ACERT is one of five charities to benefit from a share of the royalties from the seminal Children, their World, their Education: final report of the Cambridge Primary Review. The decision reflected one of CPRʼs key recommendations:
While recent concerns should be heeded about the pressures to which todayʼs children are subject, and the undesirable values, influences and experiences to which many are exposed, the main focus of policy should continue to be on narrowing the gaps in income, housing, care, risk, opportunity and educational attainment suffered by a significant minority of children, rather than on prescribing the character of the lives of the majority. The governmentʼs efforts to narrow the gap in all outcomes between vulnerable children and the rest deserves the strongest possible support.
In his letter making the donation to ACERT, Professor Robin Alexander wrote:
…we are particularly pleased to be able to support ACERT. As part of our evidence-gathering process we met a number of Travellers and heard about their educational aspirations and concerns, and these are referred to in our final report. Thereʼs also a happy symmetry in the fact that the CPR is the biggest and most comprehensive enquiry into English primary education since Plowden, and Lady Plowden founded ACERT.
ACERT Executive Committee will consider how to use the donation most effectively to develop CPR’s recommendations in relations to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Prof. Alexander also wrote, “From next September it moves into a new phase, building capacity in schools through publications and CPD.” We hope we will be able to collaborate to ensure this phase includes key messages about the ways in which schools can ensure every children has the opportunities to reach their full potential.