WELL Project
Raising school attainment and pupil wellbeing.
The Western Excellence in Learning and Leadership (WELL) project aims to improve educational outcomes for all young people in West Cumbria, with a focus on those who face disadvantages, by raising funding for educational needs and providing structured support to pupils and staff alike.
West Cumbria shows significant gaps in achievement between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged, significant challenges in teacher recruitment and retention, and significant support needs for emotional well-being and resilience. There are 5000 disadvantaged pupils in the West Cumbrian schools. There is clear evidence, nationally and locally that the pandemic had a disproportionally negative impact on outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
WELL helps address these issues through:
- compelling professional development
- teacher development, targeted interventions, and wider strategies
- developing evidence informed practice and school improvement
- building local capacity, promoting pupil wellbeing resilience and readiness to learn
Sellafield Investment
£6.7m
Timeline
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Initial £1.7m invested
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Additional funding of almost £4m to be released by Sellafield Ltd and the NDA over the next 3 years.
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Project extension for a further 3 years with a commitment of £4m
Outcome
118 schools actively involved in the project.
Every school benefits from a universal offer of grant funding to implement evidence informed interventions, access to coordinated CPD activities, access to accredited training and access to the support provided through the Education Endowment Foundation research school network.
Additionally, the 23 schools that include 60% of disadvantaged pupils in West Cumbria are receiving more targeted support and higher levels of grant funding.
A team of independent education experts from the University of Nottingham have evaluated the effectiveness of WELL in its first year.
They found WELL is successfully helping schools focus on prioritising the needs of disadvantaged children.
Data showed an upward trend for pupils involved with WELL-funded interventions, they added.
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