Leadership

Is The Success Of Specialist Schools An Illusion?

The specialist schools programme has failed to deliver widespread improvements in standards, according to a report by Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson from the University of Buckingham. So are the improvements just smoke and mirrors?

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      string(402) "... through for example the performing arts, technology or sport.· The main benefit of specialist status, irrespective of specialism, was perceived to be extra funding.· Science schools also saw specialist status as a way of attracting science teachers.· Science schools were less likely than other specialist schools to mention as potential ..."
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      string(577) "Nearly all of secondary schools in England now specialise in a particular area of the curriculum. However, the success of England's specialist schools is an illusion, according to this report by Professor Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham. The crucial factor is the extra money pumped into specialist schools, as well as their intake of pupils, that had the biggest impact on results.

Folder: Leadership Briefings Issue 3.12 (36)"
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      string(2099) "direction by local authority or the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to arrive at a range of specialisms in the locality.· Schools with other specialisms gave as their second reason: supporting the whole curriculum, through for example the performing arts, technology or sport.· The main benefit of specialist status, irrespective of specialism, was perceived to be extra funding.· Science schools also saw specialist status as a way of attracting science teachers.· Science schools were less likely than other specialist schools to mention as potential benefits: catalysing good practice; improving IT provision; raising school morale; improving performance outside the subject; or better CPD.Conclusions:Specialist schools policy has proved useful as a general programme for freshening up a tired comprehensive system. But it has created a mix of schools with names that do not seem to mean very much.Whether as the government seeks to use specialist status to drive policies such triple science and diplomas, the schools will become more differentiated along specialist lines remains to be seen.Science schools are like schools with other academic specialisms in intake, characteristics and performance, but different  from  those with practical specialisms. They are not distinctively scientific. For a science school to become truly a science school, or a sports school truly a sports school, it would have to be able identify, admit and develop particular talents. But this would mean selection at age 11, defined even more narrowly than under the grammar school system.It is an urgent problem for government to find ways of bringing together what is now a diverse collection of schools into a secondary education system with shape and coherence.ActionNotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Imaginative MindsDate CreatedFebruary 2009Enquiries to:raspal.chima@yahoo.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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Leadership

Specialist Science Schools

30 Jan 2009

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      string(414) "... specialist schools just a case of smoke and mirrors?The study of specialist science schools’ claims that government claims of success are based on an illusion created by specialist schools depriving other schools of the funding they need to improve. It is therefore not surprising, says the report, that specialist ..."
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      string(6131) "� Vol 1.1 n www.teachingtimes.co.ukTrends Specialist schoolsSchool Leadership TodayT he specialist schools programme has failed to bring widespread improvements in standards, according to areport by Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson from the University of Buckingham. So are the apparent gains made by specialist schools just a case of smoke and mirrors?The study of specialist science schools’ claims that government claims of success are based on an illusion created by specialist schools depriving other schools of the funding they need to improve. It is therefore not surprising, says the report, that specialist schools should appear to do better.The report concentrates on the impact of specialist science schools on physics – an area where theNot so special after all? On the face of it, specialist schools are a success – but questions are being asked after new research found music schools doing better in science than science schoolsmean very much when it comes to performance. For instance, pupils at schools specialising in music are more likely to get A grades in physics A-level than those at science schools.At language specialist schools, 26.5 per cent of entries in physics were awarded A grades at A-level, while the proportion of physics A grades achieved at science specialist schools was similar to that achieved at schools specialising in maths and computing (24.4 per cent).Dr Pamela Robinson said of the system: “It seems to have left us with a lot of schools with names that do not mean very much. It is odd having music and languages schools that do better in science than the science schools.”This presents parents with aGovernment has tried to increase participation by requiring all-science schools to offer GCSE physics. However, while the take-up of GCSE physics has risen in the past decade, the authors of the new report suggest that teachers consider extra funding to be the main benefit of specialist status and say it has made little difference to grades in the particular subject. In fact, A-level grades have continued to fall.Prof Smithers and Dr Robinson claim that it was this extra money from the Government (plus £50,000 from the private sector), combined with their intake of pupils, that had the biggest impact on results.As evidence of this, the report provides statistics showing how school names (the school’s specialism) don’t�www.teachingtimes.co.uk n Vol 1.1TrendsSpecialist schoolsnightmare when it comes to making a choice of secondary schooling for their children. If the labels don’t really mean anything, should they send their children to what they instinctively feel is a good school, or do they make every effort to find one with an appropriate title?Is a sports school expected to help us field a team for the 2012 Olympics? Are science schools educating our future research scientists? For a science school to become truly a science school, or a sports school truly a sports school, it would have to be able identify, admit and develop particular talents. But this would mean selection at age 11, defined even more narrowly than under the grammar school system.Thriving The Government, meanwhile, has been quick to defend specialist schools, saying they were thriving and raising standards. A spokesperson for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “Specialist schools are thriving. Specialist status gives a valuable cash boost to schools but more importantly it gives an extra focus and drive that raises standards across the board, not just in the relevant specialism. This can only be a good thing.”The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust echoed the Government’s statement, pointing out that science colleges had boosted science teaching and been a catalyst for improving whole schools. Chief executive Elizabeth Reid said: “As even Professor Smithers acknowledges… 70 per cent of specialist science colleges provided GCSE physics in 2007, up from 43 per cent in 2003 and science colleges were over five times more likely to offer physics than other schools.“Specialist schools are fully comprehensive and use their specialism as a catalyst for whole school improvement, ensuring more young people leave school with a good education and with a good set of qualifications.”Despite such reassurances, should the specialist schools programme be reviewed? In some cases, where thespecialisms chosen bear little relation to the strengths of a particular school, a review would seem be in order, as would a review where the school’s specialist name complicates parental choice – particularly if it is not a centre of excellence.A review would also address claims that the specialist schools scheme is not actually driving up standards and that many weak or failing schools are still part of the programme. Supporters of the programme could argue that the specialist schools programme has increased exam take-up and results in their chosen areas, while also providing extra funding to improve facilities.The controversy presents an urgentproblem for government, and it must find ways of bringing together what is now a diverse collection of schools, into a secondary education system with shape and coherence – just as Prof Smithers concludes in the report.And while we all wait for that to happen, the only answer for parents searching for the ‘right’ school is to advise them to search through performance tables or a school’s prospectus for evidence of a good school – based on exam results or ‘value added’ performance, which shows how much its pupils have improved"
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Leadership

