Emerging Patterns of school leadership

This paper outlines the key findings from a study examining emerging forms of school leadership, conducted by the University of Manchester on behalf of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). The findings are drawn from a literature review and accounts of practice based on research conducted in 20 schools and collaborative arrangements. This study set out to map and explore emerging practice and to highlight possible future directions in leadership, management and governance that may support the further development of the education system.

Key findings:
- The research literature currently available provides only a partial account of developments on the ground.
- Changes in local arrangements are helping schools to cope with an increasingly complex education agenda.
- Innovative and traditional approaches appear in combination.
- New leadership arrangements that are seen as liberating by some staff can be seen to increase constraints and pressures felt by others.
- The picture is fluid and the pace of change rapid.
- The local context plays an important role in the adoption and development of new leadership patterns and structures.

The report makes the following conclusions:
- Movement is towards better coordination of education provision (such as through collaboration)
- The role of leaders has expanded to include partnership working with a range of agencies.
- Although the drive behind of this is to improve student outcomes, there is little evidence of this, mostly because it has not been tested.

Horizon Scanning: Innovative Teaching and Learning

This report by the DCSF Innovation Unit examined "Next Practice" in teaching and learning by horizon scanning (examining innovative pedagogy's which are at the leading edge of current practice).

Through a series of case study materials the paper identifies four key domains where actions should be focused in order to improve learner engagement and the integration of learning, the following framework was devised:

The 4 domains are:

• Engagement through relevance (what is relevant to the learner?)
• Engagement through co-construction (enabling and allowing the learner to lead)
• Integration of in/out of school learning (removing the home/school boundary)
• Integration of teacher-learner mix (using a range of relationships)

Safeguarding children report 2008

This report by Ofsted (on behalf of 8 inspectorates) examines arrangements for safeguarding children, is the 3rd such report and assesses arrangements for safeguarding children and young people in four key areas:

1. the effectiveness of the overall safeguarding systems and frameworks that are in place
2. the wider safeguarding role of public services
3. the targeted activity carried out to safeguard vulnerable groups of children. This includes updated evidence on the groups considered in the previous report, including asylum-seeking children, children in secure settings, looked after children and children treated by health services
4. the identification of and response to child protection concerns by relevant agencies.

Some key points:
- Local Safeguarding Children Boards have grown in independence but are still not fully developed.
- Strategic Partnerships are developed in all areas, but still need to improve joint commissioning and the management of high risk offenders.
- CRB checking is standardised, but good practice is not always followed.
- Inspections found evidence of a strong commitment by agencies to focus on the wider safeguarding needs of children and young people in addition to child protection.
- A shared, consistent understanding of safeguarding is still lacking, particularly between social care services and the criminal justice system.
- Some children and young people continue to express significant levels of concern about their personal safety and about being bullied, particularly in institutional and secure settings.
- There is better identification of needs at an early stage and increasingly effective provision of preventive and earlier intervention services.
- Many areas have identified domestic violence as a high priority area for action.
- Most areas are making good progress in developing the Common Assessment Framework.

The report goes onto make a series of recommendations, relevant at national and local level.

Effective School Leadership

An OECD study into improving school leadership found that policy makers from all countries need to enhance the quality of school leadership and make it sustainable.

Key points:
- School leaders need to have the authority and freedom to make decisions, alongwith appropriate support.
- Ensure leadership roles are clearly linked to pupil learning.
- Ensure distributed leadership.
- Treat leadership development as a continnum.
- Make school leadership an attractive profession.

Danish model reduces youth crime in Scotland

In 2005 East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) made a commitment to implement an approach to preventing and addressing youth crime and anti social behaviour, based on Danish principles. The resulting project, School, Social Work, Police and Community (SSPC) is led by Social Work.

This report examines the funding, delivery of outcomes and output of the programme.

Some key points:
- An integrated response is the most effective and beneficial approach to dealing positively with vulnerable, damaged or difficult young people.
- Shared aims, practice, and ethos are at the core of what is making the approach operate successfully.
- It is a key strength of the Group, and exemplary practice that members do not say "this is not my remit". If something needs to be done they are in a position to do it then they do so.
- The approach fits with the relevant standards for the quality of the youth justice process and fits with the standards for the range and availability of programmes.
- We recommend, as a preventative measure, targeting resources on the transition from primary to secondary education, and in the first term of the first year at high school.

Next Practice in Education Programme

The DCSF innovation unit have produced this report which examined their Next Practice in Education Programme.

"Next Practice is ‘practice that is aware of conventional 'good' practice, its strengths and its limitations; and which explicitly sets out to move it to a new level, or even in some cases radically to change it.’

Next Practice significantly changes methods of service delivery, organisation or structure. It is so far in advance of good practice that little hard evidence of its effectiveness currently exists. That does not mean that it lacks rigour. Next Practice is consciously designed with an awareness of the strengths and limitations of conventional ‘best’ practice and draws on ideas generated by informed practitioners who are aware of the existing knowledge base. It is informed by critical scanning of the wider environment. Usually, Next Practice is not (yet) officially sanctioned so it may entail some political risk. It tackles important, contemporary long term educational problems and, above all, is focused on outcomes for children and learners."

The Next Practice in Education Programme has 4 projects.

Key points:
- The Next Practice Innovation Model has three clear phases: Stimulate, Incubate and Accelerate, relevant to all projects.

- The Next Practice System Leadership work has generated six main conclusions:
1. Energy and commitment – School leaders are eager to invest time, energy and commitment in working as system leaders.
2. The challenge of moving from vision to practical delivery.
3. The lack of models of leadership and governance.
4. Local Authority support - without active support from the local authority, new forms of system leadership struggle to survive.
5. Changing leadership requirements - new forms of system leadership for schools and their partners have needed at least one strong leader with the vision and tenacity to drive them forward in order to get off the ground. But
6. The critical role of governance - it is usually these emerging forms of system leadership that precede the development and adoption of new governance structures for the new system.

- The main emerging conclusions from the Community Engagement in Learning project, which also bear directly on ‘achieving an excellent education for every child’, are threefold:
1. Within communities there is a great deal of motivation to contribute to student and community learning, in ways that complement and add to the school curriculum.
2. The learning that results from engagement with the community tends to be practical, relevant and a rich model for learning for life, with learners taking greater ownership of their learning and becoming more confident.
3. This learning has substantial implications for the roles and responsibilities of teachers and support staff, and thus for their recruitment, training and development (plus for support staff their terms and conditions of employment).

- The Next Practice work in parent and carer engagement in learning generated four key findings:
1. Evaluation and measurement is vital to making the case for parental support.
2. Supporting parental engagement is best achieved by projects that involve parents in their design, delivery and evaluation - the most successful projects are parent-led projects such as parents led mentoring programmes, or peer parenting classes.
3. Parental engagement in children’s learning grows outwards from the school and requires a ‘whole school approach’ – the school might become a hub where professionals lead projects to develop family learning, or it might be a site where regeneration programmes and charities run projects which then support family learning.
4. Existing policy already promotes the greater inclusion of parents, for example parents can be involved in supporting children when they take part in progression pilots at KS2.

