Supporting your newcomers

What is the most effective way to support your upcoming year 7 pupils with the transition from primary school?

DfE research suggests that some transitioning Year 7 students struggle to achieve their academic potential – particularly those on free school meals.

When school starts they will inevitably be preoccupied with getting to grips with the new routines, the school site layout, lesson structures, teacher and peer names, and rules and responsibilities.

However, by inviting your upcoming Ever6 FSM year 7 pupils to attend a summer school at your school it is possible for these more vulnerable newcomers to settle in before the term has even started (thus allowing them to devote more attention to their school work and fulfil their academic potential).

These summer schools are fully funded by the DfE as an additional pupil premium grant.

And as staff are not always available to work in the summer holidays one option involves inviting highly trained West End actors to host your summer school for either one or two weeks.

Pupils who attend the summer school are also given the chance to increase in confidence, make friends and improve their communication skills so that they arrive in Year 7 keen and ready to learn.

The summer school typically ends with a performance to families which is a great opportunity to welcome a new group of parents and carers into the school community.

The West End in Schools team are qualified dancers, choreographers and directors with a range of skills and strong teaching experience.

Once a booking is made we work closely with you to finalise the attendance numbers and staff requirement to ensure that the DfE’s budget allowance covers all the costs of the summer school and that there is no cost to the school itself.

Our summer schools webpage includes a one minute video which will give you more information and contains feedback from the workshop coordinator at an Academy we worked at last summer. You can see this at www.WestEndinSchools.org.uk/summer-schools

To find out more please do give me a call on 020 7395 7520, or reply to this email.

Nigel Godfrey
Director

Impressing prospective parents

What is the best way to impress prospective
parents from the off?

The process of making a decision between A and B usually starts with a Google search. And the decision over which secondary school into which a parent should enrol their child is no exception to this.

It is therefore essential that a school’s website is responsive to the demands of all its visitors in order to make a good impression, not only with prospective parents, but also with existing parents, students and stakeholders.

And although many schools do indeed have a website that is rich in content, it is not always as accessible to those viewing the site on a smartphone or tablet device.

INCO Education has worked with a number of schools on responsive web design to ensure that their school website is compatible with all the various mobile devices and offers all visitors an optimal viewing experience.

This is achieved by making the website appearance and content unique to each device in a number of different ways, such as changing the layout based on the size of the display screen, configuring buttons to make them easier to press, and hiding parts of the design so information can be presented differently.

This will improve the users’ experience, retain website traffic, increase credibility, make navigation easier, improve Search Engine Optimisation, and give your school a competitive edge over those that may not have a responsive website.

If you would like to get an expert’s view on how well your school’s website is communicating information to parents, or indeed how the process of updating the website can be made more efficient, please do visit our website: www.inco-education.co.uk

Alternatively please call us on 01902 784 800 or email info@inco-education.co.uk

You can read more about responsive web design on our blog.