Research evidence and effective use of the Pupil Premium Professor Steve Higgins, School of Education, Durham

Sutton Trust/EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit Why we wrote it Best ‘buys’ on average Key messages for spending the Pupil Premium Currently used by about a third of schools

The Pupil Premium Aims: to close the attainment ‘gap’ between the highest and lowest achieving to increase social mobility to enable more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to get to the top Universities to provide additional resource to schools to do this Was £600 in for fsm 1 pupils; increased to £900 in and £1300/£935 2 in ‘Early Years’ Pupil Premium announced. 1 any child registered for fsm in the last six years and all looked after children, smaller premium for children of Service families 2 £1300 for primary, £935 for secondary and £1,900 for looked after children (PP+)

Resources and learning Above a minimum threshold – no simple link Conclusion: spending more won’t guarantee improvement - no simple solution More money ≠ more learning

Smaller classes? Complex evidence- no clear link with class size and achievement Experimental trials suggest Classes need to be less than about 17 for 0.2 effect size… And teachers need to change the way they teach… But support from teaching assistants not as effective The maths: £900 x 25 pupils x 3 classes with 50% on fsm = £33,750 = 1 extra teacher per 3 classes Class size reduction from 25 to 19 – expensive for little gain

One-to-one tuition Highly effective I hour/ day over at least 6 weeks Support for class teacher to re-integrate Effect size 0.44 The maths… 6 weeks x 5 days x 1 hour = 30 hours 4 days teacher time (more effective with an experienced teacher) Approx £700 (ECC models less costly) Expensive but very effective Consider using pairs or triplets?

What should the Pupil Premium ‘buy’? Secondary £5,200 per pupil Primary £4,284 Wide variation Secondaries £4,000 to £9,000 Primaries £3,000 and £8,000 Middle Schools £3,300 - £8,000 (median £4,100) Excludes Academies and Free Schools Will £1,300/£935 buy an extra three or four months learning for each pupil eligible for the Pupil Premium? (In England, data from : )

The Bananarama Principle It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it… So how do you spend to “get results”? Or, what does the evidence say is a good investment or a poor investment for learning? It ain’t what you spend it’s the way that you spend it…

What we tried to do Summarise the evidence from meta-analysis about the impact of different strategies on learning (tested attainment) As found in research studies These are averages Apply quality criteria to evaluations: rigorous designs only Estimate the size of the effect Standardised Mean Difference = ‘Months of gain’ Estimate the costs of adopting Information not always available

New entry Feb Updated entry

Summaries What is it? How effective is it? How secure is the evidence? What are the costs? What should I consider? Case studies/ video EEF Projects Programmes Evaluation guide Further reading & references Training & CPD

Homework (Secondary) Overview of value for money Cost per pupil Effect Size (potential months gain) £ £1000 Meta-cognition Peer tutoring EY intervention 1-1 tutoring Digital technology Parental involvement Summer schools After school Individualised learning Performance pay Teaching assistants Smaller classes Ability grouping Promising Could be worth it Needs careful thought Feedback Phonics

Key messages Some things that are popular or widely thought to be effective are challenging to make work well in terms of tested attainment Ability grouping (setting); After-school clubs; Performance pay Some things look more ‘promising’ Effective feedback; Meta-cognition and self regulation strategies; Early years intervention; Peer tutoring; Small group/intensive tuition; Parental involvement and engagement

Issues and limitations Based on meta-analysis – averages of averages Conversion to ‘months progress’ is a rough estimate Intervention research is compared with ‘normal’ practice which is varied Not ‘what works’ but what has worked – ‘good bets’ to support professional enquiry

For disadvantaged /struggling learners… One ‘intervention’ won’t be enough Identify areas of greatest need Clear focus on improving learning, not (just) behaviour/attitudes Mid and high attaining learners can be disadvantaged too! Effects will need to be cumulative What will build learning capacity and capability? Need to track and evaluate – our best guesses are not always good enough

Feedback Meta-cognition Self regulation Peer tutoring Small group tuition Phonics TA support Parent involvement Early years intervention One-to-one SEAL Behaviour

Essential to evaluate impact EEF’s DIY Evaluation Guide:

Creating the conditions for success Choosing approaches to meet need Senior leadership support Active professional enquiry and ‘tinkering’ Evaluation of impact and identify causal model: More time More intensive (more feedback, more time on task) More efficient (better feedback) More effective (better self-regulation)

For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat… and WRONG! H.L. Mencken

Some Links The full report can be found on the EEF’s website: The toolkit is recommended by the Department for Education: egies egies Official information about the Pupil Premium and LA allocations is available at: hoolsrevenuefunding/a /pupil-premium hoolsrevenuefunding/a /pupil-premium Ofsted’s report is available at: Find out how much each school gets: DIY Evaluation Guide: evaluation-guide evaluation-guide

Pupil Premium Tracker links Ofsted resources: analysis-and-challenge-tools-for-schoolshttp:// analysis-and-challenge-tools-for-schools Leading Learner blog: analyser-and-tracker/ analyser-and-tracker/ NAHT: and-infrastructure-advice/pupil-premium-reporting / and-infrastructure-advice/pupil-premium-reporting / TES: Pupil-Premium / Pupil-Premium / Deepings School (CfBT Academy): premiumhttp:// premium upil%20Premium%20pupils%20doing.pdf