- The Resourcing Personalised Learning programme has identified the essential characteristics of schools that personalise a student’s education:
1. Provision is designed to suit learners – the school diagnoses pupil learning characteristics and supports or intervenes appropriately because it believes all pupils can be successful learners. It makes flexible use of time, place, pace and space because pupils learn in a variety of ways and at different rates. Assessment is personalised.
2. The school fosters a sense of belonging - pupils actively participate and take increasing responsibility for their learning and school experience. They organise themselves in such a way that pupils have a sense of belonging and can learn both individually and collaboratively.
3. The school draws on a broad range of skills – it has an ethos of support, congeniality and co-operation embracing all who work in the school, parents and carers and the local community. It makes innovative use of staff and pupils by creating new roles and responsibilities.
4. Teaching and learning is grounded in the real world – the School has a flexible curriculum which helps pupils connect their education to their future.

Youth Crime Action Plan

The UK Government have published their Youth Crime Action Plan, a joint plan between the Ministry for Justice, DCSF and Home Office. The plan which has a focus on early intervention and none-negotiable challenge and support.

Key points:

- Extension of family intervention projects.

- More use of ASBO's and Parenting Orders and sanctions for those parents who do not engage.

- More "community" work for offenders, overseen by new citizen's panels.

- More support for young offenders on release of custody.

- Local Authorities to take responsibility for education and training of young people in custody.

- Everyone over 16 found to be carrying a knife can expect prosecution.

- Increasing the provision of youth services at times when offending is likely.

- Making permanent exclusion from school an automatic trigger for Common Assessment Framework assessment of needs.

- Expanding Safer School Partnerships.

- Working closer with Local Authorities to improve family support which will help ensure problems are addressed early.

- Plus a series of longer term changes to legal processes for the most serious offenders.

See BBC news article

Talent identification: future leaders

This study explores current practices and potentialities with respect to talent identification in contextually different primary and secondary schools in England. Contextually different schools were chosen as context has been shown to be influential in shaping what leaders prioritize and do to develop their schools in the future.

Key points:
- Little research has been undertaken on the identification of leadership talent within the education sector, nor have the characteristics perceived important in talent identification been articulated or explored within a research context.
- Most research in the UK has been concerned with overcoming barriers to leadership succession and has not included study of the linked parameter of talent identification.
- 20 characteristics indicative of leadership talent were identified:

• Has people skills
• Has good communication skills
• Has vision
• Has the respect of staff
• Has the respect of pupils
• Possesses professional values
• Shows enthusiasm
• Shows initiative
  
• Can deal with stress
• Good self-organization
• Works hard
• Is a very good teacher
• Has energy
• Shows confidence
• Is a competent teacher
• Has good subject knowledge
• Has experience of project leadership
• Has an ‘aura’
• Shows ambition
• Accesses development courses
  

- Agreement and disjuncture were recorded concerning the importance of characteristics among respondent groups.
- School-based changes are recommended so that individual school's longer-term leadership requirements may be better addressed.

Innovative school system

Charles Leadbeater has produced this report, having examined activities undertaken by schools supported by the DCSF Innovation Unit.

Key points:
- A national peer-learner programme should allow children to become learning mentors to other children and in the process gain credits towards their qualifications.
- Mass secondary schools should be broken up – if not physically then at least organisationally, into units of no more than 450, so that even large schools feel small allowing more different learning environments – vocational, specialist, academic, catch-up – to co-exist.
- Families in which children are at significant risk of early drop out, school exclusion, teenage conception, drug and alcohol abuse should be allocated personal support workers with an integrated ‘family support budget’ to devise self-directed support plans.
- Young people clearly at serious risk of leaving school with no qualifications should be given an individual learning mentor and an individual budget to devise learning programmes in Years 10 and 11.
- All young people should have an electronic Personal Learning Plan and Portfolio which would record their work, achievements and set targets and goals.
- All pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 should spend at least part of the summer term engaged in a personal challenge which they choose, collaborate with others to undertake and gives them the opportunity to learn outside school.
- The standard school day should become a thing of the past: children should be able to opt to learn early – 7.30 am till 1 pm – or late 1 pm till 6.30 pm – so they are better able to make learning part of their lifestyle.
- All children at age 11 should be given the opportunity to acquire skills of emotional resilience.
- All schools should be the base for a productive, social enterprise – such as a recycling centre – so that children associate learning with work, get pleasure from working productively together and contributing to a business.
- Instead of seeing schooling as a system of years and grades, with key stages and examinations, it should be seen as a set of relationships between teachers, pupils, parents and the wider community. Children need to be able to rely on ‘relationships for learning’ at school, home and in the community.

Leadership of Academy schools

This NCSL Research Associate study examines and analyses the nature of successful leadership of academies and investigates the leadership styles, qualities, skills and contextual dimensions which enable previously seriously under-performing schools to transform themselves whilst their leadership operates under the microscope of close public scrutiny.

Key points:
- Amongst the twelve Academy Principals interviewed there was a general consensus that they had all received, mostly unwelcome, media attention during their first three years in post.
- Leaders of academies identified a need for political and entrepreneurial leadership skills to cope with the demands of this context. Distributed leadership was also found to be an important and effective strategy.
- Academy leaders need to be aware of political developments at both the macro and micro level. While important in any school, the need for such leadership skills in academies is particularly marked.
- The Principal respondents reported the maturation of bodies such as the Academies Division at the Department for Children Schools and Families, have helped to address broader concerns reported in the media.
- Changes in both local and national political climates during the period of research were felt to have impacted positively on the way in which Academies were viewed by the media and local communities.
- The international interest which the Academies programme seems to have generated has added a different dimension to the way in which Academies are seeing themselves and their work.
- The incorporation and formal recognition of Academies into the Specials Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) has had a significant impact on their national profile amongst secondary schools.
- As a very publicly high profile programme the government has made use of several of the new Academies as centres from which to launch the announcement of major new
national initiatives. This has brought with it extensive national media coverage including television. Respondents talked of the very positive impact such media exposure
has had for their Academy.
- Respondents talked of the importance of involving the local community in the work of the Academy. They also commented on the impact of engaging the community in improving attitudes to learning and generating a culture of aspiration through winning their confidence.

School Business Managers and Distributed Leadership

This NCSL Research Associate report examined the impact of the key drivers on school leadership by evaluating distributed leadership research from an School Business Manager (SBM)/ bursar perspective; and carry out a survey of what is happening across UK state schools.

Key findings:
- 69% of respondents to the survey indicated their school had a SBM/bursar.
- Funding and teacher perceptions were the main barriers to not having a bursar. While headteachers broadly supported the SBM/bursar role, comments indicated that in practice, this support related largely to the SBM/bursar authorising involvement in professional development programmes and less to an understanding of the wider value of the role within the school.
- Completion of the Certificate in SBM/ Diploma in SBM, staff changes and the introduction of the Department for Schools, Families and Children’s Financial Management Standards in Schools were quoted as the main drivers in SBMs/bursars becoming members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
- SBM/bursar roles have existed in primaries on average only for two years, compared with five years for secondaries. This suggests that primaries are still in the process of adapting to SBMs/bursars.
- 59% of bursars were on the SLT. In many cases, their responsibilities were restricted to managing aspects of the office team. Furthermore, the ‘average’ bursar only oversaw around 40% of support staff, indicating that in a number of schools, the SLT and headteacher continue to retain control over many support functions.
- The work of SBMs in primary schools was more likely to be restricted to operational issues relating to finance, personnel and office issues, than was the case in secondary schools.
- SBMs in secondary schools were far more likely to operate at a senior or strategic level than their primary counterparts. Organisational size was likely to be a major factor in this, as larger budgets and staff numbers offer greater flexibility to operate.
- 52% of SBMs/bursars are paid at or below Newly Qualified Teacher rates. Some SBMs felt this reflected poorly on the perceived value of their work and in some instances led to resentment.
- 33% of SBM respondents possessed a degree level or higher qualification. This figure rose to 85% when the CSBM/ DSBM qualifications were taken into account. Respondents indicated that increased take-up of the CSBM/DSBM would help to reduce both perceived and real inequalities in the professional status of teaching and school business staff.
- Around one third of CSBM/DSBM graduates expressed interest in continued professional development.

