Out of a desire to move beyond a narrow basket of measures that placed most importance on examination performance and the acquisition of knowledge, Trust(s) for Impact was formed.
In these unprecedented times in education, trusting our profession to make the right judgements about the right things is essential. We acknowledge the need for structural and curriculum change while ensuring the core foundations of education – developing learners and learning – remains central. Our early research indicates that forcing the system in such a way narrows the focus onto certain subjects, encourages compliance, and ill-prepares young people for the considerable challenges they will face in life. Furthermore, competitive forces may undermine the power of the collective, particularly in a self-improving system.
As the world grows ever more populated and demand for scarce resources tougher to meet, as we are experiencing through the challenges of COVID-19, how we work together is becoming increasingly important. The profession is uniting to provide the strength we need in education.
At the World Summit in March 2019, a group of Trust leaders met with John Hattie to discuss the English education system, with a particular emphasis on leading groups of schools. John was surprised by how such incredibly capable school leaders were burdened by the financial and functional aspects of leading a school and how the focus on learning had shifted from the narrative, especially with accountability systems and external pressures. It was time for a new narrative. Trust(s) for Impact was born.
Initiatives will come and go; approaches will be in fashion then will be dismissed, returning a few decades later. The traditionalist warriors will fight the progressives in continuing unhealthy debates, the binary nonsense of knowledge and skills will continue, does pedagogy trump curriculum or vice versa… The cycle of education has always done this, but the constants remain – our pupils only have one ‘today’ and learning is important.
However an alternative is possible for our current system:
It is time to claim the centre ground.
Like Deans for Impact (deansforimpact.org), Trust(s) for Impact is not an organisation. It is not trying to compete. It has a one-item agenda: to seize and create a new narrative for our schools and communities - redefining professional accountability, with a focus on what will have most impact – learning.
A new dashboard can be defined that will be the new control system with a range of benchmarks that enable schools/MATs/Trusts to decide what things are the most important to them and future employers (good communicators, translators, team players in addition to knowing and understanding content as they can do that part easily). We are not proposing ignoring external accountability measures – that would be absurd. But we can do so much more.
We can build our own internal database from our student surveys and make properly informed decisions to improve learning and the life chances of our pupils. We can allow success to be measured over time in a defensible way. We need to ensure process and implementation are developed in a rigorous and strategic manner, leveraging expertise and experience to drive standards. Higher standards by design, starting with high expectations, learner agency about learning and learning climate.
The group of Trust leaders went back to their schools and asked their pupils to define the dashboard. The first phase of research involved four Trusts representing 79 academies, and over 50,000 pupils across all phases and differing contexts. Through focus groups and curated key questions, responses from pupils were collated and have now informed the next phase of perception analysis.
A series of questions were defined with the help of Trust leaders around the 3 themes of:
What do high expectations mean to you?
Do you have high expectations of yourself in class?
What do you do when you meet a challenge in learning?
How do you know when you are successful?
What does it mean to you to aim high?
The findings show that generally pupils equate high expectations with getting good grades or awards. They feel proud when a teacher is happy with them/their achievements, they desire to do well and feel confident when answering questions. The secondary pupils extend their answers, attaching this success to thinking about their immediate future – wanting to do well in exams, opening opportunities for careers.
When facing a challenge in their learning, older pupils refer to thinking for themselves – looking back on what they have already learned, asking a friend, looking for the answer in books/the internet, then asking a teacher. The younger pupils didn’t really respond to these questions. There were insightful comments about some pupils with lower aims/expectations – perhaps not being exposed to positives in their lives so their expectations for themselves are not high from early on.
Many of the responses were teacher-directed rather than learner-directed. Pupils were conditioned to respond in the way they perceive is the right answer. What is missing?
What do you do when you don’t know what to do?
What is ‘ideal learning’ in your class?
What does ‘good learning’ look like in your school?
How do you improve your learning?
What actions do you take to improve your learning?
Who is the best learner in the class? Why?
Generally, pupils demonstrate a positive attitude in their responses; they talk about ‘trying your best’, ‘trying again’, ‘not getting distracted’ (and being aware of the ability of a distracting pupil to affect their class’s ability to learn), ‘joining in’, ‘listening to others’ and the importance of ‘taking part’.
Regarding the impact of the environment on learning, some refer to enjoying a ‘calm environment so they can concentrate’ (one mentioned ‘quiet’, whereas another said ‘complete silence doesn’t help if being able to talk might be more helpful’); more generally, it is about the environment created by the teacher, both physical and emotional. Pupils like interesting activities to allow everyone to understand a topic and giving different explanations from different perspectives to allow people to learn in different ways and to make their days/learning fun.
When asked how to improve, both younger and older pupils refer to ‘practice’ and ‘doing more themselves’ (at home/extension activities/challenging themselves). They acknowledge sources to improve their understanding, such as the internet, video, textbooks, different styles of learning the information in class, as well as asking the teacher.
