Overview of the Programme

The Next Practice in Education Programme, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), was run by The Innovation Unit between 2006 and March 2008.

The Programme involved approximately 60 field trial sites across 400+ institutions (schools, Local Autrhorities and Children's Centres).

The four key policy areas which were jointly selected by the DCSF and The Innovation Unit were:

1. System Leadership (in partnership with National College for School Leadership)
2. Resourcing Personalisation (in partnership with Specialist Schools and Academies Trust)
3. Communities for Learning (in partnership with Training and Development Agency for Schools)
4. Parent and Carer Engagement (in partnership with Family and Parenting Institute)

Why System Leadership?

In England, the context for school leadership is changing fast. One of the most striking and important trends is towards the exercise of leadership beyond a single institution. This development is profoundly altering our long-standing models of school leadership.

Headteachers today are already taking on the responsibility of leading more than one school; they are co-leading in partnerships and federations; they are leading schools in close collaboration with other agencies, or are providing a range of services themselves, giving children access to much more than education - healthcare for example and other services. Most radically, perhaps, we are beginning to glimpse a future in which the whole idea of 'school' is re-imagined. School leaders are already guiding education beyond school walls, as ICT opens up new possibilities for schooling that needs no 'school'.

The drivers for these shifts are not difficult to discern. We need to:

• spread high quality leadership across several schools, at a time when the highest quality is not available everywhere - especially in the most challenging circumstances
• support a school or schools which are 'causing concern'
• deliver the 'five outcomes' of the Every Child Matters agenda
• deliver 'all-age' learning
• develop 14-19 curriculum provision
• develop 'whole town' services
• deliver shared services more efficiently and
• resolve headteacher succession issues.

Why Personalisation?

Most school leaders now appreciate the importance of personalisation, However, many struggle with how to resource it in the current conditions. This strand addresses the problem head-on.

The issue-analysis phase of the work demonstrated that schools have access to a wide variety of non-financial resources which they could utilise more effectively to meet learner needs. It also vividly brought to life the degree to which other areas of service, public as well as commercial, have transformed their approach not necessarily by investing more, but by reconfiguring their resources.
The selected field trials focus on four resource domains:

1. the use of time
2. harnessing technology for learning
3. co-constructing learning with students
4. the learning environment.

Why Communities for Learning?

This strand looks at how the wider school ‘workforce' might change to optimise outcomes in learning: and it looks at the implications of these changes for the professional skills of teachers.

The years 2001-6 saw a national programme of Workforce Reform with some schools beginning to report that they have used the remodelling agenda to deliver new and innovative approaches to teaching. But changes in this area could be much more ambitious.

Several key messages emerged from the analysis of need and scanning the horizon phase of the work.

• England is at "the leading edge" of workforce reform . With the support of the National Remodelling Team (NRT), the majority of schools were implementing Phase Three of the National Workforce Agreement by the end of 2005. Schools are gradually re-defining the range of roles that operate in schools and are beginning to see reforms as a way to deliver improved teaching and learning strategies.
• Some case studies have been developed by the NRT on schools who believe standards have risen as a result of remodelling, and Ofsted's recent evaluation begins to consider the impact of workforce reform on teaching and learning (although its case studies are anonymous) . However, the evidence base to support schools' claims is in its infancy and little is available in the public realm.
• While there is consensus that workforce remodelling is a potentially powerful way for schools to deliver innovative teaching strategies, it is policy-makers and theorists who are leading these arguments. Indeed, it is one of the Hay Group's key findings that workforce reform remains a centrally-driven project that has yet to fully engage all schools and teachers . In some schools and with some teachers, the Hay Group finds low morale, a lack of engagement and a lack of ownership, where matters of workforce reform are concerned. The NRT also concedes that while remodelling should "release the potential for creativity and innovation which already exists in our schools", many schools have been hesitant to embrace the agenda.

Three key areas emerged: 

• The ways in which the community is contributing to student's learning.
• The changing roles and responsibilities of teachers and support staff.
• The implications for leading and managing communities for learning.

Why parent and carer engagement?

This strand aims to build on the existing raft of work - which is extensive - to develop deep parental (or carer) engagement in young people's learning.

Building on the substantial research and practice base, this project aimed to generate and support field trials which are co-produced by parents and professionals built around the needs of users.

Generating transformational change will depend upon developing different relationships between parents and an enabling state: one where parents are actively involved and better supported by schools.

Key Insights

These four strands in the Next Practice in Education Programme have given us significantly increased understanding of the process of innovation in education and how best to support innovative leaders.

Overall some key insights emerged from the programme:

• System Leadership - leadership change without governance change and new forms of collective accountability is unsustainable.
• Resourcing Personalisation - unless leaders change their mindset about the deployment of existing resources for learning, then personalisation won't be fully realised.
• Communities for Learning - 21st century learning requires teachers to be prepared (trained / developed) to be managers of learning. This involves fully utilising the wider workforce and community resources that are available.
• Parents - peer to peer parent learning has real system potential for ‘hard to reach' parents to support their child's learning. It needs to be invested in and exploited.
  

Final Report

A copy of the final report from the programme can be downloaded from this page.

Programme Evaluation

Aporia Consulting were commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the Next Practice in Education Programme and produced three evaluation bulletins which can be downloaded from this page.

Legacy from the Programme

• Practice embedded in 60 sites encompassing 400+ locations.
• NCSL and TDA have continued their involvement in working with the field trial sites post the formal completion of the programme in March 2008
• Next Practice model being tried elsewhere in education sector (e.g. Learning Futures Programme with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation).
• Next Practice model being applied in other sectors (e.g. Innovation Exchange being delivered on behalf of Office of the Third Sector, Cabinet Office)
• Practitioner toolkits developed.
• Community of Practitioners developed as part of the scale up of the practice.