Education Endowment Foundation

The EEF and Oldham Research School are supporting schools in the area through a three-year partnership with Tameside Local Authority. The Partnership is focused on raising disadvantaged pupils’ attainment by developing teachers’ ability to access evidence, make sense of it and apply it across the primary phase, particularly in the early years.

What is involved?

The Partnership involves three complementary professional development programmes, each designed to cater to Tameside’s local needs.

1. Leading Learning, a series of ‘Core’ Professional Development (CPD) workshops for all Tameside schools, are co-delivered by Dr Jo Pearson, Director of Oldham Research School, and local school leaders. The three-day CPD draws on the EEF’s guidance reports to support schools in using evidence to implement new strategies and make changes in their schools.
2. A series of Specialist Programmes for early years practitioners based on the Preparing for Literacy guidance report complements the Core training
3. The Research Breakfasts series provides a convenient forum for busy school leaders to be introduced to the essential evidence in bite-size chunks (alongside a bite to eat!).

How will this work be sustained?

The training and support is open to all schools, but we used EEF and Tameside Local Authority funding to prioritise schools with high numbers of disadvantaged students who may be likely to benefit most from the additional focus and support.

Tameside have identified system leaders who will steer the direction of the partnership to sustain it into Y2 and Y3. . At the end of the three years, we aim for participating schools to be able to confidently use evidence to inform their practice and improve outcomes for the children of Tameside, particularly the most disadvantaged.

In Spring 2019, 134 schools came together from across Cornwall under a new steering group for a series of focused professional development workshops on Maximizing the Impact of the Pupil Premium. They worked with Research Schools to identify shared priorities and design and deliver an evidence-informed school improvement programme.

Over two terms, participants spent three days identifying their schools’ needs, using the implementation framework to find evidence-based solutions to develop a plan for raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. Additional support included pre, mid and post workshop tasks to work with their school’s staff and reinforce messages and plans, in addition to a follow up day in January 2020 to quality assure and peer review plans, co-facilitated by Kingsbridge Research School and Cornwall Associate Research School. 

Future Plans

The Partnership across Cornwall is focused on developing capacity and building on the region’s expertise. In Spring 2020, a series of follow on professional development opportunities on metacognition and maths at the transition will take place, building on the evidence in our guidance reports and working in conjunction with the Cornwall and Devon Maths Hub. Additional plans include developing assessment strategies to establish a more nuanced understanding of vulnerable learners’ needs and improve monitoring and evaluation.