Education and Learning

Report

The work of our Education and Learning programme over the last seven years has focused on supporting the development and diffusion of innovative ideas to improve education and increase people’s learning. Our Open Grants scheme and Special Initiatives have sought to address specific challenges, to generate knowledge and to trial ways of working that can influence practice beyond the grantee organisations and school or university partners that we have directly supported.

Collaborative learning

The active facilitation of collaborative learning has always been a core element of our Special Initiatives. We have regularly brought teachers and others together to reflect on their practice, and seek a shared understanding of what works in improving outcomes for young people and sustaining change.

This approach, particularly in the context of working with schools, chimes with respected research that indicates teacher collaboration and the development of professional learning communities can be a highly effective route to change in the education system.

In 2013/14, we entered the fifth year of working closely with our Learning Away ‘community of practice’, made up of 60 schools working in 13 clusters across the country. Our provision of support grants alongside tapering implementation grants has given busy teachers the means to engage actively in learning, evaluation and knowledge management processes. This year many have been involved in drafting resources, guidance materials and case studies to share their experience with others.

Our Musical Futures initiative has grown from the ground up into a vibrant movement that now supports an active community of thousands of music educators, teachers, academics and young people in the UK and beyond. The team placed particular emphasis this year on encouraging teachers to ‘take.use. innovate.share’, a mantra that reflects our emphasis on Musical Futures as a movement for teachers, driven by teachers.

For our Open Grants recipients, we have held a number of well-received workshops, bringing grantees and other organisations together. Themes included the principles and implications of different economic evaluation approaches, how to build an online community to support practice-sharing beyond geographical boundaries, and innovative approaches to language learning for supplementary schools.

Sharing good practice

From the start of our initiatives we have been conscious of the need to focus on our longer-term goals of wider influence. This has meant fostering an outward-facing disposition amongst those we have worked with. Schools and universities have recognised that they are working on behalf of the wider system, and we have emphasised the importance of capturing impact data and knowledge that will help transfer approaches to other settings. We have openly shared our thinking and findings with wider audiences as our own initiatives have progressed, seeking to build wider communities of interest that can draw people in to apply our findings and practice development in their own contexts.

We have developed new websites this year for Learning Away, Musical Bridges and Language Futures, and produced a range of new resources. These included our first Learning Away publication, promoting high-quality residential education; a second edition of our What Works? Compendium of Effective Practice for developing student engagement in higher education; and updated audio and sheet music resources to support joint music-making between primary and secondary schools under our Musical Bridges programme. For Musical Futures, we launched our first app.

We were pleased to award IntoUniversity a major three-year grant this year, to build the knowledge and capacity of the supplementary school sector to increase students’ access to higher education. The organisation also aims to influence the higher education sector by raising awareness and stimulating partnership working across the country between the HE and supplementary school sectors. Other grantees that have worked actively to share their practice include Shpresa, Chol Theatre, the Boys Development Project, Dandelion Time, The Mulberry Bush Organisation and Radio Regen.

Our two-year evaluation by the Office of Public Management (OPM) of the therapeutic approaches used by three of our grantees to tackle truancy and exclusion was concluded this year. OPM reported that all three – School and Family Works/SWIFT, Mounts Bay Academy and Teignmouth Community College – saw a positive impact on key measures of truancy and exclusion, and all highlighted real value in learning from each other’s practice. Two of them felt that they had made a step change in their capacity to evaluate their work effectively and to use this information in their decision-making. We were pleased to hear that School and Family Works went on to win Project Oracle’s 2013 Evidence competition. With OPM we will be publishing three leaflets in summer 2014 to share learning from the evaluation more widely. ¹

Language Futures

We have continued our support for Language Futures, a highly innovative, personalised approach to language learning, initially developed by Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire and since trialled in a number of schools. The approach typically engages students by enabling them to select a language to learn that is meaningful to them, equipping them with the skills and motivation to manage their own learning process. Students tap into online and in-school resources to support their language learning and are supported by their peers, and often by community mentors, under the guidance of their teachers. Project-based learning is a core element of the approach.

Over 100 people attended events this year to learn more about Language Futures. The initiative’s website ² provides guidance and resources for the growing number of schools interested in the approach. This year Byron Wood Primary School in Sheffield became the first primary school to introduce Language Futures for its pupils.