Building a rapport with teachers so they are seen as more relatable was something the older pupils mentioned, as well as the positive attitude of teachers, showing they believe pupils can do something.
The impact of other pupils messing about/not being interested/not wanting to be there and then a teacher focusing on them and their behaviour was something which was demonstrated in pupils’ answers at all ages. Some felt that if pupils don’t want to be there/don’t want to learn, then they shouldn’t have any time focused on them.
‘Good learning means you will remember it a week later’ – this illustrates the importance of true learning over performance at the time: (for short term gains) a distinction in education we often miss when using current assessment/accountability measures.
Is school fair to you? What would make it fairer?
Do you feel invited to be a learner in your class?
Do you feel safe as a learner in your class?
Is it safe to be different in this school?
Do you feel included as a learner in this school?
Are your voice and thoughts welcomed in your school?
These questions generated varied responses, with confusion over the terms ‘invited’ (‘we aren’t invited; we have to come to school’) and ‘safe’ (physical safety?). ‘Fairness’ for younger pupils was linked to things like ‘it is unfair not being able to go outside when it’s raining’, ‘it’s unfair that we aren’t allowed to shout/when others don’t let you play with them’, ‘it’s unfair to be told off for talking when you weren’t’ – but generally pupils feel that school is ‘fair’, as sharing and kindness are promoted. For secondary pupils, fairness is often about individuals being punished for negative behaviour or teachers treating pupils differently (whether as favourites or because of previous behaviour). However, it would seem that pupils attach importance to fairness in consistency of responses, e.g. sanctions and adhering to school policies. They like a warning system, so they have an opportunity to learn from and improve their behaviour.
Younger children were asked how they felt about being at school; they all said ‘happy’.
Secondary pupils did generally say they feel safe in learning but get embarrassed if they get answers wrong/can’t do something. They commented that it is important that teachers don’t laugh/pick on you but instead help you to understand. Interesting responses about the fairness of how teachers choose pupils to answer – some pupils felt that ‘random generators are terrifying’ – but at same time some pupils made comments about feeling it’s unfair to be asked if they do not know an answer (it feels embarrassing or as if they are being picked on). Pupils felt that teachers often picked the same pupils.
There were fewer issues in older classes, perhaps partly due to the maturity of pupils. When asked about embracing difference, there were different responses. Younger pupils answered literally and stated that we are all different and they welcome that. Some secondary pupils said they did embrace difference, while others said it depends what kind of difference, making reference to being judged.
Pupils felt their voice was generally heard, though staff were often inconsistent in follow-through, especially when more senior staff were involved. Pupils commented that if a problem is not easily solvable it may be dismissed/forgotten.
To improve the climate in schools, pupils generally felt that positivity could be spread around more – tell people what they are doing right and have nice conversations with pupils in corridors. There was a demand to improve consistency in approach across school/teachers, e.g. treating all pupils the same in terms of how much they are stretched and how supported they are if they don’t understand something.
One pupil commented that the routine of school prepares you for the real world.
In conclusion, it is very clear that some of the strategies we tend to focus on are not always perceived in the way they are intended. Learners need to be much more involved and able to control their learning and learning needs to be much more part of the national dialogue.
It is essential our guiding principles takes into account all stakeholders, especially the pupils.
The responses have informed a wider survey that will be carried out with large groups of pupils across many schools, initially in England, with the potential to grow internationally. We then need to scale this up and seek long-term improvement. There currently appears to be very little evidence of the success of a self-improving system. We can change this if we own it, ignore the national obsession with structural change and remind ourselves that it is what happens inside schools that matters most.
This is our opportunity to recalibrate the narrative, define a new dashboard, say what those judgements should be and show how it can be measured and moderated.
If you would like to be part of the next stage and help to build this focused, student-led database, please let us know and we will send you a survey to use with your pupils. Please note that the data will be anonymous; it will only be used to inform the dashboards and will be analysed as part of our ongoing improvement work. We can develop together a wider dashboard that reflect developing needs (long-termism) alongside true moderation and evaluation.
You can be part of the measurement and the changing narrative through Trusts for Impact.
Anne-Marie Duguid, Stephen Cox and John Hattie
With thanks for the development of thinking, questions and conducting focus groups:
Frances Soul, Academies Enterprise Trust
Anne-Marie Duguid
Empowering Education Partnership
Stephen Cox
Osiris Educational
Prof. John Hattie
Melbourne University
Dr Peter Dewitt
Ross McGill
Teacher Toolkit
David Weston
Teacher Development Trust
Prof. Philippa Cordingley
CUREE Ltd
Stephen Tierney
Headteachers Round Table
Prof. Dylan Wiliam
UCL Institute of Education
Hannah Wilson
Diverse Educators Ltd
Prof. Viviane Robinson
University of Auckland
Sir David Carter
Prof. Rachel Lofthouse
CollectivED
Chris Zarraga
Director Schools North East