School governors and Head Teachers

This research associate report from the NCSL explores the strategic role that headteachers and governors carry out in partnership in three case study schools. Although small-scale, it seeks to:
- Identify similarities which may facilitate a higher level of strategic operation.
- Describe some of its benefits and barriers to this.
- Provide practical examples of how this vision of strategic partnership might work in action.

Key points:
- Each of the governing bodies adopted a structure which enabled an inner-circle of experienced, committed governors to work alongside school leaders in review and futures thinking activities. This model was recommended by both the governors and headteachers interviewed.
- However, allied to their adoption of this approach, was an awareness of the need for succession planning and the need to build the capacity for strategic planning amongst governors more broadly. This was critical if a culture of dependency was to be avoided.
- The way in which these governing bodies worked in partnership with the headteacher was aided by a range of practices and specific attitudes, including: a clear understanding regarding each other’s roles and remits; the creation of opportunities for staff and governors to work together; a focus on utilising governors’ skills in order to maximise the contribution of individuals; providing development opportunities for governors’ skills to grow and, linked to this, planning for succession; the promotion of a trust-based relationship that facilitated both honest and open dialogue; governors offering challenge within the remit of critical friend.
- Identified practices employed by governors, which enabled them to function strategically, included; not involving themselves in the day-to-day management of the school unless it was to enable the headteacher to focus more on their core purpose of teaching and learning; working alongside school leaders in review and futures thinking activities and offering support and challenges; enabling innovation and risk-taking; establishing a clear understanding of strategic leadership linked to self-evaluation; viewing change as challenge and not being daunted by it.

The role of school leadership in England

This NCSL research associate report aimed to answer the question: How can the role of headship be made possible, maintaining a headteacher’s energy and enthusiasm?


There were two sub-questions to this:
1. What is the nature of a headteacher’s working week?
2. What approaches and strategies can be adopted to help headteachers deal with the demands of their role?



Key findings:
- During the course of the study, on average the group of headteachers worked 42.5 hours per week. There was relatively little variation between individual members of the group.
- 22% of the head teachers time was spent on administration and a further 20% spent on development of self and working with others. Just 1% of time was spent on shaping the future.

- The study identified a range of factors that inhibited headteachers’ effectiveness and threatened the longer-term sustainability of the role. These ‘inhibitors’ could be broadly classified as being either emotional (guilt and anxiety) or operational (such as "fire-fighting"; administering; controlling or procrastinating).

- Headteachers should be encouraged to undertake a critical reflection of the nature of their work, based on the following principles:
1. Headteachers should be supported to focus on the strategic rather than the operational dimensions of their work.
2.While recognising the emotional difficulties involved, headteachers should endeavour neither to carry guilt nor avoid the critical issues they face.
3. Headteachers should model the importance of professional development, displaying a commitment to their own learning.

Critical Incidence for school leadership

This NCSL research associate report examined "critical incidences" within schools and the response of school leaders.

The main research questions are:
1. What factors/experiences give an individual the capacity and capability to deal effectively with Critical Incidents (CI) and Critical Episodes (CE)?
2. What specific strategies /support mechanisms do colleagues/organisations use to deal effectively with CIs and CEs?
3. What leadership styles and preferences enable individuals and organisations deal with CIs effectively?

Key points:
- The following factors and experiences were highlighted as helping individuals develop the capacity to cope effectively with CIs and CEs.
• Having a significant professional mentor who has shaped ethos, philosophy and modus operandi featured significantly in participant’s responses.
• A positive, happy childhood including positive happy experiences at school.
• A close, stable family, partner or significant other who is supportive.
• Experience of activities that helped to develop their EQ. That is being self aware, aware of others an understanding of ones personality.
• Positive experiences that has helped to develop feelings of self-efficacy.
• Experience of dealing with CIs and CEs.

The following actions are proposed:
- Develop a scheme to identify a professional mentor either within one’s own school or one who stays with an individual throughout their career. This would be problematic to establish but not impossible.
- Take time to carry out a review of CIs each term and identify what was learnt from them. Experiencing and coping with a CI or CE effectively builds up one’s immunity/resilience to their effect and helps to develop one’s capacity to cope initially and afterwards. Therefore protecting individuals from CIs might not always be beneficial to the individual or organisation.
- A sense of self-efficacy can be encouraged through a supportive professional development programme where staff have the skills, knowledge and opportunities to work effectively.

Determinants of aspirations

This report by the Institute of Education for the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning is the result of a general review covering an extensive literature across a range of disciplines - psychology, education, and sociology. The focus of the material was principally longitudinal quantitative studies, although a small amount of qualitative material was included.

Key points:
- There is a strong relationship between the aspiration of parents for their children and those of the children themselves. This is reflected in the patterns of those who have high and low aspirations.
- Girls, young people from minority ethnic groups and from higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to hold higher aspirations than their counterparts. Parents from these groups also tend to have higher aspirations for their children. Conversely, socially disadvantaged groups such as teenage parents tend to have low aspirations for themselves and for their children.
- Aspirations begin to be shaped early in a child’s life, but are modified by experience and the environment. Aspirations tend to decline as children mature, in response to their growing understanding of the world and what is possible, and to constraints imposed by previous choices and achievements. This decline is particularly marked for those facing multiple barriers.
- Practical and attitudinal barriers to the formation of high aspirations are evident. Financial constraints may limit some groups’ access to opportunities and enabling resources such as computers and private tuition. Equally, some individuals are limited by earlier achievement and choices such as leaving school or becoming a parent at a young age. But attitudes are also important. Young people who believe they have the ability to achieve and who attribute their success to hard work, rather than luck, or fate tend to have higher aspirations than their peers.
- Those who have, or whose parents have, high aspirations have better outcomes, even when taking into account individual and family factors, but this is not a universal effect. There are some groups for whom high aspirations do not lead to higher achievement. In particular, there is a gap between educational aspirations and academic achievement for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and from some minority ethnic groups and a gap between occupational aspirations and career achievement for females.
- The early years of a child’s life are a key time in the formation and development of aspirations. During this time, parents may need support to overcome both attitudinal and practical barriers to high aspirations. Schools can play a part in maintaining and realising ambitions, and the support they provide becomes more important when family resources are limited. Later, young people need easy access to advice and guidance and the involvement of professionals or volunteers – for example in a mentoring role – when necessary.

Young People's experience of global learning

This research by Ipos MORI, for DEA, asked secondary school children for their perceptions of global issues. Specifically, the survey set out to cover the following key issues:
• Whether pupils are experiencing global learning in school;
• Whether pupils feel it is important to experience global learning at school; and
• Whether pupils believe they have an impact on the world, and whether they do take action to make the world a better place.

