concentrate its efforts to improve the overall performance of all schools. However, as Clifton and Cook (2012, p.21) point out policies focused on school “while improvement can help to raise overall achievement, they will not be sufficient to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils. This is because although disadvantaged children get better results in outstanding schools, so do all the other It is clear that poorer pupils perform worse than wealthier pupils whichever pupils”. school they are in. As such Clifton and Cook (2012, p24) explain that “policies designed to reduce educational inequality must therefore focus on tackling the variation in results that occurs within each So what can governments and school”. schools do to tackle this school ‘within variation’? The Sutton Trust Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Teaching and – Learning Toolkit Whilst governments can plough funding into disadvantaged schools and schools can target spending at particular groups of pupils results show that beyond a “PISA certain level of expenditure per student, excellence in education requires more than money: how resources are allocated is just as important as the amount of resources In order to help schools spend their budgets effectively (PISA 2012, p.24). available” The Sutton Trust-EEF teaching and Learning Toolkit has been developed to provide guidance for teachers and schools on how best to use their resources to tackle the variation that exists within schools and improve the attainment of its disadvantaged pupils.
concentrate its efforts to improve the overall performance of all schools. However, as Clifton and Cook (2012, p.21) point out “while policies focused on school improvement can help to raise overall achievement, they will not be sufficient to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils. This is because although disadvantaged children get better results in outstanding schools, so do all the other pupils”. It is clear that poorer pupils perform worse than wealthier pupils whichever school they are in. As such Clifton and Cook (2012, p24) explain that “policies designed to reduce educational inequality must therefore focus on tackling the variation in results that occurs within each school”. So what can governments and schools do to tackle this ‘within school variation’? The Sutton Trust – Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit Whilst governments can plough funding into disadvantaged schools and schools can target spending at particular groups of pupils “PISA results show that beyond a certain level of expenditure per student, excellence in education requires more than money: how resources are allocated is just as important as the amount of resources available” (PISA 2012, p.24). In order to help schools spend their budgets effectively The Sutton Trust-EEF teaching and Learning Toolkit has been developed to provide guidance for teachers and schools on how best to use their resources to tackle the variation that exists within schools and improve the attainment of its disadvantaged pupils.