Trust Projects

Sheffield Hallam University, Centre for Science Education – Smarter Schools (Cluster Project)

The position of Primary Science as an area of CPD development has seemingly taken a back seat in recent months. This has been most telling where the National & Regional Science Learning Centres have been set no formal targets for achievement in the area of Primary CPD. What does this tell us? In one way, that Primary Science is currently doing well and requires no further development. However, work at ground level with schools tells a different story. Indeed, achievement in tests may illustrate a level of proficiency in preparing children for this assessment system, however teachers still report lack of confidence in subject knowledge, the need for new ideas relating to pedagogy especially relating to cross curricular links, a thirst for knowledge with regard to active assessment for learning and a desire to understand and embed how personal skills & capabilities can be better embedded and progressed through subjects.

Overview

A cluster of six inspirational and innovative primary schools in North Sheffield, have forged a partnership to better themselves. They aspire to be the first Primary Science Specialist Schools, and have achieved funding for a 4-year development project, supported initially by the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust. They have identified a need and a niche for improvement and recognition, which the CSE is fully committed to support. 

Since September 2007, lead science teachers have been appointed in the six primary schools. They have developed their aims and a 4-year action plan, which they hope will result in a significant boost to children’s achievement in Literacy, Numeracy and Science. They aim to utilise Science as the core of the curriculum, as a medium through which other subjects shall be channelled, and in doing so will embed the development of Skills for Learning – in effect, the development of Personal Capabilities. As such it is considered this family of schools to be ‘Smarter Schools’.
 

Aims

These reflect the aims of an overall 4-year project, in that it will look to: promote literacy and numeracy through science; improve scientific enquiry; develop assessment procedures; enrich the curriculum; establish a specialism; increase wider engagement and family learning.

This project will utilise these aims, however on a tighter time scale will look towards achieving the following:

  1. Enabling the cluster of Smart Schools to access contemporary and well-grounded support in their areas of development, e.g. by linking them with established experts, tailoring bespoke courses to individual needs, tailoring national programmes e.g. INSPIRE Family Clubs, Personal Capabilities/Smart Science, Creat8 Maths for their specific needs etc.
  2. Working with the six schools in a coaching capacity to raise their understanding and fine-tune their procedures to evaluate the impact of their endeavours
  3. Enhancing the teacher’s skills as cluster action researchers, such that an air of objectivity and critical reflection be established on the project as a whole, and in relation to individual school achievements, such that outcomes are fit for a national platform.

 

Programme

The structure of the project is relatively loose as it will depend on the route that the six schools define for themselves over time. During the late Summer/early Autumn term 2008, discussions will be had with the cluster schools to consider two half-day bespoke events in addition to the ‘core’ aspects of the project. Head teachers and selected governors will work with the lead teacher and the project staff to highlight with the wider teacher cohort (including teaching assistants and other staff) where they feel a need lies. It is presumed these discussions will be on-going, although it is intentional that at an early stage the scope of the project could be established. Possible courses could relate to science and literacy, numeracy, gender & careers, enrichment & engagement activities, assessment for learning, assessment in context, personal development etc.. In fact, the project will look to utilise the AZSTT on-line CPD Units as further sources of support and learning.

The ‘core’ aspects will include:

  1. bespoke core CPD events (the need for these core events emerges from learning in other curriculum development projects, where such activities were considered straightforward, however in reality created apprehension for teachers who asked for specific help and support is these areas.)
  2. ‘Magnifier’ experiences (these experiences draw on learning from the Reflective Partners model used in the Together We Learn project 2002-4)

 

Teachers will be identified from the schools to attend the following core events. By working with head teachers and Senior Management Team it will be decided which teachers would be most appropriate to attend and disseminate information back to the whole school, and cluster group. These teachers will become ‘Hub’ teachers - and identified on the basis of a. being the key teachers related to the development (e.g. Literacy, Numeracy, Science coordinators/lead teachers) b. being teachers identified as those who will take a lead on reviewing learning, progress and impact (those taking a helicopter view on the project as a whole). On average 4 teachers per school will attend each event, one of whom will be required to be a member of SMT.

 

Evaluation

Evaluation of the impact of this project will be undertaken using a self evaluation framework. It is felt that this suits the project style and also coordinates with the schools’ current systems for monitoring progress and value added. The framework will be devised during the ‘Back to the Future’ core event.

Information that will contribute towards the internal evaluation will be mainly qualitative with aspects of quantitative:

  1. feedback/learning outcomes following core and bespoke events (utilising SLC’s evaluation frameworks)
  2. outcomes from the Magnifier experiences (qualitative diaries)
  3. pupil feedback via school councils (utilising preliminary research findings from CSE’s Participatory Voice project, including outcomes from activities such as Card Sort, questionnaires etc. providing qualitative and basic quantitative data)
  4. inviting external commentary, e.g. Local Authority advisors, Primary Science educators etc. (semi-structured interview/focus group)
  5. parental feedback (focus group/questionnaire)
  6. log of number of finished papers, journal entries, papers presented.

 

Notably there will be outcomes being tracked through the larger project – the 4-year project, e.g. in terms of tracking quantitatively the incremental changes the whole process has on achievement in Literacy, numeracy and science. It will be key that AZSTT’s contribution to this 4-year project will be evaluated, and as such the project will look to not overburden the activity with time intensive evaluation processes. By it’s very nature the outcomes from the core events and Magnifier experiences will in themselves provide much valuable insight, which the CSE and the lead teacher, supported by others, will bring together in a meaningful way. The fact that the project team also includes senior research level staff also will ensure thorough consideration of evaluation and review.

Project staff actively engage with the General Teaching Council to utilise their award structure to accredit teachers, if they are so willing, towards Masters Level points. The project will also look towards working with the SLC’s to establish the requirements for these schools to gain a ‘Quality Mark’ to support and profile their efforts in this project. The aim of these activities will be to build confidence and capacity within the schools such that they feel equipped to disseminate their activities and findings to their colleagues on a national stage.
 

  

Additional

Acknowledging the project will be ongoing, evidence will be disseminated to share the outcomes from this stage. We believe that what could emerge from this project, as well as specific impact on the schools involved is a underpinning model that could be applied to many other projects. The core events would emerge as transferable outcomes of the project that other schools could adopt.
Disseminating the outcomes of this project will take the form of:

  1. A short published leaflet profiling the project that will be printed and disseminated to all Specialist Schools and Academies Trust schools and across Sheffield Local Authority. This will also be useful for conference etc.
  2. Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, Science Learning Centre Network and Local Authority newsletters
  3. Association for Science Education regional and national conference events
  4. The development of a Course Model/programme that can be channelled through the Science Learning Centre network, in order to inform and build capacity for similar work in other schools (this will be guided by and where possible, delivered by, Hub teachers)
  5. Educational journals and newspaper submissions, e.g. Primary Science Review, TES
  6. Centre for Science Education & Regional Science Learning Centre websites, with link organisations where possible, written or co-written by teachers
  7. The AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust Website by way of a Continued Professional Development Unit.

 
 

Contact

Contact e-mail: l.m.bianchi@shu.ac.uk