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Getting started and planning
The decision to change: details
Lawrence Sterne and Spenser started with a commitment to mixed ability teaching, at least in the early years of secondary school. They drew on research that shows that students whose achievement is below average do better in such groups, and saw it as a way of being able to address any issues of underachievement that were due to low expectations and inappropriate previous educational experience.
Field Harrow started out intending to take a compensatory approach, and teach previously low attaining students (PLAS) in ways which brought them into contact with mathematical structures and big ideas, rather than continuing with arithmetic which presented daunting hurdles. By leapfrogging the curriculum the HoD hoped that arithmetic would make more sense in the context of algebra and applications. However, timetabling problems and decisions of other subject areas for year 7 made mixed ability teaching an obvious option, so that is what they did.
