Sound strategies to help close the achievement gap

  • Sound strategies to help close the achievement gap

Since 2002 Teach First has trained more than 5,000 teachers who have worked with a million children and young people from low-income communities, with the aim of improving their educational experiences and life prospects. As a group of recently qualified Teach First participants from Wales, we would like to share our reflections of what works for us.

All of us entered teaching for similar reasons – basically to make a difference in children’s education, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We believe passionately that young people’s life chances should not be determined by their postcodes. Although there are many factors influencing how well children do at school, we think four areas stand out.

1. Teaching to foster awe and wonder

While we have different teaching styles, we think that lessons need variety and challenge to engage learners… so we have used many ‘hooks’ including puzzles, dilemmas, news stories and role play.

This can be tiring when continually seeking out the novel, but we have lightened the load by sharing ideas among ourselves, with colleagues and through social media. It is clear to us that children need to see the relevance of lessons in the real world.

We have found that low attaining pupils benefit from lots of structure and worked examples. So our teaching skills have had to develop, particularly in terms of questioning, modeling and feedback. For example, we have found the use of question stems (e.g. ‘How does this compare to..?’) and sentence starters (e.g. ‘An example of this is…’) really helps those who find it challenging to explain their learning. We have found it useful explicitly to model intended learning through the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach.

Another thing we have found important is giving children time to think before responding. Often in class discussions we found that our lower attaining pupils were ‘overshadowed’ by their more articulate and confident peers. We have worked with colleagues to develop clear whole-school expectations that value thinking time for all pupils; for example, using Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT), set aside for each class.

We know from our studies that getting feedback right is important if learners are to improve. We have found that while basic marking strategies, such as What Went Well/Even Better If, offer a simple framework for students, this needs to be developed so that they know how to improve their work. So we set challenges to focus attention on what students need to do to move forward and try to establish a dialogue with them.

Although we tell our classes that learning can be hard work, we also want them to be excited by our teaching. We have tried to reflect this in our lessons, so that our pupils leave asking ‘What will be learning tomorrow?’ We have used lots of different ideas to develop a sense of awe and wonder.

2. Behaviour for learning

We have benefited from the wisdom of experienced colleagues, particularly in the area of behaviour for learning. The following might appear to be clichés, but they have sustained us through challenging times:

  • ‘Our Values and Vision’ – take the time to establish a clear and realistic set of expectations and refer to them often, deciding on priorities and what can wait.
  • “Always look on the bright side” – difficult to do sometimes, but being optimistic and putting things in perspective has helped us to remain balanced.
  • Praise effort’ – we have found that children from disadvantaged backgrounds respond well to praise that acknowledges their effort.
  • Starting the lesson by positively praising a student on yesterday’s work as they enter can be an effective greeting and immediately sets a positive tone. Highlighting desirable behaviour in the class can lead pupils seeking to be associated with positive rather than anti-social behaviour.
  • ‘Fail to prepare and prepare to fail’ – this relates to children’s behaviour as well as lesson content. We have found having a plan B is essential for challenging classes – this has included ‘starters’ that require silence as they enter the room, pre-ordered seating plans and allocating roles for different learners in the classroom.
  • ‘There’s no I in team’ – perhaps the most important thing we have learnt about responding to children’s behaviour is that you’re never alone. Taking opportunities to observe challenging classes with other members of staff, and being brave enough to invite others into your classroom – these have proven ‘lifesavers’.

3. Supportive and challenging leadership at all levels

We have found that the tone set in the school really matters, and everyone can contribute to this. This includes how we talk to children in the corridor, time taken on wall displays and our body language. Colleagues who genuinely believe in each child’s potential, and who do not accept excuses for their underachievement, have proven very supportive role models. We have valued the opportunities for high-quality professional development, particularly when this has involved observing colleagues, reflecting on different approaches and having the support to try things out, to take risks when teaching. Financial support to undertake a Masters programme has given us opportunities to apply theory and broader research to our particular contexts. We have gained skills in questioning and looking beyond data in understanding the progress learners are making.

The Teach First programme makes a big deal about being leaders of learning. In the classroom, we have found that many pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds experience low self-esteem and lack self-belief. So building their confidence through ‘quick wins’ is essential. How have we done this? Giving individuals responsibilities, acknowledging their efforts, providing support through structures such as mind maps and speaking frames, have all helped. We have found that the barriers to success need to be identified and addressed head on, for example by using differentiated resources, success criteria based on examination board specifications, one-to-one conversations and specific, timely and frequent feedback on pupils’ work.

4. Reaching out to others

We know that we can only do so much in the classroom and it is essential to reach out to parents/carers and the wider community. This has been challenging in breaking down prejudice and stereotypes about low-income families and disadvantaged communities, but we are reminded of what Erin Gruwell said in The Freedom Writers Diary – ‘Don’t let the actions of a few determine how you feel about the entire group.’ We have tried lots of strategies, from attending PTA events and local community centre quiz nights, to being part of parents’ and transition days. Two of our highlights have been working alongside one of our feeder primary schools in the running of a ‘Curry and Bingo’ night to encourage parents to come along to support the transition of their children to our school. This informal, non-intimidating atmosphere has helped to build relationships with families.

A second effective strategy in building selfesteem has been taking the time to celebrate the achievements of those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This has included positive phone calls home and making a point of sharing praise with colleagues in other departments.

Our early experiences of teaching have borne out much of what research tells us about reducing the impact of poverty on pupils’ achievement (Grigg et al., 2014; Sharples et al., 2011). We know that building relationships with children, families, the wider community and other professionals is the bedrock to making change. Most importantly, what happens in the classroom really matters. Lessons need to inspire and motivate. We have also recognised that because something works ‘in the moment’ with a particular group or class, it does not always mean that it will have the same impact with other learners! But this is what makes teaching so interesting. As Erin Gruwell put it when faced with a room of tough, at-risk students: ‘I realised if you can change a classroom, you can change a community, and if you change enough communities, you can change the world.’

About the authors

Georgina Charles, Rachel Manning, Owen Morse, Emily Oram and Lauren O-Connor-Simpson are all participants of the Teach First programme, working in Welsh schools. This article was produced with the support of Russell Grigg, author of Big Ideas in Education (Crown House).