Labels such as 'top set' and 'bottom set' can negatively impact pupils' self-esteem and should be avoided, claim educators. Instead, the teacher's name should be used instead of numbers or obvious demarkers of ability, The Sunday Telegraph reports. Labels such as 'top set' and 'bottom set' can negatively impact the self-esteem of pupils, according to educatorsCaroline Spalding, head of the Bemrose School in Derby, said that using terms such as 'low ability' or 'high ability' could be equally damaging. 'While we can accurately say a pupil has low prior attainment or even is currently low-attaining, to say they are 'low ability' is to predict an unwritten future. But critics of the system say that children from disadvantaged backgrounds can be more negatively affected in the long-term by being placed into lower sets.

Source: Daily Mail June 06, 2021 16:02 UTC