The document discusses strategies to support disadvantaged students. It notes that consistent high-quality teaching, a focus on literacy and numeracy skills, targeted interventions monitored through data, and deploying effective staff are important. Individual barriers must be identified early and transition from primary school should address skills gaps. Disadvantaged students should have high profiles, opportunities to develop aspirations, and advice on pathways. Effective parent links should also be established. Funding must be strategically coordinated. There is no single solution and a range of evidence-based strategies tailored to individual schools and students are needed.

1. Disadvantaged Students
Those eligible for FSM in the last six years
(Ever 6 FSM)
Children looked after by the local authority and now
those who have been adopted from care
Children whose parents are currently serving in the
armed forces

2. Ryedale Federation
Disadvantaged Student Policy
1. Consistent high quality teaching and learning in classrooms, which meets the
needs of all students, is key to maximising progress.
2. For students to access the curriculum it is essential they have mastered the basic
skills of literacy and numeracy. Targeted interventions should be focussed
primarily in these areas. Data should be used regularly to monitor impact and
adapt interventions if necessary.
3. The most effective staff, with a proven track record of achieving success with
students, should be deployed to support disadvantaged pupils.
4. Disadvantaged students have a range of needs and must not be treated as a single
group. Specifically eligibility should not be confused with ability! Able
disadvantaged students must be challenged to achieve their potential.
5. Individual barriers to learning including behaviour, attendance, welfare and access
to extracurricular opportunities must be identified early.
6. Transition from Primary school must include identification of the basic skills gaps
that exist among eligible pupils so that appropriate early intervention can be
delivered.
7. Disadvantaged students should have a high profile with all staff and be at the
centre of planning decisions at all levels of leadership.
8. Disadvantaged students must be given opportunities to develop their aspirations
and be provided with clear advice and guidance on future pathways.
9. Effective links with the parents of disadvantaged students should be established
to help them support their child’s learning.
10.Pupil Premium funding allocation must be carefully coordinated with a strategic
overview by SLT and the Ryedale Federation’s link governor for Pupil Premium.

3. There is no single ‘one size fits all’ solution to closing
the attainment gap. A number of measures are
required, including: setting a culture of high
expectations for all pupils…and selecting a range of
evidenced based strategies tailored to meet the
needs of individual schools and pupils, and
implementing them well.
DfE Research Report
November 2015

4. Disadvantaged students – the
research into what works
The research is in the early stages.
It is important to note that, according to a DfE report
that questioned 49 schools…
“None of the headteachers and senior leaders in
more successful schools felt able to identify a single
approach which they believed had led to raising
attainment among disadvantaged pupils.”

5. Closing the gap
• Most approaches ‘work’ for the majority of learners
• Most approaches may therefore increase the gap.
• The “Matthew Effect” – ‘advantage begets further
advantage’ or “to them that hath shall more be
given.”
• Reducing the gap is a significant challenge

6. Disadvantaged students – the
research into what works
“For every complex problem there is a solution that
is simple, neat… and wrong.”
H.L. Mencken

7. Disadvantaged students – the
research into what works
What do you think might work for a teacher in the
classroom?
Sort your cards into “less effective” and “more
effective”.
All of the strategies may have a positive effect, but
some effects are greater than others, and some
disproportionately benefit disadvantaged students.

8. Classroom strategies
Improving the classroom
environment
Raising aspirations
Changing the homework policy Improving behaviour
Cooperative learning Increasing the use of ICT
Metacognitive strategies Incentives/ rewards for good
performance
Frequent assessment Peer tutoring
Contacting parents Changing the curriculum

9. Classroom strategies
More effective Less effective
Cooperative learning Changing the homework policy
Metacognitive strategies Improving the classroom
environment
Raising aspirations Incentives/ rewards for good
performance
Peer tutoring Increasing the use of ICT
Frequent assessment Changing the curriculum
Contacting parents
Improving behaviour

10. • “Peer tutoring includes a range of approaches in
which learners work in pairs or small groups to
provide each other with explicit teaching support. ”
• “Studies have identified benefits for both tutors
and tutees, and for a wide range of age groups.
Though all types of pupils appear to benefit from
peer tutoring, there is some evidence that children
from disadvantaged backgrounds and low attaining
pupils make the biggest gains.”
EEF

11. ‘Metacognition - what’s that? I imagine we’re
probably doing it.’
Headteacher of a less successful school interviewed
by the DfE

12. • Thinking about one’s own learning and thought
processes.
• A strategy that appears throughout the literature as
having a positive effect.
• “Meta-cognition and self-regulation approaches have
consistently high levels of impact, with pupils making
an average of eight months’ additional progress. The
evidence indicates that teaching these strategies can be
particularly effective for low achieving and older
pupils.” EEF
• The strategy seems to be particularly effective for
disadvantaged students.

