The work of the Rochdale Education and Learning Trust (REAL)
Summary -This is a two part case study. Part One introduces the REAL Trust, whilst Part Two goes on to show how the Trust developed, whilst transforming a particularly challenging Special School at the same time.
Part One: Who is REAL Trust?
About REAL - “The beauty of the REAL Trust is that we reflect the real deep-seated beliefs and desires of educators.”
REAL is a charitable company set up in 2001 by all the schools in Rochdale - nursery, primary, special and secondary - to meet their professional development needs. It is an educational Trust which aims to
• advance education through encouragement, identification, discussion and celebration of best practice; and
• enable educational professionals to network on shared activities - these include courses, school action based research, curriculum development projects and disseminating good practice.
The strategic objectives of the REAL Trust
1. To provide challenge for all the partners in the education service to be creative practitioners.
2. To enable educational professionals to network with colleagues where best practice has been identified.
3. To enable groups of schools to work together on a range of shared activities eg. workshops, seminars and conferences.
4. To promote and support school based action research to advance teaching and learning strategies.
5. To encourage and develop partnerships between schools with identified similar needs.
6. To fund small-scale curriculum development programmes not covered by national or regional initiatives.
7. To facilitate conferences and seminars throughout the Borough of Rochdale.
8. To support accredited professional development programmes.
9. To access funding to support its work.
Where the Trust looks for evidence of impact
In evaluating its impact on schools, the Trust includes consideration of outcomes relating to leadership; teacher expertise and motivation; pupil performance; and opportunities to share good practice.
What REAL Trust has to offer
The Trust provides a:
• Professional Development Programme based on themes identified by a creative group of trust members; and
• Treasury of Best Practice to help its members share and locate good practice easily.
Recognition of the Trust’s achievements
The achievements of the Trust have led to
• A Leading Aspect Awards for leading practice in the area of continuing Professional Development and the Dissemination of Good Practice and Collaborative Working.
• DfES Innovations Unit recognition and celebration of its work.
• Recognition by NFER as one of 8 of the best practitioners in the country in terms of disseminating and sharing good practice.
How the Trust is funded
It is primarily run by schools for schools. Schools and services pay an annual subscription to the Trust, which then entitles all staff access to all the services the Trust provides. This includes international opportunities, networking opportunities and all conferences and courses.
Strengths and areas of concern
The size of the Trust, and its decision making body is felt to be a strength, but also an area that requires careful monitoring. Consideration of the Trust’s capacity to continue providing such high quality, value for money opportunities and support as it continues to expand its reach should certainly become part of the focus of regular self and peer reviews. The greater use of smaller cluster groups (which already exist) should assist in both the review process, and the continuation of effective communication with all its users and other client groups.
Spreading the benefits more widely
The company and charitable trust has grown over the last four years from strength to strength and is gaining a national and international reputation. This has resulted in receiving requests to share the process with other authorities.
We felt this was an ideal opportunity to strengthen our links with higher education and provide Headteacher and Officer colleagues with personal CPD opportunities. We have therefore devised and piloted an accredited course entitled “Developing Consultancy Skills: Becoming a REAL Trust Consultant”.
We offered this opportunity to all primary headteachers and formed a group of eighteen, all of whom have now taken part in the module delivered by Edge Hill College staff. We were determined to provide a “win win” situation where headteachers, after completion of the accredited Consultant Leader Course tailored to the needs of the REAL Trust, could gain the accreditation and add this to their CV, or they could use this to act as REAL Trust consultants in other authorities and therefore “sing from the same hymn sheet” and feel skilled in the role.
We anticipate asking two colleagues to visit each authority to assist in devising an action plan and then we would contact members of this team to work with each authority as they have requested. We are also hoping from these initial visits to create an “affiliated” REAL Trust membership, which would provide consultant advise on the process tailored to their LA requests, and then access to the networks we will establish via this process.
If you feel that the Trust could help make a difference in your school or local area, please contact Diane King by emailing diane.king@rochdale.gov.uk or by calling 01706 925017.
Part Two: How the Real Trust’s interaction with one school led to a more effective Trust and transformation for the school
The REAL Trust carried out a case study on a particular local Community Special School in order to evaluate its impact. It sought to:
• identify which aspects of their work had been particularly effective;
• consider common features;
• identify lessons learnt; and
• suggest ways in which the Trust might develop in the future.
Their evaluation showed that most impact had come from:
• the collaborative decision-making structures,
• the links with external agencies such as NCSL and Edge Hill,
• the unified approach to providing CPD in schools in the Borough,
• value for money and
• a recognition and knowledge of specific local needs.
