TT1617 Evaluation Report

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Conclusion Opportunities for development The Thurrock Education Commission pointed to evidence that children and young people benefit most when schools work together. A sense of collective purpose and concern for pupils across the area, shared by school leaders across institutions needed to be fostered. To create this shared commitment to raising standards, supporting services would need to ensure that the structures were in place for “school to school support to improve and not only share good practice, but create it.” (Gilbert and Hill, 2013, pg 9) 9 . School to school support has been encouraged by the DfE. “Schools working together leads to better results…Along with our best schools, we will encourage strong and experienced sponsors to play a leadership role in driving the improvement of the whole school system, including through leading more formal federations and chains.” (DfE, 2010: 60). 10 Whether schools are part of formal partnership arrangements or not, interschool working has been promoted as a means to drive up standards. Research into Teaching School Alliances identifies the development of trust, critical friendship and peer to peer support as being central to interschool collaboration. 11 Ensuring that all staff are involved in partnership work is important. “whilst the commitment of heads and other senior staff is essential, best practice seems to involve forms of collaboration that exist at many levels.” (Ainscow, 2014, p32). 12 9 Hayes, G. and Lynch, B. (2013) Local partnerships: blowing in the wind of national policy changes. British Educational Research Journal, 39 (3) 10 Department for Education (DfE) (2010) The importance of teaching: The schools white paper. London: DfE. 11 Rea, S., Sandals, L., Parish, N., Hill, R. and Gu, Q. (2015) Leadership of great pedagogy in teaching school alliances: final report (Teaching schools R&D network national themes project 2012-14). London: Department for Education (DfE). 12 Ainscow, M. (2014) Towards Self-Improving School Systems Lessons from a City Challenge. London: Routledge. 26
Trailblazer has created an infrastructure for Thurrock where a key strand of school provision can be developed in partnership. The reflective forums, shared celebrations, projects and activities are building productive relationships between schools and providing models for collaboration across MATs. In 2013, the Thurrock Education Commission predicted that all Thurrock schools could be ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ if these conditions could be created. Thurrock now has 49 of its’ 53 Schools and Colleges rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. Trailblazer is part of the story of change in Thurrock schools, and is an important catalyst for collaboration. Trailblazer exemplifies good practice in building communities of learning. Satisfaction with the programme has been high this year. Schools have generally offered positive suggestions about how they would like to see Trailblazer develop. Areas of interest are: ● Growing Cultural Champions - the ‘differentiated offer’ has been successful this year, and the Cultural Champions remain a relatively stable group. How can the programme capitalise on the leadership capacity that has been developed through the LiCL course? A formal Senior Leader in Education-type role within the local authority might be established. How does Trailblazer feed into recruitment and retention plans? How can the Cultural Champions engage directly with the Local Authority? Action - invite members of the Thurrock LiCL cohort to present to the 'Local Culture Education Partnership' (LCEP), exploring these questions. ● Ongoing dialogue with Artsmark - those schools that have been levelled this year will be considering their next application in 2017/18. Artsmark requires an ongoing commitment to quality provision, and monitoring of impact across the school. Governors play a key role. How can the programme ensure that the reflection and aspiration of the Artsmark scheme are explicitly tied into Trailblazer after a school has been levelled? Action - continue to use Artsmark as a tool for reflection during Cultural Champion Twilights; work with the Borough’s wider governor programme. 27
Page 1: Thurrock Trailblazer - Changing Cul
Page 4 and 5: Aims of the evaluation This evaluat
Page 6 and 7: Champions encouraging those new to
Page 8 and 9: Thurrock Trailblazer and how it has
Page 10 and 11: Key developments The programme cont
Page 12 and 13: Changing the educational landscape
Page 14 and 15: 2. Providing challenge and high-qua
Page 16 and 17: Trailblazer schools recognise that
Page 18 and 19: By contrast, for less established s
Page 20 and 21: 4. Encouraging and nurturing collab
Page 22 and 23: Champions across the trust. They ar
Page 24 and 25: 5. Programming ambitious celebratio
Page 26 and 27: Change in schools - the Trailblazer
Page 30 and 31: ● Routes and pathways for inter-s
Page 32: Appendices Appendix 1 - progress ov
Page 36: Appendix 2 - Influence Thurrock Tra
Page 40: • Reflective practice and evaluat
Page 44 and 45: Appendix Three Case Studies from a
Page 46 and 47: Name of School- William Edwards Sch
Page 48 and 49: School: Thameside Primary School Pr
Page 50: Thurrock Trailblazer is supported b

TT1617 Evaluation Report

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