As one of ten schools participating in the East Coast Collective, an EEF-funded partnership working across Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk to address the challenges associated with coastal disadvantage, St Clare’s Catholic Primary School has spent the past year exploring how evidence-informed approaches can improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
A central focus of the programme has been helping schools develop a shared understanding of disadvantage. Not simply identifying which pupils face greater barriers, but creating a collective understanding of what those barriers are and what teachers and school leaders can do to help overcome them.
It was this work that prompted my visit to St Clare’s, where I spent the morning with Headteacher Jamie White-Whiteside and Assistant Headteacher, Hannah Smith exploring how the school’s values shape its approach to inclusion, disadvantage and pupil support.
I arrived expecting to hear about specific initiatives and interventions. Instead, what struck me most was the coherence of the school’s thinking.
Before spending time with leaders and staff, I had already seen the school’s mission statement: “We learn to love and love to learn.” As the day progressed, I found myself returning to those words repeatedly because they seemed to explain many of the decisions the school has made.
St Clare’s Catholic Primary School Values
Jamie and Hannah explained that, in the Early Years and Key Stage 1, the focus is on helping children learn to love through positive relationships, belonging, empathy and emotional security. The belief is that when these foundations are secure, children become increasingly ready to love learning as they move through Key Stage 2.
As I walked around the school, that philosophy felt visible.
One of the things I often look for when visiting a school is consistency: consistency in how adults think and talk about pupils. At St Clare’s, that consistency was noticeable. Staff spoke about pupils in remarkably similar ways. Conversations centred on belonging, relationships, participation and removing barriers rather than deficits. There was a shared understanding that some children need different levels of support to access the same opportunities, but also an unwavering belief that all pupils are capable of success.
What became increasingly clear was how this thinking influenced decision-making across the school. Whether discussing OPAL Play, the nurture hub or classroom experiences, staff repeatedly returned to the same underlying principles. The provision looked different in different parts of the school, but the rationale behind it felt aligned.
Rather than viewing disadvantage as something that sits alongside the school’s work, it appeared woven into the way staff think about teaching, relationships and school culture. For me, this was perhaps the clearest evidence of the impact of the work undertaken through the East Coast Collective during the past year.
EEF Effective Implementation – Recommendation 1
This strong alignment between values and practice reflected the EEF’s A schools Guide to Effective Implementation which emphasises on uniting people around a common purpose. At St Clare’s, values, provision and practice appeared closely connected, providing a clear example of how improvement becomes more sustainable when staff share a common understanding of what success looks like.
EEF Effective Implementation – Recommendation 2
The guidance reminds us that successful implementation depends not only on selecting the right approach, but on attending to the contextual factors that influence it and adopting the behaviours that drive effective implementation. At St Clare’s, this was evident in the way values, provision and practice appeared closely aligned. For me, this was a powerful example of how improvement becomes more sustainable when people are united around a common purpose and a shared understanding of what success looks like.
Learning to love through play
One example of this thinking is the school’s recent adoption of OPAL Play. As we walked around the playground, Jamie explained that this was not being viewed as a playtime initiative, but as part of a wider commitment to helping children develop the relationships, confidence and sense of belonging that underpin successful learning.
Staff spoke about play as an important part of child development. Through high-quality play experiences, children learn to collaborate, negotiate, solve problems, manage disagreements and build friendships. For some pupils, these experiences play a particularly important role in building confidence, belonging and positive peer relationships.
EEF Improving Social and Emotional Learning in Primary Schools: Reinforce SEL skills through whole-school ethos and activities
Listening to Jamie describe this work reminded me of the EEF’s Improving Social and Emotional Learning in Primary Schools guidance, particularly Recommendation 5, which highlights the importance of “school wide-norms, expectations and routines that support children’s social and emotional development”. Social and emotional development is not viewed as separate from academic success; it helps create the conditions in which academic success becomes more likely.
It was evident that OPAL was not being treated as a standalone initiative. Instead, it formed part of a wider commitment to helping children develop the foundations they need to flourish.
Understanding need before behaviour
The same thinking was evident when we discussed the school’s nurture hub. Hannah spoke about the importance of understanding what pupils need in order to feel safe, regulated and ready to learn, while Jamie described the provision as part of the school’s commitment to identifying and addressing barriers to participation early.
The nurture hub supports pupils who, at times, are unable to access learning successfully in the classroom. Importantly, it is not viewed as a destination, but as a bridge back into successful classroom participation.
What impressed me most was the focus on understanding need rather than simply responding to behaviour. Conversations centred on helping pupils feel safe, supported and ready to learn, which felt entirely consistent with the school’s mission.
Throughout the visit, Jamie and Hannah repeatedly returned to the same themes: relationships, belonging, high expectations and removing barriers to learning. It was this consistency of thinking, more than any single initiative, that stayed with me afterwards.
As I left St Clare’s, I found myself reflecting on three key lessons.
First, a shared understanding matters. The most powerful thing I saw was not a particular intervention but the consistency of thinking across the school. Staff spoke about disadvantage, inclusion and support in remarkably similar ways. This reflects the EEF’s Putting Evidence to Work guidance, which highlights the importance of developing a shared understanding of both the challenge and the intended response before implementing change.
Second, belonging comes before attainment. Whether through OPAL Play, nurture provision or classroom practice, St Clare’s has invested in creating the conditions that allow pupils to participate fully in school life. Their belief that children first need to learn to love before they are ready to love learning captures this beautifully.
Finally, values should shape decisions. What impressed me most was the coherence between the school’s values and its practice. The initiatives I saw were not isolated projects but different expressions of the same commitment to helping every child flourish.
Schools often talk about inclusion, belonging and aspiration. At St Clare’s, I saw a school working hard to translate those ideas into everyday experiences for pupils. For many disadvantaged learners, those foundations may be some of the most important things a school can provide.