Not so special after all?

7 May 2009

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      string(337) "... already calm and businesslike and doing verywell; but if some are not, we are duty bound to ask why. Is itbecause they are not grammar schools or specialist schoolsor ‘free schools’ or academies, or is it because of poorleadership? Inadequate heads will say their budgets are lowand that they haven ..."
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      string(4316) "illusion: other inducements – freedom fromthe National Curriculum and inspections, et cetera – are meresideshows. This is all about money, and the present drive to helpprioritise outstanding schools is inherently divisive. It smacks of‘the best and the rest’ and is unashamedly about giving thosethat are already winning the game an extra advantage – theexact opposite of the ideology behind academies mark 1.It is no secret that members of the present government,and perhaps most white, middle-aged, middle-class menin the country, especially those who themselves went tofee-paying schools, hanker for a time when grammar schoolswalked the Earth, unchallenged and a force for good. Indeed,it might be true to say that most people seem ready tobelieve the ‘ever since we got rid of the 11-plus, schools havegone to hell in a handcart’ rhetoric. It has become trendy toblame everything from teenage pregnancy to knife crime onnnnnnnthe poor beleaguered comp; and even parents who knowfrom their own experience that their local school is doing anexcellent job are easily convinced that they have been luckyto find the one good school among a sea of dross.Well, my message is far from sexy because it is far fromdownbeat; I’m never on telly, and I don’t have the ear of themovers and shakers in Parliament or the media. But for what it’sworth – and it should be worth a lot – I am a primary source. Ihave taught in state comprehensive schools for 37 years and Iwent as a child to what was described at the time as a very goodgrammar school (and I’m sure that it was); so I have seen all thisunfold first hand, with my own eyes. Grammar schools siftedout the most academic 20 per cent and, in 1962, three friendsand I left our primary school with equal talent and aspiration,determined to make this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity count.It was our passport to a better life.Just a couple of years later, 75 per cent of my oncebright-eyed and bushy-tailed cohort were failures; adisappointment to their school, their parents and, mostof all, to themselves. None of the others passed anyexaminations, not one; they left with no qualifications. Whenwe had grammar schools and secondary moderns, 16 percent of our children achieved what we now call five A*–Cgrades including English and maths; today’s comprehensiveschools are achieving 50 per cent. Too big a difference foreven the ‘exams have got easier’ brigade to explain away!The truth is that the vast majority of comprehensiveschools are already calm and businesslike and doing verywell; but if some are not, we are duty bound to ask why. Is itbecause they are not grammar schools or specialist schoolsor ‘free schools’ or academies, or is it because of poorleadership? Inadequate heads will say their budgets are lowand that they haven’t enough money to offer a 21st-centuryservice, that their pupils misbehave because they, the heads,are not allowed to discipline them any more, that they are nolonger trusted to just do their job; and that they are stressedand overwhelmed by unrealistic targets. If any of this werethe case, shouldn’t all schools be struggling? Why can somedeliver and others not? Changing the rules of the game istempting, but it is no substitute for learning to play better.The key factor for school success is and always hasbeen outstanding and visionary whole school leadership.Heads, primary or secondary, with insufficient drive, visionand ambition for themselves and every single child in theirschools, are the problem. Headline-grabbing, gimmickyrebranding will divert, but it will not solve.Competition within schools is good. And day by day, yearon year, trying to improve and perform better is only right andproper. But we should all have an eye to all children, all of whomhave equal entitlement. Moving towards a two-tier system willprove to be extremely easy. Moving back may well be impossible.David Hudson is headteacher of Wickersley Schooland Sports College, an 11-18 comprehensive school inRotherham with more than 1,900 pupils. He is the author ofrecently wrote Good Teachers, Good Schools: How to Createa Successful School, published by David Fulton in 2008."
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Leadership

