In this issue
- Finding your way to resources
- A unique opportunity to explore the very latest research into CPD
- Enlivening mentoring for new teachers
- Relaunch of Inside Evidence – the research resource for the Learning and Skills Sector
- In other news
Welcome to the CUREE Newsletter
Summer seems to have flown by. For CUREE colleagues summer and early autumn involved intense work on finalising our 3 year project for QCDA on Building the Evidence Base for a curriculum for the 21st Century. We have highlighted some of our very practical findings in this newsletter and will be publishing our results very shortly. Already on our website you can find a host of resources coming out of the research, for instance, a systematic review of 64 research studies which distil 6 key approaches to the curriculum linked to positive, high quality outcomes for young people. Follow the link for more information.
The summer holidays have also been busy for us on a new venture that captures some of the spirit of the 'Big Society' and its emphasis on co-construction - we are developing a new, on-line version of Inside Evidence, our research bulletin for the Learning and Skills Sector. Excitingly, we are creating this in partnership with two co-production sites and with the Learning and Skills Improvement Service who have commissioned the work. We really are pleased to have chance to wrap CUREE technical and research skills around the current insights, interests and activities on the ground of practitioners.
Third, we have been trying to 'imagineer' our way into the demands schools and colleges will face in the Autumn. One key challenge we have spotted is ensuring that the new strategies you do decide to develop are efficient as well as effective. What other colleagues do in different phases or subjects may really work well for them - and it could be made to work well for you – but how can you be sure the effort involved in adapting it is worthwhile? We know that people already find our 'route map' a valuable source of free research related resources accessible over the internet. So we think and hope that versions of the map specifically tailored to your own priorities and the interests and concerns of colleagues might be part of the answer. We are developing the prototypes now and will be letting you know when the next wave of development is ready to launch. If you are interested in being part of a focus group (virtual or real) commenting on how this works contact rebecca.raybould@curee.co.uk
Finally, a first for us. CUREE attended the Conservative Party Conference and co-hosted an event in the Fringe with the think tank ResPublica. You’ll find some early thoughts about this below. Of course, we all wait, with hope and trepidation for the outcomes of the public Spending Review due on 20th October .
Philippa Cordingley
Finding your way to resources
How often is your decision-making hampered by not having the wider evidence on which to base your plans? When your staff make your School Development plan come alive in classrooms would they value tools and resources which can underpin their actions? CUREE have produced a ‘routemap’ which provides a visual guide to the resources available to help practitioners access research and evidence. We are now offering schools the opportunity to have this tailored and focused on the teaching and learning and CPD issues which are at the heart of your school’s development plans. To find out more about how to get a reduced price personalised routemap of evidence click here.
A unique opportunity to explore the very latest research into CPD
CUREE is hosting a focussed, interactive session on 3rd December with Professor Helen Timperley, Philippa Cordingley and Miranda Bell to examine the most recent evidence about teachers’ professional learning. Explore international evidence on teaching and the leadership of teaching plus some powerful evidence about effective curriculum design and make all of this relevant for your organisation. A unique opportunity to work with these experts. Click here to find out more and how to book.
Enlivening mentoring for new teachers
It’s the start of term and the new enthusiasm of trainee teachers coming into school is infectious, but with this will come a smattering of fear, a desire to grasp the real way that things are done around your school and a recognition of gaps in knowledge and ability. None are a surprise and one of the key ways that your school will help these teachers of the future through their huge transition is to have good mentors in place. In fact you will want to invest in some of the best staff to be a model and inspiration to new teachers. These mentoring sessions are precious, so how can you ensure that not only are the mentors invigorated and skilful in their support but also that the trainee teachers approach this relationship with a strong desire and the capabilities to get the most out of it? The evidence base tells us how we can achieve this! Click here to find out more.
Relaunch of Inside Evidence – the research resource for the Learning and Skills Sector
CUREE has worked for four years with LSIS and its predecessors to make evidence from research and elsewhere available to leaders and practitioners in the sector. The new version will keep the most successful elements of previous versions e.g. succinct focused summaries of relevant research written in plain English and chosen for their relevance to the sector. But we will add three new features:
- much more extensive interaction with the sector to ensure that the research we feature is truly relevant to the sector’s concerns and speaks with the sectors’ ‘voice’. For the pilot edition Nottingham New College and the Royal Artillery Centre for Personal Development will work with us as co-producers. Reader panels of sector practitioners and research ‘experts’ will review the material. Pilot versions of the material will be made available in draft form a conferences and on-line for feedback
- extensive use of the growing body of research and other evidence based resources created by practitioners in the sector through the practitioner research fellowships, innovation projects and lab sites
- exploiting the additional capabilities of an on-line medium to make the Inside Evidence more usable and flexible – interactive features, several different formats so you can choose the one that suits you and much quicker and easier navigation so you can get to the item of relevance to you.
If you are interested in knowing more – and especially if you would like to play a part in Inside Evidence’s development (by commenting on a pilot article for instance) contact us here or visit the learning and skills pages of our website here.
In other news…
Conservative Party Conference CUREE was delighted to host, with ResPublica (the think tank lead by Philip Blond famed for his book Red Tory) a session at the Tory Conference Fringe. Philippa was joined on the platform, alongside Philip, by Nick Gibb the Schools Minister, and John Bangs, lately Head of Education at NUT. Gerard Kelly of the TES chaired. Our aim was to provoke debate about the need to create a vision for the future of the profession with CPD at its heart – as a springboard for any education reform. That, we argue, is what’s needed to ensure that the new freedoms work well for young people. Click here for a 2-page summary of the arguments.
Practitioner Use of Research Review CUREE has been busy with a systematic research review that focuses on how practitioners engage in and/or with research to inform and develop their practice. The overall question for the review is: What are the links between practitioner engagement in and/or with research and learner outcomes? For more information, click here.
Support staff Schools today recognise the contribution to learning which can be made through the effective deployment of support staff. However a recent Ofsted report recognises that there are still some significant issues which need to be addressed before the benefits of more adults in the classroom can be passed through to the children and young people. CUREE has been working with some Local Authorities and individual schools to tackle some of these issues. Click here to find out more.
Put faces to the CUREE team CUREE is built on a diverse pool of talent and the latest flying fish to jump in with us is Rebecca Raybould. As a Principal Manager for the Use of Research you will guess that her role is pretty core to the mission and passion of CUREE so you are likely to hear more from her in the coming weeks and months. Click here to find out more about the talents she brings and maybe even say hi!