Key points:
• Over 50% of students say they have experienced global learning in school since September 2007, while a slightly larger proportion see global learning as important. Over three – quarters of pupils for example, think it is important that schools help pupils understand what people can do to make the world a better place (78%).
• There appears to be a demand for global learning, with more pupils believing global learning is important than actually experience it in school. Findings suggest that there are a proportion of young people who are not experiencing global learning in school; one in five (19%) for example, say they have not discussed news stories from around the world at all in school.
• Findings suggest that global learning has an impact: those who have experienced global learning in school are keen to understand more about the problems in the world, as well as being more likely than average to believe that what they do in their daily lives can affect those in other countries and that people like them have the ability to make a difference. These more informed pupils also appear to be more open to people of different backgrounds than those who have not experienced global learning in school, and more likely than average to say that they try to do things to make the world a better place.
• 66% of school children feel that they can do something to make the world a better place, while 42% believe that what they do in their daily life affects people in other countries.
• 50% of pupils think it is a good idea to have people of different backgrounds living in the same country together. 28% are neutral or unable to give a response, while 14% disagree that it is a good idea. Those who have thought about news stories from around the world from different points of view are more likely to think it is a good idea (66% vs. 50%).
• 22% of young people say they would prefer to make the world a better place than earn a high salary, whilst nearly twice as many (39%) say that making money is more important to them.

For more on the full project click here

Delivery of the "core offer" of extended schools

Ipos MORI have produced this report for the DCSF which explores delivery of the "core offer" which all schools should be moving towards providing. The core offer comprises:
- A menu of activities, including study support and homework clubs, sport, music, arts and special interest clubs, combined with formal, ‘wraparound’ childcare in primary schools;
- Parenting and family support, including family learning;
- Swift and Easy Access to targeted and specialist services (for example, speech and language therapy, behaviour support);
- (If appropriate) community access to school facilities such as sports grounds, ICT and adult and family learning.

Key points:
- At the time when this research was undertaken, around 8,400 schools in England were delivering the core offer with a further 11,000 working towards this. By April 2008 the number of schools in England delivering the core offer has reached 10,000. Many other schools are delivering parts of the offer.
- The DCSF has pledged to support existing extended schools, and those schools that will start providing access to extended services by 2010, by a significant increase in investment from 2008 to 2011.
- Evaluation work to date has demonstrated how access to extended services through schools can have positive benefits to children, families and local communities, including not only pupil motivation, behaviour, attendance and attainment, but also parents’ own engagement with learning, and supporting a sense of community locally.
- Most schools have used a wide range of information sources and methods to gain an understanding of local needs when planning their extended services.
- Consultation carried out by schools rather than other local agencies plays a key role in this process. Research among parents conducted by the school is the most popular method of gaining information, closely followed by research among pupils conducted by the school.
- Detailed information about other relevant services already available is also used by the vast majority of schools, especially by those delivering services in a cluster.
- Most schools believe that they have been successful in building up a full picture of needs, though it is noted by some schools that they may not be aware of the gaps in their understanding.
- Across the board, there is some acknowledgement that understanding needs is an on-going process, informed either by further research or through engagement with existing service users. - Parental support services and Swift and Easy Access services are the two core areas that many schools believe they are not delivering adequately.
- Schools adopt a wide variety of approaches to monitoring the provision and take-up of the services they deliver, ranging from those that hold no monitoring information whatsoever to those that are rigorous in their collation and analysis of the data.
- The majority of schools at least have details of the services that they offer access to, the number of places that are available and figures in some format on the levels of take-up, though this varies service by service.
- Schools tend to hold most monitoring information on their childcare and activities offer but are less rigorous in their monitoring of parental support services and community access. The usage of Swift and Easy access services tends to be kept on file for individual pupils and only a minority of schools log the number of children they help through the system.
- 98% of schools provide activities for children after school, whilst most of these schools offer these services on-site, around a third offer them off-site. In addition to this, 86% of schools provide some form of childcare after school. Childcare before school is also widely provided. The provision of childcare and activities in the holidays is less common, but these are still provided by around two thirds of schools.
- The number of after-school activities provided by schools in a typical week is wide-ranging, though just over a third of schools provide six to ten different activities. The size of a school determines the number of after school activities provided.
- Schools appear to provide a good variety of activities. Sports activities, ICT clubs, drama clubs, arts, crafts or cookery clubs, music tuition, groups or clubs and academic support are all commonly provided.
- The numbers of children making use of childcare and activities each day varies greatly.

Children's Centres - reaching the hardest

This study was carried out to look at the effectiveness of children’s centres in reaching the most highly disadvantaged families, the ways in which they meet the needs of those families and the outcomes achieved. The study revolved around four “exemplar” children’s centre case studies, examining their work within the context of current government policies, best practice and a wide range of research perspectives.

Key points:
- There might be a case for additional resources if children's centres are to achieve their objectives, this is more likely as children's centres attract middle class parents who can afford to pay for services.
- The reach strategies adopted by successful centres have been implemented in a particularly
thorough way. Some of the community consultations, for example, have been extensive and highly structured, utilising focus groups, outreach and public information campaigns, as opposed to more limited consultations and surveys.
- Achieving high visibility for the work and value of children's centres, particularly among those who are most remote from services, requires motivation, painstaking research, rigorous planning, effective communication and a range of professional skills and expertise. Children’s centres which have not yet formulated their strategies may not have ready access to this range of skills and expertise.
- If children’s centres are to achieve their objectives, they need to capture detailed information about their users, both at the point of first contact and at subsequent intervals. Only by this can they demonstrate both that they are engaging the most “difficult to include” and offering them services of value.
- Best practice involved highly differentiated and personalised planning for individual parents, built around their specific circumstances and needs, whether in relation to support for particular family difficulties, or involvement in centre activities, learning or volunteering opportunities. The concept of progression was very evident, each parent moving through a continuum of involvement at the pace which was most appropriate.
- In all four centres, the expertise and depth of experience of those leading the work was very
considerable and this was a critical factor in their extensive achievements. It would be difficult for any qualification to provide benefits comparable to this level of experience.
- On the evidence of the studies, a critical requirement for reaching the most disadvantaged families is an understanding of poverty and disadvantage. Training to provide skills and knowledge in this area should be part of the updated strategy for the children’s workforce.

Byron Review Action Plan: safe use of technology

The Byron Review Action Plan set's out the government's response to Dr. Byron's review of technology.

Key Points:
- Full acceptance of all the recommendations of the Byron Review.
- Establishing a UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) whose members will come from industry, the third sector and other key partner organisations. One of the first tasks the Council must undertake is to develop a Child Internet Safety Strategy and this plan is the first step towards achieving that.
- Plans to raise awareness of e-safety issues among children, young people, parents and other adults through a public information and awareness campaign. This needs to be more than a one-off advertising campaign and should ensure that e-safety messages are part and parcel of communications to parents, young people and children, which will empower them to keep themselves and their families safe.
- Reforming the classification system for video games, which Dr Byron said many parents remain confused about.
- Government will work with industry to improve information and support to parents on video games.
- Better regulation including Rolling out of the new kitemark for parental control software.
- Better support for schools including: providing guidance and support to schools on e-safety; ensuring that Initial Teacher Training takes account of e-safety issues; ensuring extended schools support children and families around e-safety and media literacy; and ensuring school inspection frameworks support and challenge schools in improving e-safety (Ofsted).

Supporting refugee and aslyum seekers in secondary school

This report by the Refugee Council examined how secondary schools can work with parents and children of the refugee and asylum seeking community.

