Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2016

Closing the gap: when the main thing is not always teaching and learning

Over the past three years, one of my accountabilities has concerned accelerating the progress of disadvantaged students. We've learned a lot, and this is the data (I took up post in September 2013): In a nutshell, our Pupil Premium students are making better progress and a greater proportion are attaining better grades. This is within a national picture where the attainment gap remains stubbornly static and the LA gap is increasing. Of course, this is a complicated area and it is difficult to say which interventions and changes have really made the most difference. If you'd like to read our evaluations, visit our website .  What is clear, however is that the following have contributed (in no particular order): 1. A relentless focus on the quality of teaching and learning in individual classrooms. Without a doubt, the biggest difference is made in classrooms. We trust teachers to identify students and support the core subjects with coaches. We don't believ