Report: Factors Contributing to Low Performance in UK Primary Schools

This report investigates the factors contributing to low performance in primary education within the UK, focusing on the challenges faced by primary school students. The research examines various aspects, including the impact of parental involvement, teacher effectiveness, and the influence of different learning methods. The study identifies key factors such as large class sizes, single-parent households, traditional teaching methods, teacher competence, and a lack of parental engagement as significant contributors to poor student outcomes. The findings highlight the importance of effective parental involvement in improving children's performance and suggest the need for the UK education system to focus on teacher quality and implement innovative learning approaches such as learning-centered methods, digital classrooms, and student-centered activities. The report utilizes a systematic approach, including literature review, research methodology, and data analysis, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the issue and offer recommendations for improvement.

FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO LOW
PERFORMANCE IN PRIMARY EDUCATION
CHILDREN UK

ABSTRACT
Primary education system of UK is facing a problem of lack of performance of children
and which affect the growth and development of the country. So, I have decided to conduct study
on determining different factors which can decline the performance of primary education
Children UK. Major objective of this research is to determine reason of the poor performance
and impact of parental involvement in primary education children. Further focus will also be
given on effectiveness of teachers and learning methods in performance of students. I have
applied a systematic process for whole investigation and comprises of a literature review,
research methodology and data analysis. Including this, I have collected facts and figures using
secondary data collection sources such as journals, websites, books and publications. These
collected data has analyzed by thematic analysis. Findings of the analysis have reflected that
major factors which affect performance of primary education of children include higher number
of students in a single section, Single parent students, Use of traditional methods of learning,
Incompetent teachers and Lack of parental involvement. Along with this, research has also
concluded that effective involvement of parents in education helps in improving performance of
children and vice versa. In addition, study has disclosed that teach and learning methods of UK is
not capable enough to improve overall performance. So, education system of UK needs to focus
on improving qualities of teachers as well as have to use the following methods of learning such
as Learning centered approach, Digital classrooms and learning methods, Play and learn,
Involvement of students, Observation method and EPPSE (Effective Pre-School, Primary and
Secondary Education Method).

Table of Contents
introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Aim and objectives......................................................................................................................4
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
Rationale......................................................................................................................................5
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................................10
Literature search strategy:..........................................................................................................10
Data based used:........................................................................................................................10
Search terms:.............................................................................................................................12
Inclusion & exclusion criteria:...................................................................................................12
Sources.......................................................................................................................................13
Quality assessment strategy.......................................................................................................13
Critical appraisal tools –CASP..................................................................................................13
Data extraction strategy.............................................................................................................14
Ethical Considerations...............................................................................................................14
Limitation of Research..............................................................................................................14
Results and Findings......................................................................................................................15
Thematic analysis......................................................................................................................15
Discussion......................................................................................................................................17
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................18
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................18
Recommendations......................................................................................................................19
references.......................................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Improving the learning outcomes of primary school students is one of the biggest
challenges for education system. It is very difficult to improve the performance of every student
due to the different associated negative factors. The current research project is based on the
similar subject and wants to determine the different factors which contribute in the low
performance of the primary education performance of students (Adolphus, Lawton and Dye,
2013). This problem in highly increasing in the UK so, researcher has chosen he primary
education students of UK. For conducting investigation author will follow a very systematic
process which will comprise different stages such as analysis of the research problem, review of
literature, research methodology and examination of collected data. The whole process will help
in completing the investigation in effective manner as well as also plays very important role in
making a final conclusion for the research report.
Aim and objectives
Aim:
“To determine the different factors that can decline the performance of primary education
Children UK”.
Objectives:
 To identify the major reasons behind the poor academic performance of children in
primary school in UK.
 To critically analyze the impact of parental involvements in the primary education
children.
 To determine the effectiveness of teachers and learning methods in primary school
education in the UK.
 To suggest appropriate ways for improving performance of primary school children of
UK.
Research questions
1. Why children in primary school education perform poorly in their academic in UK?
2. What are the impact parental involvements in the primary education children?
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3. How effective are teachers and the learning methods in the primary school education in
the UK?
Rationale
Low performance of children in Primary education in UK is one of the major issues. This
problem affects the entire nations in negative manner because it reduces the skills, knowledge
and capabilities on students which is the future generation of UK. It can affect the future growth
of nation (Vernon, Adamson and Vernon, 2013).
