ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the factors which affect aspiration specifically and at ways in which schools can work with parents, both from disadvantaged backgrounds but also from high-achieving ones, to the opportunities their children have in today’s world. It discusses a scheme to encourage young people into the elite set of Russell Group universities who may not have considered applying otherwise and at a school where inclusion strategy included a focus on engaging parents in order to raise aspirations across a community. The ROAR programme at St Edmund Arrowsmith RC High School, a voluntary-aided 1–16 school with around 1,200 pupils in Wigan, has run for three years. Cotgrave Candleby Lane School is a high-achieving primary in south Nottinghamshire and part of the Flying High Trust. In 2012, Chris Wheatley, then executive head, instigated a new school improvement strategy. A lot of the trust schools also have their own two-year-old provision and nurseries on site.
