Welcome to CUREE's summer newsletter
Philippa’s Blog
The second half of the summer term is proving as intense as the first! A couple of weekends ago I attended the Education Festival at Wellington College. There was a great turn out of teachers from both state schools and from the independent sector, there were some very good sessions and the grounds were amazing if slightly overwhelming! See the round up at the end of this E-news to find out about sessions that set us buzzing!
We have put to bed (well, sent to the printers) an exciting survey we have been working on with the National Teacher Research Panel looking at what teachers want from research this week. The Panel will launch this on 20 July 2011 at MIC Conference Centre, London (near Euston station) from 4-6 pm and there are just 15 spare (free) places at a very nice reception with good refreshments. Do come and join us and get your free copy of this very practical analysis of what’s needed! It includes some challenges – what is government doing about the promise in the White Paper to make research accessible to teachers free? Email maura.murray@curee.co.uk to secure your place and meet the Panel!
We are also just completing our first round of interactive workshops which put findings from a range of our own and other people’s research to work in real classrooms and schools. First off the block was our very practical workshop on effective evaluation of the impact of CPD. The summer workshop filled within a few days of announcing it so book early for the Autumn ones – see below.
Next came a series of workshops based on our 3 year research for QCDA on how the curriculum is developed and implemented. We had the opportunity to explore effective practices from around the world and on the ground working with 15,060 learners and 570 teaching staff in 334 schools in England in 2007-2011 for this research so we have a treasure trove of practical ideas and strategies that work effectively in lots of different contexts. Our workshops focus on important issues like ensuring that the curriculum is challenging for every student (over 20% of pupils in our surveys thought it was not challenging), developing a curriculum that promotes well being and using curriculum development as an opportunity for both school and staff development. These are all things that will matter whatever shape the new national curriculum takes and are areas where schools have an important opportunity to prepare now to take advantage of new freedoms.
So book your place to ensure you can keep on course and assimilate the new national curriculum smoothly when it does arrive.
We are now starting to plan some intensive work over the summer creating topic-specific route maps of bite sized research summaries and tasters to replace our popular generic routemap – because so many of the hotlinks are being closed down by the DFE and its agencies. Do look at the short article below and let us have your ideas about topics where a subject specific route map would be useful.
I expect you are now very ready for and are looking forward to a decent break. Of course, those of you expecting to be designated a Teaching School can expect to be pretty busy during August! Remember – we are still here and very happy to help.
Philippa Cordingley Chief Executive
Do teachers care about research?
As you will have seen from Philippa’s blog The National Teacher Research Panel (NTRP) have been researching what teacher want from their own and other people’s research.
A sneaky peek at just some of the findings revealed that:
- Survey participants highlighted a range of sources of teaching and learning expertise that was available to them as ways of accessing existing research. The internet was the single largest group (18%). When asked which websites were used most frequently, the TES came out top with 8%, with LSIS and the DfE (6% each), CUREE came 8th in the list and the NTRP also came in the top 25;
- Over 40% of participants say they engage regularly with research – a big increase on a similar survey ten years ago; with a further 50% engaged with research occasionally or when they had a particular issue;
- Only 6% of practitioners did not engage with research at all, but even this group were interested enough to complete the survey;
- the most common barrier to engagement in and with research was, inevitably, time (32% and 37% respectively); but the next three issues were less predicatable (lack of knowledge of where to find research papers was a barrier for those using others’ research – 25%; lack of funding was an issue for those wishing to carry out their own research – 25%; and lack of support from the school leadership team was a big barrier for both types of activity – approx 11%); and
- Primary, secondary and further education phases all had the same top priorities for future research: ‘Improving motivation/tackling disengagement’ (12%, 15% and 15% respectively) and ‘strategies for teaching different ability groups effectively’(12%, 8% and 11% respectively). Early years respondents were more interested in ‘comparisons of different teaching strategies’ (12%).
Where have all the resources gone?
For several years, the CUREE route map helped you find relevant and useable evidence by taking you to websites containing free tools and resources. However, these sources are disappearing as the agencies that provide them are wound up and/or the websites are dismantled as part of the Government's rationalisation so we are experimenting with new ways of getting exactly the right research resources into teachers’ hands.
Deceptively simple, our bespoke route map provides a visually attractive, easy-to-use means of accessing powerful resources. As well as supporting your drive for greater success, the maps are great for triggering and supporting learning conversations between staff and communicating with governors about your development plans. Of course, they also come in pretty handy when showing Ofsted inspectors how rigorous your planning is. This service is for individual or groups of schools (click here for details) and we can offer a limited number at a discount of 25% - contact Rebecca Raybould (rebecca.raybould@curee.co.uk) to secure your discount.
"...it is brilliant! The deputy and I have looked at it and discussed its many strengths and uses – it has already saved us time and moved us faster forward than we would have been”
CUREE is currently developing specific routes focussing on schools’ curriculum, teaching and learning priorities. Themes will include motivating students, phonics, group work and AfL. We are keen to make sure that we get you the resources you need so if you have a topic focus you would particularly like to feature, please let us know. Alternatively if you would like us to let you know when lines become available please contact michael.hawkins@curee.co.uk
What Works Well? CUREE’s Autumn Term programme of workshops
WHAT? CUREE are holding a series of autumn term workshops enabling you to explore the best evidence from around the world about improving different aspects of teaching, learning and the curriculum.
