New Pupil Premium guidance: How schools can use it to fund violence prevention work?

For the first time, the guidance makes an explicit connection between Pupil Premium spending and evidence-based approaches that can help reduce children's involvement in violence.

And there is a striking overlap between the approaches highlighted in the guidance and the way Loudmouth's programmes already work.

What has changed?

Schools must use Pupil Premium to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, with spending based on evidence of what is likely to work.

The Department for Education's guidance includes a range of permitted approaches, including tackling the social, emotional and behavioural barriers that can affect children's attainment.

But the latest guidance goes further by specifically directing schools to the Youth Endowment Fund's Education Practice Guidance, which identifies evidence-based approaches that can help prevent children becoming involved in violence.

These include:

• developing children's social and emotional skills
• mentoring and trusted adult relationships
• anti-bullying approaches

This is significant because it gives schools a much clearer basis for considering violence prevention and social and emotional learning as part of their Pupil Premium strategy, where these approaches respond to the identified needs of disadvantaged pupils.

Why social and emotional skills matter

The Youth Endowment Fund has identified Social and Emotional Learning as one of the most promising approaches available to schools for reducing children's involvement in violence.

The skills involved go far beyond simply teaching children that violence is wrong.

They include helping children to:

• recognise and understand their emotions
• regulate their responses and impulses
• understand other people's perspectives
• communicate effectively
• develop healthy relationships
• resist inappropriate social pressure
• resolve conflict
• consider the consequences of different choices
• make responsible decisions.

These are skills children can use when they encounter difficult situations in real life.

The latest YEF evidence suggests the potential impact is substantial. Its updated Toolkit estimates that universal Social and Emotional Learning programmes can reduce violence by around 25%, while targeted programmes for children who need additional support can reduce violence by around 43%.

This is about developing skills, not simply providing information

This distinction is particularly important.

There is a difference between telling a young person about an issue such as exploitation, bullying, misogyny or relationship abuse and helping them develop the skills to respond when they encounter it.

The YEF guidance recommends that social and emotional learning should be SAFE:

Sequenced so skills develop in a coordinated way Active so children have opportunities to practise and rehearse skills Focused with dedicated time given to developing them Explicit so the skills being developed are clearly identified and taught

This has strong parallels with the way Loudmouth's programmes have developed over more than 30 years.

How Loudmouth's approach fits

Loudmouth uses theatre, character interaction, discussion and practical activities to create situations in which pupils can explore decisions before they have to make them in real life.

Our programmes go beyond simple explanations and definitions. The drama provides a shared situation that pupils can analyse together. Students interact with the characters, pupils explore what someone might be thinking and feeling, recognise warning signs, consider different perspectives and identify points where different decisions could have been made.

The workshop then gives pupils opportunities to discuss, practise and rehearse strategies they could use themselves.

Depending on the programme, this might mean practising how to resist pressure, how to support a friend, how to challenge inappropriate behaviour, how to seek help, how to communicate within a relationship or how to make a safer decision when faced with a difficult situation.

In other words, the aim is not simply knowledge acquisition.

It is skills development.

There is a reason drama can be particularly useful for this kind of learning. It creates a safe space between talking about an issue theoretically and experiencing it personally. A fictional character can make a poor decision. Pupils can explore why they made it, what influenced them and what they could have done differently.

They can question that character, suggest alternatives and rehearse and evaluate possible responses. This allows students to explore consequences without experiencing those consequences themselves.

That active rehearsal closely reflects YEF's recommendation that effective social and emotional learning should give children opportunities to practise the skills they are learning.

How this could work within a school's Pupil Premium strategy

This does not mean that any safeguarding, PSHE or violence prevention activity automatically qualifies for Pupil Premium funding.

Schools still need to identify the particular barriers and needs affecting their disadvantaged pupils and select evidence-informed approaches that address them. However, the new guidance makes the potential connection much clearer.

For example, a school might identify difficulties around peer relationships, emotional regulation, bullying, harmful attitudes, conflict, exploitation or relationship behaviours among disadvantaged pupils.

It could then consider a programme designed to develop the relevant social and emotional skills as part of its wider Pupil Premium strategy.

Importantly, Pupil Premium does not have to be spent exclusively on the individual pupils who generate the funding. DfE guidance explicitly allows whole-class interventions that also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils, provided the school's use of the funding is based on the needs of its disadvantaged cohort.

That potentially makes universal programmes particularly relevant.

What could this mean for Loudmouth programmes?

Many of the skills identified by YEF already sit at the heart of Loudmouth's work.

• Working for Marcus explores exploitation, pressure, decision making, relationships and help seeking.
• Calling It Out explores harmful attitudes and behaviours, relationships, empathy, peer influence and how young people can safely challenge behaviour.
• Safe and Sound develops understanding of healthy and unhealthy relationships and supports young people to recognise concerns and seek help.
• A Step Too Far explores bullying, conflict, consequences, empathy and the choices young people make when situations escalate.
• The Bully Busters develops children's understanding of bullying, relationships, empathy and practical strategies for responding and getting help.**

Other Loudmouth programmes similarly use drama and active participation to move pupils from simply knowing about an issue towards developing the confidence and skills to respond to it.

An opportunity for schools

Pupil Premium has rightly remained focused on improving outcomes for disadvantaged children.

What the new guidance recognises more explicitly is that educational outcomes cannot always be separated from children's wider experiences.

Relationships, behaviour, emotional regulation, bullying, safety and involvement in violence can all create significant barriers to learning.

Schools now have clearer guidance that Pupil Premium can form part of their response.

For schools reviewing their Pupil Premium strategy, this may therefore be a good time to ask, 'what social and emotional skills do our pupils need, particularly our disadvantaged pupils, and are we giving them meaningful opportunities to learn, practise and rehearse those skills?'

Every year Loudmouth supports over 100,000 children and young people. Loudmouth can support you in creating solutions to prevent violence using your pupil premium funding. To find out more contact us on 0121 446 4880 or email enquiry@loudmouth.co.uk