The Kyra Teaching School Alliance – a partnership of more than 50 schools – is one of five across England to be chosen as a new Research School.
What will the Research Schools do?
Research Schools will work to bridge the gap between education research and classroom practice, helping teachers make better use of evidence to implement ‘what works’ in their classrooms.
The Kyra Teaching School was chosen by the Education Endowment Foundation and the Institute for Effective Education to lead the initiative in Lincolnshire and across the East Midlands. We will be working with around 200 schools a year. Two of the Research Schools are primary based, three are secondary. The others are in York, Macclesfield, Devon, and Sandwell in the West Midlands.
A large part of our work will be engaging with schools and passing on the message about evidence-based practice and disseminating it. We’ll be holding a conference in February and holding regular termly events, as well as workshops for clusters of schools. We’ll also have an email/ online journal and research ‘hives’, which will give practitioners opportunities to engage with evidence-based practice through reading groups or professional learning communities.
How will you work with early years settings?
We are already working with practitioners on metacognition [thinking about thinking], on learning how to be an independent learner. Children are too often spoon-fed. For Foundation Stage children and young children, the evidence suggests that metacognition makes a significant difference. For children this means they know how to ask questions. What do I do if I don’t know where to go; who do I ask? And to ask questions of their peers.
At the moment the aim is to work with early years settings and be open to all early years providers. We will be offering free resources and conferences. Each research school has been given £200,000 over three years to fund this work.
What else will the project involve?
We’re hoping to develop projects on phonics and metacognition. We’ll be helping schools to generate data. In addition we can help facilitate a more scientific approach to setting up a trial, to develop their own research and design trials effectively. We are identifying local champions and in three years hope to have created the structure to sustain networks that effectively use evidence-based practice.
- Find out more at http://kyrateachingschool.com