Contents Page Abbreviations 3 Introduction and aims 4 What is Pupil Premium? 6 OECD – PISA 2012 13 Finnish Lessons 18 What role can schools play in narrowing the achievement gap? 21 The Sutton Trust – EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit 26 Conclusion 45 References 49 Abbreviations DFES: Department for Education and Schools EAL: English as an Additional Language EEF: Education Endowment Foundation
further 8% said they would just use the money to compensate for cuts elsewhere in the budget. Others said they would spend the money on things such as reducing class sizes to around 25 pupils, or hiring new teaching assistants. While these programs are well intentioned, academic research shows they do not have very big impact on student attainment” (Clifton 2013, p.21). There is a wealth of information regarding pupil premium available with information and advice on policy at national, local and school level. However, my ultimate focus will be on what can be done at a classroom level to support Pupil Premium students in secondary schools. As such, the aims of this literature review are to: Understand what Pupil Premium is and consider who is eligible. Review how schools across the country are spending Pupil Premium funding to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers. Make international comparisons specifically of the performance of disadvantaged pupils in relation to their peers and what successful countries have done to close the attainment gap. Investigate the most effective strategies to improve the attainment of students eligible for Pupil Premium in a secondary school classroom. What is Pupil Premium?
The Sutton Trust – EEF (2013, p.3) explain that “at school level, it is clear that different ways of spending school budgets can have very different impacts on pupil attainment, and choosing what to prioritise is not easy. Even once a decision to implement a particular strategy has been taken there are a wide variety of factors which determine its impact. [The Sutton Trust-EEF] believes that educational research can help schools get the maximum ‘educational bang for their buck’, both in terms of making an initial choice between strategies, and in implementing a strategy as effectively as possible.” As a consequence The Sutton Trust-EEF has researched and developed a Teaching and Learning Toolkit. According to The Sutton Trust- EEF (2013, p.3) “it is an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils”. It is this resource that schools are recommended to engage in prior to allocating their Pupil Premium funding but as The Sutton Trust – EEF (2013, p.5) explains “the evidence it contains is a supplement to rather than a substitute for professional judgement”. A summary of the most effective approaches to improving pupils’ attainment is illustrated in Figure 7. Figure 7 A Summary of the Teaching and Learning Toolkit (Higgins et al (2013) The Sutton Trust – EEF (2013, p.3-4) provide the following information to help interpretation of the table in Figure 7 (further detailed information is provided in their publication):
strategies involve being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses as a learner, such as by developing self-assessment skills, and being able to set and monitor goals. They also include having a repertoire of strategies to choose from or switch to during learning activities.” According to The Sutton Trust – EEF (2013) “meta-cognitive and self-regulation approaches are reported to have consistently high levels of impact with reporting between seven and nine months additional progress on average”. However, The Sutton Trust – EEF (2013) states that “it is usually more effective in small groups so learners can support each other and make their thinking explicit through discussion”. The Sutton Trust – EEF (2013) provides practical advice for teachers to consider when implementing learning to learn strategies. Smith, A., Lovatt, M., and Turner J., (2009) provide further guidance in their book Learning to Learn in Practice: The L2 Approach. Feedback According to Wiggins (2012) “Feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal… Helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent.” Essentially, feedback whether it written or verbal, aims to bridge the gap between prior or current achievement and the success criteria. Following analysis of more than 900 educational meta-analyses, researcher John Hattie (2012) found that effective feedback is among the most powerful influences on how people learn. The Sutton Trust –EEF also reported very high effects of feedback on
government has pledged to continue to increase pupil premium funding, to ensure that schools can afford the most effective interventions. Ofsted (2013, p.3) reported that schools that were more successful in closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers “drew on research evidence (such as the Sutton Trust Toolkit) and evidence from their own and others’ experience to allocate the funding to the activities that were most likely to have an impact on improving achievement”. Common sense dictates that the same principles apply at a classroom level. So, although teachers have little say in the allocation of funding, I have attempted to provide a response to the initial question I posed: According to the literature, what can a teacher do to maximise the progress of all pupils and close the attainment gap? Class teachers should: Know which pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium funding so that they can take responsibility for accelerating their progress. Ensure that families and students eligible for Pupil Premium funding know the resources that are available to them to progress their own learning and achievement. E.g. stationary, revision guides, transport, school uniform, educational visits, external tuition e.g. music, dance or drama lessons and for ICT hardware. Closely monitor attendance and punctuality and together with the school provide well-targeted support to improve attendance, behaviour or links with families where these are barriers to pupil’s learning.