The EEF Guide to the Pupil Premium

Published

Step 4

Deliver and monitor your strategy

Supporting staff with implementation of approaches will enable them to take ownership and deliver your intended outcomes successfully. Monitoring the delivery of your strategy allows you to be flexible and adapt when and where appropriate.

Put it into practice

Provide practical and social support to help implement your strategy well.

Practical considerations include preparing people, the approach, and school systems and structures. 

Social support might mean creating opportunities for teachers to discuss problems, share insights, and provide peer support and assistance.

When people work collaboratively during implementation, they can share knowledge and expertise, bounce ideas off each other, and solve problems together…Leaders should help people understand how their individual roles contribute to the collective endeavour.

Nikki Arkinstall and Stacey Jordan

Staffordshire Research School

Observe the new approach in action.

Monitoring helps you to understand what’s working, for whom, in which circumstances, and why. Reflecting on these aspects brings the strategy to life within the reality of your school context.

One of the most daunting but necessary steps is to stop interventions and strategies that are ineffective. Often, these are things we continue simply because they’ve always been done or because we’ve invested time and money in the training and resources.

Mags Daly

Director of Aspirer Research School, Aspirer Research School

Reflect and adapt

Monitoring can also help you reflect on whether an approach is being delivered as intended so you can target support and make improvements. Adaptations should focus on how an approach is delivered rather than changes to its core components.

Schools should use regular data to assess the impact of their interventions, ask questions like:

- Are pupils making academic progress in line with targets?
- Are behavioural issues improving?
- Is there a noticeable improvement in attendance and engagement?

The evaluation process allows schools to adapt their strategies and ensure that funds are being used effectively. If certain interventions aren’t working, schools should be willing to pivot and explore different approaches.

Charlotte Chessell

ELE and Middle Leader at Front Lawn Primary School, Hampshire Research School

Take action

Do ensure that professional development is an ongoing process.

Don’t treat professional development as a ‘one-off event’ such as one PD day in September.

Do unite staff, pupils and parents around why monitoring implementation is important and how data will be used. Communicate changes.

Don’t assume that the presence of a monitoring system guarantees its use.

Do actively engage staff in deciding what types of data will be useful, when, and why.

Don’t confuse monitoring with accountability.