Education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially disadvantaged children can change their lives, lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. The children starting primary school in 2016 will have grown up in an economic recession and amid greatly reduced public expenditure within N. Ireland. We cannot let the ‘age of austerity’ limit this generation’s educational achievement or their aspirations.

1. UNLOCKING
POTENTIAL
Education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially
disadvantaged children can change their lives, lift themselves out of
poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their
communities. The children starting primary school in 2016 will have
grown up in an economic recession and amid greatly reduced public
expenditure within N. Ireland. We cannot let the ‘age of austerity’
limit this generation’s educational achievement or their aspirations.
Closing the
Education
Achievement
Gap in
Northern
Ireland

2. 1

3. 2
Foreword
At a well-attended seminar in the MAC Centre, Belfast in October 2013, Save the Children
launched a briefing paper: Too Young to Fail – Closing the Education Achievement Gap in Northern
Ireland.
In the debate that followed there was general agreement that, while some progress had been
made in raising and improving young people’s achievement overall, the gap remains
unacceptably wide.
In response to the debate, Save the Children convened an interest group of influential
stakeholders from an eclectic range of backgrounds and organisations. The group sought to
identify, from proven research, a small number of key proposals to influence the policy debate in
advance of the 2016 Assembly election.
“The aim of our proposals is to bring about transformational
improvement in the education achievement of the poorest
children in Northern Ireland and with it, a massive boost to our
society and the economy.”
The group firmly believes that a sustained policy focus on the following key educational priorities
will bring about better outcomes for children and stimulate economic and social progress.
Members of the group included:
 Maggie Andrews , Regeneration Manager, East Belfast Partnership
 Briege Arthurs, CEO, South Belfast Partnership Board
 Jim Clarke, CEO, Catholic Council for Maintained Schools
 Fergus Cooper, Head of Country (NI), Save the Children
 Stewart Finn, Policy Advocacy Officer, Include Youth
 Carmel Gallagher, Registrar, the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland
 Prof Tony Gallagher, School of Education, QUB
 Mark Langhammer, Director of ATL Northern Ireland
 Celine McStravick, Director, NCB Northern Ireland
 Orlaith Minogue, Policy & Advocacy Officer, Save the Children
 Jackie Redpath MBE, CEO, Greater Shankill Partnership
 Nigel Smyth, Director, CBI Northern Ireland

4. 3
“We cannot let the ‘age of austerity’ limit this generation’s
educational achievement”
Unlocking Potential
Closing the Education Achievement Gap in Northern Ireland
1 The Economics of Disadvantage
The social and economic costs of Northern Ireland’s achievement gap cannot be underestimated.
International research suggests that, at every stage of learning, Northern Ireland’s poorest
children are likely to do worse and make less progress than their better-off classmates; and the
gap is widening.i
This stark educational achievement gap represents a huge cost to the Northern
Ireland budget and economy. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reports that closing the
gap to match the Finnish levels of achievement would be worth £8 trillion to the UK economy
over the lifetime of a child born today.ii
Others estimate that success in closing the gap in
Northern Ireland would have resulted in increased economic gains of around £400 million in 2013,
rising to £1.2 billion by 2030.iii
Education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially disadvantaged children can
change their lives, lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their
communities.iv
The children starting primary school in 2016 will have grown up in an economic
recession and amid greatly reduced public expenditure within N. Ireland. We cannot let the ‘age
of austerity’ limit this generation’s educational achievement or their aspirations.
2 Mind the Gap
In 2012 the Education Minister appointed an independent panel to review the Common Funding
Scheme, which determines how funds are allocated to schools. The panel’s report, known as the
Salisbury Review, noted with concern that, despite commitments to bridge the achievement gap
and to increase early investment in poorer children, there was only a minimal difference in per
capita funding between primary schools with affluent intakes and those with socially deprived
intakes.
The Review resulted in Common Funding proposals including:
• an emphasis on early intervention to direct more future funding to primary and nursery
schools
• additional funding targeted at low-income pupils and schools with a high number of
disadvantaged pupils

