PREPARATION FOR YEAR 10 INTO YEAR

“no two cohorts or groups of pupils are likely to always need the exact same things, so schools need to build adaptative expertise and responsive teaching, rooted in subject knowledge, to allow teachers to react to that changing picture.”

“We need to think about how we can improve not just how we can evidence what we are doing for these pupils.”

That means starting with some detective work.

We need to understand what the barriers to learning are for those pupils within YOUR context before we make decisions around how our approach to teaching and learning might overcome them. It can be easy to assume pupils experiencing deprivation will have poorer language skills, a less-developed vocabulary or will struggle to self-regulate.

There is evidence this can be true of pupils from these backgrounds, but without exploring what our pupils can and can’t do we could end up setting the bar too low or focusing our energies on something they just don’t need as a priority.

For example, in a group of 10 pupils I mentored, all of whom were identified as being higher prior attainers, six were also identified as ‘pupil premium’. These pupils were articulate, had high aspirations and goals for post-16, engaged with a range of learning activities outside of school and, on the whole, enjoyed being in school and learning.

What this group needed most were practical ways to access materials and opportunities to get quick feedback to see their next steps. These could sometimes get lost amongst their other priorities such as their paid employment and supporting parents with younger siblings.

This approach provided them with the material means to succeed and the reassurance they were on track, helping them to manage their time to focus on the things they found more difficult.

If our focus had been on vocabulary or we’d enrolled them onto additional after-school interventions, it could have placed them under additional pressure which would not have helped with their learning.

Equally, if the school decided selfregulation was the key, then alreadyindependent pupils could find themselves restricted in how they worked, making their use of time less efficient. It is therefore important we really understand what issues they are facing before we decide on what those ‘best bets’ will be.

This is also true within our classroom practice. Good diagnostic testing will ensure we identify what it is our pupils of all backgrounds may be struggling with and can then address this. Even though all pupils may benefit from a focus on vocabulary or reading, blanket approaches may not help everyone effectively so diagnosing literacy needs is essential, making use of data which tells us exactly what our pupils are struggling with.

Is it decoding, comprehension, reading or writing fluency which might be the barrier, and if so, what is it we can do to address those on a whole school, class, or individual level?

Diagnostics at subject level are also crucial, identifying the gaps in foundational knowledge, rooting out where misconceptions may be residing and really clarifying what it is our pupils already know and can do.

High quality formative assessment should run through everything, alongside those formal opportunities to assess, bringing to light information that might challenge or surprise us.

That also means staff must have a good understanding of the content of their subject and the steps and processes needed to be successful at different stages. Time should be devoted to this if we want to

understand how to close gaps and enable students to achieve.

Once we understand the issues, we then need to explore how we might go about addressing them, returning again to those ‘best bets’. That includes considering how we sequence our curriculum, how we create opportunities for pupils to practise applying knowledge, how we utilise spaced learning so pupils have to think hard about what they are retrieving and ways we can build on their prior knowledge.

If we have a strong understanding of pupils starting points through our diagnostic processes, we will then be in a better position to develop responsive teaching, enabling us to adapt our explanations, our questioning, and the scaff olding we use to address the needs of all.

There is a huge amount to unpick there though, and leaders need a clear understanding of the strengths and areas for development across the school too in order for teachers to make the best use of these diff erent aspects.

They need to decide on the key priorities as a whole school and ensure that all staff have a shared understanding of the main focus and what it is they mean by Quality First Teaching in their context.

Staff also need to be given time to refl ect, refi ne and feedback, engaging in defi ning what that means in their classroom for their pupils too. Leaders and teachers also need to keep a sharp eye on how these choices are impacting upon groups of pupils as well as individuals, giving them a better chance of closing those attainment gaps, returning us again to that ongoing diagnostic process we use day-to-day in our classrooms. We need to think about how we can improve not just how we can evidence what we are doing for these pupils.

Having this detailed understanding can also create opportunities to stop less eff ective practices where needed and to concentrate on building in more of what their pupils need, be that modelling, other types of scaff olding or probing questions to get all pupils thinking hard.

The challenge here of course is no two cohorts or groups of pupils are likely to always need the exact same things, so schools need to build adaptative expertise and responsive teaching, rooted in subject knowledge, to allow teachers to react to that changing picture.

Coupling Quality First Teaching with well-placed and evidence-informed interventions, plus good relationships with pupils and parents, means we might be in a good position to really make a diff erence to those pupils who need it the most.

If we can identify what pupils from less-advantaged backgrounds need, what barriers they experience and how we might overcome them, we will be on track to ensuring the best quality teaching and learning for all does indeed come fi rst.

1. https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2teachers-impact-report-fi nal.pdf 2. https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2teachers-impact-report-fi nal.pdf Slater, H., Davies, N. M., & Burgess, S. (2011) Do Teachers Matter? Measuring the Variation in Teacher Eff ectiveness in England. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.” https://bit.ly/ecf-sla 3. https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/support-and-training-for-schools/teaching-cambridge-at-your-school/great-teaching-toolkit/ 4. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit