Collaboration Maximising Progress
This project encouraged groups of small rural primary schools to collaborate in order to increase leadership capacity and address shared school improvement priorities. The project offered a menu of support to 13 groups (or clusters) of between four and seven schools in four local authorities (67 schools in total) over an 18-month period. The support included enabling shared access to a school business manager and specialist teachers, and cluster-based training in areas such as the collaborative use of data and senior leadership team development. Impacts of collaboration from the Maximising Progress project included the following: ■ Greater and more effective collaboration between schools Schools were able to identify common priorities for improvement and share good practice, knowledge and understanding.
■ Enhanced leadership capacity and confi dence of staff and governors. Sharing expertise across schools led to more effective use of resources as well as offering development opportunities. Access to a school business manager freed up headteacher time, enabling them to take a more strategic leadership role focusing on leading teaching and learning and raising attainment across the cluster.
■ Improved pupil progress and raised attainment in maths and English. Increased capacity meant that staff were able to spend more time observing pupils and identifying their strengths and needs. The introduction of a specialist maths teacher also led to increases in pupil progress and attainment. In one cluster, early data suggested an eight per cent increase in pupils achieving Level 4s and a fi ve per cent increase in pupils achieving Level 5s.
■ Higher quality of teaching and learning in the supported schools. Maths specialist teachers were excellent at sharing ideas for teaching and learning, working across all schools, teaching classes, running workshops for specifi c groups of
On your marks, get set...
... for an exciting NEW
musical journey this October!
Curious? Find out
more by emailing
vf@voices.org.uk
pupils and supporting the CPD of teaching and support staff. Pupils demonstrated increased interest and enthusiasm for the subject, with evidence of greater reasoning, explanation and exploration. Teachers and support staff showed greater confi dence in their teaching of maths.
■ Better use of assessment and data analysis to inform learning and more effective focused support for underachieving groups of pupils. Monitoring and tracking pupil progress across schools proved very effective and enabled staff to analyse data and identify areas and groups for targeted support. Access to RAISEonline training was extremely positive and gave staff greater confi dence to apply intervention strategies.
■ Strengthening governance. Working in a cluster enabled schools to bring together and offer training to their governing bodies, resulting in shared practice and ideas. It also enabled governing bodies to see for themselves the benefi t of collaboration between schools.
■ Effi ciency and value for money through access to school business management expertise. As well as freeing up headteachers in the clusters to focus on leadership, the school business managers also made signifi cant savings through more effective procurement and securing grants and funding streams. The school business managers also worked together, supporting each other’s workloads and sharing good practice.
the chance of a lifetime!
Extra Mile desperately needs experienced teacher volunteers.
Extra Mile is an ethical and responsible, British, education charity (1130879) run by UK volunteers working in one of the poorest countries in the world, Sierra Leone, where the recent, 10 year, civil war largely destroyed its education system and scarred many of its children. Extra Mile sends out volunteer teachers and is building a new, free school and community library to help children and adults from the poorest families in one of the poorest areas of the country. Extra Mile has also set up teacher-training programmes and is helping with local school management. All the funding is invested directly into local projects. There are no ‘third parties’ involved in the work and no funds go through national or regional agencies even though it is fully registered with the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs (MSWGCA/ VO/3065). Extra Mile is not giving money, it is helping to build a new generation whose improved educational success will help bring its children out of slavery and develop better healthcare, better governance and provide better skills and understanding within an entire community both now and in the future. We need experienced teacher volunteers to teach and for
CPD work in some of the poorest schools in Sierra Leone. Programmes from one week up to one academic year from pre-prep through primary to senior secondary.
Contact:
mike@extra-mile.org or check
www.extra-mile.org
Extra Mile is a ‘not-for-profi t’ organisation which is ‘pro-poor’ and promotes ‘responsible volunteering’.
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