Rising with Oxford Revise: targeted support ideal for Pupil Premium students

Using Pupil Premium powerfully

The cost of living crisis has only widened the attainment gap between family income and education outcomes. Pupil Premium is available to support socio-economically disadvantaged students to break some of the barriers to their progress. But how can you use it powerfully? Getting the most out of your Pupil Premium requires a carefully directed approach to achieve the biggest impact on student outcomes.

Over a quarter (29%) of pupils in England are eligible for Pupil Premium funding. Schools have until 31 December each year to apply for the grant, and Pupil Premium payments are sent to schools four times a year.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) takes an evidence-informed approach to using Pupil Premium. You can find more information in the EEF Guide to Pupil Premium, which signposts ideas for how you can invest your Pupil Premium funding to give all students a fair opportunity to thrive. On page 7, you will find the outline of a five-point plan to help you develop, deliver, monitor, and sustain an effective Pupil Premium strategy.

Menu of approaches

To support schools, the Department for Education has also produced guidance for school leaders, including a menu of approaches, which focuses on three key areas:

• high quality teaching, including resources that support this
• targeted academic support, including one-to-one and small-group tuition, and targeted interventions to support language development, literacy and numeracy
• wider strategies, such as communicating with and supporting parents.

It’s a myth, of course, that Pupil Premium money can only be spent on interventions. While interventions may well be one part of an effective Pupil Premium strategy, they can also be used alongside efforts to improve whole-class teaching, such as providing technology and resources. Oxford Revise can benefit all students, no matter their ability, and can be used alongside course teaching throughout the year – not only in the run-up to the exam.

A mountain to climb

Embarking on exam preparation, for any student, can feel like standing at the base of a mountain. The snowy peak represents glittering success but difficult terrain, unpredictable weather, and lack of a discernable path can make the climb feel daunting. We’ve all been there: overwhelmed by the enormity of the revision journey and unsure how to proceed. Building confidence is important: fear of failure increases feelings of anxiety and can limit progress.

Revision challenges for disadvantaged students

Socio-economically disadvantaged students face additional challenges that make preparing for exams even more daunting, including:

• limited access to resources such as textbooks and revision guides [1]
• living environments without appropriate study space
• limited access to technology
• lack of support at home due to factors such as time constraints. [2]

Revision resources accessible to all students

Secondary school students eligible for Pupil Premium receive an extra ￡1,050 each year. Providing access to revision materials could form a key element of your Pupil Premium strategy. Oxford Revise has revision equity at its heart. It is designed to equip all learners with knowledge, strategies and practice to address barriers such as knowing where to start and cognitive overload, making the revision mountain less daunting.

Targeted academic support

Oxford Revise can be used as a tool for guiding targeted support sessions, including one-to-one and small-group tuition, as well as to support classroom learning, homework clubs and independent study. Developed in collaboration with cognitive science specialists and experts in a broad range of subjects, Oxford Revise follows a powerful three-step strategy: Knowledge – Retrieval – Practice. This technique helps students move information they have learned to their long-term memory, retrieve it, and then apply it in an exam context. Regularly bringing learned information to mind strengthens the ability to move subject content between the long- and short-term memory. Each time information is revisited and recalled represents another step up the mountain path and, as the terrain becomes more familiar, it also becomes easier to navigate.

The same simple structure is applied in every Revision Guide in the series:

1.????? Knowledge – each topic begins with a Knowledge Organiser, a visual representation of essential content students need to know to do well in the exam. The information is succinct and accessible, divided into short, manageable chunks and organised visually to show the relationship between different pieces of information and make it easier to remember, for example, as a mind map or flow chart.

2.????? Retrieval – a sequence of short-answer recall questions students can use to check how well they remember key information from the Knowledge Organiser content they have just read. The sequence includes a small number of questions relating to previous Knowledge Organisers, building in more opportunities to retrieve the essential content and commit it to long-term memory.

3.????? Practice – students take exam-style questions to consolidate knowledge and skills and prepare them for what to expect in the real exam. Answers and student-friendly mark schemes are provided online.

Demystifying the revision process

The potential benefits of this simple approach are transformative. All the information students need to know for a subject is summarised in one place, in a visually immediate format, so there’s no need for other textbooks or technology, or even a desk to work at. Oxford Revise resources provide everything students need to take ownership of their own revision journey. From when to start revising and how to write a manageable plan, to exam tips and advice for specific subjects from expert teachers.

The team at Oxford Revise is committed to making revision fairer and give 20% of GCSE English Language and Maths orders to UK schools for free. Simply by making the resource available, you are removing one of the main barriers and equipping every student to succeed.

Oxford Revise ensures all students – including the socio-economically disadvantaged ?– are equipped to revise effectively and take their exams with confidence: confident in their knowledge, confident in their tools and strategies to recall that knowledge and confident that they have had enough effective exam-style practice. Make Oxford Revise part of your evidenced-informed Pupil Premium strategy and see the impact on revision equity, wellbeing, and attainment for all learners.

Find out more about Oxford Revise and how our revision guides will support your students.

[1] See https://www.sec-ed.co.uk/content/news/literacy-fears-the-disadvantaged-pupils-who-dont-own-a-single-book/

[2] See https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/disadvantaged-pupils-less-engaged-in-remote-learning

This article was written by the Oxford Revise team and published on 18 October 2024.