Funding to improve school standards in the North East

Certain secondary schools in the North East will benefit from a share of £24 million to drive up school standards, improve access to employers and universities, and facilitate better links between primary and secondary schools.

This comes as the Department publishes its Opportunity North East (ONE) delivery plan, setting out a series of ambitions to deliver on the programme’s long-term commitment to level up on educational outcomes and unleash the potential of young people in the region.

The detailed delivery plan includes funding projects to ensure pupils are supported when they move from primary to secondary school, so that more pupils continue to achieve well into secondary school. These projects include the Legacy Learning Trust that will implement a consistent approach to teaching reading comprehension during key stage 2 and key stage 3, through using the evidence-based Reciprocal Reading approach.

Other projects include a focus on joining up the curriculum across the phases and developing a more consistent teaching approach and approving proposals to offer professional development for maths teachers and support to maths departments.
   
The funding will also help expand the work of the North East Collaborative Outreach Programme to more schools to deliver a targeted programme of sustained, progressive interventions for young people. This includes being able to access to undergraduate mentoring, outreach activity such as university campus visits and dedicated support in the form of a higher education ambassador.

The board also set a series of targets to be delivered before 2022. It wants pupils involved in funded transition projects to make greater progress during year 7 and 8; and for all ONE Vision schools to meet the national average Progress 8 score and are on the path to be judged at least ‘Good’ by Ofsted.