National Teaching School (NTS) the Bedfordshire Nursery Schools Federation, lead school in the Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance, is praised by Ofsted for ‘the exceptional care taken by adults to make learning interesting and ensure it is matched to all children’s exact needs.’
Executive head teacher and National Leader of Education (NLE) Isabel Davis says this focus on developing the whole child by supporting well-being and fostering high levels of involvement and engagement is central to the ethos of the Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance.
‘Encouraging children to make their own choices and make their own mistakes is how they learn, it’s how we all learn,’ she says. ‘We learn by doing, we learn by reflecting and evaluating and modifying our behaviour. In anything we do, that’s how we become better people.’
Schools in the alliance encourage independence and self-regulation in children from the age of two. ‘We encourage it right from the earliest age and really talk things through at their level on an individual basis,’ says Mrs Davis. ‘We celebrate successes but also talk about the challenges as well, and why things are hard and why sometimes we don’t want to do things or what stops us; what the barriers are to us making progress.
‘That’s how we get the fantastic relationships that we’ve got with our children. We try to have the same philosophy with our parents as well and ensure that they understand about taking responsibility and encouraging their children to do the same. I think that works really well.’
Teacher-led research
Since last September the alliance has been carrying out a large-scale research project involving 20 schools across Bedford. Teacher researchers are studying and working on improving young children’s well-being, including their resilience and levels of involvement. This project is due to end this September when its impact will be evaluated by Schools of Tomorrow, a community interest company that is owned and directed by current and retired school leaders and aims to foster mutually beneficial engagement between schools and their local communities.
‘Schools of Tomorrow aims to have the highest levels of well-being, the highest levels of attainment, the most effective preparation for working and adult life and the most effective community engagement,’ explains Mrs Davis, who is a member of the board.
‘Those aims are all seen as important as each other, and if you get all of them equally right then you get a beyond outstanding school. I link it to Ofsted as part of my school development, but it’s much broader and ensures that the whole child is catered for. I believe that unless you get the well-being right then you’re never going to get the highest attainment, because children need to be happy to learn whatever their age.’
Mrs Davis points out that giving children the individual attention they need has become increasingly difficult in the face of budget cuts over the past few years. ‘Children learn through relationships and through adults supporting them,’ she says. ‘They need adult conversation and really good role models. There have been drastic cuts and so that has been a really big challenge. We haven’t got the really good ratios that we had probably five years ago.
‘Our staffing is minimal because of budget constraints so we’re having to rely on either volunteers or students, as well as encouraging parents in and working alongside them to role-model for them.’
Beyond the early years
Mrs Davis says becoming an NTS and forming a teaching school alliance has placed the Bedfordshire Nursery Schools Federation in an ideal position to influence other phases of education to take on an early years ethos.
‘As well as people within nurseries, I’m working with colleagues in the secondary sector too, so we are carrying the whole philosophy of using early years practice and Characteristics of Effective Learning right through to the age of 18. It is something we are looking into using across a group of schools so that those skills for learning and learning skills for life that we start in the foundation stage are carried on whatever the age of the child or the adult.
‘I had a meeting yesterday with two secondary schools and they’re really keen to try out some of the things we do in early years with their older students, especially around well-being and involvement, and thinking about skills rather than content. It’s saying it’s OK to take some time to actually talk to the children throughout the lesson and have a conversation.’
Mrs Davis acknowledges the difficulties and time constraints facing teachers of older children and the impact this has on fostering individual well-being. ‘They find it a struggle because they’ve got to get through so much curriculum content. They’re in the same position needing extra adults as well. I think it’s just something we need to keep going on about really. We need the funds to support children of any age.’
Exciting future
The alliance is currently bidding for the Bedford children’s centres contract and, if successful, it will be responsible for the learning and development and school readiness strands, as well as quality assurance in terms of early years provision.
‘If we’re successful in that contract, it will give us another whole dimension of how early years teaching schools can support the development of children and families right from birth,’ says Mrs Davis. ‘At the moment it’s run by a national charity, whereas we want it to be more localised. All the head teachers who have a children’s centre on their site would be part of a focus group to plan strategically what they want for their children’s centres to ensure children are school-ready and that they get a really good level of development by the end of the foundation stage. It’s really exciting but we won’t know until mid-February whether we have been successful or not. So, fingers crossed.’
The Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance has come a long way in the short time it has been up and running and, with so many positive plans for the future, Mrs Davis is keen to acknowledge the help and support she has received from each of the partner schools.
‘We were just a little nursery school,’ she says. ‘Right from the beginning I’ve said there’s no way we can do this on our own, and the other members have been really great. It’s been a journey that we’ve taken together and the various projects that we’ve done have strengthened our partnerships between schools.’
THE PETER PAN TEACHING SCHOOL ALLIANCE
The Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance was set up and is led by National Teaching School (NTS) the Bedfordshire Nursery Schools Federation, comprising Peter Pan, Southway and Cherry Trees Nursery Schools in Bedford. The federation is overseen by a single governing body and led by one executive head teacher, Isabel Davis.
Becoming an NTS was a natural progression for federation members Peter Pan and Southway Nursery Schools, as they had already been working in partnership with other schools as part of the Queen’s Park – Primary Leadership Collaborative (QP-PLC). This non-profit organisation, set up by a group of primary schools in Bedford, had similar aims to the NTS initiative, offering focused professional development and innovative school-to-school support in and around Bedfordshire.
The Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance works in partnership with a group of Good and Outstanding nurseries, primary schools and academies from Bedford, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, including former member of the QP-PLC Shortstown Primary School, National Support School Queens Park Academy, Goldington Green Academy and Harrold Lower School.
Representatives from each of these schools sit on focus groups that plan support and training for schools and nurseries in the surrounding area. This includes establishing links between schools; planning ongoing support and training for newly qualified teachers; running leadership development programmes; undertaking, monitoring and reviewing research; offering continuing professional development; and training Specialist Leaders in Education (SLE). The alliance also works with initial teacher training provider The Pilgrim Partnership to offer school-centred initial teacher training.
MORE INFORMATION
Bedfordshire Nursery Schools Federation, www.bedfordnurseryschools.com
Peter Pan Teaching School Alliance, www.peterpanteachingschoolalliance.co.uk
Schools of Tomorrow, www.schoolsoftomorrow.org
Teaching Schools Council, http://tscouncil.org.uk
How to get involved in the NTS programme: www.gov.uk/government/collections/teaching-schools-and-system-leadership-how-you-can-get-involved