Supporting the Attainment of Disadvantaged Pupils: Briefing for School Leaders

Caroline Sharp, Shona Macleod, Daniele Bernardinelli, Amy Skipp, Steve Higgins

05 November 2015

School leaders' briefing on DfE web site
Summary briefing on DfE web site

This briefing aims to help school leaders take stock of their approaches to supporting disadvantaged pupils' achievement. It summarises the strategies used by the most successful schools, describes schools’ pathways to improvement and includes a set of relevant resources.

The briefing was written by NFER and is based on national research with primary, secondary and special schools across England. The research was conducted for the Department for Education by NFER. The research team analysed national performance data for disadvantaged pupils (defined as pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium at the time of the research) and identified schools where disadvantaged pupils were making more or less progress than expected, given the characteristics of the pupils and schools. The team sent a survey to more and less successful primary and secondary schools in 2015: 1,329 schools responded to the survey and 49 school leaders from primary, secondary and special schools took part in interviews.