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.