Teachers can make a big difference to disadvantaged pupils by becoming “family-type figures of solidarity” in the classroom especially as schools return from lockdown.
That’s the view of academics from Liverpool’s Hope University, who are running a course for school leaders that aims to help them close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates.
And they say school leaders should encourage their teachers to be “more than a teacher by considering the perspectives and experiences of what family adversity might mean” to disadvantaged pupils.
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Course lecturer Dr Sampson-Chappell said: “We know that many children don’t have a father or mother figure in their life. Some of these children do not have a safe home environment, or they might be in care.
“They genuinely don’t know how to interact with others because they haven’t had those opportunities.
“When these children come to secondary school they might already be two or three years behind their peers. They haven’t got the basic literacy. They’re not able to access the curriculum, let alone make progress.
“But if a teacher can provide that family-type figure of solidarity at an early stage, it’s an intervention that makes a big difference. These relationships are absolutely key to children feeling safe, and feeling that they have the ability to then learn.”
She added: “We encourage education leaders to really think about their ethos and how they empower their teachers so that the staff see themselves as more than a teacher by considering the perspectives and experiences of what ‘family adversity’ might mean - and the perspective of a child’s life outside school, not often exposed in educational discourse.”
The MA course, called Leading for Educational Advantage, was piloted last year, but will start in earnest for 20 students in October.
A spokesperson for the university said running the course was considered even more important following schools closures which, analysts say, have widened the attainment gap.
The spokesperson said: “As schools deal with the fallout from a global pandemic, it could prove invaluable for education leaders.”
The university hopes to attract school leaders from areas of deprivation to the course, which takes a critical perspective on current education practices as well as looking at the latest theories behind education strategies in order to “find answers for the most disadvantaged children”.
Tes is currently running a series of articles investigating the widening gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers under lockdown, which a third of teachers now describes as a “gulf”.
