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Schools are beginning to pin down the link between ECM and standards. Melissa Murphy reports.
Few would argue that happy, healthy children will find
it easier to achieve higher levels of attainment.
When the government introduced the Every Child Matters Agenda, the key aim was to make it easier for schools and other agencies – and their communities –
to work together more easily to support and safeguard children’s rights to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being.
But so far little is known about the influence ECM has
on children’s performance. Now work is starting to pin down the link between ECM and standards. NCSL has commissioned a research project to discover the ‘ECM Premium’ – the link between ECM and standards and the leadership which supports it.
After an initial literature review, the team of researchers visited 14 schools: three secondaries, two primaries, one special and two clusters. What struck the researchers initially was the dilemma faced by every school: how do we measure the impact of ECM? Tony Kirwan of Canterbury Christ Church University, one of the researchers leading the project, says: “Although the ECM agenda provides a framework of five outcomes, these outcomes are ‘states of being’ that are not easily measured. Because schools are judged by exam results the tension between league tables and ECM outcomes can feel very real.“
The schools involved in this research study, all with well-established extended services, were not explicitly using the five outcomes to steer their development. Instead they felt the ECM outcomes were embedded in their overall aims for their school such as promoting effective learning and teaching as well as meeting the wider needs of the pupils. Their effectiveness springs from doing both: “These schools hadn’t introduced any initiatives simply because of the ECM agenda,” says Tony. “They saw their role as providing interventions with pupils, families and communities according to their needs.” Developing ‘success indicators’ to evaluate progress on ECM outcomes was something they were all now starting to get to grips with.
Despite the limited hard evidence of the direct impact of ECM on standards , the schools involved in this study felt their extended services were certainly making an impact. “Staff made the connections between the introduction of extended services and standards. Many of these extended services were aimed at increasing readiness to learn and improving aspirations,” says Tony. “Some schools were measuring impact by monitoring participation rates and things like a reduction of latecomers or better behaviour in class. One school reported an increase in Ofsted questionnaire returns from parents from six to over 200.”
The schools involved all had very different contexts and the communities they served were in many ways unique. But the researchers felt the schools shared a number of common factors. For example, the leadership of these schools shared a clear vision and sustained a moral purpose. “It was clear from the study that this leadership had to extend well beyond the head and senior team – distributed leadership is vital,” adds Tony.
The schools also shared a similar pursuit of the ECM agenda by categorising and evaluating the curriculum and out-of-hours activities against ECM outcomes. Schools also closely matched provision to the needs of students and provided out-of-hours opportunities to meet these needs, particularly for more vulnerable children and those in need of additional support. They also used a number of strategies to involve parents and worked closely on collaboration with other agencies. Many of these schools had remodelled leadership teams and created new roles to encourage staff to do things differently.
“Although the communities these schools served were all different, we believe that the challenges they face and dilemmas they deal with have a much a wider appeal,” explains Tony. “We identified eight leadership actions, drawn from their experiences. We believe that these actions are relevant to every school which strives to nourish learning in its broadest and life-enhancing sense.”
For the schools involved in the study, ECM and standards are inextricably linked. And by addressing both, they have found a strategy to finally bridge the gap between achieving excellent standards and making sure every child in the school, particularly the most vulnerable have a bright future. ldr
Next steps:
For a free DVD showcasing ECM in action, visit www.ncsl.org.uk/takingthewiderview
More ECM resources are available at www.ncsl.org.uk/ecmleadershipdirect |
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