Christabel Shepherd, NACE Challenge and Curriculum Development Director, introduces the new NACE Essentials guide on this topic.

There is strong evidence that an educational equity gap exists across all phases of the English educational system and that the effects of disadvantage are cumulative, so that the gap tends to increase as children grow older, especially during secondary schooling. 

Concerns about disadvantaged pupils have never been as acute as they are currently, nor felt as keenly following the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns. According to studies collated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in its online collection Best evidence on impact of Covid-19 on pupil attainment, primary pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have experienced 0.5 months more learning loss in reading and 0.7 months more in mathematics compared to their non-disadvantaged peers. Secondary pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced two months more learning loss in reading than their non-disadvantaged peers. 

Information from the Education Policy Institute’s Annual Report (2020) points to the fact that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has stopped closing for the first time in a decade. Disadvantaged pupils in England are 18.1 months of learning behind their peers by the time they finish their GCSEs – the same gap as five years ago. The gap at primary school increased for the first time since 2007 – which may signal that the gap is set to widen in the future.

The stalling of the gap occurred even before the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted the education system – as shown in reports commissioned for the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (2014), briefings published by the DfE for school leaders (2015), and research from the Sutton Trust (2015 and 2018). 

Despite this worrying picture over many years, the plight of disadvantaged more able pupils continues to have been largely overlooked by schools. This may be based on an assumption that disadvantaged more able pupils will “be fine” and the misconception that, compared to less academically able learners, their needs are not as important or urgent. 

However, evidence shows that academically able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are most at risk of under-performing (Sutton Trust, 2018). 

The DfE’s most recent guidance for school leaders on the use of the pupil premium (November 2021) demonstrates increased expectations in terms of the identification of the specific challenges facing disadvantaged learners, and the planning of focused, evidence-based approaches to address those challenges effectively. Although reference to more able disadvantaged learners has been made in previous iterations of the pupil premium guidance for schools, it is now far more explicit: these pupils should receive just as much focus as less academically able pupils.

This is a welcome change, which should help to narrow the widening gap between these learners and their non-disadvantaged peers, and address the “levelling up” agenda. Like any group of pupils, more able disadvantaged leaners have a right to have their needs met and it is our moral responsibility as educators to ensure that this is happening so that these young people have the same life chances as their peers.  

This month NACE has published a new NACE Essentials guide on the topic “Pupil premium and the more able”. Based on an in-depth review of education research evidence and literature, the guide provides support for school leaders to ensure that their school’s pupil premium funding can be used to maximise the opportunities for, and the achievement of, disadvantaged more able pupils. The key factors in developing a culture which will support the development and implementation of an effective pupil premium strategy are explored, and a range of specific evidence-based approaches aimed at meeting the needs of more able disadvantaged learners are exemplified. 

The guide is available free for all NACE member schools, along with the full NACE Essentials collection. Read now (login required).

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Jon Murphy, Executive Headteacher of Llanfoist Fawr and Llanvihangel Crucorney Primary Schools, explains why he’s optimistic about the new freedoms presented by the draft Curriculum for Wales 2022.

While observing an inspiring Year 5 lesson as part of an assessment for the NACE Challenge Award, my eye was drawn to a statement above the whiteboard: “Who says the sky’s the limit when there are footsteps on the moon?” Push beyond our thin and fragile atmosphere, escape the boundaries created by gravity and a whole new exciting world of exploration, discovery and possibility emerges. Those words have remained with me and have become a guiding principle in my work with more able and talented (MAT) children.  

The national curriculum defines parameters within which to operate, bringing both benefits and limitations. Key phases create their own “gravity” which can hold teachers and learners within fixed boundaries. Over-prescribed curriculum content stifles creativity, exploration and discovery, particularly for those with an independent spirit and capability. Boundaries create barriers to learning.

However, with the new Curriculum for Wales, we are being provided with the wonderful opportunity to change the way we teach our young people. We are on the verge of the introduction of a totally different approach, which promises the removal of boundaries, resulting in the creation of exciting educational discoveries that will challenge the way we think, the way we teach and the way we prepare our young people for the future. The significant change needed for curriculum reform will challenge us as professionals and by the same token will allow us the freedom to transform the way we challenge our more able learners.

