Leadership

Longitudinal Analysis of Music Education on Executive Functions in Primary School Children

This research by the VU University Amsterdam of almost 150 primary school children has found that those learning music benefit in cognitive abilities. Furthermore, the results indicate a positive influence of long-term music education on cognitive abilities such as inhibition and planning. Leadership Briefing (140)

Regardless of ability, they do better in language and memory tests and are better at planning and controlling their behaviour than classmates who do not have music lessons.

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      string(4889) "Keeping pupils in school for longer lessons would not be enough to overcome the gaps in their learning caused by Covid disruption, according to this research by the University of Cambridge.The research found that schools already timetabling longer teaching time in subjects such as English and maths see only modest improvements that may not justify the extra cost.The British Psychological Society said that instead the additional time would be better spent allowing children to play, socialise and engage in activities such as music, crafts and sports that were also missed out on while schools were closed to most pupils during the lockdowns.So far the government’s catch-up efforts have been aimed at creating a national tutoring programme, offering small group and one-to-one tuition. But MPs report that more radical plans for a school day running from 8am to 5pm or even 6pm with voluntary attendance have been considered, as well as funding for at least 30 more minutes of compulsory lessons.But the study by Vaughan Connolly, a researcher at Cambridge’s education department, suggests that only small gains could be expected from longer time spent in lessons.The study used timetable data gathered from 2,815 schools in England to look at the connection between changes to the amount of teaching time that pupils received in English, maths, science and humanities, and their academic progress measured by GCSE results.The results showed small but noticeable progress for an additional hour of teaching each week, measured in terms of attainment over five years between the end of primary school and the end of key stage four when GCSEs are usually taken.The study also found that extended teaching was some help in closing the attainment gap between students on free school meals and others. Up to an hour extra each week in English reduced the gap between the groups by about 6%, while a similar amount of extra maths reduced the gap by about 8%.Conclusions:Examining English, science, mathematics and the humanities separately, using longitudinal analysis with school-by subject FE, the possible effect of such additional time is small and varies across subject. Based on additional time in both Years 10 and 11 (KS4), mathematics appears to benefit most and the humanities least. However, a slightly different picture appears if analysing additional time in Year 11 alone, which seems to have a higher likely impact than additional time in Year 10, particularly for the humanities, perhaps reflecting proximity to GCSE examinations.School reformers and policymakers have praised ‘additional time’ as an essential tool in the school improvement arsenal. So too, it has been feted as part of the success of highlighted American charter schools and English academies. Byextending their school days, weeks and years, these schools offer between 20 and 100 per cent additional instruction time. However, in these studies of successful innovation, extra time has been but one of many related interventions to address disadvantage and poverty. In contrast, the results of this article offer pause for thought for English secondary schools considering extending their school day, or reallocating curriculum time, as a means of raising attainment.While small returns to extra time seem counter-intuitive, there are multiple possible explanations. Explanations may link to variation in pedagogy and student motivation, although they do seem highly unlikely in such a large data set, spanning five years.It is possible that teachers with less time employ different pedagogical tools that have larger effect sizes. Such an effect would result in an underestimation of the effect size of instructional time. However, were this the case, it would suggest a benefit to giving teachers additional non-contact time to prepare/learn such techniques.There may also be a benefit to students having less contact time, if this enabled more productive use of non-contact time. Conversely, it is also plausible that students with higher contact hours feel overburdened and pressured, leading to underperformance. This is consistent with indicators of low life satisfaction among England’s secondary students, as compared with their international peers.As schools adjust to COVID-19, this study has clear implications which offer some hope. If schools are not able to manage ‘normal’ levels of teaching, small reductions in time are likely to have small impact on GCSE attainment at a cohort level. If schools must offer a reduced timetable to ensure student safety, it is conceivable that forgone curriculum time may be reapplied in ways to mitigate any likely impact.Link: Can Less Be More? Instruction Time and Attainment in English Secondary Schools"
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Leadership

