HE; Academies; State Boarding Schools & New Schools

The DCSF are on a mission to have every university in the country supporting a local academy school. Currently more than half of the 88 universities are committed and a further 20 are developing towards supporting an academy.

For more and a full list of which academies and universities are involved click here.

The hope is that with the raising of the educational age to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015, that links to universities will encourage young people who had never considered a university education to stay on post 18.

The academic year 2008 witnessed the opening of over 180 new schools, including 51 new Academies (taking the total number of academies to 134). Many opened as part of the "Building Schools for the Future" programme, including a purpose-built multi-faith centre which will be used by all members of the community at Allerton High in Leeds.

These new schools includes 5 new "all through" academies, schools which provide a seamless primary and secondary education, taking the total of such schools to 14, with a further 5 in development.

Additionally, the DCSF have announced two new academies will eventually take boarding students, with a focus on those students from the armed services in Lincoln and Salisbury Plain.
This comes on top of additional funds aimed to expand the places at state boarding schools aimed at vulnerable children, such as those looked after by the local authorities.

Support needs of children and young people who move due to domestic violence

This is the summary report of findings from research funded by the Scottish Executive and commissioned by Women’s Aid. The research explores the views, experiences and support needs of children and young people who have to move home as a result of domestic abuse.

Key findings:
- Information from prior studies suggests that children experiencing domestic abuse are likely to know about it and be affected by it; have sophisticated understandings and information about it; and to have mixed views about refuge life. Earlier studies also suggest that given the complexities of their lives, it can be difficult for organisations to find effective ways to support them.
- Moving school or returning to school following having to move house because of domestic abuse was a major source of anxiety; this seemed to be focused on anxieties about implications for relationships with friends and friendships.
- One theme emerging strongly from the interviews was the value young people placed on having someone they could completely trust to talk to about their experiences. However, finding someone appropriate to fulfil this role could be difficult.
- Support agencies should prioritise helping them maintain old friendships and networks; helping them build new ones where this is not possible.
- Recognition should be given to the value young people in this situation place on being able to talk about their experiences to someone they completely trust who will keep their information private; recognise how difficult it is for them to find support at this time from friends and relatives.
- Schools should acknowledge the difficulties young people have when return in to or moving school in this situation; appreciate this is a very difficult transition; make planned and appropriate provision.
- Schools should take seriously the concerns and anxieties young people have about peer relationships when returning to school or moving school in this situation; find ways to acknowledge this; make planned and appropriate provision.

Welsh school transition planning

This report by Estyn (the inspectorate for children's services in Wales), evaluates the initial impact of transition plans and their use by primary-secondary school partnerships to improve the quality of learning and standards and includes case studies of good practice in key areas.

Transition plans are the means by which secondary schools and their partner primary schools formalise their arrangements to work together on curriculum, learning and assessment issues that relate to the 7-14 phase of education. This follows Welsh only legislation requiring schools to cooperate in this area.

Key points:
- While most schools have improved some aspects of transition, particularly pastoral support, only a few primary and secondary schools have comprehensive arrangements to secure effective transition arrangements, including:
• agreed approaches to managing and co-ordinating transition with partners;
• joint curriculum planning to ensure continuity and progression in learning;
• arrangements to achieve continuity in teaching and learning that build on primary school methods;
• ways to achieve consistency in assessment and to monitor and track pupils’ progress against prior attainment; and
• the means to evaluate the impact of transition arrangements on standards.
- As a result, pupils often slip back when they move from primary to secondary school because they do not receive teaching appropriate to their needs and abilities.
- Plans include information on how schools intend to improve arrangements in the five core aspects of transition. Nearly all plans also include arrangements in optional areas, such as pastoral links.
- The clusters2 of schools that have the best plans know what they have achieved so far and have identified specific priorities for improvement that they plan to address over the three-year period 2007-2010. Their transition plans are an integral part of their school improvement agenda and include measurable outcomes for learners.
- The common shortcomings in many transition plans are that they:
• are not evaluative enough;
• are not specific enough to inform planning over a three-year period;
• do not include, where appropriate, national or local initiatives;
• focus too much on processes and not enough on outcomes; and
• do not enable the cluster to measure the impact of planned action.