5. 4
• holding schools to account for how they use the additional support to improve outcomes
of the most disadvantaged pupils and better monitoring procedures.
The Common Funding proposals were subsequently withdrawn.
3 Early Years - Ready to Learn
The early years in a child’s life are vitally important for determining their later educational
outcomes. If children do not learn to communicate, speak and listen from an early age, along
with developing their understanding of the meaning of numbers and words, they will struggle to
learn when they start formal education.
The chances of starting school ready to learn are worse for children from the poorest households.
A child’s brain undergoes its most rapid growth in the years before schooling begins and research
has shown that children living in poverty often start school at an academic disadvantage. By the
age of three a significant gap in vocabulary and cognitive test scores can already be measured
between low-income children and their more affluent peers. v
This gap persists as children progress through school. There is a close correlation between low
levels of academic achievement and free school meal entitlement (FSME), a strong indicator of
social deprivation. Almost one-fifth of all P7 pupils fail to achieve the level expected of their age
group in literacy and numeracy.vi
GCSE results at age 16 prove that the achievement gap
between poorer children and their better-off peers is long-standing and persistent. In 2015, 67% of
children achieved 5 A*–C results including English and maths, compared to only 45.6% of children
who were eligible for Free School Meals – a common proxy for social deprivation.vii
There are a number of different factors that influence young children’s development, including
their parents, their home and community environment, and the services that they and their
parents come into contact with. The strongest influence on the development of young children is
their parents or carers - through their attachment to and interaction with their young child, and
the quality of the learning opportunities that are made available in the home. Parents’ behaviour
and the home learning environment are particularly important influences on the youngest
children, who are not yet attending pre-school education. It is during these very early years that
the foundations of language and later learning are laid.
3.1.1 Impact of Poverty
Unfortunately, not all children have access to a positive home learning environment which
promotes attachment, good health, emotional well-being and early learning opportunities.
Poverty can have a huge impact on children’s early development by influencing what parents do
There is agreement that closing the achievement gap requires early intervention,
better targeting of resources to the poorest children and measuring what matters in
children’s learning and development from birth.
This paper argues that the new Programme for Government needs to set out an
ambitious vision, with stretching outcomes, to meet these priorities in order to close
the gap and improve achievement and prosperity for all.

6. 5
and how they do it. Poverty can leave parents feeling stressed, worried or lacking in confidence,
which can make it harder for them to find time to create early learning opportunities. Financial
difficulties can limit the material resources available to parents to support their children’s early
learning, such as books or toys. Higher levels of stress and lack of access to material resources
may be compounded by differences in the ability of parents to access information and services
that support their child’s early learning. Parents living in deprived neighbourhoods are much less
likely to seek information about play and learning activities, and are more likely to rely on friends
and family, whereas better-off parents are more likely to turn to professionals and local services
for advice and support.
The impact of the disparity in children’s early home learning experience is far from benign. If
children do not have access to positive learning experiences in their formative early years, they
will arrive at school already lagging behind their peers. The Millennium Cohort Study, a study
following the lives of around 19,000 children born in the UK in 2000-01 (including 2,000 children in
Northern Ireland), demonstrated that a child who experiences poverty in the early years is more
likely to fall behind his or her better-off peers, and significant inequalities in development at age 3
can persist throughout people’s lives. Falling behind so early in life has profound consequences
for a child’s ability to get on at school and the impact of poor development can extend far into
adulthood.
3.1.2 Quality Childcare
Access to high-quality childcare and pre-school education can be a crucial factor in determining a
child’s readiness to learn upon arrival at school. In particular, high quality pre-school education
improves children’s ability when they start school and can also improve a child’s capacity for
learning in subsequent years. The provision of high-quality pre-school education depends on a
highly qualified, valued and respected workforce, with children’s outcomes strongly linked to
staff qualifications and training.
Children’s experience of pre-school and the quality of the home learning environment is strongly
associated with their achievement at primary school. It is thus imperative to intervene before a
child reaches primary school. A co-ordinated Early Years strategy must be developed and
implemented, focusing on ensuring that all children arrive at school ready to learn. The Children
Act requiring a duty across Government to collaborate on the intent of a child’s development and
the enhanced role for the Department of Education with respect to early years should be
beneficial. Acting early, providing robust and high-quality universal services and supporting
parents to engage with their child’s learning are key to boosting young children’s early learning
and tackling entrenched underachievement.
There is much that can be done to put children on an a more equal footing and ensure all children,
regardless of background, arrive at school ready to learn. It is not just our children who will
benefit: James Heckman, a Nobel-prize winning economist, has set out an economic case
“The earlier an intervention can be made to prevent adverse outcomes the
more cost effective the remedy will be. Early intervention and a focus on the
quality of early years’ provision should be a twin focus of policy.”