It is a problem because patents of children are very busy in their own career and personal
life and they do not pay appropriate attention and do not get involved in the education
performance of child. It declines the overall performance of primary students. Including this,
ineffective teachers and different methods of learning also affect the performance of students.
Therefore, these are the major reasons behind the low performance in Primary education children
in UK.
It is an issue now because education system of UK is trying to improve the overall
academic performance of children and invest huge amount of money but still performance of
students is declining. So, for resolving this issue researcher has decided to conduct investigation
on this subject (Ing and et.al, 2012).
For getting appropriate solution author needs to shed lights on the different the major
reasons behind the poor academic performance of children in primary school in UK. In addition
author should focus on involvement of parents on education of student and effectiveness of
teachers and learning methods, etc.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is an assessment of academic papers which contain current information
with essential findings. It includes theoretical and methodological contribution of that specific
study for better understanding and meaningful discovery. The information for literature review is
gathered from the secondary sources on the basis of past researches and surveys. The literature
review is on the low performing children in primary schools and the factors behind it. The reason
for applying it is to find the loopholes behind the improper performance and to implement right
strategies for improvement of students, teachers and schools. It consists of proper critical
analysis on the primary education, impact of parents on students, effectiveness of appropriate
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learning methods and teachers for improving performance of primary students. In the end of
literature review, there is research gap which explains crack between the researches with the
reason behinds this review including effective key findings and measures.
According to the viewpoints of Hollowell, 2016, the emphasis of primary education is on
giving child a strong foundation with more emphasis towards reading and mathematics
(Hollowell, 2016). Primary education is introduced for eight years and the age of children for
joining primary schools is from 6 to 13 years.
Similarly, Moyles, Georgeson and Payler, 2011, have said that Primary schools are changing the
pattern of primary education continuously from 1960 to till yet (Moyles, Georgeson and Payler,
2011).
It has further been found by Alexandar and et.al., 2012 that Age of children for taking
admission in primary schools plays essential role for their overall development (Alexandar and
et.al., 2012). As per this, government decides the age by evaluating all the factors which helps in
improvement and development of skills and knowledge. But it is still a known fact that Schools
are taking admission of those children who are less than the decided age limit which is the main
reason behind the low performance of students. On the other hand Moyles, Georgeson and
Payler, 2011, have argued that “Primary schools aof the Finland are working and performing
well due to their dedication and innovative approaches. Primary teachers give extra attention to
their weak students and some times give them private classes also for resolving their issues.
Along with this 30% of the children receive extra attention and special help at the time of their
first 9 years” (Moyles, Georgeson and Payler, 2011). From this statement, it is clear that different
students have different habits and interest. For their development primary schools needs to use
different learning methods as per their habits and area of interest.
Teacher related factors and found that Lack of experience, improper knowledge of
required field, classroom management problem, lack of communication skills and lack of
creativeness and innovativeness leads to low results in the end. School related factors affects
more the performance of students as compare to the other factors as it includes improper
equipments, use of old techniques, ineffective management and maintenance, less umber of
teachers (Huntley, Luna and Kaiser, 2012)
As per the above statement, if schools do not have sufficient equipment and techniques
than it affects the working and performance of skilled teachers as they are not able to give their
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best for developing children. In this regard it is further true that it is the prime responsibility of
schools to provide all facilities which are essential for both teachers and students which results to
better outcomes (Spaull, 2013). In UK approximate 1000 primary schools are failed to achieve
their targets and these schools later face take over, closure or converted into an academy. Schools
are focusing on earning profit rather than developing children as the results they are playing with
the future of students and country as well (Luo and et.al., 2012). Government needs to change
their educational policies and procedures which look after both the issues i.e. profit earning and
development of pupils. Martorell, 2012 has asserted that UK Government is planning and
applying development plans and also upped its educational spending from 8% of total budget to
23% (Martorell, 2012). As per the above statements, government is trying very hard for
improving the condition of students and schools. They are building schools in rural areas with all
facilities, hiring skilled teachers, providing training to them and maintaining roads in rural areas.
Involvement of parents in any sought of work gives measurable gains in student's life.
Parental involvement is essential in student's life and their schools as it results to produce great
rewards which somewhere increase the record of primary schools also (Yi and et.al., 2012).
Parental involvements includes two major factors which are level of commitment (encouraging,
motivating and understanding students, ) and active participation (activities, parent meetings,
parents day, etc. As per this statement, the combination of both the factors results to effective
parent involvement which improves performance and skills of students. According to this,
primary shools need to enhance the parents' participation which will also increase the reputation
and image of the school (Bridges, 2013).
