Learning lessons together

For those unfamiliar with the social make-up of Oxford one thing could surely not have added up. How could a city renowned throughout the world as a seat of learning be home to some of the worst performing primary schools in the UK?

For in a university city packed with experts on teaching and education, a seemingly insurmountable problem continued for the local education authority, school heads and governors: how is it possible to raise school standards in the city’s less advantaged areas?

The yawning gap in educational attainment became most painfully apparent in 2010, when it emerged that Oxford’s seven-year-olds performed worst in England at Key Stage One. And this at a time with both Oxford universities riding high in various research and higher education league tables and undertaking multi-million-pound campus developments.

If only Oxford’s underperforming schools could benefit from the educational expertise on its doorstep; if only the universities could offer support to schools in deprived areas.

A simple thought maybe. But it has taken £300,000 and no little political courage to make it finally happen with the launch of The Leadership for Learning programme a year ago.

Both Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University signed up for the Town-Gown initiative to raise standards in some of Oxford’s most disadvantaged areas, with the funding coming from Oxford City Council.

A year on, the director of the programme, Ian Menter, professor of teaching education at Oxford University, heralded the scheme a success, at least so far.

“It is helping to improve schools,” he said. “It is helping to grow a core of strong leaders in the schools. It is a well established fact that the quality of leadership is the key element in improving the attainment in schools.”

Over the last year 40 school heads and senior teachers from 11 Oxford primary schools have been given the chance to work with some of the most experienced educational leaders in the country. The schools that participated were: Bayards Hill; Church Cowley St James; Cutteslowe; East Oxford; Larkrise; Pegasus, Orchard Meadow and Windale (three schools forming the new Blackbird Leys Academy); St Francis in Cowley; St John Fisher in Littlemore; and Wood Farm.

All will continue to take part, except for the Blackbird Leys Academy.

Forty-two teachers will benefit from the second year of the programme, now under way, with John Henry Newman Academy in Littlemore added to the list. They were joined on the programme by 11 headteachers from Leicester, who had significantly improved their schools. Teachers taking part attend six public seminars with presentations from education experts on topics such as leadership and early intervention. There are additional workshops, coaching sessions meetings and support in analysing school data.

Each headteacher on the programme is also offered coaching from some of Oxfordshire’s most experienced secondary school headteachers.

Oxford City Council came forward with the teacher-mentoring initiative, agreeing to invest £300,000 in it over three years, despite the fact that Oxfordshire County Council is the local education authority.

Prof Menter said: “The city council was concerned about schools serving less advantaged communities. It commissioned the programme after a competitive tendering process.”

Along with Leadership for Learning, the council also agreed to fund a separate programme to improve writing and numeracy skills.

The ambitious aim is to raise levels of attainment in these primary schools to 10 percentage points above the national average, which means 95 per cent of pupils achieving level two in reading at the age of seven and 84 per cent level four in English and maths at the age of 11 by 2016/17.

Prof Menter said: “Oxford University’s Department of Education and Oxford Brookes University’s School of Education are recognised UK leaders in teacher education. But we do not claim to provide a solution.

“We hope that through the programme, teachers and governors will be able to tap into a pool of expertise and support each other.

“We have put in place a structure that allows people to build their own solution together, learning from each other.

“There is a shared focus. The programme brings together people with a commitment to improve the quality of education in their schools.”

Only three of the 11 schools involved have had full Ofsted inspections since becoming involved in Leadership for Learning. Two of them have improved their grades, with one staying the same.

Prof Menter said: “Every day primary teachers are faced with a myriad of challenges: for example working more closely with parents so that they can offer more effective support to their child’s education.”

In a city like Oxford, supporting bilingual learners for whom English is an additional language is another issue to tackle.

Retaining staff and the turnover of pupils as well as staff pose particular problems in Oxford, a city with areas of deprivation and yet high house prices.

The number of pupils in the city who attend private schools may also impact on attainment levels of state schools.

Prof Menter said: “If you strip out a particular stratum it may lead to a drop in attainment. It may be one factor that has contributed to the challenges faced by some of these schools.”

While the formal evaluation of the programme has still to be completed, the city council’s education adviser, Anna Wright, in a report to the council’s executive board, reported encouraging feedback.

She reported: “One head described the coaching from a secondary headteacher as brilliant and the best professional development she had experienced in a long time.

“Another used the action learning set to reflect on how he could devolve leadership within the school. He moved from all staff meetings being run by him, to a team structure.”

It had also led to developments at some of the schools such an increase in the amount of time middle leaders spent in classrooms to work alongside class teachers, and to the filming of lessons to encourage teachers to scrutinise each other’s lessons plans.

One school significantly improved behaviour by introducing a behaviour policy another school in the group had developed.

Pat Kennedy, board member for education at Oxford City Council, said: “We are delighted with the first year of the leadership programme.

“Participants have really valued it. It has led to some real improvements in the schools involved, through the introduction of new processes such as use of video observation to help teachers improve teaching and learning, and sharing of best practice on promoting good behaviour.” With two years of the plan still to go many simple lessons have been learnt — even if it has taken two leading universities to teach the real value of partnership.