14. “Across the studies we reviewed, parental
involvement in school, and their aspirations for their
children, emerged as some of the most important
factors associated with lower educational
achievement… A key characteristic of children from
poor families that ‘buck the trend’ is extensive
parental engagement from an early age ”
Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and
Young People’s Services

15. • Almost 16,000 students in 36 English secondary schools
took part in a trial. Parents were sent an average of 30
texts over one school year (roughly one per week) with
content ranging from dates of upcoming tests and
warnings about missed homework, to conversation
prompts on what their child had learnt that day.
• They found that pupils receiving the intervention made
an additional month’s progress in maths compared with
a similar group whose parents didn’t get the texts.
Absenteeism was reduced too.
EEF

16. Students think about their own learning and thought
processes.
Used in three sections for a task:
• Develop a plan before approaching a learning task,
such as reading for comprehension or solving a maths
problem.
• Monitor their understanding; use “fix-up” strategies
when meaning breaks down.
• Evaluate their thinking after completing the task.
In order to apply a metacognitive approach, learners
need access to a set of strategies. Better learners
automatically use a lot of these already.

17. Mrs Darcy asks her Year 4 students to practise some
additions. She reads out a list of six numbers and asks
students to add them up. These Year 4 students will need
to use their cognition to add up the list of numbers. They
will also need to use their metacognition, to think about
the process of adding up those numbers. This
metacognitive thinking might involve strategies such as:
“I’d better write those numbers down so I don’t forget
them. Then I’ll be able to add them up more easily on
paper”, or “I’d better add those numbers up twice, just to
be sure. I could make a mistake with so many numbers”

19. • When could you use metacognitive strategies?
• Look at the sheet.
• With a colleague try to identify when you could use
planning, monitoring and evaluating strategies
within your lessons.

20. • Peer tutoring includes a range of approaches in
which learners work in pairs or small groups to
provide each other with explicit teaching support.
• In reciprocal peer tutoring, learners alternate
between the role of tutor and tutee.
• Learners take on responsibility for aspects of
teaching and for evaluating their success.

21. • Peer tutoring involves learners providing each other with explicit
teaching support.
• In reciprocal peer tutoring, learners alternate between the role of
tutor and tutee.
• Can be cross-age.
• Learners take on responsibility for aspects of teaching and for
evaluating their success.
• Can be within lessons or as part of a large programme within
school.

22. • Studies have identified benefits for both tutors and
tutees, and for a wide range of age groups.
• Peer tutoring appears to be particularly effective when
pupils are provided with support to ensure that the
quality of peer interaction is high, for example by
providing questioning frames.
• Peer tutoring appears to be less effective when the
approach replaces normal teaching, rather than
supplementing or enhancing it, suggesting that peer
tutoring is most effectively used to consolidate
learning, rather than to introduce new material.

23. • Are the activities sufficiently challenging for the
tutee to benefit from the tutor’s support?
• What support will the tutor receive to ensure that
the quality of peer interaction is high?

25. Key Questions for our Schools…
As a Federation
• How can we further support reading for pleasure? Disadvantaged students need to read
more books!! (The academic dividends are linked to aspiration and self-belief)
• How can we invest in staff training and resources to deliver high quality reading
comprehension programmes and strategies. All staff need to be committed to improving
reading levels in their subject areas – a consistent approach is required.
• How can we further promote parental involvement on a whole school scale? (Early Years
is vital). How can we increase communication and target parents of disadvantaged
students, providing support for parents to support learning from home?
• How can we develop coordinated approaches to teaching students self-regulated study.
High quality programmes that equip students with the skills to achieve this are evidenced
to have very high impact (8mths+ of learning) for relatively low cost.

28. High aspirations and current good
practice
As a practitioner in the classroom
• Aim high with your disadvantaged students. Instil self-belief at every
opportunity and be very explicit in your feedback about why they have
completed a task successfully.
• Do your bit in terms of parental contact – the more informed parents
are, the more secure they feel in terms of supporting their child.
• Consider your seating plans very carefully.
• Positive reinforcement of behaviours and actions.
• Double check requirements and instructions for independent work
carefully. WAGOLLS
• Any lost learning must be caught up – consider resources to support
this.