Too much involvement of parents makes children dependent which somewhere affects
their thought process, decision making power, lifestyle etc and this results to affect the records of
school (Goose and et.al., 2012).. As per these statements, parent’s involvement is necessary but
they should not be over protective and cared as it results to affect their performance and makes
them dependent.
Now days, parents are more aware of the school policies which results to affect the
education of their children. Due to this, schools need to create effective policies so that they can
fulfil the expectations of the parents and satisfy them. (Gentile and et.al., 2014). By conducting
research among English students of age limit from 5 to 16 years. 71% parents involve themselves
in the activities of their children in primary schools which later declines as children move
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towards higher classes (Pancer, Nelson, Hasford and Loomis, 2013).
Those students who have support of their parents are more talented in maths as compare to other.
Guidance ad monitoring of parents leads to improve the skills, abilities and knowledge of
students not only in maths but in other fields also (Wang, 2014).
Sometimes, school do not welcome parents that later results in developing the feeling of
unimportant and unappreciated. The issues of all these statements lead to lack of parental
involvement. Some other issues are embarrassment, illiteracy, unable to speak English, memories
of parent's failure in their school times and many more which prevents parents to take participate
in their children's activities and studies (Kriz, Gummesson and Quazi, 2013).
Learning-centred teaching is well known teaching method in which students plays
essential role in enhancing their knowledge and teachers only guide them so that students can
handle the tasks independently. As per this statement, for effective implementation of learner
centred method, it is important to provide effective training to the teachers.
On the other hand Moyles, Georgeson and Payler, 2011, have found that Primary schools
of some countries such as Kenya are still using old traditional methods for developing their
students” (Moyles, Georgeson and Payler, 2011). Schools resist changing and due to this they
feel themselves comfortable in following old traditional methods. In contrast of these statements,
schools are needed to use effective learning methods which can help students in fast and easy
learning.
By obtaining observation learning approach teachers are able to monitor the performance
of each and every student and this makes them to give more emphasis to low performers (Spaull,
2013). Observation leads to student curiosity, questioning, innovation and feedbacks which
results to better development and learning. These statements are explaining the effectiveness of
learning methods for improving the performance of students.
Use of information technology (IT) in learning methods gives more effective and better
result. As per these statements, IT plays important role in betterment of teaching techniques and
learning methods and results to effective development of students and teachers both.
Primary schools are providing effective training to teachers for improving their
management skills, communication skills, knowledge, creativeness and problem handling skills.
Pre-service training and In-service training helps in improving the skills and capabilities of
teachers. Teachers are classified into three categories which are highly effective, effective and
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moderately effective which helps in understanding the efforts and performance of teachers.
These statements show the effectiveness of teachers in development of student's skills, abilities
and knowledge with the better performance.
Experienced teachers are more helpful in providing appropriate and effective knowledge
to the students. Experience makes teachers to use effective strategies as per the habits and
interest of primary students which makes them enjoy their studies. In favour of these statements,
experience leads to enhance the knowledge, skills and management capabilities which results in
proper handling of primary students and their problems.
Fuchs and Fuchs, 2007, have researched that For hiring talented and skilled teachers
primary schools are taking three phase of interviews which are background interview, concept
mapping interview and personal construct interview (Fuchs and Fuchs, 2007). Concept interview
is for exploring the knowledge and their concepts related to their specific field. Personal
construct interviews are for exploring the extra skills, creativeness, beliefs and behaviour of
teachers. As per these statements, hiring of appropriate teacher also helps in effective learning
and development of primary students (Spaull, 2013).
It is found that there are various factors which are affecting the performance of primary
students. Primary schools need to adopt latest techniques for improving their learning methods
also those students take studies as fun rather than burden. Hiring of skilled, experienced and
talented teachers also helps in handling the problems of students and helps them in improving
performance of students by applying best strategies. Parental involvement in school and studies
of students results to great achievements and rewards. But too much involvement makes children
dependent which is not good for their development. Some countries are still using old and
traditional methods as they resist changing whereas some are applying new techniques to their
schedule for meeting the targets. Numbers of researches are available on the topic of primary
students and their performance but no research is conducted on the students of UK which is a big
research gap. Due to unavailability of appropriate surveys and researches on the performance of
primary students of UK, researcher has selected this subject for further investigation.