Key points:
- Young people reported that a high level of parent/ carer involvement existed, but this varied between one-off meetings to frequent encounters. Young people also felt that their parents did not allow a lack of English to prevent them from being involved, and generally felt very positive about the support they received from parents or carers.
- Parents and carers were generally satisfied with schools, and had high levels of involvement, particularly where there was good communication with the school and where the staff were supportive and approachable.
- Suggestions for improving engagement included better communication and feedback.
- Schools found effective engagement was an important factor in young people’s well-being and achievement and empowered parents to participate in their education. The importance of a welcoming environment and inductions was noted.
- Refugee Community Organisations emphasised the need to support parents and carers as they often found integration more difficult than did their children.
- Barriers to inclusion include: difficulties in accessing school places; bullying; racism; and financial barriers to extracurricular activities, school books, and uniforms.Practices found to break down barriers include: extended school status, home-school and community link workers, peer mentors and language support.

Williams Review of Mathematics

The final report into primary mathematics by Peter Williams was released in June 2008.
It draws on evidence which includes robust published research; relevant data and statistics; and a programme of visits to schools and settings throughout England; an extensive consultation with teachers and practitioners, trainers, providers of resources and policy makers.

Key points:

- The teacher, even more than the parent, determines learning outcomes in mathematics, the more so given that the way in which mathematics is taught has undergone considerable change since most parents’ own schooling.
- most initial teacher training does not in itself constitute a sound basis for deep subject and pedagogical knowledge in mathematics, and this report therefore lays great emphasis on continuing professional development.

- There should be at least one Mathematics Specialist in each primary school, while recognising the need to make sensible allowances for small and rural schools.

- The Mathematics Specialist would be drawn from within the existing teaching force. This teacher will in effect ‘champion’ mathematics in the school and act as mentor and coach, as well as being an outstanding classroom teacher.

- The role of local authorities, universities and other providers of CPD is reviewed, and specific recommendations made regarding programmes for the Mathematics Specialists, in which progression to a Masters-level qualification is a key feature.

- the curriculum, by and large, is well balanced, and recommends that it should continue in its current form.

- Two issues only are singled out: the need for an increased focus on the ‘use and application’ of mathematics and on the vitally important question of the classroom discussion of mathematics.

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League tables do not assist choice

A report by the University of Bristol statisticians claims that league tables do not assist with parental choice as they do not predict future performance of the school.



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School funding in England

This report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies examined school funding by answering four questions:

• How have overall levels of public spending on education and schools in the UK evolved in recent years?
• How does the English school funding system allocate money to individual schools?
• How redistributive is the school funding system, and to what degree do funding variations reflect educational needs and parental background?
• What incentives do state schools face to attract new pupils and to improve school quality?

Key points:
- Education spending in the UK has seen increases averaging 4.3% a year in real terms over the past ten years. However, this rate of increase will slow to 3.4% a year over the years 2008–09 to 2010–11.
- Schools spending in England has enjoyed larger increases than education spending as a whole over the past ten years (averaging 6.0% per year in real terms), with particularly large increases in schools capital spending.
- School spending per pupil has increased by 6.4% a year in real terms under Labour to date, compared with increases averaging 4.7% in the private sector. State spending per pupil has risen from 50% of the private sector level in 1997–98 to 58% in 2006–07.
- While the provision of schools may be the responsibility of local authorities, the vast
majority of schools’ funding comes from the central government’s education budget.
- Changes to the system over recent years have gradually reduced the discretion local authorities have in distributing these funds. This is the result of increased ‘ring fencing’ (whereby local authorities are forced to spend grants on specific purposes) and increased use of direct payments and grants that must be passed on to schools in full.
- Other changes have also reduced the discretion local authorities have over school
funding in their area, including the Minimum Funding Guarantee, which guarantees minimum increases in funding per pupil for nearly all schools.
- However, powers over funding decisions have not simply been transferred up from local authorities to central government; schools themselves now have an increasing influence on funding decisions via Schools Forums.
- Funding is skewed towards schools with relatively large numbers of pupils from deprived backgrounds. On average, pupils who are eligible for free school meals attract over 70% more funding to their school than those who are not eligible. This holds true for both primary and secondary schools, and the funding ‘premium’ that follows FSM pupils has grown over time.
- Local authorities only allocate around 40–50% of the extra funding they receive for pupils who are eligible for free school meals towards the schools these pupils attend. In other words, local authorities seem to spread the funding targeted at low-income pupils more widely. If local authorities did not flatten extra income in this way, the additional money following a low-income pupil would be roughly 50% higher in secondary schools and more than doubled in primary schools.
- Under the current system, the amount of funding that schools receive does not respond quickly to changes in their numbers of pupils from deprived backgrounds or with additional educational needs.
- Most money ‘follows the pupil’ in the English school funding system, with the majority of funding directly determined by pupil numbers (weighted by age and background).
- The current system does not live up to the ‘school choice’ programme enthusiastically
described in the 2005 White Paper, in which successful schools expand, new entrants compete with existing providers, and weaker schools either improve their performance or else contract and close.
- Rigidities elsewhere in the school system blunt the incentives created by parental choice. Of the three criteria often used to determine whether genuine ‘school choice’ exists (pupil-led funding, supply flexibility and management freedom), the English system probably ‘fails’ on the last two.
- The supply side appears to be largely inflexible, with little threat of entry from new
providers. New school entry is decided by local authorities, which have little incentive to encourage new entry.
- School management is constrained by binding collective agreements covering many aspects of school operations, including pay and conditions. Where schools (such as Academies) have been given freedom from these agreements, they appear to have responded with innovation and experimentation. However, Academies supply only a tiny fraction of school places in England, and the success of these experiments is as yet unproven.

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Pupil population, England

This statistical release from the DCSF updates on the number of pupils by age, gender, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, first language, SEN (special educational needs) and gifted and talented pupils together with a range of class size information.

Key points:
- The full time equivalent (FTE) number of pupils in primary, secondary and special schools stood at around 7.3 million, the same as in 2007, with both the primary and secondary sectors showing a decrease.
- Figures indicate a decrease in the proportion of pupils in state funded schools known to be eligible for free school meals.
- In 2007 the percentage of pupils in LA maintained nursery and primary schools known to be eligible for free meals was 15.9% and this has fallen to 15.5% in 2008.
- In January 2008, 13.1% of pupils in secondary schools were known to be eligible for free school meals. This represents a decrease from 13.4% in 2007.
- In secondary schools, 12.8% of were known to be eligible for free school meals in 2008, representing a decrease from 13.1% in 2007.
- In primary schools the percentage of pupils who were classified as minority ethnic origin has increased from 21.9% in 2007 to 23.3% in 2008. A similar trend is apparent in secondary schools with 18.0% of pupils classified by minority ethnic groups in 2007 and around 19.5% in 2008. These changes may be due in part to an improvement in the completeness of the data held by schools.
- The percentage of pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English was 14.4% in primary schools and 10.8% in secondary schools. These figures represent an increase almost 2 per cent points in primary schools.
- There are 331,680 pupils in the Gifted and Talented cohort in primary schools, this is an increase on the 2007 figure of 282,410 and represents 8.1% of the school population. In secondary schools the figure for 2008 was 448,570, an increase on the 2007 figure of 416,540 and represents 13.6% of the school population.
- Some 223,430 (or 2.8% of) pupils across all schools in England had statements of SEN. The proportion of pupils with statements of SEN is similar to the proportion in 2007.
- In 2008 the percentage of pupils with SEN without statements across all schools was 17.2%, which represents an increase from 16.4% in 2007.
- The incidence of pupils with SEN without statements is greater in primary schools (18.1%) than in state funded secondary schools (17.8%). Distribution across the types of SEN is similar to last year. In primary, secondary and special schools the most prevalent need amongst pupils with SEN was ‘Moderate Learning Difficulty’ (around 26%) followed by ‘Behaviour, Emotional & Social Difficulties’ (around 23%) and ‘Speech, Language and Communication Needs’ (around 15%).

