: Keeping Disadvantage at the Heart of the Strategy Keeping Disadvantage at the Heart of the Strategy
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Keeping Disadvantage at the Heart of the Strategy
Keeping Disadvantage at the Heart of the Strategy
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by Essex Research School
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How one trust is ensuring that improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils is not a competing priority but the lens through which everything else is viewed.
About our new ELE (Evidence Lead in Education)
Don Wry
ELE and CEO and Accounting Officer at Hearts Academy Trust
Sarah-Louise Johnston, Director of Essex Research School, spoke to Don Wry, CEO of HEARTS Academy Trust and newly appointed Evidence Lead in Education (ELE) for Essex Research School. Here she shares her thoughts on their conversation.
Disadvantage is rarely absent from school improvement plans. Most schools would say that improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils is a priority. The real challenge is ensuring that it remains a priority when other pressures begin to compete for attention.
Curriculum change, attendance, staffing challenges and accountability can all pull leaders in different directions. In that context, an important leadership question emerges. How do you ensure disadvantage remains at the heart of the work rather than becoming one initiative among many?
I (Sarah-Louise Johnston, Director of Essex Research School) recently spoke with Don Wry, CEO of HEARTS Academy Trust and newly appointed ELE for Essex Research School, about this challenge. Our conversation explored how trust leaders can keep improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils central to strategy while also ensuring that support does not unintentionally lower expectations.
Very quickly, it became clear that for Don this work starts with culture.
HEARTS Academy Trust School Improvement Framework
Starting with purpose and collective ownership When Don became CEO, one of the first things he wanted to revisit was the Trust’s vision and core purpose. Rather than developing a strategy behind closed doors, he began by bringing all stakeholders together, starting first with all staff across the organisation, and asking a simple question. What are we really here to achieve for our pupils and communities?
That conversation began on an inset day where staff reflected on the trust’s values and priorities. The discussion did not stop there. Parents were invited to contribute their perspectives. Pupils shared their views through the trust’s pupil parliament. Governors and trustees were also involved in shaping the direction of travel. Over time these conversations evolved into a new strategic plan for the trust.
Interestingly, this kind of approach also reflects a growing emphasis in national policy. Recent government thinking around school and trust improvement has placed increasing focus on belonging and culture as key drivers of success. Creating a shared sense of purpose across staff, pupils and communities is not simply about engagement. It helps build the conditions in which improvement can happen. In many ways, the process HEARTS undertook mirrors that thinking. By involving staff, pupils and families in shaping the trust’s direction, the strategy became something people recognised as their own rather than something written for them.
One theme that emerged strongly was the imperative to continue to prioritise inclusion and to do more for pupils and families facing the greatest barriers. All stakeholders were unanimous that inclusion and disadvantage must remain a core domain of the Trust’s work, forming a central pillar of the next five-year strategy.
For Don, the process mattered just as much as the document itself:
“If staff feel part of the journey, they want to deliver it. If a strategy is simply handed to people, you might get compliance. But you won’t necessarily get belief.”
This emphasis on collective ownership echoes a key message from the EEF’s implementation guidance. Sustainable change is far more likely when people are engaged in shaping it, rather than simply being asked to implement it.
EEF A School’s Guide to Implementation
Turning values into systems
Having a strategic priority is only the starting point. The real work lies in ensuring that it shapes everyday decisions across the organisation.
At HEARTS Academy Trust the strategic plan is supported by a detailed action plan which outlines how the priorities will be implemented and who is responsible for them. Executive leaders, headteachers and key staff all play a role. Regular structures, both at Trust and school level, ensure that disadvantage remains visible in leadership conversations:
• Executive meetings revisit the strategic priorities, a minimum of tri-weekly.
• Headteachers are asked to report on the progress their schools are making against the plan.
• Disadvantaged Champions, in each school, drive strategic implementation
• Governance structures also play a role, with trustees receiving updates on outcomes and provision for disadvantaged pupils, and engaging in conversation and accountability
Don summarised this approach quite simply during our conversation.
“What gets measured gets done.”
Tracking outcomes, participation and engagement ensures that improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils remains a standing item rather than something that slips off the agenda. This reflects an important principle from the EEF guidance on the effective use of pupil premium. Schools that have the greatest impact tend to combine strong strategic leadership with careful monitoring and evaluation of the approaches they adopt.
