What is attainment? And what is the disadvantage gap?
Disadvantaged pupils are those who face barriers to learning due to socioeconomic factors, such as eligibility for free school meals. Attainment refers to the academic achievement of pupils, typically measured through standardised tests and assessments.
The attainment gap is the disparity in academic performance between disadvantaged pupils and their non-disadvantaged peers. Closing this gap is crucial to ensure all children have equal opportunities to succeed and reach their potential.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) recommends that 50% of pupil premium funding be spent on high-quality teaching, as this is one of the most effective ways to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and close the attainment gap.
This blog will explore practical strategies to underpin high-quality mathematics teaching to close the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.
The inspiration for this blog comes from a ‘Leading Primary Maths’ webinar during which Kathryn Boulder, deputy headteacher, maths subject leader, and Year 6 teacher at Hobletts Manor Junior School in Hemel Hempstead, shared her experience of driving improvements in maths across her school. Her passion, honesty, and practical advice resonated with maths subject leaders, and the highlights are captured here.
School context:
- Hobletts Manor Junior School is based in Hemel Hempstead.
- 26.7% of the school’s pupils are eligible for free school meals (December 2024).
- In 2024, 89% of pupils met the expected standard in maths at the end of Key Stage 2, above the national average of 73%.
- Almost a third of Year 6 pupils (31%) reached the higher standard in maths, compared to the national average of 24%.
Kathryn shared that it’s been a “very long journey” to achieve their current standing and reflects:
It's not just about your SATs results percentage or where you come in the league table. It is about giving your children a really good start in life so they go to secondary school knowing they can do it.
She added that some Year 6 pupils are motivated by seeing that many concepts covered at the end of Key Stage 2 relate directly or indirectly to content on GCSE papers.
Four practical strategies to close the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.
1. Sky high expectations for all: changing mindsets
What’s worked well in our school is having high expectations for all.
Earlier in my career, there was a lot of focus on looking at pupils’ Key Stage 1 outcomes to see where you needed to get them.
If they came in (to Key Stage 2) at ‘working towards’ then left at ‘working towards’, that was OK.
That approach has completely changed, and I now believe that everyone in my class can do everything if you teach it in the right way.
Subject leaders who listened to Kathryn talk commented on her passion and determination, epitomised by the above quote.
We know that teaching different pupils with different starting points, while aiming to secure the same learning objective, can be challenging. The example below exemplifies the assertion that ‘Differentiating makes it easier; scaffolding makes it easier to do’. When designing ‘Rehearsal and Reasoning’ sheets, which comprise one element of ESSENTIALMATHS, we kept this in mind to support teachers in making this a reality and to help close the attainment gap.
Some pupils may benefit from beginning at the start where the task is to match the calculations to the correct models. Others may benefit from starting with the calculations that have a fully drawn pictorial model and progress through to those that have blank frames provided.
Some pupils may be directed straight to the final two calculations and be asked to draw a pictorial model to demonstrate their full understanding before progressing to further Apply and Explore tasks beyond this page.
2. Crucial connections: build on what they know
A strong focus on building on existing learning was recognised in Hobletts Manor Junior School’s most recent inspection report:
Pupils remember what they have learned and use this effectively when tackling new concepts. This is particularly true in mathematics, which is a strength in the school. In Year 5, for example, pupils use their knowledge of multiplication facts to find percentages of numbers.
Ofsted report, 2023
Kathryn explained how the school has worked on identifying the correct starting point for each maths lesson with the aim of engaging all pupils and closing the attainment gap:
Across the school, we now have quite a rigid lesson structure.
Everyone starts with a starter; something you've already taught, and you want to check pupils still remember. Then we introduce new learning and see how far they can go.
You'll be amazed, if you start at the right point and engage them well enough, how well pupils can do.
How do you plan specific opportunities to make connections to previous learning and check on prerequisite knowledge?
When writing this Year 3 ESSENTIALMATHS sequence, I included this visual as a stimulus for discussion before new learning was introduced.
Asking pupils to discuss what they notice provides teachers with an opportunity to listen to the language being used, assess pupil understanding, and identify any misconceptions. Use of varied representations checks pupils have experience of fractions beyond simply ‘cutting up cakes or pizzas’.
If children are linking 2/3 with the 2 red dots and 3 yellow, this provides a starting point for new teaching.
3. Same day intervention: ‘nobody goes home confused’
One of the most impactful parts of the session was Kathryn’s description of their determination to ensure no one is left behind:
It’s our philosophy that nobody goes home confused about what happened in that day’s maths lesson
She then outlined how this is achieved:
At the end of each lesson, there's an assessment question where pupils work independently so you know whether they can do it or not. It’s been an on-going battle to get this implemented but we are there now! It is followed up the same day and it’s been fairly revolutionary!
Teachers don't need to formally mark everything in pupils’ books; they're just looking for that assessment question. At the end of the lesson, they have a pile of books for pupils who got it and (hopefully) just a small pile of books for those who haven't got it yet.
Intervention happens that day so those children go home feeling successful and start the next day’s lesson knowing that they can do it, they’re all sorted out and everything’s fine.
That has been really, really important, especially with our lower prior attainers.
For some pupils, their incorrect response may be a calculation error which they can self-correct. For others, teacher input may be required. If a large proportion of the class struggled with the assessment question, it may be followed up with the whole class.
From working in schools across Hertfordshire and beyond, we see many teachers using the destination questions contained within every ESSENTIALMATHS sequence to check for understanding and expose potential misconceptions and common errors, thereby helping to close the attainment gap.
4. Revisit, revisit, revisit: keeping core skills ticking over
Finally, Kathryn outlined how every class has a separate maths fluency session at least four afternoons per week. A core spine is followed with teachers choosing to focus on concepts relevant for their classes.
It's repeating things children have already done so you can check whether they still know how to do it.
It tends to be the same task every day but tweaked. So, at the start of the week, the children might need you to model and remind them. But by the end of the week, they can just do it, and that's everybody, if you repeat it often enough and make it accessible.
One of the top priorities across many of the schools I have been working with this academic year has been to strengthen fluency sessions. Here is an example of one of the hundreds of slides we are creating to support teachers with rehearsing, consolidating, and reactivating prior teaching:
*A full suite of new fluency slides is currently under development and will be available as part of the premium ESSENTIALMATHS subscription from July 2025.
As well as using fluency sessions, Kathryn outlined that targeted pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND and those identified as ‘not on track’, receive additional short burst repetition. The school uses a “little and often” approach to keep skills and knowledge, such as times table facts, bubbling away.
Regular retrieval practice supports pupils to revisit and reactivate prior learning, which is essential for closing the attainment gap.
This retrieval example, based on calculating volume, is nestled within a series of tasks focused on fractions.
‘Can I still….?’ tasks can be included as practice disruptors during pupil rehearsal or could be used at the beginning or end of the lesson. Concepts are chosen either from previous year group content or from a previous learning sequence taught within the academic year. Teachers can use these to assess how well pupils have remembered in the longer term.
With thanks to Kathryn for allowing me to summarise the key points from her inspiring talk to other primary maths subject leaders and exemplifying how we as a maths team have been supporting schools to implement these kinds of strategies to close the attainment gap.
Are you looking to enhance the way your primary school pupils learn and engage with mathematics? Our dedicated primary maths teaching and learning advisory team is here for you.
Rachael Brown