7. 6
demonstrating that the rate of economic return on early years’ investment is significantly higher
than for any other stage in the education system. The earlier an intervention can be made to
prevent adverse outcomes, the more cost-effective the remedy will be. Early intervention and a
focus on the quality of early years’ provision should be a twin focus of policy.
The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project found that a good home learning
environment was more important in determining how well young children’s language developed
than social class or parents’ education. It is what parents do that matters most, not who they are.
The power of universal services in supporting parents and securing engagement is therefore vital.
We recommend a focus on improving and building capacity within core universal services rather
than investing in small scale, ad-hoc projects or interventions. Robust and child-focused early
years services, across health visiting, childcare, Sure Start and pre-school education, must
embrace the role of parents and provide them with engaging, high quality services that meet
their needs. This will enable parents to provide positive home learning experiences and allow for
the earliest possible identification of any additional need or support requirements. All early years
staff should be trained on how to effectively engage and help parents in supporting their
children’s learning.
We must ensure that all children access funded pre-school education, and crucially, that the pre-
school provided is of a high quality. Quality is strongly associated with staff qualifications, and
we recommend that all pre-school settings are led by a graduate with expertise in early childhood
studies, with additional investment committed to raising the standards of the general early year
workforce. Finally, we must know how our children are doing and whether we are making a
difference.
4 Family First
In acknowledging the vital importance of the first three years of a child’s life growing, learning
and developing, setting down behaviours, patterns and possibilities, we should not under-
estimate the role of family. During this time families are the first educators of their children. This
influence does not suddenly stop when the child is “handed over” to nursery and school.
It is claimed that families, economic circumstances and the community account for 70% of
outcomes for a child, and schooling for 30%. Decades of research concludes that the two most
influential factors on pupil attainment are family socio-economic characteristics (especially family
structure, parental background, qualification levels, health, socio-economic status) and the quality
of parenting and family life (particularly the powerful impact of a child’s home learning
environment).viii
The recent research by the Social Mobility & Child Poverty Commission (July 2015) confirms that
family influence follows children into the labour market.
We recommend the introduction of a baseline integrated assessment of young
children at the pre-school stage. The introduction of a national child development
measure against agreed milestones will enable comparisons to be made between
different areas and communities.

