Lessons from Successful Schools in Disadvantaged Settings: It's both what you do and the way that you do it, that's what gets results

In the UK, and elsewhere in the world, schools with a higher level of pupil socio-economic disadvantage generally have lower levels of pupil attainment. However, some primary schools in Wales buck this trend. They have both high levels of disadvantage and high levels of attainment. The authors studied 18 of these schools to answer the questions: (1) "what do they do?" (2) "how they do it?" and (3) "why does it work?" In this article, the authors briefly describe the schools, pick out what they think are their special features and also explain why what they do works. The authors give a fuller account and explanation in "How Very Effective Primary Schools Work" which is published by SAGE as part of the BELMAS Book Series.(Contains 1 figure.)