Closing the Attainment Gap in Schools

Progress through Evidence-based Practices

Antony Luby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000171969
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Closing the Attainment Gap in Schools explores the experience and history of teachers who have a determined, no-nonsense approach to providing an excellent standard of education to all young people from differing backgrounds. Using professional conversations, voices are given to schools and teachers striving successfully to address this important issue through evidence-based practices. Linked with the Ad Astra Primary Partnership, what these teachers do with their schoolchildren will resonate with all schools in any location.

From Superstar Assemblies to encourage their dreams and aspirations; to Munch 'n Mingle sessions to encourage healthy eating; to Marvellous Me software to encourage the use of open-ended questions and parent-child conversations at home; and through to the use of skilled specialists to develop their handwriting skills, this book:

• explores the rich complexity of teacher learning;
• contains numerous case studies and examples of success;
• reflects upon and considers evidence-based pedagogy, practical wisdom, teacher-research, self-improving school systems and social justice;

• proposes a rich array of approaches and suggests ways forward.

Offering first-hand, invaluable and practical advice this wide-ranging book will encourage and enable any teacher to develop their own practical wisdom and a 'can do' approach whilst never shying away from the very real issues within education.

1Forging ahead in the East Midlands

Mansfield no more

Newark no more

Worksop no more

(Luby 2019: 8)

The plaintive cry from The Proclaimers ‘mourning over the devastation wreaked upon Bathgate, Linwood and Methil in the industrial heartlands of their native Scotland’ (Luby, 2019: 8) in Letter from America is adapted for the sorrow that has been poured out for the former mining towns and villages of Nottinghamshire. In the last few years I have been humbled to witness the inspiring efforts of dedicated primary school staff alleviating the poverty wrought upon the children of these towns and villages. And it all began with a chance conversation.

That chance arose in a nondescript seminar room of the cathedral city of Lincoln’s Bishop Grosseteste University. However, nondescript is not a word to be used for my partner in conversation – Lee Hessey, Executive Principal of The Forge Trust comprising seven schools in the East Midlands. A diamond in the rough is a more apt description for Lee. Physically imposing, he shares the same characteristics of honesty and humility lauded by Sir Steve Lancashire (2019) in his review of Steve Munby’s (2019) book Imperfect Leadership. Notably, though, neither Lee nor The Forge Trust come alone. Born of similar stock is Grant Worthington, formerly head teacher of Forest View Junior School and now a member of Quality Assurance and School Improvement with the Flying High Trust. Down-to-earth is another of the attributes that they share as exemplified by their conversation whilst surveying the football field of a struggling primary school that no-one wants – except them:

Grant:How many is that then?

Lee:I make it four.

Grant:So, that’s four syringes on the football field. What about the dog poo?

Lee:Let’s not go there…!

(Luby and Beckley 2019)

Others see failure and waste; but Grant and Lee see opportunity and challenge. For Grant, it is an opportunity to revive the fortunes of his old primary school; whilst for Lee it is the challenge of growing The Forge Trust.

The Ad Astra Primary Partnership

In early 2015, Lee introduced me to fellow members of the Ad Astra Primary Partnership which, at that time, comprised six Nottinghamshire schools – one primary academy, three primary schools, one junior school and one infant school. They shared the challenge and also their expertise of narrowing the attainment gap for white working class pupils sited in areas of deprivation.

The Ad Astra member schools:

•Lee at The Sir Donald Bailey Academy, Newark that, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation is sited within the top 6% most deprived neighbourhoods.

•Grant at Forest View Junior School in New Ollerton that is situated close to Newark and Sherwood 001A within the top 10% most deprived areas.

•Head teacher Helen Chambers of Abbey Hill Primary and Nursery School sited five miles south-west of the town of Mansfield and serving an area of high social and economic disadvantage as attested by 47% of the pupils living in families that are income deprived. The school receives substantial pupil premium funding and a significant number of families are supported by social services with the school employing a full-time Child and Family Support Worker.

•Head teacher (and now Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI)) Peter Stonier then at Jacksdale Primary and Nursery School that is close to the Derbyshire border. Situated within the heart of Jacksdale village, there are 250 pupils on the school roll including a number of children from Amber Valley which is in the top 10% most deprived areas nationally.

•Head teacher Chris Wilson of Ramsden primary school in the deceptively picturesque Carlton-in-Lindrick near Worksop. The housing scheme from which the majority of pupils are drawn is found in Bassetlaw 004A that according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation is also in the top 10% of England’s most deprived areas.

•And last, but not least, Jo Cook at Hallcroft Infant School that is sited not far from Bassetlaw 008A within the top 20% most deprived areas nationally.¹

The Ad Astra Primary Partnership focuses on significant factors affecting outcomes for pupils in areas of deprivation, namely:

•material poverty;

•emotional poverty;

•poverty of experience;

•poverty of language; and

•poverty of aspiration.

The group investigates strategies and ideas for minimising the impact of such poverty on their children and the approach of the Ad Astra Primary Partnership is one of collaboration between equal partners, working in similar contexts, but with one shared ambition to identify and implement the most effective strategies to address this long-standing issue. The partnership schools are also responsive to the assertion by Hammersley-Fletcher et al. (2015: 5) that:

The strengths of schools working alongside researchers … is an effective and supportive way to develop practices which are led and informed by schools themselves, bringing them an extra level of autonomy to pursue issues and change initiatives that are relevant to their own setting and context.