METHODOLOGY
It is a process to collect information and data to conduct a research based on a particular
theme. In order to conduct research on the factors that are contributing to low performance in
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primary education in UK, different kind of tools and techniques have been applied. It is
necessary to determine the reasons to degrading the quality of education of primary students
(Kriz, Gummesson and Quazi, 2013). It is necessary for a country to embark better reforms in
education so as to improve the efficiency of education and learning among the students. Thus the
following methodology aims to study the techniques and tools required to conduct research on
the Factors that contribute to low performance in primary education children UK.
Literature search strategy:
Literature search strategy can be defined as a methodical search for all of the literature
published on primary education of children in UK. An effective strategy helps in selecting best
articles for getting answers of each research question in effective manner (Moyles, Georgeson
and Payler, 2011). This strategy has been helped in conducting a systematic and ordered process
of search to establishment of the credible literature for the whole investigation. Explicit as well
as focused search are the major objectives of this strategy. In this task researcher has decided
different topics for literature search and types of articles which are required for attaining research
objectives in effective manner. Researcher has identified number of sources for selecting
research articles such as CINAHL, Google scholars, Science direct and The Cochrane Library,
etc. Along with this, advance search option has also helped researcher in getting most
appropriate articles relevant to the research subject. Including this, literature search strategy has
included some tactics for getting most effective literature, such as search terms, inclusion and
exclusion criteria, quality assessment strategy and data extraction strategy, etc (Robson and
McCartan, 2016). All these strategies are described in the following section of methodology.
Data based used:
For selecting articles researcher has used the number of database such as PubMed,
CINHAL, Science Direct, Google scholar, Emerald insight, Cochrane library, British Nursing
Index and BioMed Central, etc (Vernon, Adamson and Vernon, 2013). These data bases have
helped in collecting appropriate information about the research subject.
Table 1: Database used for literature search
Databases selected Description
PubMed PubMed is most appropriate data base for
searching full text as well as abstract on
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particular research subject of health and social
care because it has presence of more than 25
million literatures (Taylor, Bogdan and
DeVault, 2015).
CINHAL For getting broad content researcher has used
CINHAL database. Major articles of this data
base are relevant to the field of nursing,
general health and medicine etc.
Science Direct This database is majorly base on scientific
topics and included full text review. It
includes more than 11000 journals on the
online database. This data base has also
included 20000 books (Yi and et.al, 2012).
Google scholar It is one of the best data base which can be
used by anyone on freely basis. It helps in
getting articles of research scholars on each
and every subject. It is one of the broad online
library for getting literature.
Emerald insight Emerald insight is also known as a global
publisher which includes 300 journals, books
as well as cases on varied topics. Therefore, it
has strong portfolio for collecting research
articles for the current investigation (Wentzel,
2016).
BioMed Central BMC is a UK based library which comprises
256 articles and journals which can be openly
access by each and every one. This library
helps researcher in getting articles relevant to
the medicine and other scientific subjects.
Cochrane library The given database has been established by
Cochrane Collaboration and major artilcles
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are relevant to the medicine and health care
specialties (Spaull, 2013).
British Nursing Index It is a UK nursing and midwifery database
which includes more than 400 UK journals
and other English language titles.
Search terms:
For carrying out a proper search researcher has selected proper search terms. Researcher
has identified number of keywords for searching relevant articles. Defining synonyms is one of
the major trick for deciding search terms for literature search (Pancer and et.al, 2013). For the
current study author has used the following search terms:
Table 2: Search terms
Term1 Factors
Term 2 low performance
Term 4 primary education children in UK
Term 4 Term 1 & Term 2 & Term 3 & Term 4
Inclusion & exclusion criteria:
In order to include most appropriate research articles researcher has decided inclusion
and exclusion criteria. It has helped in selecting fresh, new and reliable research articles for the
whole investigation. Inclusion criteria helps in determining that which articles is moat
appropriate for including literature review (Sunil and et.al, 2014). But on the other hand
exclusion criteria plays important role in identifying all those literatures which are not relevant to
the current investigation and needs to be excluded by researcher. As per the inclusion criteria
author has selected only those research papers which have published after 2010 and topics of
these research papers must include one or two key word. On the other hand, as per the exclusion
criteria author has excluded all those research articles which have published before 2010 and has
not used English language for publishing research paper. Including this, all these research papers
which have not included keywords in their research topics have also excluded by researcher for
the whole literature review (Ye and Lai, 2012). A brief discussion of the inclusion and exclusion
criteria is given below:
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