Music Education Review

We commissioned an independent review of the state of schools-based music education, led by Katherine Zeserson from Sage Gateshead. Her report Inspiring Music for All – next steps in innovation, improvement and integration, drew on in-depth interviews with leading figures in music education, a roundtable discussion with sector specialists, youth focus group sessions, an online survey of teachers and analysis of over 90 primary literature sources.

The review found that there is still too little music-making in many classroom music lessons and, as has been reported by Ofsted, the quality and reach of schools-based music education is still unacceptably inconsistent. However, we also found that the best music in schools is now significantly more inclusive, more musically diverse and of higher quality than it was a decade ago. Where music is good it is often very good, characterised by creativity, engagement and musicality.

The review highlights real concern that the gap between the best and the worst music in schools is getting wider rather than narrower. However, it also gives cause for optimism, identifying a high level of consensus across the music education sector around the root causes for this widening gap – which allows for it to be tackled collectively.

The review makes recommendations for all stakeholders in the music education sector, who need to work together to improve the quality of provision and to disseminate best practice. Our Musical Futures team will be playing an active part in addressing the issues raised, including sharing with others their strategies for engaging teachers in peer learning and professional networks.

Denise Barrows
Head of Education and Learning

Special Initiatives

Musical Futures

A movement to reshape music education driven by teachers for teachers

£365,917 in 2013/14

Musical Futures aims to provide engaging, sustainable and relevant music-making activities for all young people, by promoting and developing innovative, high-quality music teaching and learning in schools across the UK. At its core is an approach that brings creative ways of thinking about music-making into schools, using a mix of aural learning, composition, improvisation and performance to engage and motivate young people, building from their own musical interests.

New surveys by the Institute of Education and York Consulting provide indications of the reach and impact of Musical Futures. Fifty three per cent of 253 secondary teachers replying to the Institute’s survey reported that the music team in their school uses Musical Futures regularly, with 92 per cent of these agreeing that Musical Futures has made a significant and positive impact on the quality of music learning in their school. York Consulting found, between 2002 and 2013, a 70.2 per cent increase in pupil numbers studying music at Key Stage 4 in Musical Futures schools, compared with an 18.3 per cent increase in non-Musical Futures schools and 31.6 per cent for all schools overall.

Musical Futures is playing an increasingly important role in tackling the professional isolation of many music teachers and consistently enhances professional satisfaction and teaching confidence for its users. We held more than 60 professional development events during the 2013/14 academic year, attended by 650 teachers, and maintain active partnerships with 22 out of the 25 initial teacher education providers that offer a music specialism.

Our online community has continued to grow, with teachers regularly discussing problems and best practice online, including through a weekly live chat on Twitter. Our new app launched this year and was downloaded by more than 1,000 people in its first three months. The app provides a rich, interactive resource that offers a new perspective on using Musical Futures effectively in the classroom.

This year marked the tenth anniversary of Musical Futures. We estimate that at least 210,000 young people benefit from Musical Futures each year and that well over a million young people have participated over the last decade.

Learning Away

Initiative promoting residential learning in schools

£210,579 in 2013/14

This year we entered the final academic year of the action research phase of Learning Away. Sixty schools, including primary, secondary and special schools, have been working with us over five years to develop, test and evidence exemplary practice in residential learning. Thousands of pupils have benefited from a wide range of enriching experiences, all incorporating overnight stays. The schools have participated in a collaborative and ongoing learning process that has resulted in a depth of understanding about effective practice that we hope will now prove influential for schools more widely.

With our first pamphlet published, and growing evidence of impact, a priority this year has been to embark on a purposeful dissemination and influencing strategy. Our Project Leader, Peter Carne, and Programme Advisor, Sir Tim Brighouse, have spoken at key events for school leaders, teachers and residential centre providers to raise awareness of our findings and recommendations

In launching a website this year, which we hope will become the ‘go-to’ resource for schools keen to increase the impact of residential learning, we are promoting the concept of ‘Brilliant Residentials’. These residentials are led by teachers, co-designed with pupils and fully integrated into the curriculum. The website is already populated with a wide range of case studies and information, which will be complemented in autumn 2014 by a comprehensive set of guidance materials on a range of relevant themes.

