Case studies
Our work with the University has enabled us to frame and contextualise our CPD work within the school. It has allowed us to take charge of core processes which are essential if we are to change attitudes.
”Roger Brookes, Noel Baker Community School
Derby Moor Community Sports College Trust
Derby Moor Community Sports College Trust have worked with us recently. Sarah Smith, the HR Manager says "as a school we have valued the opportunity afforded to us through our collaboration with Derby University which has meant our staff are able to study for an MA in Education.
Compared to traditional study, this has two main advantages. The first benefit to participants is that they save valuable time as they are able to attend tutorials on site after school, in conjunction with accessing online resources at their leisure.
The second benefit is that we are able to offer the study at no cost to the individual. This results in multiple rewards for the school, the students, the individual and society as a whole."
Noel Baker Community School, Derby
Roger Brookes of Noel Baker School in Derby says "our engagement with the University has been part of a planned strategy to move us towards meeting the requirements of our Vision Statement.
In order to move towards our vision for the school it is an implicit requirement that everyone in the school is involved in their own learning and development. The implications for the role of the teacher are that we are required to be co-learners rather than the more traditional construct of purveyors of knowledge.
Our work with the University has been about changing the culture of the school so that teachers and all those involved in learning are both empowered and responsible for teaching and learning. Leadership and management are more distributed and teaching and learning are not seen as wholly linear, logical and rational progressions. The following extract exemplifies our aspirations as a school.
We have a vision of our school as a community where:
- all members of the school treat each other with respect
- there is a strong international dimension throughout all areas of the curriculum
- significant 'value-added' occurs at all three key stages for all categories of students (based on ability, prior attainment, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic circumstances)
- learning is the core activity and high quality teaching is the key to learning
- students experience a rich variety of enrichment in addition to lessons
- students develop the skills and attributes required for increasing independence
- the professional development of the school's whole workforce is a key to improvement .
Our work with the University traces the journey that the school is making terms of changing the way it works as a means to redefine the core processes in the school. The school has a long history of underperformance in terms of the outcomes for students. The work has taken place against the national backdrop of re-structuring and remodeling as well as the introduction of new professional standards for teachers. The historical responses to everyday experience to performance data has tended to compound exisiting socially disadvantaging trends in terms of the expectations of students. However, the standardised data for the school presents a much more optimistic view of the potential of our students.
Working with the University has enabled us to frame and contextualise our CPD work within the school. It has allowed us to take charge of core processes which are essential if we are to change attitudes. This has been achieved because the work has allowed us to become more skilled as researchers and less reliant on "common-sense" or anecdotal information.
The impact of the work is always difficult to assess in terms of wholly causal relationships. However, since we have been working in this way to provide CPD opportunities in the school:
- Students have achieved the highest results in all key stages in the history of the school.
- Staff turnover has reduced from 22 out of 100 staff left 5 years ago compared with 5 out of 100 this year.
- The school is fully staffed and does not experience the difficulties of 5 years ago in terms of recruiting staff.
- Staff who have directly been involved the PPD scheme have gained significant promotions.
- Only one of the 33 NQTs who have been at the school in the last 5 years has left the profession.
- The school at all levels now operates in a far more objective research and enquiry led approach.
- Leaders in the school now see their roles far more as developers of colleagues and spend less time focused on low level management issues.
- Strategic changes have been made to the use of teachers directed time. It is now called Development Time and CPD is therefore seen as the prime purpose of this time.
- A School Improvement Group that consists of the Senior Leadership Team and Curriculum Directors has been formed to support Middle Leaders and build a more collaborative person centered approach in the school .
- Residential CPD now involves around 40% of the teaching staff throughout the year and is an established way of working in the school.
- CPD is now increasingly seen as a deep learning process and is distinct from its more superficial counterpart INSET in the vocabulary of the school.
- Work which has been done as a part of the PPD scheme has been published and "show-cased" in the School.
- Colleagues involved in the work are more able to have an objective, evidence based approach to their work and this has increased their own engagement in teaching and learning activity and also their capacity to support and develop the performance of colleagues.
- The school has a more sophisticated and research based approach to self evaluation.
- During our period of collaborative work with the University our OFSTED grading rose from satisfactory to good."