“Pupils are not at risk of underachievement because of any particular label, such as Pupil Premium. Rather, it is because of the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on their learning.”
Marc Rowland, 2021
The P word
Poverty provokes emotion. It is complex. It means disadvantage in many different ways and all of this has been made more complex by the on-going challenges of Covid-19.
It is the disadvantaged pupils who are going to need support to make more progress and it is important that teachers and school leaders have a shared understanding of what poverty means in relation to their setting.
Pupil Premium data may be a starting point, but we need to look beyond this as a measure of poverty and what we mean when we refer to disadvantaged pupils. Indeed, researchers have highlighted the limitations of using Pupil Premium as a core proxy for identifying and responding to socio-economic disadvantage in schools (Gorard, 2014; Holloway et al, 2012; Noden & West, 2009; Montacute & Cullinane, 2021).
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