The PEARL Project is a collaboration between Abbey MAT and Teamworks Teaching School Alliance. PEARL stands for: Performance Enhancement and Research Leadership and it is a project, funded by the DfE’s Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF). The project’s aim is to narrow the gap for disadvantaged pupils in English. This will be focused through 3 strands:

• Effective school Leadership
• Classroom teaching and teacher development
• Making best use of Teaching Assistants

The project will use an evidence supported approach, both in terms of how to develop and shift teacher practice and learning and in terms of effective practice within English teaching.  Supporting effective school leadership to drive change and development is the foundation of the project.  This will allow teacher quality to develop, a key factor in pupil outcomes especially for schools with high numbers of disadvantaged pupils where an effective teacher can add the equivalent of a year’s progress in comparison to an ineffective teacher (Sutton Trust 2011).  The project will support teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and quality of instruction, the two most reliable indicators on teacher effectiveness (Coe et al 2014) and will reduce the gaps in summative attainment in both external examinations and internal in year data across KS1-2.

The project supports 9 primary and 5 secondary schools and focuses on years 1, 3 ,5 and 7. The supported schools are:

• St Augustine's CofE VA Junior and Infant School
• St Chad's CofE (VA) Primary School
• St Patrick's Catholic Primary School
• Seacroft Grange Primary School
• Christ Church Upper Armley Church of England Primary School
• Benton Park School
• Lightcliffe Academy
• Grange Farm Primary
• Holy Trinity Primary School, A Church of England Academy
• Manston St James Primary Academy
• Ryburn Valley High School
• Brigshaw High School
• Bishop Young Church of England Academy
• West Vale Primary School