‘The Attainment Gap’ published by the Education Endowment Fund reinforces the need to change adults practice - Elklan does this!

A very recent report published by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) makes depressing reading for those of us passionately concerned with helping disadvantaged pupils progress and flourish in today’s world. The report suggests that there will be little if any progress in closing the attainment gap between these pupils and their more affluent peers over the next 5 years. Furthermore, it states that this gap widens as children progress through school which means that despite our best efforts the situation becomes worse and not better.

Other existing data tells us that up to 50% of children in some deprived areas start school with significant speech, language and communication delay or disorder which means they don’t have the language they need to access the curriculum and become critical thinkers. This means that they are behind their schoolmates from the word go and never really catch up¹. Education colleagues report this all of the time and now sadly we have the facts to support their observations.

The good news is that Elklan is uniquely positioned to help with this. We may not be able to change the child but WE can change the way in which we interact and communicate with them. Our accredited training courses equip staff to make small but very effective changes to their teaching style and practice which means that the children are constantly in a communicative environment which facilitates learning.

Elklan courses are uniquely targeted so that pupils of all ages and with a range of communication and learning challenges can receive the specific and targeted interventions they need when they need it in their school and pre-school environment.

Having achieved accreditation at level 3 learners can go on to cascade the training to their colleagues through our level 4 accredited Communication Friendly Settings programmes. Promoting the same, simple to use but extremely effective messages to all in the setting has been proven to facilitate learning and develop communication between pupils and teachers.

1. Locke, A.Ginsborg, J.&Peers, I.(2002) Development and Disadvantage: implications for early years IJLCD Vol 37:1

Liz Elks
Director, Elklan Training Ltd