School Workforce in England

This statistical release from the DCSF updates data on the school workforce.

Key points:
- In January 2008, results for state funded schools show that the full time equivalent (FTE) number of teachers rose by 1,900 (0.4%) to reach 441,200 compared to January 2007.
- In the state funded sector, the total number of support staff rose by 18,200 to 326,400 in January 2008. Within this, the number of teaching assistants rose by 13,000 to 176,900 and the number of administrative staff, technicians and other support staff rose by 5,000 to 149,500.
- Teacher vacancies in LA maintained nursery/primary, secondary and special schools went up by 470 to 2,510 in January 2008 compared to January 2007.
- The overall pupil: teacher ratio for the state funded sector was 16.8 in January 2008, compared to 17.0 in 2007. In the LA maintained sector the pupil: teacher ratio was 16.9 in January 2008 compared to 17.1 in 2007.
- Teacher vacancies in nursery/primary, secondary and special schools went up by 470 to 2,510 in January 2008 compared to January 2007.
- In January 2008, 94.3 per cent of teachers were recorded in the white ethnic groups, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from 2007.
- An estimated 313,300 full-time and part-time teachers in England took sickness absence in 2007, approximately 57 per cent of the workforce. This is the same proportion as reported in 2006.

Exclusions in England

This Statistical First Release by the DCSF provides information about permanent and fixed period exclusions from primary, secondary and special schools and exclusion appeals in England during 2006/07. It reports national trends in the number of exclusions together with information on the characteristics of excluded pupils such as age, gender and special educational needs as well as the reasons for exclusion.

Key Points:
- There were 8,680 permanent exclusions from schools in 2006/07, which represents 0.12% of the number of pupils in schools (12 pupils in every 10,000). Compared with the previous year the number of permanent exclusions has decreased by almost 7%.
- In 2006/07 there were 363,270 fixed period exclusions from state funded secondary schools compared with 348,380 in the previous year. This represents an increase of just over 4%.
- The average length of a fixed period exclusion in state funded secondary schools was 3.3 days, for primary schools the average length of a fixed period exclusion was 2.7 days. The majority of fixed period exclusions (almost 90%) lasted one week or less.
- Overall, 61% of pupils who received a fixed period exclusion during 2006/07 were only excluded once, 19% of pupils received two fixed period exclusions.
- In 2006/07 the permanent exclusion rate for boys was nearly 4 times higher than that for girls. The ratio of permanent exclusion between boys and girls has remained stable over the last five years with boys representing around 80% of the total number of permanent exclusions each year. A similar trend is apparent with fixed period exclusions.
- Boys are more likely to be excluded (both permanently and for a fixed period) at a younger age than girls, with very few girls being excluded during the primary years. The most common point for both boys and girls to be excluded is at ages 13 and 14 (equivalent to year groups 9 and 10). Just over 50% of all permanent exclusions were of pupils of this age.
- Pupils with special educational needs are over 9 times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than the rest of the school population.
- The most common reason for exclusion (both permanent and fixed period) was persistent disruptive behaviour. Some 31% of permanent exclusions and 23% of fixed period exclusions were due to persistent disruptive behaviour.

Provisional Key Stage 1, 2, 4 (GCSE) and post-16 attainment 2006/07

This Statistical Release by the DCSF provides information showing attainment for 2006/07 broken down by pupils' characteristics, namely gender, ethnicity, eligibility for free school meals , special educational needs (SEN) and English as an additional language (EAL). It includes data for Key Stage 1 and 2 National Curriculum assessments, GCSE and equivalent achievement and Post-16 achievement and is provisional.

Key points:
- Across all major assessments at key stage 1, 2, GCSE and post-16 there is a correlation between poverty and attainment and rural areas out-perform urban areas.
- Across assessment at key stage 1 & 2 it is travellers, gypsy, Romany children who score lowest, although these populations are also small in comparison to other ethnic groups.
- Chinese, pupils of Mixed White and Asian heritage and Indian pupils consistently achieve above the national average across Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.
- All the minority ethnic groups within the Black category and pupils of Mixed White and Black Caribbean heritage are consistently below the national average across Key Stages 1, 2 and 4.
- Bangladeshi and Pakistani pupils perform below the national average across all Key Stages.
- Those who receive free school meals consistently perform those who do not receive free school meals at key stage 1 & 2 attainment.
- Yorkshire and Humber has the lowest GCSE attainment of all nine government office regions and there is a s very large gap between the national attainment of Asian students and the attainment of Asian students in Yorkshire & Humber.

Annual survey of teacher resignations & recruitment

The National Employers’ Organisation for School Teachers together with the teacher unions and Local Government Association, and with the support of the DCSF, has conducted an annual survey of teacher resignations and recruitment. The survey collects details of the movements of teachers to and from maintained schools in England and Wales over the calendar year. Forms were sent to all schools, 57% replied.

Teacher turnover has been calculated by expressing the number of teachers who have left as a percentage of the total number of teachers employed in all schools. Recruitment rates are calculated by expressing the number of teachers who joined schools as a percentage of the total number of teachers employed in all schools. Any moves within schools were excluded.

Key points:
- In 2006, there were 57,749 resignations of full and part-time, permanent and fixed term contract/temporary teachers from all maintained primary and secondary schools. This was a turnover rate of 11.9%, a slight decrease from 12.3% in 2005.
- The turnover rate for all full-time teachers in 2006 was 11.8% and for all part-time teachers it was 12.3%. This included those teaching in both primary and secondary schools.
- In 2006, 57,454 full and part-time permanent and fixed term contract/temporary teachers were recruited to work in local authority maintained schools. This recruitment rate of 11.9 % was a decrease from 13.0% in 2005.
- The recruitment rate for all full-time teachers in 2006 was 12.3%, similar to the rate in 2005 which was 12.8%. The recruitment rate for all part-time teachers was 10.0% in 2006, much less than the rate of 13.6% in 2005. This decrease of 3.6 percentage points between the two years represents the largest difference in recruitment rates for any group of teachers between the two years.

"On Track" evaluation - reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour

This is the final report from the second phase (March 2003-April 2006) of the national evaluation of On Track, a multi-component initiative which operated in 24 areas of high crime and high deprivation in England and Wales (including Bradford, Scarborough and Sheffield in Yorkshire & Humber region). The aim of the programme was to reduce the propensity of youth crime and anti-social behaviour for children aged 4-12 and their families. The evaluation included monitoring and tracking of 1,100 On Track services and 17,000 service users, longitudinal surveys of primary and secondary school staff and pupils in On Track areas, as well as a longitudinal cohort study which compared On Track area residents with similar families in non-On Track areas.

Key points:
- On Track was primarily a multi-agency, cross-sector programme with partners drawn from education, social services, youth offending services, health and local councils.
- Overall, home-school partnerships accounted for the greatest proportion of On Track services (33%), and by the second phase of the evaluation in some areas On Track was almost entirely school-based.
- Referrals to On Track projects came from a variety of routes, and overall education agencies were the largest single source of referrals comprising 35% of all referrals.
- Three quarters of all service users were children (53% girls), and almost a quarter were parents (mostly mothers – 88%).
- Across the programme as a whole, nearly seventeen thousand children and parents were recorded as users of On track in the second phase of the evaluation.
- Children in On Track areas and those using On Track services reported increasing warmth and praise from parents over time, and a decrease in hostility and criticism. Primary aged children were most likely to report these findings.
- In the primary school range, both children and their parents reported increased communication over time, and younger children were reported as reading more often with parents.
- Overall, there was no clear impact of On Track on school truancy and exclusions rates. However, there was some indication that for primary school children and for children and young people in a booster sample of high-need families that temporary exclusions had dropped over time. Results were also mixed for the impact of On Track on bad behaviour and bullying at school.
- Older children’s attachment and enjoyment of school showed significant positive changes over time including increased involvement and participation at school.