The story so far…

30 April 2019 saw the publication of the draft Curriculum for Wales 2022. Within the Federation of Llanfoist Fawr and Llanvihangel Primary Schools, preparation for curriculum reform started long before the publication of the draft orders. Professor Graham Donald’s Successful Futures report, the catalyst which led to curriculum reform, provided the starting point for our own journey of curriculum transformation. We followed its progression through to the white paper, Our National Mission: A Transformational Curriculum, which gave us sight of the legislative proposals for Curriculum Wales 2022. 

Although the details of the new Curriculum for Wales have only recently become available to all schools in draft form, carefully considered strategic planning has provided us with a head start in our preparations for implementation. Fundamental to the new curriculum are the Four Purposes which guide educational priorities and underpin teaching and learning to ensure learners become:

• Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives;
• Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work;
• Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world;
• Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Already the Four Purposes are a regular and natural part of the everyday new curriculum vocabulary used by pupils and staff. The purposes chime so well with the aspirations we have always held for our more able learners. We have created a vision and aims that are aligned to the purposes of the new curriculum, and although early days, we are already striving to ensure our vision ultimately comes to fruition through the introduction of new pedagogical approaches. We have moved away from the traditional subject coordinator role and allocated staff to the six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE) – expressive arts; health and wellbeing; humanities; literacy, languages and communication; mathematics and numeracy; science and technology – creating curriculum teams which bring together colleagues’ existing skills, knowledge and expertise.

Preparing for change: the role of the PLL

Although not a Pioneer School involved in the initial shaping of the curriculum, we have worked closely with our Pioneer colleagues to keep abreast of innovation and change. Pivotal to our work with Pioneer Schools has been the internal appointment of a Professional Learning Lead (PLL) – an initiative introduced by the South East Wales Consortium (EAS). Due to the significant changes in pedagogical approach needed to deliver the new Curriculum for Wales, it is essential to appoint a PLL with extensive skills, knowledge and experience in child development to ensure the curriculum is designed to meet the needs of every individual pupil, regardless of ability.

In addition to success as a subject leader across a number of areas, our own PLL has extensive experience as an Additional Learning Needs Coordinator and is also our More Able and Talented Coordinator. A key role for the PLL is to oversee the development of the 12 Pedagogical Principles across the six AoLEs, which are at the heart of curriculum reform. Currently our PLL is developing staff knowledge and understanding of the “what matters” concepts in each AoLE – headline statements that outline and organise learning. The “what matters” statements make connections to the Four Purposes to ensure learners acquire the appropriate knowledge, skills and experiences in each AoLE.

An operational starting point for staff has been involvement in the redesign of our planning templates to address the elements of the new curriculum framework. We are now making our first attempts to pilot planning and curriculum design for delivery of the new AoLEs.

Ensuring consistency and coherence

Successful implementation of the new national curriculum will be dependent on the quality of professional development provided for staff, upskilling them in the pedagogical approaches needed for effective delivery. Our PLL attends curriculum reform professional development opportunities facilitated by Pioneer colleagues, the EAS and other providers. She acts as a conduit bringing back into school new developments and good practice to be shared in senior leadership, staff and governors’ meetings and through facilitating school professional development days.

As a school we are already finding that professional development gained through participation in the NACE Challenge Development Programme is complementing and enhancing our curriculum reform work. We are looking at change holistically, and as a result we are carefully aligning curriculum reform with other work streams, including our transition to the six elements of the revised NACE Challenge Framework and amendment of our self-evaluation processes to address Estyn’s five inspection areas. This strategic alignment of the different systems and processes we use in school is ensuring that they work together as a coherent whole.

The freedom to let learners fly

Within the draft orders for the new curriculum are details of the principles for progression. These guide the progression of learning within each of the six AoLEs; the outlined progression steps contain achievement outcomes which can be used to identify progression of what a pupil can do as they progress in their learning. Unlike the current curriculum, which almost ties learning into key phases demarked by outcomes and levels, the progression steps are a true continuum and allow children to progress more in line with their ability – without the boundaries which can suppress progress. For more able learners there are no false ceilings; they can fly. 

Teachers will need to teach differently, developing new pedagogy, assessment processes and the confidence to “let go of the reins”. Young people will have a greater say in what and how they learn. Enrichment and experiences which are an integral part of the new curriculum will allow learners to have a greater voice in how they design, guide, investigate and lead their own learning: a tantalising thought for more able learners, who will be provided with even greater opportunities to spread their wings. Through the freedom intended in the new curriculum, Welsh Government is handing us the scissors with which to cut the apron strings.

