Equity in the education system has never been more important.
We live in an increasingly unequal, fractured society, and schools, as microcosms of that society, are becoming increasingly unequal, fractured institutions. Schools cannot solve all of society’s ills, of course, and nor should they be expected to, but they can do more to ensure a child’s birth is not their destiny.
Currently, disadvantaged children – whether that be those living in poverty, those from under-represented cultures, ethnicities and backgrounds, those with transient lives, or those with SEND – start school behind their peers and schools fail to close the gap.
In fact, as is well established, that gap widens as children travel through the education system, in part because knowledge begets knowledge: those children who start out behind, find it harder than their peers to access the school curriculum and achieve, and thus they fall further and further behind.
Covid exacerbated the problem. As SecEd has reported, there has been a marked rise in absenteeism since the pandemic and the Department for Education’s regular attendance statistics have long showed that disadvantaged children are more than twice as likely to be persistently or severely absent as their peers, leading to lower progress, outcomes, life chances and earnings power, not to mention poorer health and wellbeing.
Disadvantaged children are more likely to experience mental health issues and struggle to study at home or access additional extra-curricular provision.
The school curriculum often fails to talk to disadvantaged children’s lived experiences and, because they do not see themselves reflected in the school curriculum, they do not think it is for them. Furthermore, they often lack the background knowledge and word power needed to access the full curriculum and so fail to achieve their potential.
It is not that these children are less able than their peers, nor that they do not exert the same amount of effort; it is the knowledge and skills gaps (what we might reductively call “cultural capital”) which result from their circumstances that pose a barrier to their success at school and then in later life.
Causes and consequences
The causes of educational disadvantage are complex. The way in which those causes manifest themselves in the classroom are equally complex. The solutions are therefore also complex. There are no silver bullets, no panaceas, no pills which once popped will proffer equity for all.
But it starts with a shift of approach from being label-led to being learner-led.
We often take a label-led approach in schools. In other words, our actions are driven by the label attached to a learner. For example, we see that a learner is a Pupil Premium student or a free school meals (FSM) child and assume that this is all we need to know. We act on the label. But a label-led approach is misguided on several counts:
- It mistakes the label for an educational disadvantage.
- It assumes all learners with the same label are the same.
- It isolates or – worse – stigmatises learners with labels.
Not every learner who has a label will need special treatment. Their “accident of birth” may have no impact on their ability to access the same ambitious school curriculum as their peers and achieve in line with those peers.
The reverse is also true: just because a learner does not carry a label does not mean they will not be educationally disadvantaged in some way.
Also, not all learners with the same label will experience the same circumstances or suffer the same educational disadvantages – they are not a homogenous group, and the label can mask significant differences among the labelled cohort. What’s more, the label tells you little about the educational disadvantage they might experience and therefore tells you little about what you can do to address the disadvantage.
Therefore, a better approach is to focus on the learner not the label, and that means converting the causes of their potential difference or disadvantage into tangible classroom consequences.
The causes might be
- Living in a low-income home
- Experiencing high levels of mobility
- Having English as an additional language
- SEN
- A mental or physical disability
- Coming from some ethnicities or cultures
- A long-term health condition
- Being a care-giver
- Contributing to family income
- Having a family member in prison
- Low levels of education in the family
- Being geographically isolated
- Being socially isolated
- Being supported by external agencies including a social worker
Potential consequences might be
- Gaps in vocabulary
- Limited literacy skills
- Limited numeracy skills
- Cognitive impairment
- Impaired language processing
- Gaps in background knowledge
- Attention deficiencies
- Low self-esteem
- Limited self-regulation skills
- Difficulties controlling emotions
- Low levels of motivation
- Limited social skills
- Low aspirations/awareness of future pathways
- Limited access to learning resources
- Low levels of support outside school
This is complex stuff
Please note that neither of the above lists is exhaustive. However, what I hope these examples convey is that the causes of educational disadvantage are complex, the way in which those causes manifest themselves in the classroom are equally complex, and therefore the solutions are complex. What’s needed is a deep understanding of every learner and a pragmatic approach to supporting them.
Underpinning all this is a whole-school culture of inclusion and belonging. And that’s why, in my latest book, Why School Doesn’t Work for Every Child, I propose an ABC of equity…
A is for attendance
It all starts with attendance because if learners are not attending school, or at least not regularly and on time, then we cannot help them to engage with their education, learn and make progress, and we cannot identify additional needs and put in place the appropriate support. Ensuring good attendance and punctuality must therefore come first.
Attendance is integral to building more equity in education because disadvantaged learners are more than twice as likely as their non-disadvantaged peers to be absent and persistently absent from school.
B is for behaviours
Once learners are attending, we need them to develop appropriate behaviours for learning. Note the plural “behaviours”, because this is two-fold:
- First, learners need to be helped to conduct themselves appropriately and to comply with our rules and expectations.
- Second, learners need to be helped to develop positive attitudes to learning and a raft of behaviours for learning so that they can access an increasingly challenging curriculum, actively engage with their studies, and make good progress.
Attitudes to learning include being resilient and determined, having self-esteem and a belief in your ability to get better with hard work and effort, as well as having a plan for the future which provides a source of motivation and a sense of purpose.
Behaviours for learning take many forms but include study skills such as note-taking and independent research, debate and discussion, self- and peer-assessment, and metacognition and self-regulation.
C is for community
Once learners are attending and behaving appropriately and positively, we must focus on building a community around our learners by putting family first. We all know the adage that it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a community to educate one. Schools do not exist in isolation – they are a part of the community they serve.
The best schools reflect their local communities – they bring the community into their school and take learners out into that community. The best schools also look beyond their local communities and regard themselves as part of the national and international conversation. These schools teach learners how to be active members of their communities and how to be good citizens of the world.
Community is also about engaging with parents and families as partners in the process of educating their child, involving not just informing them on matters pertaining to their child’s progress and wellbeing. Communication should be a dialogue not a monologue and be marked by dignity and respect. Our conversations should not apportion blame but ask how we can support parents to support their child.
Final thoughts
Once we have achieved our ABC, the mark of success will be whether we have built a more equitable school, one which prepares all the young people we serve for their next steps in life.
Do our learners leave school as well-rounded, cultured, inquisitive, caring, kind, resilient, knowledgeable human beings ready to make their own way in the world? And do we, therefore, make the world a better place?
- Matt Bromley is an education journalist, author, and advisor with 25 years’ experience in teaching and leadership including as a secondary school headteacher. He remains a practising teacher. Matt is the author of numerous books on education and co-host of the award-winning SecEd Podcast. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/matt-bromley
Why School Doesn’t Work for Every Child
Matt Bromley’s new book is entitled Why School Doesn’t Work for Every Child: How to create a culture of inclusion and belonging and is out now, published by Routledge. It is the first in a four-book series called Equity in Education. For full details, visit https://bee-online.uk/why-school-doesnt-work-for-every-child