Role models and the gender gap

This study by the University of Durham investigated whether teacher gender had an identifiable impact on pupil outcomes (for boys and girls) in Year 6. The study was based on approximately 9000 Year 6 children in 1997/98. Data on these children were drawn from the Performance Indicators in Primary Schools and included attainment tests in reading, mathematics and science, tests of non-verbal ability and English vocabulary, and assessments of attitudes to subjects and school in general. Multilevel modelling was used to identify any impact of teacher gender whilst controlling for other variables.

Key points:
- There was no evidence that teacher gender influenced pupil outcomes on any attainment measure, for boys or girls.
- On the attitude measures, an association between gender and outcomes was seen only for attitudes to school, where children (boys and girls) who had female teachers had more positive attitudes, although the size of the effect was relatively small.

Secondary school staff survey

The aim of this survey was to create a picture of the secondary school teaching workforce in terms of teachers’ qualifications and the curriculum subjects they taught. The results of the survey are comparable with those last produced in 2002. Teachers’ post A-level qualifications were matched to the subjects they taught to demonstrate the proportions of teachers with qualifications relevant to the subjects they delivered in the classroom.

Key points:
- Ninety-six per cent of teachers’ highest post A-level qualification was a degree, a higher degree, a BEd, or a PGCE;
- In thirteen of the twenty nine subject categories used in the survey, over 70% of teachers held a post A-level qualification in a subject relevant to the subject they taught;
• The proportions of teachers with post A-level qualifications in the subjects they taught varied across subjects from less than 20% in some subjects (e.g. Careers Education at 7%) to over 80% in others (e.g. Music at 87%);
• The subjects with the highest proportions of post A-level qualified teachers were Chemistry, Biology and Physics where 90% and over of teachers had post A-level qualifications in relevant subjects; and
• Analysis of the qualification subjects of all science teachers demonstrated the relative proportions of science specialisms within schools, showing that 32% of specialisms were in Biology, 22% were Chemistry, 22% were Physics, 16% were Other Science and 8% were non-science.

The Extra Mile - Raising Aspirations in Deprived Communities

This DCSF paper is the first of a series which will explore in detail the barriers which face the children from deprived communities at school and seek ways to improve their chances of success. It is a project which is focused on children whose families have been poor for generations, in this sense it links to other research on persistent poverty (click here). The project focuses on the cultural attitudes between poverty and aspiration.

Key points:

- Generational poverty adds to material deprivation the weight of historical expectation and ingrained culture.

- Despite a closing gap, there is still significant difference of attainment of those on free school meals (FSM) and those not.

- By visiting 50 secondary schools working in the most deprived wards in England, but with a great track record of success with their pupils, it was seen that they do similar activities to any great school: they have dynamic leaders, who lead from the front, set the tone and establish a ‘can do’ culture; they have strong systems for quality; they are passionate about the quality of the classroom experience; they shape the curriculum to serve the needs of their intake; they track the progress of pupils with ardent regularity and intervene immediately if anyone falls off trajectory; they are unusually creative about recruitment and retention.

- these schools also go the extra mile for the children of their community. They implement some deliberate extra measures specifically targeted at the most disadvantaged. The research found 12 "extra mile" practices:
1: To increase interactive and participatory learning
2: To develop a listening campaign
3: To promote a culture of respect for local values
4: To broaden pupils’ horizons
5: To develop a culture of achievement
6: To offer a more relevant curriculum
7: To build pupils’ repertoire of language
8: To develop pupils’ social, emotional & behavioural skills
9: To cultivate traditional values
10: To track pupils’ progress and intervene promptly
11: To develop effective rewards and incentive schemes
12: To support pupils at transition points

Impact of High Performing Specialist Schools

PricewaterhouseCoopers have published this interim report, on behalf of the DCSF, on High Performing Specialist Schools (HPSS). Specialist schools are those which are recognised as being a centre of excellence in their chosen specialism (such as a curriculum subject or for Special Educational Needs). Since 2004 Specialist Schools have had the chance to apply to become High Performing. This implies that they gain a second specialism (i.e. a second curriculum and/or vocational subject as specialism) or that they take part in the Leading Edge Partnership Programme; become a Training School; take part in the Raising Achievement Transforming Learning Programme; or Youth Support Trust School Leadership Programme.

This report evaluates the success of the HPSS only, as opposed to evaluating the success of the Specialist School Programme in general.

Key points:
- Schools are optimistic that the HPSS option is contributing positively to raising pupils’ aspirations and attainment. A small number of interviewees (mainly those schools with a SEN HPSS option) emphasised the importance of assessing the impact upon achievement as well as attainment, as this was important for pupils with Special Educational Needs;
- Approximately one-half of interviewees believed that recruitment and retention of staff had improved as a result of the school taking on the high performing role;
- Schools were generally positive about the opportunities that the programme has provided to enhance and extend training and development opportunities for staff. Approximately four-fifths of headteachers indicated that training and development opportunities have improved as a direct result of involvement in the programme;
- Staff workload has increased in two-thirds of the schools visited (in particular for the Director of Specialism(s) and class teachers), but this was not generally resented by staff; as interviewees suggested that job satisfaction has simultaneously improved. A large number of interviewees suggested that workload peaked during the planning stage and the early implementation of the specialism and that it would reduce as the programme was being implemented;
- Over 90% of headteachers believed that curricular choice and personalised learning opportunities for pupils have improved as a result of the HPSS option;
- Many HPS schools are collaborating effectively with partner primary schools, but the outreach activities with local secondary schools, the wider community and local businesses are less well developed. Many of the examples of best practice in terms of collaboration with local secondary schools and businesses exist in training schools and schools with a vocational specialism; and
- Over one-half of interviewees believed that HPSS contributed specifically to the achievement of wider Government objectives, including the 14-19 agenda, the workforce remodelling agenda, extended schools and Every Child Matters.

The Best Teachers - Australia

This paper, Teaching Talent: The Best Teachers for Australia’s Classrooms (BCA), comprises a paper prepared for the Business Council of Australia titled ‘Investing in Teacher Quality: Doing What Matters Most’, preceded by an introduction and recommendations authored by the BCA .

Key points:

- The quality of teaching is the main driver of successful student learning outcomes.

- Every student deserves teachers who are suited to teaching, well trained and qualified, highly skilled, caring and committed to moving forward the learning of their students.

- One of the main roles of leadership in professions is to build a framework for professional learning from registration to advanced levels of standards, and systems for providing assessments and certification for members who reach those standards. It is important, therefore, to strengthen leadership in quality teaching at the wider professional level as well as at the level of the individual school.

- Stakeholders are unanimous that the first step in achieving improved outcomes in education is to attract the best people into teaching.

- Salary may not be a strong reason why current teachers have chosen to teach, but it is a strong reason why many abler graduates choose not to teach, and this is cause for considerable concern if we want our education system to remain among the best in the world.

- Attracting enough people into teacher education and attracting people of suitable quality are two major issues that tend to work against each other.