Can Less Be More? Instruction Time and Attainment in English Secondary Schools

8 Jun 2021

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Academics believe the gap at 11 could be explained by girls’ increasing maths anxiety and decreasing enjoyment of the subject at this age.Statistically significant but very weak evidence that pupils with higher emotional symptoms in early childhood had lower maths attainment when they were older.The study’s authors recommend that strategies focusing on improving parental education could be a very effective method of increasing attainment in children.The study examined working memory and internalizing symptoms as predictors of children’s maths attainment trajectories across the transition to secondary education through analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) involving almost 9,000 children born between 1 April 1991 and 31 December 1992.The study focuses on the transition from primary to secondary education because of the reported declines in academic achievement and maths specifically during the move from primary to secondary schools – it is reported that more than a third of children do not show any progress in maths during the transition year.The authors believe higher-educated parents support the transition to secondary education in different ways that lessen the negative impact of the transition on maths attainment including their own positive attitudes towards education, involvement with school activities or helping with homework in a supportive environment.The authors had hypothesised that emotional temperament in early childhood could be a very early indicator of poor maths attainment later on in adolescence but later concluded that it was not possible to predict later problems with under attainment in maths using emotional difficulties early on in childhood.Additional research is needed to further uncover the relationship of memory during a task (working memory) and internalizing symptoms such as anxiety on attainment, using more time-appropriate measures.DiscussionThis study aimed to identify predictors of maths attainment trajectories across the primary to secondary education transition, specifically investigating:  (i) if working memory capacity and internalizing symptoms impact maths attainment pre-transition;  (ii) whether working memory capacity and internalizing symptoms influence the trajectory of maths attainment following the primary–secondary education transition;  (iii) whether the effects of internalizing symptoms on maths attainment pre- and post-transition are moderated by working memory capacity, and  (iv) if an emotional temperament in childhood is predictive of low maths attainment.The findings provide further evidence that low SES and low parental education are two of the biggest risk factors for low attainment in maths prior to the school transition, and continue to affect the rate children progress in secondary education.The findings partially support the hypothesis with greater working memory and fewer internalising symptoms significantly predicting greater attainment at the time of the transition, suggesting that individuals presenting with greater emotional issues and low working memory capacity in early adolescence are more at risk of poor performance compared with their peers around the transition.Increased maths growth was significantly predicted by higher IQ, higher SES and greater parental education, suggesting that children with greater intelligence and higher socioeconomic status progress at a quicker rate across the transition to secondary education compared with their peers.The interaction between working memory capacity and internalising symptoms did not significantly predict pre-transition maths attainment, or the trajectory of maths attainment over time, suggesting overall that working memory capacity does not moderate the effects of internalising symptoms on maths attainment as hypothesised. It was hypothesised that an emotional temperament would predict maths attainment, given that childhood temperament and internalising symptoms are linked. However, this idea was not supported, suggesting that we cannot predict later problems with underattainment in maths using emotional difficulties this early on in childhood.Although not the main aim of this study, the findings imply that strategies focusing on improving parental education (or related factors) for example might be more successful in increasing attainment. Although one possible solution could be to provide better provisions for parents to attain higher educational qualifications, this is not necessarily practical (or desirable) for every family.Existing research investigating factors linked to parental education has found that greater parental education is associated with greater school involvement, greater enrolment in educational activities (e.g. music lessons) and higher educational aspirations for their child. 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Leadership

Internalising Symptoms and Working Memory As Predictors Of Mathematical Attainment Trajectories Across The Primary–Secondary Education Transition

