Rethinking educational attainment and poverty (REAP) - in Rural Wales

In February 2016, Bangor University was commissioned to undertake a research study on behalf of ERW and GwE Regional School Improvement Consortia. The aim of the research was to undertake a review and analysis of the factors and effects of poverty and rural isolation on educational outcomes. The commission specification for the research was to: o Identify whether or not there are key characteristics such as isolation, travel to work distances, car ownership, limited connectivity and bandwidth, reduced access to core amenities, smaller schools with narrower curriculum choice, recruitment and a shortage of bilingual skills which can be attributed factors to rural poverty or contribute to the ability of schools to overcome poverty hurdles. o Engage with regions, LAs, parents, School Managers, government funded bodies and pupils to identify the hurdles facing schools and learners living and working in rural areas. o Assess the validity of e-FSM as a proxy for poverty in schools and its impact on the level of funding for pupils via PDG. o Identify schools and communities where successful strategies have been implemented to reduce the impact of rural deprivation on attainment (case studies of exemplary practice where available). o Include, where possible, any potential learning from Scotland and elsewhere, especially those who evaluate curricular changes similar to those planned in Wales, with a particular focus on identifying any key rural implications. o Judge the impact of city-centric policy development in education on rural isolation. o Evaluate the impact of the reduced proportion of resources supporting rural schools as a consequence of …