Parental involvement in children's education

BMRB Social Research were commissioned by the DCSF to conduct a survey of 5032 parents and carers of children of school age, in order to examine parental involvement in children’s education. This follows on from surveys in 2001 and 2004.

Key points:
- Around half (51%) of parents felt very involved in their child’s school life: this is an increase from 29% in 2001, to 38% in 2004 to 51% in the 2007 survey.
- Women, parents with young children, parents who left full-time education later, those from Black or Black British backgrounds and parents of a child with a Statement of SEN were all more likely than average to feel very involved. Lone parents and non-resident parent were less likely to feel very involved.
- Work commitments were the main barrier to greater involvement.
- Parents are now more likely to see a child’s education as mainly or wholly their responsibility (28%). This represents a shift from previous years, when parents were more likely to see it as the school’s responsibility.
- Nearly all parents (96%) agreed that it was extremely important to make sure that their child attended school regularly and on time.
- Around three in four of all parents felt that it was extremely important to help with their child’s homework.
- Informal discussions with school staff were seen as the most useful way of finding out about children’s progress in school (28% found them the most useful method). In previous years of the survey, parents’ evenings had been seen as the most useful means of communication.

Persistent poverty: families with children

This report by the National Centre for Social Research examined families who experience persistent poverty, as opposed to poverty at any one point in time, in order to examine the nature of persistent poverty and examine key risk factors. They use the government's definition of poverty (below 60% of the median income).

Key points:
- On average, around one-fifth of families with children were below the low income threshold at each of the four years under investigation. 38% of families with children experienced at least one year of low income during this period. 12% of families with children experienced persistent poverty during the period 2001 to 2004. One-quarter of families were temporary poor, that is poor in one or two of the four-year period.
- Persistently poor families received markedly less average income (under £200 equivalised income per week) than temporary poor families (£245), and only slightly more than half of this income came from earnings. Persistently poor families were significantly more likely than temporary poor families to have difficulties saving regularly, paying household bills and making money last.
- Children in persistently poor families were more likely than children in temporary poor
households to be at risk of poor outcomes across a number of Every Child Matters domains, including:
• going without regular physical exercise (12% to 8%);
• being suspended or expelled from school (11% to 6%);
• being in trouble with the police (5% compared to 3%);
• living in bad housing (48% compared to 33%);
• lacking a number of material deprivation items (3.9 items compared to 2.6 items);
• facing multiple (three or more) negative outcomes (28% compared to 18%).
- Predictably, work was seen as a good protective factor from persistent poverty for both lone-parent and couple families. However, the risk of persistent poverty was high for couple families where only one parent worked for 16 or more hours per week, particularly if it was the mother working. Being without work for a number of years increased the risk of persistent poverty even further. Other factors that were associated with an increased likelihood of persistent, rather than temporary, poverty include not having access to a car (for a lone mother) and, for couple families having a Black or Minority Ethnic mother and parents with no qualifications.

Outcomes of early childhood education

The New Zealand Ministry of Education commissioned this literature review into the impact of early childhood education (ECE) on children and families. The authors explored 117 international and New Zealand texts to addresses three questions:

(a) What developmental, educational, social, and economic outcomes are associated
with participation in ECE for learners and their families?
(b) Are different outcomes associated with different population groups and under different circumstances/ contexts? Considering whether there are adverse impacts more likely and for whom?
(c) How do different outcomes interact/relate with one another?
i. What is the size/significance of the different impacts of ECE? How long do the effects last?

Key findings:

- ECE participation is positively associated with gains in mathematics and literacy, school achievement, intelligence tests, and also school readiness, reduced grade retention, and reduced special education placement.

- the small number of studies that examined associations between ECE participation and learning dispositions found positive impacts.

- There are mixed findings on the impact of ECE participation on antisocial and worried behaviour.

- There is a suggestion that children may catch more infections (ear, nose, and throat) through ECE participation, and that young children attending all-day centres may experience higher cortisol levels (symptom of stress). Where centres are good quality, cortisol levels tend to be lower.

- Studies found cognitive gains for children from low-income/ disadvantaged homes could be greater than for most other children in mathematics and literacy.

- Children for whom English is an additional language, and children from some ethnic minority groups (including Black children), made greater progress on numeracy and pre-reading measures during ECE participation than the white U.K. children or those for whom English is a first language in the English EPPE study.

- Longer duration of ECE experience is linked with cognitive (“academic”) gains for children from all family socioeconomic backgrounds but full-time attendance has no benefits for cognitive outcomes over part-time attendance in studies of children from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds.

- A small number of international studies found an early starting age before age 2 or 3 is associated with higher levels of antisocial or worried behaviour at the time of attendance or shortly after school entry. These associations were generally found in centres rated as low-quality.

As the diagramme shows, early childhood services that contribute to positive child and family outcomes are settings characterised by:
- intentional teaching;
- family engagement with ECE teachers and programmes, where social/cultural capital and interests from home are included, and both family and teachers can best support the child’s learning; and
- a complex curriculum involving both cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions

Children's Social Workforce

The CWDC have released a statistical analysis of the workforce of children's social workers in England. This includes children and family social work, residential care, foster care, education welfare, family court advisors, support workers and volunteers.

Key points:
- Although progress has been made in improving service delivery the latest annual OFSTED report states that there is still considerable room for improvement.
- The sector relies on a diverse range of organisations to deliver its services which increases the complexity of people management and means that there may be significant variation in organisational culture and working environments.
- The workforce is varied and this impacts on the ability to recruit and retain a suitably skilled workforce in some occupational groups; recruitment and retention issues also vary by occupation and region;
- The workforce has a higher than average proportion of part-time workers, and is predominantly female, although, at management level, the proportion of men is higher;
- During the last three years there have been major workforce development initiatives focused on the children’s social care workforce: the Options for Excellence review; the Children’s Workforce Strategy; Care Matters: Time for Change; the Children’s Plan; Building Brighter Futures: Next Steps for the Children’s Workforce; and related initiatives.

Children's Trusts - Statutory Guidance

The DCSF have released this paper as statutory guidance for Children's Trusts on inter-agency working. The first chapter sets the scene and context of Children's Trusts and recent changes to Children's Services in general. The Children's Trusts are "the totality of change needed to deliver better and more responsive integrated services." The document reads as though there is a need for an extra push on this as the current approach has only yielded limited results, and so a "step change" is needed.

Key points:
- So far, the change towards full multi-agency working is not embedded, although some areas are doing very well and making excellent progress.
- It sets high expectations for Children’s Trusts to deliver measurable improvements for all children and young people and, in support of this, to have in place by 2010 consistent, high quality arrangements to provide identification and early intervention for all children and young people who need additional help. It emphasises the crucial role of local authorities in driving change.
- The step change expected of Children’s Trusts must include a step change in the involvement of schools in Children’s Trust arrangements. All schools, including Academies, should contribute to and in turn be strongly supported by local Trust arrangements which ensure shared ownership of all outcomes of all children in an area.
- Strong school level indicators are being developed to help schools, local partners and Children’s Trust boards measure each school’s contribution to the well-being of local children and how, working together, this can be improved.
- Local authorities must take swift and decisive action to prevent schools from failing and reverse failure quickly when it happens. We also expect local authorities to challenge schools who are not sufficiently improving their pupils’ performance including those who are coasting.
- To deliver the results necessary for a world class system requires a step change in progress, including consistent, high quality arrangements for identification of additional needs and early intervention.