- The report lists 14 recommendations for schools, LAs and the Welsh Government

Transition information sessions evaluation

This report by the DCSF examines the impact of Transition Information Sessions (TIS) which form part of the parenting support core offer within the Extended Schools prospectus, Access to opportunities and services for all. This pilot covered two years, which included 9 LAs in year 1 and a further 11 LAs in the second year.

TIS aim to:
• lay the foundations of effective home-school partnerships;
• give parents information, ideas and an opportunity for discussion about parenting issues, including how to keep their child safe, happy and learning; and
• signpost parents to local and national sources of information, advice and support

Key points:
- Sessions were offered to a cohort of parents with a child entering a new school setting. Session content was shaped by local preference and need but with a focus on how parents can keep their child safe, happy and learning. Session duration was expected to be around one hour with some additional time for informal conversation. All sessions were expected to signpost parents to local and national services that are there to support them and sessions often directly involved such service providers - in planning, delivery and providing materials.
- The key success factors for local strategic planning were reported by local authorities to include; clarity of aims, effective publicity and branding, and strong leadership from the local authority. Local authorities and schools routinely benefited from the lessons learned from year 1.
- Despite the similarities to TIS in year one, a number of characteristics were found to be distinctive to the project in year two. The main ones were identified as follows:
o more defined links with other local programmes and strategies;
o expanded local authority performance management for TIS, such as the requirement for schools to produce action plans or mini-funding bids, to confirm their approach;
o a greater focus on accountability and value for money ;
o more ambitious TIS formats, with a wider view of 'transitions'; and
o positive influences from the TIS capacity-building programme for all local authorities, drawing on a toolkit for sessions and models of delivery developed within the demonstration project, and offered to all local authorities in 2007-08.
- The evaluation showed that schools were at a varied baseline position in developing their extended service core offer, with some already having a wide range of services in place and others making slower progress. The project often coincided with school-level issues that affected the priority of TIS. These included leadership changes and inspection.
- Steps to engage whole local populations were said to include –
o the use of mapping and consultation data to establish levels of need,
o closer work with district or cluster teams to reach deprived local communities; and
o strengthening third sector involvement within local TIS partnerships

- In Yorkshire & Humber Calderdale and Leeds have schools which took part in this pilot.

Good practice in literacy and numeracy

This paper by PwC for the Northern Irish Education Department to examine good practice in literacy and numeracy by looking at Irish and British cities.

Key points:
Respondents thought that reasons for the ‘long tail’ of underachievement in Northern Ireland included:
- A lack of parental involvement in their children’s education;
- A perceived lack of value placed on education in certain areas, particularly deprived Protestant areas;
- A shortage of positive role models;
- The impact of ‘The Troubles’;
- A decline in the readiness for schooling of pupils entering primary school in recent years (e.g. in terms of behaviour, linguistic development etc);
- A lack of baseline data on young children, hindering early intervention in schools;
- The transition between pre-school and primary and between primary and post-primary schools; and
- A lack of strategic direction and consistency of approach at the system level.

Measures to improve boys’ performance were identified at the individual level, the pedagogical level, the school level and at a system-wide level.
These include:
- Mentoring;
- Target-setting and more personalised learning;
- Introducing greater variety in teaching styles and activities;
- Creating an ethos of high expectations and aspirations throughout the school;
- Using data effectively to identify areas of difficulty;
- Developing appropriate professional development for teachers; and
- Disseminating good practice.

Respondents also raised concerns about:
- The weight given to teaching literacy and numeracy in Initial Teacher Training (ITT), particularly for those planning to teach in post-primary schools;
- The level of support for special educational needs;
- Resources for literacy and numeracy (including the layout of school buildings); and
- The need for strong strategic leadership across the sector.

Effective schools and school systems are characterised by:
- Strong leadership and strategic vision;
- A focus on learning and development for all staff;
- Close linkages with parents and the wider community;
- An emphasis on personalised learning, tailored to the needs of the individual pupil;
- Creativity and making learning fun;
- Collaboration with other schools, particularly at transition stages; and
- The effective use of data.