Building hoists rather than ceilings
At one point in our conversation Don shared a story that he often tells staff.
The example comes from Professor Toby Salt’s book The Juggling Act – How to Juggle Leadership and Life. In the book, Salt recounts the story of a pupil who was unable to take part in swimming lessons because of a disability. Rather than accepting that limitation, the school invested in a hoist so that the child could enter the pool and participate alongside their peers.
Don explained that he took this example and used it with staff across the trust as a way of framing their thinking about disadvantage.
“Let’s build hoists for pupils, not ceilings.”
The phrase has become a useful metaphor within the trust. The focus is not on limiting what pupils might achieve but on identifying and removing the barriers that prevent them from participating and succeeding.
This connects closely with the evidence base around disadvantage. The EEF consistently highlights that high quality teaching is the most powerful lever schools have for improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Support strategies should therefore enable pupils to access ambitious learning rather than narrowing the curriculum or reducing challenge.
Guarding against lowered expectations A common risk in work around disadvantage is that support strategies can unintentionally lead to lowered expectations. Don believes leaders need to challenge this directly.
He shared an example from a recent discussion with a school where predicted outcomes suggested around three quarters of pupils would reach the expected standard. His response was to ask a simple question.
“Why not ninety percent?”
The point was not about unrealistic targets. Instead, it was about encouraging leaders to question the assumptions behind their expectations and consider what could be done differently.
“Everyone will say they have high expectations for pupils and of course we all think that. But sometimes it slips out. ‘That child can’t do this’ or ‘these pupils struggle with that’. You realise that maybe the expectations are not quite as high as we think.”
Setting ambitious measures from the outset helps guard against this. Day 1 targets, with clarity. Schools within the Trust track not only attainment but also participation in enrichment opportunities and engagement with the wider life of the school. The aim is to ensure disadvantaged pupils benefit from the full offer of the school community.
The role of staff development Another theme that emerged strongly from our conversation was the importance of professional development.
Across the Trust, teachers participate in regular professional learning sessions focused on strengthening curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
This investment in staff development also contributes to staff retention, something that can be particularly important in disadvantaged communities where high turnover can destabilise schools.
Don shared an example of one school that had previously experienced significant staffing challenges. Once leadership stabilised and staff began to stay longer, the difference became clear: Attendance improved; relationships with families strengthened and pupils felt a greater sense of belonging.
Consistency matters, particularly for pupils who may experience instability outside school.
A shared responsibility What stood out most during our conversation was that improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils was not described as a single programme or initiative.
Instead, it was woven through the Trust’s culture, strategy and leadership conversations. Staff at every level are involved in shaping the approach and in delivering it. And key to this, is it never stops!
That collective responsibility reflects a message that runs throughout the evidence base. The most effective schools do not treat disadvantage as a separate agenda. In its place, they use it as a lens through which they view the whole system. And when that happens, the changes made to support disadvantaged pupils rarely benefit just one group.
In most cases, they improve the experience for everyone.
“If we get it right for the pupils who face the biggest barriers, we will get it right for everyone.”
Evidence Link
What does the evidence say about improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils?Guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation highlights several principles that align closely with the approach described here within HEARTS
1. Start with high quality teaching
The EEF’s pupil premium guidance emphasises that improving classroom teaching has the greatest impact on outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
2. Take a strategic approach
Successful schools treat disadvantage as a whole school priority. Spending decisions, curriculum design and staff development are aligned with this goal.
3. Implement change carefully
EEF implementation guidance highlights the importance of engaging staff, building shared ownership and creating systems that sustain change over time.
4. Monitor and adapt
Effective use of pupil premium involves ongoing evaluation. Schools track outcomes and refine their approaches as they learn what works.Together these principles reinforce an important message. Supporting disadvantaged pupils is not about isolated interventions. It requires a coherent strategy supported by culture, leadership and sustained implementation.
Looking ahead
This article is the first in a two-part series exploring leadership and disadvantage with Don Wry, CEO for HEARTS and ELE. In the next article we will explore two further questions from our conversation:
What role do culture, belonging and pupil identity play in improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils? How does a trust evaluate whether the strategies designed to support disadvantaged learners are actually making a difference?
Don will also be exploring these themes in more depth in an upcoming webinar 1 June, 4pm – 5pm.The session will build on the ideas discussed in this series and share practical insights from the work taking place across HEARTS Academy Trust.
