Research School Network: What makes the difference for our disadvantaged pupils? Reflections on our training programme

by Dr Caroline Creaby, Research School Director

Pupils’ educational outcomes make a critical difference to their futures, and this is particularly true for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

As we begin a new training course on this important topic at Sandringham Research School, we are keen to share our insights regarding this issue not only for the delegates that join our courses but more widely.

Since its introduction Pupil Premium funding has challenged schools to more effectively meet the learning needs of disadvantaged pupils and so break the link between family background and school outcomes. Whilst additional funding might be a necessary condition of improving outcomes, it may not necessarily be a sufficient one.

So, what are some of the more predictable challenges associated with Pupil Premium funding and how can we address them?

Firstly, in the words of Marc Rowland, we need to take a learning led approach, not a label led one. By this he means that we need to focus on the way in which disadvantages actually impact upon a pupils’ learning. For example it might be relatively easy to identify some material disadvantages, e.g. that a pupil has a limited number of books at home. However, in order to understand how this affects a pupil’s learning, it is incumbent upon us to establish the nature and extent of the impact of this disadvantage through effective assessment (not assumption!). Could material disadvantage have impacted on a pupil’s reading skills, reading comprehension or breadth of vocabulary? Could it have affected all? Or none? The EEF’s newly published guide here points us to the types of data we could examine in order to identify learning needs which can meaningfully be addressed in school. The case study of Greetland Academy on page 7 illustrates how one school does this.

Whilst we are able to identify pupils’ learning needs, it may not be possible to address them all at once. This is where decision making is critical. We know from the EEF’s implementation guidance report that doing fewer things better is at the heart of effective implementation. Considering the areas that are likely to have the biggest impact on our pupils, along with what’s in our gift to meaningfully change in schools is key. Likewise, having the confidence to focus on these areas in order to do them well is an important part of leadership in schools. From what I know, there can often be little difference in the general approaches to tackling disadvantage between schools but what marks schools out in how successful they are is how well they implement approaches and hence the impact they can have on their pupils.

The third reflection from our training course today is about the collective understanding about our disadvantaged pupils’ learning needs. There is likely to be a Pupil Premium coordinator in most schools who may also be a member of the school’s leadership team. There is a risk that most of the knowledge about specific learning needs resides with them. For any strategy to have a positive impact, collective understanding and therefore a collective ownership of addressing the learning needs of our disadvantaged pupils is vital.

We look forward to meeting this programme’s cohort for our second day in December when we will be considering possible strategies to address our pupils’ needs. We will blog again then in order to share insights from the day.

Useful references:

The DfE’s new PP statement and examples: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pupil-premium-effective-use-and-accountability#strategy-statement-templates

A useful video recording of Professor Becky Francis and Marc Rowland discussing the Pupil Premium: https://vimeo.com/537159174/9dcffaf80a

An article from the TES about the DfE’s new templates featuring Marc Rowland: https://www.tes.com/news/what-pupil-premium-template-examples-mean-schools

A podcast episode in which Marc Rowland talks to Caroline Creaby about effective Pupil Premium provision: https://anchor.fm/bestbets/episodes/Episode-1-Pupil-Premium-with-Marc-Rowland-eeb8mf