Spirituality and academic performance for primary‐aged pupils with special educational needs and disabilities

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between spirituality and academic performance for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in primary schools in England. OFSTED provided the statistics on spiritual development of 480,309 pupils in 1668 primary schools in England. These data were analysed with measures of academic performance from the Department for Education's Key Stage 2 – Progress Results (2019). Three regression models determined the extent to which spirituality could predict academic performance. Five educator participants were then interviewed and answered 10 open‐ended questions in relation to spirituality and academic performance. These results identified spirituality as a positive predictor of academic performance. The findings support spiritually cultivated components of learning that function to increase academic performance. It is suggested that spirituality can increase the academic performance of some pupils with SEND, though its impact may depend on factors such as type and severity of need, as well as parental and teacher involvement.