HOW? As well as making research and evidence accessible and useful the workshops will give you the tools you need to select strategies that will work together to make a real difference for pupils.
WHO? The interactive series of events are designed for middle and senior leaders and will be suported by CUREE experts who have deep understanding of the evidence and are also expert CPD facilitators.
WHERE? The majority of the CUREE’s “What works well” workshop series will be hosted at our Coventry office, which is 3 minutes walk from Coventry railway station.
WHEN? Each of these sessions is scheduled from 09.90 till 3.30 and includes lunch. Prices are £175 (plus VAT) per delegate. Special offers available on selected resources.
Workshops are practical and interactive so spaces are limited, please contact maura.murray@curee.co.uk or phone 024 7652 4036 for booking.
NEW FOR AUTUMN!
- Extended programme of workshops including SEN and Phonics
- Two Sustained CPD opportunities involving 4 days face to face training, inter-sessional activities and coaching support:
- The effective leadership and facilitation of CPD
- CUREE licensed effective mentoring and coaching facilitator
- New workshop venues in the North West and London
- Taster sessions – free twilight sessions to gain an insight into what is on offer
- Partnership with ‘All that jazz’ – CPD provider from the North West specialising in Literacy and Early years programmes
Unsure if SKEIN is the right service for your school? Want to find out a bit more before deciding?
We are hosting free of charge twilight sessions where you can learn more about Skein and how it could benefit your school. These are being held on 12 July 2011 (4:30-6:30pm) at HTI Herald Court, University of Warwick Science Park, Coventry CV4 7EZ.
If you would like to book a place please contact Lisa Bradbury (lisa.bradbury@curee.co.uk) on 024 7652 4036. Please note places are limited so will be given on a first come first served basis.
Effective professional learning in schools
"The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers"
Of all the things that head teachers do, leading, modelling, and taking part in professional learning has been found to have the largest impact – twice as great an impact as the next most effective leadership activity.
Skein (the collective noun for geese flying in formation) is a new service to enable you to drive forward effective professional learning. It will:
- Clarify your colleagues' development needs across the school and identify strengths to build on;
- Provide you with a range of evidence and tools for linking staff and pupil learning and tracking progress in building an efficient and effective staff learning community; and
- connect you with a network of like minded schools to compare notes and share ideas and practices.
SKEIN goes way beyond the usual ‘tick box’ subjective assessments because it uses pupil impact data to shape judgements and make decisions. Instead of bureaucratic form filling and subjective opinionaires, CUREE researchers will provide you with an initial, diagnostic portrait of the staff learning environment and introduce you to tools for tracking progress that will engage and enthuse your colleagues.
Visit www.skein.org.uk for more information.
Note that the July free taster session will be repeated on 8 September 2011 (4:30-6:30pm). Click here to register for a place.
In other news
Co-sponsoring partnerships to support professional learning
As many Local Authorities and schools face challenges to their budgets CPD programmes are often reduced in number or squeezed out all together. CUREE have recently developed a co-sponsored approach to providing training which maximises the opportunities for teachers to access our specialist expertise and evidence base at local venues. Many LA advisers have very good links with their schools and are trusted CPD providers but they can be cautious about booking external specialist experts to run training in case programmes are not viable and costly cancellation fees occur. CUREE has recently worked with Coventry LA whereby our coaching programme was marketed to local schools and a room booked at the teacher centre on the understanding that providing a breakeven number of participants signed up there would be no financial risk to either party. In fact the event was such a success that more have been booked for the Autumn term and other programmes added. Please contact lisa.bradbury@curee.co.uk if you are interested in this co-sponsored approach.
Are you a CPD provider?
In a competitive market, it’s increasingly important for you to stand out from the crowd. You can benefit from CUREE’s research into the quality of CPD provision. Through our new Elevation service you can literally make your mark. Click here to find out how using Elevation can improve quality and promote your portfolio to CPD leaders.
Get some bargains as CUREE goes all e-commercial
When you’re very busy, you don’t want to waste precious minutes with clumsy admin systems. So CUREE has added an on-line purchasing feature to its website.
To celebrate this – and to entice you to use the system – we are offering massive discounts on our mentoring and coaching blending learning resources. Get a pack for as little as £50. Click here to jump to the product pages to view and order.
A visit report from the Education Festival at Wellington College
High points for the CUREE attendees were:
- listening to Katherine Zesserson from the Sage Gateshead challenging us all to be ambitiously hopeful and determined about the curriculum as a force for making society work and humans be good,
- the editors of the TES and THES laying bare (with tongues partly in their cheeks and with a degree of humility about their contributions to both the problem and its solution) some of the press driven myths about education;
- Michael Barber’s succinct and penetrating analysis of the difference between getting a school out of trouble and making it a great one (that difference is CPD by the way);
- Chris Husbands’ (Institute of Education) engaging 10 point analysis of good teaching. He produced a nice statistic – if the least qualified 1/3 of initial teacher entrants were replaced by people better qualified than the rest, one child in a class of thirty would get one better grade at GCSE. In other words, it’s developing the existing workforce not teacher recruitment that will make the real difference;
- the fact that in almost every session there was a deep recognition of the importance of continuing professional development and learning as a fundamental building block to school success