8. 7
The significance of family life in children’s development has been recognised for some time but at
best is generally seen as an “add on” to what happens in school, relegated to involving parents
“in the life of the school” or attendance at parenting classes or, in some cases, courses in the
school. The role of families is not treated as core. Resource allocation across government does
not reflect families as primary carers and co-educators of their children. Locked in poverty and
often dealing with complex issues, the circumstances in families can actively militate against
progress in learning.
“Resource allocation does not reflect families as primary carers
and co-educators of their children.”
If we wish to redress educational disadvantage, we must include and support families. The
development of our children cannot simply be left to schools. Schools cannot do this on their
own and this is particularly true in disadvantaged communities. Nor can families in adverse
circumstances be expected to play a supportive role without support.
4.1.1 Area Based Working
Putting families first should involve sustained family support for every family in disadvantaged
areas. Such support should be holistic, based on a “whole family” approach. It should “begin at
the beginning”, in the early years and be long-term; sustained as a continuum into childhood and
teenage years. It should be governed by a “partnership” approach with families, children and
young people, based around “that something better” parents want for their children and the
“story children want their lives to be”. The pathway to that “story” should be co-designed with
families and children. The support for the child and family on that journey should be sustained
and co-ordinated for “as long as it takes” and should be tracked and evaluated, longitudinally, to
set milestones and measure impact and outcomes.
“We need to explore a whole community and area based
approach in particularly disadvantaged areas where
educational under-achievement is acute.”
The sustained support around each child will come from agencies, community groups, schools,
business, youth clubs, churches, sports and voluntary organisations, all with varying degrees of
relevance at stages in the child’s and family’s journey. This will require co-ordination, integrated
working and partnership around each child’s “planned journey”. It will require resources, though
most already exist. Beyond this, it will require leadership. Developed fully, it will be
transformational.
5 The Big ASK
It is essential that all young people are equipped with the Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge (ASK)
to succeed. We need to ensure, that from an early age, they have the support they need to fulfil
their potential. Education and learning are much more than exam results. A broader set of

9. 8
measures is required to assess the potential of our young people, give them confidence to
progress, raise their aspiration and enable them to achieve. We must agree the ‘purpose’ of
education and ensure that we ‘measure what matters’. Education cannot be an end in itself and
schools must value meeting the individual needs of each young person.
It is essential that all young people are encouraged and supported to develop the characteristics,
values and habits for life that will help them reach their potential, while ensuring their
contribution to society, to work and to their own lives is maximised. These will contribute to a
young person’s well-being and happiness. These attributes and personal qualities must be
developed and encouraged in schools, in the home with parental guidance and through support
in the wider community.
These essential attributes are:
5.1.1 Attitudesix
– encourage young people to be……
a) Determined: grit, resilience and tenacity, self-control and curiosity
b) Confident: enthusiastic, appreciative, ambitious and sociable
c) Creative: problem solving, critical thinking and entrepreneurial
d) Emotionally intelligent: humble, empathetic, self-aware, values-informed, respectful
and sensitive to global concerns
5.1.2 Skillsx
– ensure young people have the basic functional skills which lay the foundation for further
learning ……
e) Reading & Communication:
Read and understand basic information texts, write clearly and accurately, have
correct spelling and grammar, be able to express one’s views clearly and distinguish
between evidence and opinion
f) Numeracy: be able to interpret and respond to quantitative data, calculate and
understand percentages, fractions and decimals, understand probabilities and see the
relevance of numeracy to daily life
g) Computer programming skills should be available to all pupils
5.1.3 Knowledgexi
- ensure young people have appropriate knowledge, recognising that knowledge is
evolving and that different jobs, sectors and social interactions have particular
requirements:
h) Rigour in core subjects, including Maths and English – all young people should study
Maths and English and aspects of digital and other technologies up to the age of 18
i) A basic knowledge of science. All young people offered the opportunity to study
three separate science subjects at GCSE and other strands of STEM
j) Encourage greater take-up of vocational subjects, with high-quality vocational A
Levels to sit alongside their academic counterparts.
To succeed it is essential that the curriculum, examination and qualifications system and
accountability framework are aligned to support these outcomes which in turn reflect the