2 Jun 2020

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      string(5780) "their home schools to support the weaker schools (Earley and Weindling, 2006).  The brief for these staff was to co-design solutions with staff from the supported school, thereby enabling ‘joint practice development’ rather than imposed ‘best practices’ (Higham et al., 2009; Hargreaves, 2010; Ofsted, 2010; Ainscow, 2015).  Consultant headteachersThe ‘consultant head’ model pioneered through the London Challenge was scaled up nationally by the then National College for School Leadership through the National Leaders of Education/National Support Schools (NLE/NSS) and Local Leaders of Education (LLE) initiative.  These headteachers and their teams were designated against a clear set of criteria and then brokered to support schools deemed to be underperforming (whereas seriously failing schools tended to be closed and reopened as sponsored academies).  Importantly, the core remit of these government-designated system leaders was to provide temporary support – ‘mooring alongside’ – withdrawing once the supported school was back on its feet (Matthews and Hill, 2008, 2010).  By June 2017 there were more than 1200 NLEs designated.  Evidence to date does indicate that outcomes improve faster in NLE-supported schools than in a matched sample (NCTL, 2013) and that NLEs increase the rate of improvement for children on free school meals (FSM) (Rea et al., 2011, 2013).  Muijs’ (2015) robust mixed methods analysis of the impact of school to school support partnerships brokered between high and low performing primary schools in one Local Authority also identified a consistent positive impact.   Growth of partnership modelsMeanwhile, other strands of policy and practice were coming together to demonstrate the potential of other forms of partnership.  Federations involve a more permanent relationship between two or more schools than in the NLE/NSS model, whereby the schools effectively amalgamate under one governing body.  The model was enabled by Labour’s 2002 legislation, but it took several years before significant numbers of schools had adopted it.  Chapman et al.’s (2009, 2011) research indicated a positive federation effect on pupil outcomes over time, most significantly in the case of ‘performance federations’ (i.e. strong and weak schools together) and where an Executive Head was in place across both schools.  Academy chains, which are generally groups of sponsored and converter academies overseen by a single Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), have emerged since 2010 as the dominant structural model for school partnership (DfE, 2016).  Critically, a MAT is a single legal entity (a charity and a company), so the academies within a MAT do not have autonomy except in so far as the MAT board grants this to them (Wilkins, 2017).  The government, more recently through its Regional School Commissioners (RSCs), has played an active role in brokering underperforming schools into academy chains, generally run by successful schools.  Kee and Wespeiser (2017) report that the number of MATs has expanded significantly; from 391 in March 2011 to 1121 in November 2016.  MATs range in size from two to over 40 schools and generally charge their schools a proportion of their core funding to cover central services, including ‘back office’ services such as finance as well as aspects of school improvement.Hill’s early reports on academy chains (Hill, 2009; Hill et al., 2012) flagged some of the challenges for policy and practice in this area: most obviously the rapid pace of growth in some of the larger chains.  In a number of cases this rapid expansion led to subsequent failings, with some chains being forced to reduce the number of academies they support by the government (House of Commons Select Committee, 2017).  There have also been numerous cases of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest in academy chains (Greany and Scott, 2014).  As a result of these issues, and as the number of MATs has increased, the government has introduced a range of reforms to tighten up practice and oversight.   Analysis by Hutchings and Francis (2017:5) indicates that whilst “a small number of chains continue to achieve impressive outcomes for their disadvantaged students… Longitudinal analysis shows that, in spite of some marginal movement… the main picture is one of a lack of transformative change over the period”.  Teaching School Alliances represent a different type of policy-driven partnership to those described above, both because the partnership remains voluntary for alliance members and because their remit is broader than just addressing underperformance.  Launched by the 2010 White Paper (DfE, 2010) Teaching Schools are ‘outstanding’ schools that play a leading role in co-ordinating initial and continuing professional development, school to school support and research and development across an alliance of partner schools (Matthews and Berwick, 2013).  By July 2017 more than 640 Teaching Schools had been designated.  The evaluation of Teaching Schools (Gu et al., 2016) concludes that they are at “the forefront of exploring the reality of what David Hargreaves described as ‘competitive collaboration’” (p180), but also acknowledges that they are seen by some non-Teaching School head teachers as part of ‘the centralised machinery of government’ (p167).  The evaluation reports considerable progress overall, but also flags a series of"
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Executive Leadership

System leadership and collaboration – a new skillset for leaders?