Grounds for optimism

The new Curriculum for Wales will provide a continuum of learning; the restrictive key phases present in the current curriculum will no longer exist. Transition will become smoother but at the same time will require even greater partnership and tighter transition plans to ensure a successful and seamless move for pupils from primary to secondary schools. With a learning continuum, it follows that work, which has traditionally been seen as the domain of the secondary sector, will permeate its way more readily into primary practice, an exciting prospect for more able learners who will access increasingly challenging concepts earlier in their primary career.

There is a great deal of optimism in Wales surrounding the introduction of a new curriculum. Naturally, there are concerns about resourcing and the pace and extent of change. Overall, educational professionals realise that we are on the verge of a new educational system that is non-prescriptive, boundary-free and which offers the freedom to develop learning opportunities that are genuinely bespoke to meet the needs of all learners, preparing them for work and life. We all have a lot to gain from current educational reform, and none more so than more able and talented learners.

Stephen Parry-Jones, Seren Network hub coordinator for Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil, takes a look at the network’s successes to date and plans to extend its coverage…

The Seren Network arose from concerns expressed by Lord Murphy, the former Cabinet Minister, that numbers of Welsh undergraduates at Oxford had declined. Lord Murphy was then appointed Welsh Government Oxbridge Ambassador and asked to explore possible reasons; he produced his final report in 2014, which can be viewed on the Seren website.

I was one of 11 individuals, drawn from every Welsh local authority, who were charged with turning his suggestion into some sort of reality. The emphasis was to be on bringing academically gifted sixth-formers together in “hubs” and providing them with super-curricular activities, as well as the additional support and guidance that a strong Oxbridge application requires.

Increase in Oxbridge applications from Wales

Many extension classes, visits from HE outreach officials, and trips to universities later, I was both pleased and relieved that the first independent evaluation, in 2017, was positive, in particular that “Seren makes a positive contribution to raising aspirations, boosting confidence and encouraging students to think more ambitiously about their university choices.”

The numbers are still being crunched, but it was encouraging that UCAS reported a 6% increase in “October 15th” applications from Wales – and this from a smaller pool of 17-year-olds, and with only the three pilot hubs functioning. Cambridge in particular has reported an upturn in the number of applications from Wales and, more importantly, the number of offers made. Applications to Oxford have also increased, though we have still to crack the challenging entrance tests that applicants face.

We quickly began to see that Seren was not just about Oxbridge, but about high-tariff university courses in general, whether in Wales, the wider UK or beyond. In my own hub, which serves some of Wales’ most deprived regions, I have been delighted to see Seren students taking up places at the most competitive universities, with Bristol, Imperial, Manchester and Warwick proving very popular. One student from our first cycle also gained a place at Yale, and others are now determined to follow her.

Plans to extend Seren’s work to KS3 and 4 

Of the evaluation’s recommendations, perhaps the most significant was the idea that Seren extend its work into Key Stages 3 and 4. This was something Seren hub coordinators and heads of sixth-form were already trying to do: we had very early on realised that remedial work post-16, focusing just on the sixth form, is simply too late. Ambitions often crystallise in Key Stage 3 and GCSE options, so critical for future pathways, are increasingly made in Year 8.

As with the hubs geared to sixth formers, work here will probably start with pilots, though existing hub coordinators are well placed to broker partnerships between schools, universities and organisations such as NACE and The Brilliant Club.

Local universities are also a supremely valuable resource, and Rhondda Cynon Taf has for several years organised an intensive day for its most academic Year 9 pupils at the University of South Wales. Subjects on offer have included philosophy, Mandarin, solving unusual maths problems, and Latin. Many of those attending had previously been unaware of the university’s existence, and were surprised to find they were able to cope with intellectual exercises of demanding nature. For some, it was the first time they had realised that they were “clever.”

Another crucial asset is local students at top-flight universities who are willing to talk to school pupils. Rhondda Cynon Taf has run an Oxbridge day for Year 10 pupils, featuring stimulating Q&A sessions with current undergraduates. We have now extended this to parents, and have been lucky to be able to call upon access and outreach fellows from both universities to talk to parents on a “cluster” basis. This has been particularly important in busting those Oxbridge myths which can do so much to deter able learners who are not from privileged backgrounds.

Our challenge now will be how we avoid diluting Seren’s offer without excluding those who might benefit – keeping in mind NACE’s core principles that ability is fluid, can be developed, and is closely linked to mindset.

After reading modern history at Oxford, Stephen Parry-Jones taught for 38 years. Apart from a five-year stint in a London direct grant grammar school, his career was spent in comprehensive schools in South Wales. He retired as a deputy head in 2015, and is now Seren hub coordinator for Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil education authorities. 