10. 9
emerging needs of our economy The Ulster University/Department for Employment and
Learning ‘Skills Barometer’ clearly identifies the changing shape of the Northern Ireland economy
and the range of skills which it will need. This may require a complete review of the qualifications
system in Northern Ireland to create a broader learning experience. Any changes would have to
ensure comparability and portability with other systems in the UK and EU.
Employers
There is extensive evidence from employers about the key attributes they are looking for in our
young people. The CBI has undertaken considerable research, including annual surveys of
employers, while its recent report ‘Step Change – a new approach for schools in Northern Ireland’
set out clearly these needs. Employers themselves must respond to this evidence by investing in
their recruitment processes to ensure that young people can see the demand as being beyond
just ‘qualifications’.
6 Measuring What Matters
Over the last two decades there has been an ever-increasing emphasis on data collection and
analysis in education to inform insights into the progress and achievement of pupils, schools and
even countries. As a result, what gets measured is what appears to matter most. This trend has
been powerfully reinforced by international measures such as the OECD’s Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) which evaluates education systems worldwide by
testing a representative sample of 15-year-olds in key subjects. A dip in performance in PISA can
send shockwaves through education systems.
Up to now, policy-makers here have used broad levels in literacy and numeracy and 5A* to C
grades at GCSE as a proxy for pupil and school success in Northern Ireland. But, as the world
changes at seemingly breakneck speed and societies and economies become more
interconnected, employers, business leaders, politicians, educators and international
organisations around the globe, including the OECD, are questioning whether the narrow
emphasis on literacy, numeracy and performance in academic exams provides the right skills-set
for success in this rapidly changing world. There is now a broad consensus that "21st century
skills" which were clearly defined within the Northern Ireland Curriculum a decade ago need to
be more systematically taught and more intentionally and effectively assessed.
We welcome the Department of Education’s decision to consult on and develop a ‘broader range
of measures to give us a more holistic picture of how our system, schools and pupils are performing’.
The Minister is seeking clarity about: the users and uses of school and system level data; how we
can ensure that the system of measuring performance is fair; that it focuses on progress as well
as achievement; that in relation to schools it takes account of context and intake as well as
outcomes; and that it gives credit for work with all pupils. Getting the mechanics of assessment
right by clarifying the separate nature, purpose and uses of system, school, classroom and
individual pupil level data would help to reduce the bureaucratic pressure on schools and
teachers to allow them to focus on the explicit teaching of 21st
century skills and personal
capabilities which employers, parents, politicians and international bodies value so highly.

11. 10
‘Not everything that is valuable can be counted and not
everything that is counted counts’. Albert Einstein
It’s all about different data for different purposes, ensuring that it is easy to gather, robust and
fair, and most importantly that it does not distort the very purposes for which it is being gathered
– which is ultimately to improve teaching and learning and to enhance the education, well-being
and life chances of all young people. We recommend serious consideration of the following:
 At government level the Minister and DE want a simple measure that tells how the system
is performing overall. This could be gathered by means of a non-intrusive sampling of 10%
of the school population (considered by research to be a sufficient indicator of the whole
school cohort), supported by periodic data from international assessment.
 At system support level, the Education Authority, the sectoral support bodies and boards
of governors need more reliable insights into the ‘added value’ that individual schools are
making to the young people in their care so that resource and support needs can be more
clearly identified. This requires better base-line measures than just free school meals. There
are many examples from around the world of easily gathered baseline data. Some
countries, such as New Zealand, categorise schools into decile bands according to a whole
range of economic indicators. Mothers’ education and productive language on entry to
school are considered some of the strongest predictors of future educational potential and
performance. The latter would be a very helpful measure for teachers to be aware of.
 At school level, principals, teachers and Boards of Governors need to know about the
needs and potential of each year group. There are a wide range of existing standardised
tools, many IT- based and non-bureaucratic, which schools use effectively to assess pupil
potential. This enables targeted interventions to maximise pupil progress. Aggregated
data from these sources can be shared with support bodies and inspectors to illuminate
year group progress to identify specific school and cohort-related challenges that may
need different types of interventionist support.
 At classroom level, individual pupil snapshots provided by such tools – enhanced by on-
going teacher assessment – can be used to tailor teaching and learning and to provide
carefully mediated, constructive feedback to pupils and parents on progress against each
pupil’s own baseline, while providing explicit advice on next steps in learning.
 On-going teacher assessment and professional judgement is a key part of this process,
supported by moderation as a professional development activity, to assist teachers in
knowing what ‘good’ looks like and how work can be improved.
The sensitive gathering and analysis of data as diagnostic indicators of potential would free
teachers to focus on the things that cannot be easily measured and counted but which actually
count a great deal in terms of helping pupils to make progress. Valuable things such as nurturing
self-esteem, social skills, the ability to engage with and think about real world challenges, to
assess and manage complex and often conflicting information and to solve multi-faceted
problems. Helping pupils to make informed and responsible decisions, to become autonomous
learners who can manage their own learning. Working collaboratively and effectively with others,
having the self-belief and confidence to take calculated risks when needed, and able to convey
their ideas with passion and skill.

