This is a report of a pilot programme of the SHINE in Secondaries Saturday school transition intervention. The programme aims to improve attainment by focusing on literacy and numeracy and revisiting areas where pupils are struggling through a creative curriculum approach and enrichment opportunities.
The Saturday programme is run by teachers from the school for 25 weeks throughout Year 7. Schools are responsible for developing their own curriculum of activities to suit the abilities and needs of their pupils following guiding principles specified by SHINE.
The programme is designed to run for approximately 60 pupils staffed by four qualified teachers, three teaching assistants and three peer mentors all recruited and employed by the host secondary school.
This evaluation was set up as a pilot study with four schools and 613 pupils participating. This report is one of two studies evaluating SHINE’s Saturday programmes. Hallé SHINE on Manchester evaluation is an EEF-funded randomised controlled trial of the impact of the Saturday school on primary school pupils’ literacy, numeracy and music outcomes.
This study had three aims:
- To explore the impact of SHINE in Secondaries on literacy, numeracy and attitudes to school and learning outcomes
- To explore the organisational implications and lessons for future wider roll-out
- To explore the feasibility of using regression discontinuity design (RDD) as a pilot study
The study was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation as one of 24 projects in a themed round on literacy catch-up at the primary-secondary transition.