At the 2017 Pupil Premium Awards, NACE member Fullhurst Community College was celebrated as a regional champion for its success in raising attainment for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Deputy principal Tom Hague, who oversees the school’s pupil premium strategy, outlines the key factors behind this success.

While innovative, our approach to pupil premium is also simple, in that it’s grounded in good teaching and learning. We believe the most important factor is what goes on in the classroom, and this is backed up by research – but we also recognise the significance of other factors, such as attendance, behaviour and wellbeing. We take a “marginal gains” approach, trying to remove as many small barriers as we can for pupils, so they can do well academically.

Over half of our students qualify for pupil premium. As the majority, this group is always at the forefront of teachers’ minds, and the expectation of these pupils has to be high, because the school’s success is based on theirs. Though typically on entry our students start below the national average in terms of attainment, they still need to reach the highest levels to have the best prospects – and our disadvantaged more able learners perform above the national average for their group.

Combining external and in-school research

We use a simple software, MINTclass, to identify and track disadvantaged students. When underperformance is identified, we intervene rapidly, giving priority to these students in classroom interactions. We also ask teachers to mark these students’ work first, to ensure they receive timely feedback, and to keep them at the fore of teachers’ minds.

The data we track is not only shared with staff, but also with learners. Visual displays in each classroom show performance against targets, focusing on progress rather than attainment, with the aim of motivating students to keep improving.

Evidence from external sources is also used to inform our pupil premium strategy, including research published by organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation, DfE white papers, and the work of previous Pupil Premium Award winners. Such research has led us to run CPD on effective feedback, re-evaluate our use of teaching assistants, and even make changes to the way we reward students. However, external evidence is always approached with caution; we are aware that any single intervention will not necessarily work in every context.

Within school, we encourage our staff to engage in research projects, with the intention of raising standards for our students. Recent examples include a project by our Embedding Literacy Leader, evaluating the effectiveness of different reading schemes and subsequent outcomes among students. Such research is showcased in our weekly teaching and learning staff briefing, disseminated by faculty leaders, and uploaded to our staff VLE, so it informs our teaching and learning strategy going forward.

In-school research by one of our Curriculum Leaders focused on effective teaching and learning strategies for more able disadvantaged students, and identified modelling as particularly effective for this group. For example, instead of just giving students a practice paper and then marking it, we break the paper down into chunks. Students are given time to work on a section, then the teacher models the process of answering each question – showing them how the answer is arrived at, how to set it out, and so on.
 
The modelling approach has worked well in maths, English and science, and we plan to spread it across the whole school – not just for revision and exam preparation, but more widely. This will be one of our main strategies for all students, with a particularly high impact expected for the more able disadvantaged.

Removing barriers to achievement

Being a member of NACE has complemented our intention to continue to drive standards up for more able learners, both in the classroom and from an enrichment perspective. One such benefit of our NACE membership has been CPD, which has helped our more able coordinator to inform the planning and delivery of our More Able Programme. The online resources provided by NACE have been used across faculties within the school, and the research featured on the website has aided our development of teaching and learning for more able learners.

Part of our pupil premium funding goes towards CPD. The funding also covers our More Able Coordinator role, which focuses on support for more able disadvantaged learners, building cultural capital as well as academics. This includes a series of Year 7 projects which students present to parents each half term, and a Year 9 project with The Brilliant Club.

Careers guidance is another major focus in our support for disadvantaged more able learners, with the aim of raising their aspirations. Our full-time lead on enterprise and employability works with all students, with priority given to the more able disadvantaged to ensure they receive bespoke advice.

Beyond this, we try to remove as many additional barriers as we can. In the past year we’ve worked with the Education Endowment Foundation on a research project they were evaluating, running a project to educate our students on good sleep patterns and the importance of sleep. Another example involved reaching out to Specsavers after realising many of our students were reporting difficulties seeing the board; this led to Specsavers developing a free eye-screening kit which is now used by schools across the country.

Our recent success at the Pupil Premium Awards is recognition for the work we’re doing at every level in the school, involving all members of staff. It’s proof that the available research and guidance are effective, and that those marginal gains really add up.

Tom Hague is a deputy principal at Fullhurst Community College in Leicester. Tom leads on outcomes and curriculum, including the use of the pupil premium. Tom joined Fullhurst through the Teach First programme, and recently also completed the Future Leaders programme with Ambition School Leadership.