18 Apr 2018

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at working in an environment that incentivises collaborative competition."
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      string(5779) "of the staff in their home schools to support the weaker schools (Earley and Weindling, 2006).  The brief for these staff was to co-design solutions with staff from the supported school, thereby enabling ‘joint practice development’ rather than imposed ‘best practices’ (Higham et al., 2009; Hargreaves, 2010; Ofsted, 2010; Ainscow, 2015).  Consultant headteachersThe ‘consultant head’ model pioneered through the London Challenge was scaled up nationally by the then National College for School Leadership through the National Leaders of Education/National Support Schools (NLE/NSS) and Local Leaders of Education (LLE) initiative.  These headteachers and their teams were designated against a clear set of criteria and then brokered to support schools deemed to be underperforming (whereas seriously failing schools tended to be closed and reopened as sponsored academies).  Importantly, the core remit of these government-designated system leaders was to provide temporary support – ‘mooring alongside’ – withdrawing once the supported school was back on its feet (Matthews and Hill, 2008; 2010).  By June 2017, there were more than 1,200 NLEs designated.  Evidence to date does indicate that outcomes improve faster in NLE-supported schools than in a matched sample (NCTL, 2013) and that NLEs increase the rate of improvement for children on free school meals (FSM) (Rea et al., 2011; 2013).  Muijs’ (2015) robust mixed methods analysis of the impact of school-to-school support partnerships brokered between high and low performing primary schools in one Local Authority also identified a consistent positive impact.   Growth of partnership modelsMeanwhile, other strands of policy and practice were coming together to demonstrate the potential of other forms of partnership.  Federations involve a more permanent relationship between two or more schools than in the NLE/NSS model, whereby the schools effectively amalgamate under one governing body.  The model was enabled by Labour’s 2002 legislation, but it took several years before significant numbers of schools had adopted it.  Chapman et al.’s (2009; 2011) research indicated a positive federation effect on pupil outcomes over time, most significantly in the case of ‘performance federations’ (i.e. strong and weak schools together) and where an Executive Head was in place across both schools.  Academy chains, which are generally groups of sponsored and converter academies overseen by a single Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), have emerged since 2010 as the dominant structural model for school partnership (DfE, 2016).  Critically, a MAT is a single legal entity (a charity and a company), so the academies within a MAT do not have autonomy except in so far as the MAT board grants this to them (Wilkins, 2017).  The government, more recently through its Regional School Commissioners (RSCs), has played an active role in brokering underperforming schools into academy chains, generally run by successful schools.  Kee and Wespeiser (2017) report that the number of MATs has expanded significantly; from 391 in March 2011 to 1,121 in November 2016.  MATs range in size from two to over 40 schools and generally charge their schools a proportion of their core funding to cover central services, including ‘back office’ services such as finance as well as aspects of school improvement.Hill’s early reports on academy chains (Hill, 2009; Hill et al., 2012) flagged some of the challenges for policy and practice in this area: most obviously, the rapid pace of growth in some of the larger chains.  In a number of cases, this rapid expansion led to subsequent failings, with some chains being forced to reduce the number of academies they supported by the government (House of Commons Select Committee, 2017).  There have also been numerous cases of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest in academy chains (Greany and Scott, 2014).  As a result of these issues, and as the number of MATs has increased, the government has introduced a range of reforms to tighten up practice and oversight.   Analysis by Hutchings and Francis (2017, p.5) indicates that whilst “a small number of chains continue to achieve impressive outcomes for their disadvantaged students… Longitudinal analysis shows that, in spite of some marginal movement… the main picture is one of a lack of transformative change over the period.”  Teaching School Alliances represent a different type of policy-driven partnership to those described above, both because the partnership remains voluntary for alliance members and because their remit is broader than just addressing underperformance.  Launched by the 2010 White Paper (DfE, 2010) Teaching Schools are ‘outstanding’ schools that play a leading role in co-ordinating initial and continuing professional development, school-to-school support and research and development across an alliance of partner schools (Matthews and Berwick, 2013).  By July 2017, more than 640 Teaching Schools had been designated.  The evaluation of Teaching Schools (Gu et al., 2016) concludes that they are at “the forefront of exploring the reality of what David Hargreaves described as ‘competitive collaboration’” (Hargreaves, 2010, p.180), but also acknowledges that they are seen by some non-Teaching School head teachers as part of ‘the centralised machinery of government’ (Hargreaves, 2010, p.167).  The evaluation"
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Executive Leadership

System leadership and collaboration – a new skillset for leaders?

16 Apr 2018

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