00:00 Classroom
Flags
& Exts NCSL
Ints
NCSL
Guide Commentary: Why does a child do well in
one subject but not in another? Is it a question of aptitude or are
other factors at work? It’s called “within-school
variation” and it’s been described as Education’s
biggest challenge, one that the National College for School
Leadership is addressing through a nationwide research
project. While the academic results achieved by different
schools have been extensively measured, until recently variations
in performance between classes and departments within a
school, have received little attention.
00:29 SOT: Jane Creasy, Assistant Director, Research,
NCSL - “We’ve always known that there
a difference between schools, but what can make an even bigger
difference is the experience that children have within one school.
So a child can do really well in one subject, and not do well at
all in another subject, and that can make an even bigger difference
to children’s life chances in this country than differences
between schools.”
00:52 Interiors
NCSL
Classroom
Angela
Briggs at desk
Class
shots
Guide Commentary: The NCSL began researching
"within-school variation" eighteen months ago, following
an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development finding
that performances varied four times more within British
schools than between them.
At Thomas Sumpter School in Scunthorpe, Angela Briggs is one of
25 Head teachers taking part in the project through the
NCSL’s leadership network. When she came to the school nearly
two years ago, it was on the brink of special measures with one
department averaging two GCSE grades below the rest of the
school.
01:23 SOT Angela Briggs, Head Teacher, Thomas Sumpter
School, Scunthorpe - “It was glaringly obvious that
some departments were doing exceptionally well with the same group
of students and other departments were performing quite poorly with
those students, so it became quite obvious quite early on that I
needed to do something to support those
departments.”
01:39 2
shot with consultant
Dominic
watching John
Camera
and Dominic
Classroom
John
& Dominic & video
Guide Commentary: With the help of Local
education authority consultants she launched an eight-week coaching
and mentoring course for her heads of department. They in turn were
trained to monitor and mentor their own staff, concentrating on
their support and professional development. Videotaping a teachers
performance, then going through it with them, was one method used.
The process was designed to be self-sustaining so the school would
not have to rely on external consultants, and its heads of
department could even share their expertise with other schools in
the area. The overall results at Thomas Sumpter have been
impressive, by relieving “middle managers” of much of
their admin roles they have been able to concentrate on leading
their departments.
02:18 SOT Angela Briggs - “They’re
actually spending time developing the quality of teaching so
they’re getting better results because we’re getting
better teaching. From the point of view of the students the results
have gone up so our overall A*s – Cs went up by 9% last year,
one department went up by 19% so more students are now leaving with
5 A*s – C which is equipping them for the rest of their life
so it’s opening doors to a wonderful future for them so the
impact has been dramatic.”
02:48 Classroom
shots
Interior
NCSL
Banners
etc
Guide Commentary: The NCSL project has made
other important discoveries about "within-school
variation". The discovery that many schools use inconsistent
data to record the performance of different departments was
particularly significant.Overall the project has proved so
successful that it will now be doubled in size as it moves on to a
new level.
03:07 SOT Jane Creasy - “We’d like
to produce a toolkit is one of the outcomes of this project because
we think we have learnt so many valuable things, things which can
really help children do better. So the toolkit will be there to
help schools identify the differences within their own school and
find ways of doing something about them”
03:25 Ends.
