Bonsoir,
That was why I put it in ' ' - i was using the term loosely to indicate 'progress through the EYFS / P-levels / NC levels [delete as appropriate] as indicated through APP and other assessment processes. In other words, these children make at least as much progress in terms of these levels as their more advantaged classmates, but as they often have to make accelerated progress over a sustained period to 'catch up' due to their lower starting points, their actual level of attainment may be lower. They may also have some 'gaps' that a school may only be partially be able to fill in terms of knowledge and understanding of the world - several of our children have never been even the few miles to the nearest large town. let alone to a 'place of interest' or a theatre / cinema / castle / the sea.
Meredeux,
The 1 -word answer is 'differentiation' - in every lesson I plan activities / questions / input / support / materials that should move every child forward from where I know them to be. That's my job as a teacher. I cannot neglect my more able for my less able, nor my middle ability while I accelerate the less able. I HAVE to keep them all moving forward. At its simplest, in a maths lesson on addition, my more able may be solving additions to 2 decimal places using efficient written methods, while my less able may be working on a similar task but representing the question as money and using physical coins to help in their calculations. My TA and I will also be deployed to support different groups before and after the 'main teaching input' - she might be quickly recapping prior knowledge for a children who find it hard to retain information from day to day before the lesson starts, then working with a middle ability table trying a new written method for the first time during independent work, while I might be supporting less able children or extending more able ones (the arrangement varies from lesson to lesson and day to day).
An additional answer is 'interventions' - delivered in the main by our specialist TAs (who get a lot of specialist SEN training and training in particular 'accelerated learning / catch -up' programmes). These are short, sharp, focused sessions with individual pupils or small groups to address areas of difficulty. They never replace, or take place during, core teaching or e.g. maths, phonics, literacy, guided reading, but are wedged into all kinds of small pockets of time during the day! The successful use of these means that children who are at risk of falling behind, or who have started behind, make the accelerated progress they need but without unduly absorbing teacher time during 'normal lessons'.