Research and Development
This is a key strand of the teaching school as everything we do feeds this theme. The teaching school landscape is a rapidly changing one and our commitment to R and D enables us to capture the work we are engaged in and the lessons we are learning from it. We intend to develop a digital library of R and D papers, resources and materials that can be accessed by our CLF and Teaching School Alliance partners as well as by those colleagues who have joined out Alumni Membership programme.
Isobel Clark talks about research and development at CLF
Three Key Research and Development Projects
- R and D Kit Bag:
We were asked by the National College to work with 6 other teaching schools nationally and our alliance schools to produce a ‘kit bag’ for schools wishing to embed research and development into their work. This is an organic project and we came to the conclusion that the ‘kit bag’ would inevitably continue to be added to! The schools involved in the project wanted this to be a very practitioner focussed project and so the kit bag contains a variety of case studies about how to lead R and D in school at different levels. From these, we were able to pull together hints, tips and guidance for schools starting out on this journey. To read more about our R and D kit bag work please download the document below:
- Leading outstanding pedagogy through an alliance of schools:
This project will start in April 2012 and is priority for all teaching schools as it is for us. The project will unite the teaching and learning impacts from quality leadership development, CPD, the engagement of students and the pedagogical processes behind great teaching. Without a strategy to link these, our schools will not become outstanding and teaching schools run the risk of being less effective. We will be working with a research associate from ISOS on this.
- The Use of Outstanding Teachers in Initial Teacher Training:
This R and D project for the TDA has involved us in planning a new model of ITT in partnership with The University of The West of England. We will be piloting this from September 2012 and have looked at the best practice in our academies and the best practice in UWE and drawn on the strengths of both to devise a model that has the use of outstanding teachers as mentors at its core. To download the research document please click here.
CFBT Education Trust Launguages Project
CFBT Education trust provided CLF teaching school with a grant to investigate the quality of provision for MFL and highlight where challenges were faced and where good practice existed. This was in response to ofsted’s 2011 report “Modern Languages: Acheivement and Challenge.
To download the report and its accompanying presentation click on the links below.
