Our approach is collaborative, evidence-based and focused on impact. We are working in partnership with a number of local primary schools who want to reduce gaps in attainment in their schools, and with Bedford Borough Council. Our strategy is informed by an Education Advisory Group made up of local and national practitioners and experts.

We actively listen to head teachers to identify school priorities and we then fund support which has a strong evidence base, using a network of local and national partners. Where possible, we aim to add value to our partnerships in other ways, in line with partner schools’ wishes, for example by facilitating access to volunteers or resources.

Our programme is constantly developing as we learn more from our partner schools, their children and communities.

Our programme grew out of Covid, where we funded a range of activities, from providing laptops for pupils to catch up teachers. As our programme has evolved, we have developed three key areas of focus:

• Our main priority is supporting the schools with the highest proportion of Pupil Premium children. Current work includes funding private speech and language therapy support in primary schools, Maths and English consultancy support from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and a new programme focused on whole school learning behaviours.
• Following a recent research report from the Education Policy Institute, we are now also supporting a number of smaller, rural school settings, who have fewer Pupil Premium children, but a wider attainment gap than average for Bedford.
• A focus on early years children. We are currently developing a pilot project to smooth the transition between nurseries and primary schools, in partnership with HEART Academies Trust  and Bedford Borough Council, and we are keen to explore how we might have wider impact through early years system change.

Our aims mean we have to be focused in how we commit resources in the Accelerator Programme, but we also have a small fund to support schools who might not fit these categories, but are keen to improve attainment more broadly. We aim to broker partnerships between Harpur Trust schools and local schools that may need support with volunteers, facilities or resources.

We are working in partnership with the educational consultancy ImpactEd Group to measure our impact. Our impact reports showed that early years speech and language and attendance projects were particularly impactful, and highlighted areas of learning and improvement. If you’d like to find out more about our impact you can contact us on the number below.

Within our current three-year strategy period, our aim is to support schools who collectively educate more than half of all primary school age Pupil Premium children. However, we know that the scale of the challenge in narrowing the attainment gap in Bedford is too great for our resources.

However, we hope that by working in partnership with schools and the local authority, we can identify projects that are proven to be effective in helping Pupil Premium children in the borough to make faster progress. By sharing this knowledge, and encouraging other local and national partners to join us in tackling this issue, we hope over time to have a much greater impact together for Bedford, than we could on our own.