Headteacher/senior leader research breakfast forums
The Keele and North Staffordshire Primary SCITT , working in partnership with Keele University and the Cambridge Primary Review Trust are delighted to offer Head-teacher and senior colleagues and a chance to discuss evidence-informed thinking in relation to primary education at a breakfast meeting at Keele Hall.
The breakfast forums will be relatively informal occasions, focused on debating values and principles, so that school leaders can then use these breakfast discussions to inform their thinking as appropriate to their own schools or settings. These events simply create the time to talk, reflect and share ideas together, informed by research led by the Cambridge Primary Review and updated by the Cambridge Primary Review Trust.
When: The breakfasts will take place on four occasions during the 2015/6 academic year, you can come to as many or as few as you wish. The dates are:
Wednesday 14th October 8-10.30am - Discussion 1: Children’s Cognitive Development and Learning
Wednesday 20th January 2016 8-10.30am - Discussion 2: Curriculum Breadth and Balance
Wednesday 27th April 2016 8-10.30am - Discussion 3: Children’s Voice
Wednesday 6th July 2016 8-10.30am - Discussion 4: Dialogic Teaching
Where: The Old Library, Keele Hall
Who: The sessions will be facilitated by Diane Swift and Sandra Mitchell. Representatives from Keele University and the Cambridge Primary Review Trust will also join us at some events. You can book for one or more colleagues from your school to join us.
What: We will email out to you a short briefing paper and a brief summary two weeks before the breakfast. We will invite you to read and consider this prior our breakfast discussion. The follow up is then up to you to decide what might be best for your school. The Old Library is booked until 11.30 each morning so that you can continue to meet and chat with colleagues informally.
Cost: The cost for all four breakfasts is £200. This includes a copy of Children, their World, their Education, Final Report and Recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review and access to a web-page that will share research and evidence-informed practice.
How to book: Please email Trish Locker using the contact details below to request a place. Please could we ask you to do this as soon as possible.
Ethos
For many in the busy world of primary education, time for thoughtful and informed reflection is at a premium. Whilst it is important for some reflection to take place in solitude, there is a growing consensus that learning is more powerful when it is alongside others who are engaging with similar problems of practice. As the Cambridge Primary Review (CPR) has always argued, its evidence (the most comprehensive primary education enquiry for half a century) and messages (priorities include; Equity-challenging social and educational disadvantage; Voice - children’s voices and rights; Community- promotion of community engagement and cohesion; Sustainability – linking to the UN agenda; Aims – developing an informed curriculum vision; Curriculum – a broad, balanced and rich curriculum; Pedagogy – develop a pedagogy of repertoire, rigour, evidence and principle; Assessment – that enhances learning as well as tests it. ) are ‘not just for the architects and agents of policy’ but ‘for all who invest daily, deeply and for life in this vital phase of education’
Our breakfast fora would enable colleagues to offer different perspectives in papers and practices that would help build a deeper understanding of contemporary issues in relation to primary education and policy. We will enable colleagues to give a fuller consideration to different perspectives by creating the time and space to critically examine assumptions and potential actions.
Aims:
- To support head-teachers and senior colleagues in building institutional,
individual and collective capacity to respond effectively yet discriminatingly to
local, regional and national agendas
To create the opportunity to consider carefully important aspects of professional
practice, including a focus on pedagogy, curriculum design, and purposeful
professional development
To enable schools to then create their own solutions / responses to key dilemmas
Objectives:
Share specific CPR / CPRT research papers
Engage in rigorous facilitated dialogue (using the principles of Philosophy for
Communities)
Share both pre-reading and the outcomes of each discussion via a webcommunity
Outcomes
A collaborative community will exist that creates capacity through mutual support
for informed engagement with primary education.
Senior colleagues will feel empowered to innovate within their own settings
backed by the rigour of research
Some schools will wish to apply to join / make a contribution to the CPRT Schools
Alliance / West Midlands CPRT Regional Network
Schools will contribute to the KNSPS Partnership to support the next generation
of teachers which has at its heart, the ambition to be ‘rooted in evidence,
reaching for excellence’ by for example supporting their Teacher Educators in
accessing the KNSPS TE Development Programme.