Our Learning Away strategy includes an emphasis on building key partnerships with organisations that can help to further our goals. A new link with Historic Royal Palaces came to fruition this year and resulted in 80 Year 10 students from the Canterbury Academy in Kent attending the very first residential visit at Hampton Court Palace.

With the Group for Education in Museums, we are working now to encourage other heritage venues to host overnight visits from school groups. Key networks of residential centres are also taking our recommendations on board and seeking to work more collaboratively with schools to design their programmes and activities.

What Works? Student Retention and Success

Developing student engagement in higher education

£14,062 in 2013/14

Since 2008 we have worked to build understanding within the higher education sector of how best to nurture student engagement and belonging as a key strategy for boosting student retention and success.

Our initial research, drawing on the experiences of 22 universities, demonstrated that students are most likely to feel like they belong to their particular discipline group, with a sense of belonging generally decreasing at departmental, school and institutional levels. In addition, many students do not utilise central academic development and pastoral support services. As a result, engagement and belonging must be nurtured through universal activities in the academic domain and, in particular, through high-quality, student- centred learning and teaching.

The findings and recommendations of this first phase of What Works (2008–11) have continued to influence policy and practice across the higher education sector this year, with the Office for Fair Access advising institutions to take our work into account in planning their Access Agreements, and extensive citations in the National Strategy for Access and Student Success Interim Report and subsequent reference in the new National Strategy published in April 2014.

Thirteen institutions are participating in the second phase of the initiative, a three-year institutional change programme with a retention and success focus, being delivered by the Higher Education Academy. Through this, we aim to build strong evidence of impact and demonstrate how our recommendations can be implemented successfully at departmental and institutional levels, across a range of universities, to significantly improve student retention and success.

What Works has benefited greatly from the expertise and networks that our key partners – the Higher Education Funding Council for England (in phase one) and the Higher Education Academy and Action on Access (throughout) – have brought to the work. This has enabled extensive dissemination activities through regular conference presentations and briefings distributed across the sector. The work undertaken through the initiative has also informed a special issue this year of the Journal of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning.

Musical Bridges: Transforming Transition

Supporting music learning during the transition from primary to secondary education

£141,924 in 2013/14

Since this initiative was launched in 2010, its aim has been to help primary and secondary schools work together to improve their pupils’ experiences of school transfer, with a particular focus on music. Over this time, the Musical Bridges team has designed and field-tested teaching resources that have helped over 100 cross-phase partnerships to support their pupils better.

Musical Bridges stresses the importance of joining up administrative transfer arrangements, along with a need for high-quality pastoral support for pupils. It also highlights the importance of curriculum continuity between primary and secondary phases, and how best practice is enhanced when teachers share their approaches to teaching and learning. Our ‘Five Bridges’ framework (after Galton, Gray and Ruddock, 1999) also emphasises the value pupils attach to their own musical experiences, in particular demonstrating their skills as young leaders. These experiences can provide significant practical, social and emotional ‘bridges’ to support their integration into their new secondary school.

During 2013/14 we ran a national awards scheme to find the most inspiring music collaborations that are effectively supporting pupils’ transition from primary to secondary school. Our prize winners, the East Riding Schools’ Music Service, Bishop Justus Church of England School in Kent, Dawling Learning Partnership in Telford and the North Downs Schools’ Partnership in Surrey, provided fantastic examples of the Five Bridges in action.

As our programme of work for Musical Bridges draws to a close, we have been developing a new website to ensure that our learning remains accessible, and hopefully influential, contributing to an ongoing legacy from the initiative. The network of 122 music education hubs, charged with supporting schools-based music, represents a significant route through which we hope that Musical Bridges will continue to stimulate improved transition practice. A national survey of hubs undertaken on our behalf by York Consulting showed high levels of awareness of Musical Bridges, with 96 per cent of respondents stating that transition is either a priority or an emerging priority.

Open Grants

Space Unlimited

£222,912 over 30 months, awarded in 2011/12

Based in Glasgow, Space Unlimited is a social enterprise that uses youth-led enquiry to improve services across a range of sectors. In education its work focuses on student- led enquiries into learning and teaching. The enquiries address issues such as ‘What kind of learning experience do you need to prepare you for your future?’. This is followed up with support for young people and educators to help them work together to implement change in their school.