Analysis also showed that the School had helped to improve the Trust. The School’s involvement in its decision-making processes enabled the Trust to become more responsive to needs, leading to better targeted provision for its schools.
We now look at the case study to see in more detail, some of the main areas of the Trust’s impact listed above.
Case Study – 'The School and the Trust'
Introducing the School
Since the Trust began in 2001, its provision has been benefiting a particular local Community Special School. It is designated as a special school for learners with moderate learning difficulties, but actually caters for learners with a wide range of complex learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Every learner has a statement for their learning difficulties. It has 136 pupils on roll and learners range between 3 and 19 years of age. It serves a significantly deprived community, Free School Meals eligibility is significantly above the national average. The School also has a higher intake of minority ethnic learners than is found in schools nationally. None is at an early stage of learning English. This is therefore a school with particular challenges and yet…
Some notable achievements
The school has recently gained the 'Arts Mark' and 'Healthy Schools' awards. A recent Ofsted inspection (October 2005) rated the school as Grade 1 (outstanding) in the following areas:
• Effectiveness and efficiency of the sixth form
• Achievement and standards
• Personal development and well-being
• Quality of provision:
o Teaching and learning
o Curriculum and other activities
o Care, guidance and support
• Leadership and management
The overall effectiveness of the school was also rated as Grade 1. The inspection team commented particularly on the outstanding progress pupils make in communication, reading, social skills and independent living, citing the gains in their independence as “amazing”.
How the REAL Trust helped realise a vision
The Trust has been instrumental in the school’s incredible improvement by providing the additional opportunities and resources it needed to realise its vision of excellence. These have had significant impact on pupil performance; teacher expertise; and leadership development.
The School were quick to see the value of the Trust and have increasingly made use of its continuing professional development support, provided as mainly one-day, curriculum based INSET courses. A further area of professional development in which the school feels that it has benefited, is in having opportunities, through the Trust, to provide their own courses and training for staff in other schools and organisations.
This involvement led to staff also becoming involved in the Trust’s decision making bodies, through the Steering Group and the Creative Group. As a result, the school developed a more strategic approach to what the Trust could offer them, and linked their performance management targets to the provision of the Trust. The encouraged of staff to set personal and professional development targets led to broadened opportunities, e.g. networking opportunities grew substantially.
The Trust’s has had a direct impact upon student achievement. An example of this can be seen by its enabling of all of the special schools to plan an event for all the staff of the schools to look at a consistent approach to assessment. It funded the venue and key speakers to deliver training on PIVATS so it could be used as an assessment tool in all of the schools. This helped in terms of students moving from one school to another, it gave comparable data by which the school could be measured and it allowed a follow up collaborative development to release core subject co-ordinators to meet over a period of time in order to develop cross school moderation of student work using PIVATS as a base for assessment. Ofsted (October 2005) rated the monitoring, evaluation and improvement of pupil performance in order to meet challenging targets though quality assurance and self-review as “outstanding.
A by-product of all of this was further collaboration between schools, sharing of good practice and a greater understanding of each of our schools operated and the nature and needs of the students we admitted. This very clearly shows how the support and resources of the Trust have led to real benefits for the schools and their pupils.
Teacher expertise has been enhanced on a range of issues, curriculum and pastoral, through attendance at courses such as:
• Encouraging Communication
• Thinking & Learning Skills in the Classroom (Pilot Awarded) all stages
• Helping Children Deal With Bereavement & Loss
• Positive Play
• Raising Achievement Through an Inclusive School
• The Role of the Senior Designated Person for Child Protection
Leadership development has been facilitated through courses such as:
• Stress Management
• Change Management For Special Schools
• REAL Trust Leadership Residential Conference 2005
• Middle Leadership in Primary Schools - 4 Day Leadership Course
• School Financial Management
Leadership development is also enhanced by the experiences of participating in the Creative Group and representation on the REAL Trust Board of Trustees.
The School feels that the Trust provides “excellent value for money”. It provides a quick response “to the national agenda and new initiatives with a very clear local perspective, it offers invaluable support and resources (including funding) to individual schools and groups of schools, in order to explore collaborative development areas.”
Such a high level of involvement with the Trust as in the case of this School may not be possible or even necessary for every school. What this School’s experience shows is that the rewards exceed the investment of time and effort put into exploring the Trust’s potential for school development. Clearly, the Trust will never substitute for a school’s own genuine commitment to its own improvement but it can make a huge difference when the will of the staff, and the priority the School’s leadership is firmly placed on delivering the best for their pupils and staff.
For further information
Please contact Diane King by emailing diane.king@rochdale.gov.uk or by calling 01706 925017.
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