This is evidenced by their openness to a series of research consultancy projects (Luby, 2016b) that culminates with five-day ethnographic studies in five of the partnership schools (Puttick et al., 2020).

The nitty-gritty of what some of the Ad Astra partnership schools actually do in the classroom to address poverty will be discussed later; but, for now, let us focus on the professional conversation with Lee.²

Thursday, 2 May 2019

The Forge Trust centre, North Muskham, Notts

AL:I’m with Lee Hessey who is the Chief Executive Officer of The Forge Trust and Lee we’re discussing leadership. Would you like to just tell me what’s your … where did it all start for you?

LEE:Yeah, I started as a young teacher who came into teaching from business, so always had a view of teaching possibly different to the majority of teachers because I didn’t go from school to school; I went from school at 16 to work for Wilkinson’s at the time and then a couple of years later, Unilever in the big wide world. I went and got my qualifications at night school. So I wasn’t your typical orthodox route, it was very unorthodox which is probably why some of my views are probably really challenging for the profession because I have views that aren’t in line with the profession. Especially these days now, the profession is going in another direction post Wilshaw, post Michael Gove, which I liked, that era.³

I don’t like this era so much today because it doesn’t fit with me as a man, me as a person, what I believe in and the values of the Trust. I think we’re losing … I’m passionate about teaching, I’m passionate about leadership; but I think the profession is losing the plot. We’re dropping our standards …

The emphasis Wilshaw said should be on standards and curriculum. I do like that. I do like the emphasis on curriculum today. That is something that is new and I’m welcoming because kids need a balanced curriculum and, in the past, maybe it was too narrow. I’m a standards man but, maybe, it was just all standards in some schools. It needs to be developed with artistic talent. Find the talent and push it. I’m absolutely with them on that but not at the expense of standards; and standards shouldn’t come at the expense of talent either. It should be both.

But what you’re going towards here is a slipping of the standards, especially for white working class kids, the biggest underperforming group in the country. I feel the national agenda is tipping away from that again and we’re going to be leaving these kids stood still again.

But back to your question on leadership, yeah, it starts with me as a young teacher. I was obviously open to learning but quickly recognised that I had skills that the schools I worked for, which generally were underperforming needed; because you need a bit of grit and a bit of whatever word you want to use, the government like resilience, don’t they? Use that one, you need a bit of something, you need a bit of know-how and I would say the main thing you need is dedication and an interest and a concern for the job. It’s not just a job. It’s more than that.

There are over 600 words in Lee’s opening statement (some have been excised) or, rather, his outpouring of passion. It is the passion of which Hattie (2012) speaks in the opening pages of his renowned Visible Learning for Teachers. It is the passion that I have seen, heard, witnessed in Lee’s dealings with head teacher colleagues, school staff and children. It is the passion that drives him to overcome obstacles and to succeed in highly challenging circumstances. One only has to visit the sites of the six academies within The Forge Trust:

•Bowbridge estate, Newark, in which the most common council tax band is A, for The Sir Donald Bailey Academy;

•for both the Parkgate Academy and the Forest View Academy, the colliery village of New Ollerton, originally built in the mid-1920s; but times have changed with the closure of the mine 25 years ago;

•the non-ethnically diverse (98% White British) village of Rainworth for Python Hill Academy that also suffered when nearby Rufford Colliery stopped producing coal in 1993;

•Kirkby-in-Ashfield, a part of the Mansfield Urban Area for West Park Academy; and

•5 miles south from Gainsborough, the civil parish of Marton for The Marton Academy.

Soon to be joined by a seventh school, St Augustine’s in Worksop, it is noteworthy that all but two of The Forge Trust schools are currently rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted.⁴

Talent

But back to Lee. He speaks of talent, standards, curriculum, among others: but how does he address these? With talent – with his staff – Lee is generous. The Forge Trust fully funds Sophie Longney, the Head of Teaching and Learning as she successfully becomes one of England’s first cohort of 98 teachers to achieve the prestigious award of Chartered Teacher from the Chartered College of Teaching (graduated July 2019). This is a highly demanding course and as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chartered College of Teaching points out:

Design and accreditation of our CTeach programme has been a major part of our collective endeavour to rebuild the professional status of teaching. These teachers take with them into their school confidence born out of rigorous study and a commitment to share this knowledge in the spirit of collaboration.

(Lough 2019)

Words of caution however. The Chartered Teacher Scheme in Scotland attracted thousands of teachers and, whilst not fl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• 1 Forging ahead in the East Midlands
• 2 Caledonia rising: The Scottish Attainment Challenge
• 3 East Midlands and beyond
• 4 Pilgrims’ progress through evidence-based practices
• 5 Audaces fortuna juvat: Fortune favours the bold
• 6 Op weg naar Emmaus: On the way to Emmaus
• 7 Deep diving: Research schooling
• 8 A journey of praxis
• 9 Strategic conversations: Backward and forward
• 10 Conversation in union
• 11 Collaboration for collective impact
• Index