Equity (SEND and Oracy)
A pedagogy for equity
While some subjects have actually recovered to pre-pandemic levels, mathematics has not. The negative impact on maths has been deeper and more persistent.
Although overall standards in maths have increased slightly this year for both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils, they remain below 2019 levels and, crucially, the attainment gap remains significantly wider now than it was in 2015/16.
Research has shown that pupils from the least deprived backgrounds were 2.6 times more likely than their peers from the most deprived backgrounds to be high achievers at KS1.
At Secondary, looking at high-performing students at the end of Key Stage 2:
Only 52.1% of those from disadvantaged backgrounds manage to convert that potential into Grades 7–9 at GCSE.
This is compared to 73.5% of their non-disadvantaged peers.
What can we do about this?
Teaching for Mastery is recognised as a pedagogy for equity.
In Teaching for Mastery:
- Everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics
- A focus on building self confidence in all children’s ability to do mathematics is fostered
- Cognitive strategies such as physical gestures and representations are used to support learning.
- There is a strong focus on disciplinary literacy (the specific ways of reading, writing, and thinking used inmathematics), vocabulary, and focused talk.
- Attention is drawn to the crucial and most efficient approaches to the mathematics.
- Pupils’ schemas are extended by making connections between different parts of the mathematics curriculum.