schools.”
“Maybe a lot of people don’t know about it.”

Findings

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