12. 11
“we need to stop simply valuing what we currently assess just
because it is easily assessable, and start assessing what we
really value”
If this type of learning, which prepares young people for the immense challenges they face in the
modern word, is what pupils, parents, teachers, politicians and employers want, then we need to
improve the accountability agenda to become more intelligent, more sensitive, less bureaucratic
and less focused on numbers which only provide part of the story.
But because assessment and examinations will remain important, if we are going to deliver on
the 21st
century skills agenda, we need to stop simply valuing what we currently assess just
because it is easily assessable, and start assessing what we really value. We need to ensure on-
going teaching, learning and assessment within schools and our external examinations focus
explicitly on the skills that are already clearly outlined in the Northern Ireland Curriculum and
employers need to find explicit ways of valuing them in recruitment.
This will require different forms of assessment, examining and recruitment. Great models exist in
some subject areas. Great models exist around the world. It’s time to stop paying lip service to
what we say we value and find more effective ways of ‘measuring’ what matters.
7 Recommendations
1. Invest in early years and early intervention, with funding directed to pre-school and
primary education
2. Ensure the quality of childcare provision and that lead staff are graduate trained
3. Introduce a baseline integrated assessment of young children at the pre-school
stage with a national child development framework and agreed milestones
4. Enable parents and families to engage and support their child’s education with
evidence based programmes
5. Set specific targets for all children reading well at age 11, to be achieved by 2025
6. In specific communities with sustained and significant education under-achievement
enable area and community approaches such as Children’s & Young People’s Zones
7. Agree the purpose of education to ensure that all young people are encouraged and
supported to develop the characteristics, values and habits for life-long learning and
well-being?
8. Measure what matters: agree a broader range of measures to provide a more
holistic picture of how our system, schools and pupils are performing. This should
be completed by 2020 and encompass the Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge (ASK)
framework to help prepare young people and Northern Ireland to succeed
9. Encourage employers to highlight more strongly the importance of Attitudes, Skills
and Knowledge in addition to the focus on qualifications in recruitment procedures

13. 12
Endnotesi
The Public Accounts Committee Report on Improving Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Schools, NIA
116/11-15, June 2013, p8
ii
First Steps: A new approach for our schools, CBI, Nov 2012, p12
iii
These figures have been calculated based on the work of Eric Hanushek and Ludger Wößmann of
Stanford University and an approach developed by McKinsey, in McKinsey & Company (2009) The Economic
Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools
iv
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 13
v
C Carter-Wall and G Whitfield, The Role of Aspirations, Attitudes and Behaviour in Closing the Educational
Attainment Gap, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2012, p2, http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/education-
achievement-poverty-summary.pdf
vi
The Education and Training Inspectorate, Chief Inspector’s Report 2010–2012, p46
http://www.etini.gov.uk/index/support-material/support-material-general-documents-non-phase-
related/the-chief-inspectors-report/ci-report-2012.pdf
vii
Department of Education published figures 2015.
viii
Samsons P.2007
ix
CBI, Step Change – a new approach for schools in Northern Ireland, 2014
x
CBI/Department for Education and Skills – Working on the three Rs, 2006
xi
CBI, Step Change – a new approach for schools in Northern Ireland, 2014