Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation: headteacher survey 2018 - appendix

2. Survey Questions

The Attainment Scotland Fund

How clear do you find the aim(s) of the Attainment Scotland Fund?

Please describe, in your own words, the aim(s) of the Attainment Scotland Fund.

The Attainment Scotland Fund aims to close the poverty-related attainment gap, by focusing on improving numeracy and literacy attainment and health and wellbeing of pupils living in poverty. How much do you agree with this aim?

Interventions and approaches

Thinking specifically about the last school year 2017/18, did your school have any interventions or approaches being supported through Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding?

As a school who has received both Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and Pupil Equity Funding, which of the following approaches did you take for choosing interventions?

• There were two separate school plans, one for interventions/approaches supported through [Challenge Authority / Schools Programme] funding and a separate plan for Pupil Equity Funding
• There was one single school plan of interventions/approaches regardless of the funding stream
• Other (please specify)

Please list the interventions/approaches supported by Challenge Authority/ Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding in or for your school during 2017/18.

• Numeracy interventions/approaches
• Literacy interventions/approaches
• Health and Wellbeing interventions/approaches
• Other interventions/approaches

During 2017/18, how many of these interventions/approaches were intended to target the following groups?

• Targeted specifically at the most deprived pupils or parents of the most deprived pupils
• Targeted at all pupils, all parents or all teachers, or all in a certain year group
• Targeted in another way or according to another criteria

How many of these interventions/approaches were:

• Newly introduced in your school during 2017/18
• A scale-up of an intervention from previous school year 2016/17
• Continuing, at the same level, an intervention that was introduced in the previous school year 2016/17

Has your school stopped or are you planning on stopping any interventions or approaches that had been supported by Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding?

• Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funded interventions/approaches
• Pupil Equity Funding supported interventions/approaches

If your school has stopped any interventions or approaches, what was this decision based on?

Thinking about the interventions/approaches you listed earlier, how much emphasis has there been on the following areas?

• Leadership skills
• Collaboration within the school or across schools
• Data skills or use
• Self-improvement and/or improvement planning
• Teaching skills or practice
• Resources or tools for teaching and learning
• The learning environment
• Family learning
• Parental or community engagement with the school
• Other

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements.

• I feel confident using evidence to inform the development of interventions / approaches
• I always use available evidence to measure the extent to which the interventions are having a desired impact
• Through the fund, I feel that my skills and knowledge of how to use data for teaching planning, evaluation and improvement at a school level have been significantly improved

Do you have an evaluation plan in place to measure progress and impact of interventions/approaches in your school supported by Challenge Authority, Schools Programme and/or Pupil Equity Funding?

You said you have an evaluation plan in place, did you have two separate evaluation plans or one plan for all interventions/approaches?

Impact of interventions and approaches

So far, have you seen any improvement in closing the poverty-related gap in literacy attainment, numeracy attainment or health and wellbeing in your school as a result of interventions supported by Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding?

Are you expecting to see any improvement in the coming five years in closing the poverty-related gap in literacy attainment, numeracy attainment or health and wellbeing in your school as a result of interventions supported by Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding?

What are the main factors that help interventions succeed in improving the poverty-related gap in literacy attainment, numeracy attainment or health and wellbeing in your school?

What are the main barriers in making the interventions successful in closing the poverty-related gap in literacy attainment, numeracy attainment or health and wellbeing in your school?

Do you expect that any improvement in the poverty-related gap in literacy attainment, numeracy attainment or health and wellbeing in your school as a result of Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding will be sustainable beyond the years of the funding?

Collaborative working

As the result of Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding, do you think there has been any change in the number of staff in your school working collaboratively to improve their practice?

Please tell us why you think this change has happened. Please tell us why you think this change hasn't happened.

Unintended consequences

Did your school's participation in Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding have any unintended positive consequences? Please tell us about any unintended positive consequences.

Did your school's participation in Challenge Authority/Schools Programme funding and/or Pupil Equity Funding have any unintended negative consequences? Please tell us about any unintended negative consequences.

Governance and administration

What do you think is working well in the national and/or local governance and organisation of the Attainment Scotland Fund, and the support you receive from the Scottish Government, Education Scotland, your Attainment Advisor and/or your local authority?

• Working well around Challenge Authority / Schools Programme funding
• Working well around Pupil Equity Funding

What do you think could be improved in the national and/or local governance and organisation of the Attainment Scotland Fund, and the support you receive from the Scottish Government, Education Scotland, your Attainment Advisor and/or your local authority?

• Could be improved around Challenge Authority / Schools Programme funding
• Could be improved around Pupil Equity Fundi

Pupil Equity Funding

Did you feel that there was sufficient support in place to develop and implement your school plans for Pupil Equity Funding?

Which of the following sources of information did you consult when developing your plans for Pupil Equity Funding?

Thinking about your experience of Pupil Equity Funding, to what extent do you agree or disagree with the following?

• The process of receiving PEF was easy to understand
• The process of working out allocations was transparent
• Reporting requirements associated with PEF funding are reasonable

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

• The school has an implementation plan in place to manage Pupil Equity Funding effectively
• As headteacher I have autonomy to develop a plan for Pupil Equity Funding taking account of the school's local context and needs

Your school receives Challenge Authority/Schools Programme and Pupil Equity Funding. What do you think are the additional benefits of receiving both? And what do you think are the additional challenges of receiving both?