The best against the rest

15 Dec 2010

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      string(355) "... the ex-pupils as, in most schools, they do not consider themselves a fund-raising organisation. Distinction should, therefore, be always defined as to the inclusion or description of fund-raising within events that are being organised. On this subject, schools have been very successful in organising alumni fund-raising ..."
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      string(431) "Over 90%of schools are experiencing between 7-12% cuts to their revenue budgets before the implementation of the new funding formula. In this context fundraising has to become a major priority for school leaderships to cover core spending. David Poppitt, the top fundraising schools specialist and writer, presents a typical feasibility report, based on his work with a secondary school in the Northwest."
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      string(5686) "recommend that some funds be made available to this end. There must also be a concerted effort to enter all existing data, if they can be found, onto new software at the earliest opportunity, and this will require extra personnel on a ‘keyboard entry’ basis, dependant, of course, on what schools have already.  Further to conversations with parents and staff, they seem very much aware that their existing list of contacts is a very small fraction of the total alumni numbers. Ex-pupils will be very keen to further the alumni network by whatever means possible and they represent a very useful asset with their knowledge of the history of the school and the whereabouts of key individuals.  I would, however, recommend that care be taken with the ex-pupils as, in most schools, they do not consider themselves a fund-raising organisation. Distinction should, therefore, be always defined as to the inclusion or description of fund-raising within events that are being organised. On this subject, schools have been very successful in organising alumni fund-raising events on a five-year basis, i.e. leavers of, for example, ‘55 -’60. A very popular and proven event of this nature is the tried and tested “Sportsman’s Dinner” It is the contact basis of ex-pupils that is so important. Charitable ActivitiesI would strongly recommend that school moves towards charitable status at the earliest opportunity. I am aware of the work of Friends’ groups and that they may have charitable status in their own right. However, I do believe, mainly to safeguard the Friends’ identity and preserve their activities, schools should look to set up a separate charitable arm. The growing number of CICs (Community Interest Companies) reflects the importance of this and warrants serious consideration.The main aim of the charitable aspects of the strategy would be to solicit support from alumni, parents, charitable trusts and local commerce.  Very little support can be expected from local commerce on a purely philanthropic basis. However, I have confidence that both the parent body and the alumni most likely contain many ‘contacts’ with the ability to influence and achieve donations through reference to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).  A determined thought-provoking exercise from the suggested Working Group would undoubtedly produce many names from both alumni and parents. There would appear to be strong business networking bodies locally that are prepared to help with contacts. There is little doubt that it must be appreciated that a co-ordinated effort by all members of the school ‘family’ is essential to long-term success. A major reason for achieving funds for many schools has come from business partnerships. Despite the small numbers, the potential link of school financial support linked to utilisation of facilities in courses would create a firm foundation for the establishment of funds to help support the school. This will be discussed in more detail later in the report. To ensure success, it is vital that there is involvement of and communication between all parties. Both external and internal PR needs to be carefully managed and a united front presented. I think it imperative that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure there are not too many financial restraints on the certain amount of expenditure that will be required to set up the campaign. I can only use the old quote, “speculate to accumulate”, and add “with care”.A major source of support, if handled in the right way, can be the parents and past parents themselves. I am again very much aware of the small numbers involved and we must all be wary of an increasingly common phrase these days – donor fatigue. However, I understand that little has been previously done in this area in many schools, so it really is starting from scratch. Though there can be positive results achieved, I’m afraid I do not agree with home visits, even though these are recommended by some consultants and, indeed, appear to have been reasonably successful at some schools in the past. I consider them an invasion of privacy. I am far more in favour of bringing the parents together for a presentation. I believe the full extent of the situation should be professionally presented to all and an extremely successful evening can be held, warming prospective donors to the situation and stressing the prime importance of the role within the community to the future of the school. This can then be followed up with a more definitive ask. I am very keen on contacting parents of children following their passage through the educational process. Hopefully, they will be even more grateful for what the school has done for their children and, also, they may, at this stage, realise that they can spare a few pounds a month! An approach to grandparents has proved successful in the school sector, whereby you have a special grandparents and past grandparents open dayAlthough the main object of a Development Programme will initially be to raise substantial funds, there may well be scope for considering fundraising specifically for other defined projects.  I do believe that some aspects of a ‘wish list’ bear very close resemblance to the techniques and proven track record of bursary appeals in the independent sector. There could well be support generated for a means-tested bursary scheme giving children of proven ability, but with limited financial support, to add value to their educational and life experience. 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Leadership

Fundraising: A Feasibility Report

30 Oct 2017