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A series of School-University Partnerships between eight secondary schools across ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½, Berkshire and West Sussex, and the ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½, have launched. 

(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 ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½â€™s (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. 

¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ STARS is one of a number of targeted initiatives from ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½â€™s Widening Participation and Outreach team, which also includes the ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ Scholars programme. Key findings from evaluation of ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½â€™s outreach programmes include:  

• Disadvantaged learners who engaged in ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½â€™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 ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ Scholars progressed to higher education, with an impressive 82% of free school meal (FSM)-eligible scholars securing university places.  

• 14.8% of ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ 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 ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½â€™s outreach activity demonstrated higher continuation rates and achieved outstanding academic results.