West Somerset Research School at The Blue School, Wells, Newsletter

Issue #1

Autumn term

The Research Schools Network has expanded!

In July, Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Education, confirmed the 11 new Research Schools in Opportunity Areas. The announcement doubles the size of the Research Schools Network. From an original project with eleven schools, we have now grown to 22.

The Research Schools Network aims to put the use of research evidence into the hands of schools and practitioners. Research Schools will share what they know about putting research into practice, and support the schools they are working with to make better use of evidence to inform their teaching and learning. The aim, of course, is to ensure that this improves the outcomes for children in the classroom.

Read more about the expanding Research Schools Network here

We're recruiting a new Research School for the Ipswich Opportunity Area

In the recruitment round earlier this year we were unable to appoint a Research School to support the Ipswich Opportunity Area and so we are now seeking a school to become a Research School to support the Ipswich Opportunity Area from January 2018.

To submit an application, please register via the EEF website and complete the online form.

IEE Innovation Evaluation grants

We are now accepting applications for the third round of IEE Innovation Evaluation grants from schools that are involved with the Research Schools Network.

IEE Innovation Evaluation Grants are available to schools that are working closely with the Research Schools Network. They are awarded by the Institute for Effective Education (IEE) to provide funding for pilot evaluations of innovations of teaching and learning approaches that support the Research Schools Network’s goal to improve the attainment of pupils by increasing the use of evidence-based practices. More information is available on the Research Schools website here, or contact us to discuss your application.

EEF Early Years Toolkit

Like the ever-popular secondary schools version, the EEF have pulled together a really accessible summary of educational research for early years teaching.  This resource won't tell you what will work in your school, but it can help inform you about what has and hasn't worked in the past.  Click here to see the toolkit on the EEF Website

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Evidence-based guidance for improving literacy

One of the challenges when trying to use research evidence to improve teaching practice in schools can be the amount of evidence to wade through, and its inaccessibility.

Most schools and their staff simply don’t have the time to sift through the evidence and reach their own conclusions. With this in mind, guidance reports from the Education Endowment Foundation do some of this heavy lifting for you. And a key part of the role of the Research Schools Network is to turn these guidance reports into training programmes that help schools use them in practice.

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What is the evidence on secondary reading?

Ariane Baye from the University of Liege and Cynthia Lake and colleagues from the Center for Research and Reform in Education have updated their paper Effective Reading Programs for Secondary Students. Their review focuses on 73 studies that used random assignment (n=66) or high-quality quasi-experiments (n=7) to evaluate outcomes of 55 programmes on widely accepted measures of reading.

The authors found that specific programmes using one-to-one, small-group tutoring, and cooperative learning showed positive outcomes, as did a small number of programmes emphasising social-emotional learning, technology, or teaching of metacognitive strategies. Benchmark assessments did not affect reading outcomes. Leaving aside tutoring and benchmarks, programmes that provide additional instructional time (usually, a daily extra period) were no more effective than programmes that did not provide extra time.

The findings suggest that secondary readers benefit more from engaging and personalised instruction than from additional time on supplemental courses.

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Aiming high for quality CPD

The Research Schools Network aims to put the use of research evidence into the hands of schools and practitioners. One of the three main strands of its work is training, offering CPD that uses the best research evidence to challenged existing practice.

As a network that is built on evidence, such CPD needs to build on the research into which CPD is effective.
 

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