Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Sutton Trust, responded today to the new Ofsted report on Access and Achievement in Education:

“Sir Michael Wilshaw is absolutely right to focus on the poor attainment of low income pupils, particularly outside London, where results have been patchy. Good teaching across the board, strong leadership and effective use of data are all absolutely vital. Every school should have a clear strategy to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, as education is their ladder out of poverty.

“But it is crucial that the response is evidence-based, as too many initiatives have lacked robust evaluations. The Education Endowment Foundation is trialling ways to improve the attainment of disadvantaged students, to identify those which are most effective. In conjunction with the Sutton Trust-EEF Toolkit, this should help ensure that schools use the most cost-effective ways to raise their attainment.”

 NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The Education Endowment Foundation is a charity set up in 2011 by the Sutton Trust as lead foundation in partnership with Impetus Trust, with a Department for Education grant of £125m. It is dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. Since its launch the EEF has awarded £28.7 million to 56 projects working with over 300,000 pupils in over 1,800 schools across England.
  2. The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 120 research studies and funded and evaluated programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from early years through to Access to the Professions.