Teach Secondary Issue 13.4

teachwire.net/secondary children do disproportionately well ” – albeit with no supporting evidence cited. Elsewhere, we’ve seen a headteacher frequently use the term ‘deprived’ as a synonym for disadvantaged. The latter is, at best, patronising to children and their families; at worst, it’s insulting to those who don’t see themselves as ‘deprived’. On the contrary, many of these pupils come from aspirational families who value education, who have developed a culture of respect for schools and are thus motivated to see their children succeed. Aspirational strategies As can be seen in the data’s variability by ethnicity, gender and region, such assertions are too generalised. The term ‘disadvantaged’ is itself too wide-ranging to use as justification for restricting certain approaches to behaviour – or indeed pedagogies – to pupil groups that will likely have an enormous range of needs, abilities, barriers and individual characteristics. When designing our curriculum intent, we must surely be cognisant of this, and allow said knowledge to influence howwe craft our aspirational and motivational strategies. The days of blindly following that clunky old model – under which the achievement of disadvantaged pupils is closely scrutinised and held up against outcomes for non- disadvantaged pupils –are surely over. There can exist now a matrix of complex interactions between pupils’ ethnicity and gender, as well as factors relating to their levels of disadvantage and socio-economic status. A sense of strong motivation and aspiration is what forms the foundations of positive attitudes to learning, and are integral to pupils ultimately achieving successful outcomes. Reductionist and binary By keeping in place a reductionist, binary model of reviewing attainment for disadvantaged and non- disadvantaged pupils, we’re putting up barriers to meaningful curriculum reform. Presenting accounts of educational achievement that are uniquely framed in relation to one of these factors alone won’t be helpful for those schools wishing to adopt strategies that genuinely address educational inequalities. A pathways curriculum with greater choice than the current EBacc offering is a necessity, and one which could be implemented alongside revised behaviour policies that serve to foster positive attitudes towards learning, rather than punishing pupils for relatively minor instances of non-compliance. Terms such as ‘rich diet of knowledge’ may be closely associated with having an aspirational outlook, but unless the curriculum includes content widely regarded as relevant and engaging, then too many pupils – including many from the ‘disadvantaged’ group – will continue to conclude that school simply ‘isn’t for them’. Nor can we ignore how knowledge is often presented in the school curriculum very selectively. ‘ The best that has been thought and said…..to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement ’ is what’s being promised – though precisely what this ‘essential knowledge’ is, how it’s selected and by whom are the key questions here, since not all pupils may perceive it as being meaningful in their context. An extended curriculum Other factors to consider include attitudes to learning, and the need for schools to counteract reactive behaviours – especially in the face of learning challenges encountered in lessons and towards authority figures. Patterns of regular absence, truancy and exclusion will clearly influence the educational prospects of all pupils, and must therefore be taken into account when planning curriculum intent. It’s essential, for instance, to consider the funding of an extended curriculum involving parents and other community stakeholders. We must also look at howwe can best draw on a range of meaningful data about particular pupil groups, and use this to devise strategies that support learning and progress for all. Finally, Ofsted should incorporate effective scrutiny of said data in its inspections, and cross-reference this against schools’ own self-evaluations. There is considerable scope here for school leaders to adopt a more nuanced approach when analysing pupil data, and to implement inclusive strategies that will genuinely help raise achievement for all pupils – regardless of their starting points. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Meena Wood is a former principal and HMI, and author of Secondary Curriculum Transformed – Enabling All to Achieve (Routledge, £24.99); Julie Grimshaw is a school improvement adviser, external moderator for ITE and a former HMI 23 P E D A G O G Y