This strand of activity aims to raise the attainment of disadvantaged young people in the Black Country by breaking the cycle of disadvantage and educational underachievement for primary and secondary aged pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities.

Narrowing the attainment gap is a key priority for the Black Country Challenge. To this end the Black Country Challenge is providing support for schools to assist them in addressing the particular attainment and achievement gaps in each school. The main strategies we are using to do this are:

• to promote and support schools in enquiry based work that focuses in on the particular needs of groups of pupils;

• to encourage school to school working to solve common problems.

Conferences have been held on 5th and 23rd February where schools have heard about successful practice elsewhere that they can apply to support them in this work. At these events schools heard about the following strategies:

• The Extra Mile materials produced by the DCSF that help schools focus in on key aspects of provision to increase pupil engagement and accelerate progress. For further details click here.

• Research Teams, where a small group of staff undertake action research to identify and address key barriers to learning for underachieving pupils. Further information can be obtained from Dai Meredith at Perryfields High School or Wendy Briscoe Headteacher at Victoria Primary School Sandwell.

• Families of primary schools have been created to work on common themes.

Participating schools can bid for £3000 to support them in this work. Existing networks can also apply for this funding by using the proposal form (which is available to download at the end of this page). All we ask is that the work is focused on the narrowing the gap agenda and sets clear outcomes for target pupils.

In addition, the BCC is providing specific projects that focus on some of the most vulnerable pupils in the Black Country. For example, Looked After Pupils in the middle years of their education can access additional one-to-one tuition to support them in their learning. For further information contact the Virtual Headteacher for your LA who will have more information.

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Narrowing the Gap conference

On 5 February, Headteachers from across the Black Country met with their colleagues to consider strategies that are proving effective in narrowing attainment gaps. Holly Hall Mathematics and Computing College, Perryfields High School, Queen Victoria Primary School and Rushall JMI all lead workshops to share good emerging practice from their schools with their Black Country colleagues and engage in conversations about different approaches being used. Delegates were also introduced to the Extra Mile programme and its free audit resources, which build on national research about what schools have been doing to break the link between disadvantage and low attainment. Through Black Country Challenge, all schools in the Black Country can access the Extra Mile materials and funding to support their own efforts to narrow attainment gaps. To download an application form click on the link below.