Making sure no-one's left behind

All the children in the top two years have school lap tops

Even young school children are aware of differences between themselves and the pupils sitting next to them.

But when these differences turn into a persistently negative message, a child's confidence can really take a battering, says head teacher of Prettygate Junior School Barry Hawes.

"When a child becomes aware that they are falling behind it can have a big impact on their self-esteem.

"It can affect quite a lot of things in their later life. So we try to better their self-esteem.

"We do this by differentiating the work that we give them. We will give the really high achievers challenging work and the not-so-high achievers things that challenge them too."

We are very much taking ICT forward - it creates excitement because it's where the children are at Barry Hawes Extra help for invisible pupils

His school, near Colchester in Essex, has been chosen to take part in a government pilot project aimed at ensuring no child falls behind or gets stuck in an educational rut.

Prettygate and the other 483 schools in the scheme will be challenged to make sure that all children move forward and progress at acceptable rates.

Under the pilot, the Department for Education and Skills will pay for outside tutors to come into the school and give extra support to children who are falling behind their peers.

This extra coaching will take place in lunch breaks and after school and, Mr Hawes hopes, parents will be involved too.

"These are the children who are just missing national expectations or are starting school below national expectations - it's a way of just pushing them on a bit," he says.

'Invisible children'

The school will also have to ensure the "so-called" invisible children, who rarely stick their hands up to answer a question, are given as much attention as the gifted child at the front of the class.

The school, which Ofsted has labelled "outstanding", already uses a number of techniques to ensure children are progressing at a pace that is suitable for them.

Mr Hawes says that most teachers would be aware of any "invisible children" in their classes and work to make sure they are not ignored.

He said: "It's something that we have addressed already. We have name cards and when it comes to deciding who is next to answer a question - we take the name on the next card.

"That knocks the idea of invisible children on the head."

Name cards ensure no child is invisible

The school has also looked at the whole way its teachers assess pupils.

Teachers try to ensure they give feedback in a way that ensures that pupils know exactly what they need to do to learn and move forward.

Instead of just using a red pen and a big tick, they use colour-coded highlighter pens to show where the children are going right and where they are going wrong.

"An objective is set for every lesson. We might say we are going to develop our use of adverbs in a piece of writing," says Mr Hawes.

"And the teacher will mark to that objective - they will highlight where the children are making good use of adverbs and where they are not.

"It can be quite a different concept for the parents to understand."

This intensive form of feedback is followed with improvement time the following day, where the lessons of the earlier assignment are driven home.

Teachers use colour-coded highlighter pens to mark work

The school is also making more use of teacher-based assessments to evaluate children's progress.

Instead of just using the national tests sat by pupils in Year 6, that are externally set and marked, teachers devise tests that are suited to their pupils' needs - stretching them when they need to be stretched.

"We hope that this will genuinely help and that it marks a move to a more teacher-based assessment and away from the large scale external tests."

The school also tries to pitch lessons to youngsters in their own language by making the most of modern computer technology.

"Half of our children have their own lap tops which they use in class.

"These are provided by the school to all pupils in Years 5 and 6 - although we ask parents for a contribution.

"We are very much taking ICT forward - it creates excitement because it's where the children are at.

"They are all using computers at home."