Bitesize Research: The KS3 Years and Disadvantaged Children

The third week in T3, I wanted to share with you the work of the Nuffield Foundation on disadvantage in early secondary education (KS3 in the traditional sense of YR7 to YR9) published in December 2020.

Objectives: To examine what, if any, impact the KS3 years have on attainment and progress for disadvantaged children. They looked at lots of factors, but most notably ones connected to family income and attendance.

Summary:  

• There is significant evidence to suggest that a number of educational inequalities widen between disadvantaged children and their peers across KS3. This includes attendance, attainment and progress worsening for disadvantaged children across KS3.

• The gaps in students’ self-reported outcomes also widen, particularly pertaining to attitudes towards school, perception of academic ability, aspirations for careers and further education.

• Identifying and supporting higher prior attaining disadvantage students on entry to secondary school made a difference in creating higher GCSE attainment 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

 

• Do I know who my disadvantaged students in KS3 are? Do I know who my higher prior attaining disadvantaged students in KS3 are too? If not, how do I find this out?

• How can we support KS3 students to mitigate against some of these widening inequalities from YR7-9?

• How can we work to improve student self-perception across KS3? What has worked well? What could we try differently?

If anyone would like to discuss this further with Jaya - please do comment below! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.