This practical resource shows what teachers can do to combat disadvantage and underachievement in schools and from early years to secondary education. Written by an experienced teacher, teacher educator and chartered psychologist, the book highlights effective teaching and learning methods that can be used to overcome barriers to learning, satisfy different learning needs and help students achieve their full potential. Packed with up-to-date research, useful guidance and examples, the book explores what schools have done and what they can do without need for extra resourcing. It includes case studies that examine the types of underachievement patterns that are found across age ranges and, by detailing approaches in subject teaching, defines the nature of effective learning and shows what strategies can be used to meet these criteria. Moreover, the chapters provide: An exploration into the central needs of underachieving and disadvantaged learners across the ability range Information about how to audit the provision and the needs Accessible resources for the classroom changes that need to be made to the education and training of teachers Tackling Disadvantage and Underachievement in Schools is essential reading for teachers in early years education and primary and secondary schools, teachers in training and their educators, as well as leaders, policymakers, researchers and anyone interested in improving performance in schools.

Governments, local authorities, school leaders, and teachers all over the world want to improve the educational attainment and participation of all students, and to minimise any systematic differences in outcomes for social and economic groups. A particular concern is for those students from backgrounds that may objectively disadvantage them at school and beyond. However, considerable effort and money is currently being wasted on policies, practices and interventions that have very little hope of success, and that may indeed endanger the progress that is being made otherwise. The poor quality of much education research evidence, coupled with an unwillingness among users of evidence to discriminate appropriately between what we know and do not know, means that opportunities are being missed. At a time of reduced public spending it is important that proposed interventions are both effective and efficient. Overcoming Disadvantage in Education is unique in the way that it: Shows where the solutions to underachievement and poverty lie combines primary(new), secondary (official) and published (review) evidence distinguishes between those possible causes of underachievement that are largely fixed for individuals, and those that are modifiable. There are evidence-informed ways forward in handling under-achievement and increasing social justice in education. This book shows which the more likely approaches are, and where further work could yield further benefits. This book will be a key text for students, developing academic researchers and supervisors in the social sciences, and for those research users charged with improving educational outcomes.

The genesis for this book, and the strategy within it, is a longstanding commitment from Essex County Council to improve the life chances and life choices of disadvantaged pupils being educated in Essex. The purpose of the book is to set out a strategic, evidence-informed approach with pupils, families, teachers, leaders, system leaders and wider agencies which puts learners first. This approach is rooted in best practice. It centres on improving the day to day learning experiences of disadvantaged pupils, leading to better long term choice and opportunity. Unity Research School and Essex County Council hope it will support efforts to address the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on learning in schools and colleges nationally.

In Powering Up Children: The Learning Power Approach to primary teaching, Guy Claxton and Becky Carlzon harness the design principles of the Learning Power Approach (LPA) to provide a rich resource of effective teaching strategies for use in the primary school classroom. Foreword by Ron Berger. The LPA is a way of teaching which aims to develop all children as confident and capable learners ready, willing, and able to choose, design, research, pursue, troubleshoot, and evaluate learning for themselves, alone and with others, in school and out. This approach therefore empowers teachers to complement their delivery of content, knowledge, and skills with the nurturing of positive habits of mind that will better prepare students to flourish in later life. Building upon the foundations carefully laid in The Learning Power Approach (ISBN 9781785832451), the first book in the Learning Power series, Guy Claxton and Becky Carlzon's Powering Up Children embeds the ideas of this influential method in the context of the primary school. It offers a thorough explanation of how the LPA's design principles apply to this level of education and, by presenting a wide range of practical strategies and classroom examples, illustrates how they can be put into action with different age groups and in different curricular areas especially relating to literacy and numeracy, but also in specific subjects such as science, history, art, and PE. Bursting with tips and techniques to get students' learning muscles stretching from a young age, the book is designed for busy primary school teachers who want to get started on the LPA journey as well as for those who have already made good progress and are looking for fresh ideas. The central chapters are structured around thematic clusters of the LPA's design principles, and follow a common format: 1. First, the authors explain why the design principles focused on are important; including what's in it for the teacher and what's in it for the children. 2. Next, they offer a menu of practical low-risk tweaks to classroom practice that enable teachers to engage with the design principles and experience some quick wins. 3. Then they provide some ideas about how to embed the principles more deeply in the ongoing life of the classroom including some rich lesson examples from across the primary age range, and from different school subjects. 4. Finally, they address some of the common bumps and issues that may crop up along the way, and offer advice to help teachers overcome such potential obstacles. Suitable for both newly qualified and experienced teachers of learners aged 3 to 11.