University of Surrey partners with schools to close the attainment gap
The Surrey STARS programme aims to support the development of aspirations and attainment of under-represented and disadvantaged young people
A series of School-University Partnerships between eight secondary schools across Surrey, Berkshire and West Sussex, and the University of Surrey, have launched.
Surrey STARS (Sustained Tracking of Attainment Raising in Schools) is an initiative aiming to empower young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and provide them with the tools and support they need to achieve their full potential.
Led by the University of Surrey’s Widening Participation and Outreach (WPO) team, the Partnerships are the culmination of over three years of collaborative work with schools to build, develop and pilot an embedded progressive programme designed to raise attainment and aspiration.
The partner schools were selected due to their pupil population and GCSE attainment data, and have worked with the WPO team since 2021. This generated new research to better understand the GCSE attainment gap in and around the country, and helped to identify key drivers to raising attainment in young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, leading to the creation of initiatives in these areas.
Surrey STARS is one of a number of targeted initiatives from Surrey’s Widening Participation and Outreach team, which also includes the Surrey Scholars programme. Key findings from evaluation of Surrey’s outreach programmes include:
- Disadvantaged learners who engaged in Surrey’s outreach activity were 12 percentage points more likely to achieve a 4-9 and 8 percentage points more likely to achieve a 5-9 at GCSE.
- A remarkable 4 out of 5 Surrey Scholars progressed to higher education, with an impressive 82% of free school meal (FSM)-eligible scholars securing university places.
- 14.8% of Surrey Scholars from POLAR4 Q1 areas progressed to a high-tariff university, significantly exceeding the national average of 6%.
- University students from underrepresented backgrounds who participated in Surrey’s outreach activity demonstrated higher continuation rates and achieved outstanding academic results.
All universities are required to do this outreach work, but at Surrey we are proud to champion this work to an award-winning degree.Hollie Baker, Associate Director of Student Success at the University of Surrey
The University is committed to improving social mobility and we believe that education is a key driver of this work. Our vision is that everyone with the desire and ability should be able to access and succeed in HE, regardless of their personal circumstances or background.
Working with schools to support young people from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds to attain the GCSEs to enable them to smoothly transition into level three and beyond is a key part of our access and participation strategy. We and others across the HE sector are working to widen participation and improve equality of opportunity for under-represented learners.
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