Classroom consequences that address the impact of disadvantage on student outcomes

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.