COVID has potentially reversed a decade of progress in closing the attainment gap. The evidence is clear that disadvantaged students have fallen further behind during the pandemic. This guide is designed as a practical starting point to support school leaders to develop, implement and monitor an evidence-informed approach to their Pupil Premium…

This study aimed to understand the relationship between reception children's experiences of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and their academic achievement and socio-emotional development during their first year at school in September 2020 to July 2021. This was an exploratory study combining parent and school surveys with children's…

The study uses data from five assessment points for reading and maths. It focuses on a constant sample of students, all of whom completed a Rising Stars assessment in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also administered three teacher surveys: the first focused on the initial period of lockdown, the second focused on the autumn 2020…

Schools in England have experienced unprecedented disruptions due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There were two periods during which in-person learning was restricted for the majority of pupils: first for 14 weeks in spring 2020; and then for eight weeks in winter 2021. During these periods of partial closure, many pupils experienced some…

Instability caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) completely transformed teaching and learning in schools. Throughout this time, teachers and school leaders have had to find new ways to conduct lessons, assess learning, and maintain relationships with the children in their care. This guide is designed to support teachers and school leaders…

This is a longitudinal study that follows the youngest school-age children affected by the COVID-19 pandemic over time to understand the long-term impact of the partial school closure on pupils' attainment (reading and maths) and social skills, and on the gap between the attainment of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children. The research,…

This guidance report focuses on improving the quality of teaching of mathematics to pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3. The decision to focus on these Key Stages was made after an initial consultation period with teachers, academics, and other stakeholders. Schools are seeking advice on adjusting to a new curriculum, and there is also concern about…

Supporting high quality teaching is pivotal in improving children's outcomes. Indeed, research tells us that high quality teaching can narrow the disadvantage gap. It is therefore hugely encouraging to see a host of new initiatives and reforms that recognise the importance of teacher quality such as the Early Career Framework and the new National…

Teachers have an important influence on pupils' academic progress, yet the quality of teaching varies widely. Policymakers, school leaders, and teacher educators therefore face the challenge of designing and commissioning professional development (PD) to help all their teachers become as effective as the best teachers. In the last two decades, a…

This report offers seven practical, evidence-based recommendations that are relevant to all pupils, and particularly to those struggling with their literacy. To develop the recommendations, we reviewed the best available international research and consulted experts to arrive at key principles for effective literacy teaching. This second edition of…

All school leaders understand the importance of providing meaningful feedback. Done well, it supports pupil progress, building learning, addressing misunderstandings, and thereby closing the gap between where a pupil is and where the teacher wants them to be. However, not all feedback has positive effects. Done badly, feedback can even harm…

Meta-syntheses have reported positive impacts of feedback for student achievement at different stages of education and have been influential in establishing feedback as an effective strategy to support student learning. However, these syntheses combine studies of a variety of different feedback approaches, combine studies where feedback is one of…

The Speech Bubbles (SB) intervention is a Key Stage 1 (KS1) drama and storytelling intervention aimed at supporting children's communication skills, confidence and wellbeing. The intervention was targeted at pupils aged 5-7 in KS1 (Year 1 or Year 2) in primary schools in England, who had been identified by their teachers as having difficulties…

The Craft of Writing (CoW) is an intervention aimed at improving the writing skills, writing self-efficacy and writing creativity (ideation) of primary school pupils by developing teachers as 'writers' and improving their own writing practice and their teaching of writing. This intervention was delivered to Year 5 pupils between June 2018 and July…

This study investigated the impact of school closures for COVID-19 on the attainment of pupils in Key Stage 1 in reading and math, and on the gap between the attainment of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children. It explored pupils' attainment compared with pre-pandemic samples, as well as any changes in attainment over the course of the…