Pledge to reflect on pupil grouping practice

Teachers want to ensure equitable practice and support good experiences and outcomes for all young people irrespective of background.

As professionals, teachers are those that apply evidence-informed practice to support effective teaching and learning improving young people’s educational progress and outcomes.

Please pledge to:

use research evidence to reflect on the grouping practices in your school
start a conversation about grouping practices with colleagues.

As professionals, teachers are those that apply evidence-informed practice to support effective teaching and learning improving young people’s educational progress and outcomes.

Findings

Our research shows that setting is associated with negative effects such as:

misallocation of students to set groups, disadvantaging particular pupil groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students
detrimental effects on self-confidence
pupils feeling those in low attainment groups receive ‘dumbed down’ teaching
low attainment groups being less likely to be taught be a subject specialist.

We have also shown that schools found it very hard to implement fairer approaches to attainment grouping, because of timetabling, lack of awareness, lack of teacher autonomy and lack of time.

Attainment grouping

We feel that instigating professional reflection and starting conversations on attainment grouping could really help reduce poor practices and increase fairness. Teachers want to ensure equitable practice and to support good experiences and outcomes for all young people irrespective of background – so let’s work together to do this.