A PHF grant supported the Changing Together project, in which Space Unlimited worked with 14 schools across three local authorities in Scotland and four additional schools in England.

Space Unlimited works hard at creating a level playing field so young people feel listened to and heard. The first enquiry day involves developing an understanding of roles and how these will be different to those usually experienced in school.

Project Facilitator Gill Gracie says: “The enquiry process allows young people to talk honestly with teachers about what’s working and what they want to change. The enquiry is very much led by young people, with teachers taking more of a listening role in the conversation. This helps young people develop their confidence, articulate their perspective with their peers and with adults, speak in public and build self-awareness.”

Feedback on the process from students has been positive. “We became confident and comfortable to speak and take part and that’s what we needed to take our ideas further and to try and make a change,” said a pupil at Trinity High School. Another, from Whitehill Secondary School, said: “I learned that I can be overpowering. It’s okay to lead, but not if you shut others out. I realised that when you contribute and help others to share, you get more.”

Gill says the process helps to improve relationships between teachers and young people. “We are seeing a commitment to change,” she says. “Nearly 80 per cent of students and 90 per cent of teachers say they want to bring the ideas to life in their schools.”

A pupil at Castle School said: “Before this I didn’t realise that pupils can change their school and I didn’t think we’d be able to have that much impact, but we can.”

Space Unlimited says that reporting back to PHF has been helpful as a discipline, reflecting on change and helping the organisation to refocus. “The questions encourage us to reflect in an unprescriptive way,” says Gill.

This has helped Space Unlimited reflect on its other work.

“We are also thinking about applying this model between schools and the community and, in Glasgow, we have been working with a group of looked after young people in residential units,” says Gill. “We’re interested in how best to adapt our enquiry process to so that more young people have a voice and feel confident to influence change.”

DigiSmart (LIFT for Learning)

£237,465 over three years, awarded in 2011/12

Katie, 10, felt physically sick ahead of giving a talk on dolphins to 11 of her classmates. Like many children with low reading ability, she found tasks like this hugely daunting. But, when she finished her presentation, the group cheered, and the confidence she gained made her want to give the talk in front of her whole class, and then in assembly.

Katie’s presentation was part of a session with DigiSmart, an IT-based education programme for primary school children with poor reading skills from low-income backgrounds. It was launched in 2002 as a pilot and now partners with 500 primary schools. Research from the University of Roehampton has found that it significantly improves literacy and reading confidence.

“The PHF grant has been very strategically focused on training and scalability,” says Strategic Director Dr Maggie Holgate. “It has enabled us to put in place a richer training programme with online videos, increasing access across the UK. It has been an incredible investment.”

The grant is also enabling DigiSmart to see if teachers translate principles into everyday teaching to increase general levels of attainment. Maggie adds: “PHF is the first funder to see researching and evaluating this wider outcome as a priority, supporting a dedicated research study.”

“It has been fantastic for the children from vulnerable groups,” says Kim Farrall, a teacher from St. Edward’s CE Primary School in Rochdale. “DigiSmart provides a very nurturing environment which has had a really good impact on attendance, behaviour and literacy.”

One child, Karl, who had been moved from another school, was very aggressive. Kim explains: “In DigiSmart, we were able to give him more attention. He then took the skills he learned back into the classroom. Teachers noticed the change in his behaviour and his reading improved.”

Kim adds that DigiSmart has helped her teaching. “I use the skills in different contexts,” she says. “For example, when the children are giving presentations I teach them to find key words and make sure that they focus more on relevant facts rather than just copying and pasting.”

Sue Flannery, a teacher at Banks Road Primary School in Liverpool, echoes Kim’s experience. She describes one girl at her school, Jolie, as “Probably one of the most problematic children ever. She was angry most of the time, didn’t engage with learning and couldn’t make friends. It was a miracle if she stayed in a class. It was a really big moment when she did her presentation. It had a massively positive impact on her self-esteem and she saw herself as someone who could participate.”

DigiSmart’s plans for the future are to make the model more flexible, for example by opening it up to children in Year 6 and making it available to pupil referral units. The organisation also wants to take advantage of the fact that tablets are increasingly being used in classrooms. Maggie says: “A very big revolution is happening in education, which means that technology is no longer restricted to a ‘computer room’ – it can be delivered in any classroom or learning setting, at any time.”

(Children’s names have been changed.)