Imagine a child’s education as a rising brick wall. Each ‘brick’ represents a different element of their growth – from traditional subjects to enrichment activities, oracy skills to social development.

But a wall is only as strong as its foundation. We liken the bottom row of our wall to early educational skills like phonics and early numeracy. If these bricks are missing or crumbly, the rows laid on top will always be unstable.

Then there are the holes in the wall. When a child misses school or struggles with a concept that goes unaddressed, it leaves a physical hole. As the wall gets higher, these gaps make the entire structure lean.

Mortar is what holds everything together. It represents a child’s ability to connect new lessons to their real-life experiences. Without that connection, new “bricks” won’t stick. They simply sit loosely until they eventually fall off.

For students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the challenge is often that they’ve had fewer opportunities to lay those initial bricks. Our mission is to stabilise the wall, ensuring that high quality teaching and learning – in every lesson, every day – allows our young people to leave our schools with a life of choice and opportunity.

This academic year, we have been working closely with Marc Rowland, a recognised national expert on the Pupil Premium, to drive our project ‘Paper to Practice’.

Pupil Premium is the annual government funding for schools in England designed to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

In the Autumn term, we gave additional training to all our pupil premium leaders and we are now in the process of visiting every single school in our Trust to ensure that our priorities on paper match the actual experiences and what learning looks like for the children who attend our schools.

This allows us to move beyond a ‘one size fits all’ approach, ensuring that our Trust-wide Pupil Premium approach is bespoke to the needs of every setting.

By focusing on securing foundational knowledge and enabling rich social experiences, we are addressing the core pillars of student success. This includes prioritising attendance and committing to establishing a sense of belonging for all.

It is crucial students are in the classroom to lay those vital bricks while our programmes like Children’s University help build confidence and ‘cultural capital’.

We are incredibly proud to share that our commitment to disadvantaged pupils is getting noticed at national levels.

Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, recently sent letters to several of our headteachers, recognising how their schools demonstrated “excellent outcomes” for disadvantaged pupils at the end of the 2024/25 academic year – placing them among the very best nationally.

While we celebrate these successes, Unity Schools Partnership remains committed to supporting our pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds every step of the way.

By Toni Kittle, Director of Secondary Education, Unity Schools Partnership