Contents:
- Conference Rationale
- RAISE Conference
- Workshops I
- Workshops II
- Workshops III
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Conference Rationale
"I would like to commend, to all engaged in education in Wales, the digest of the RAISE National Conference in March 2010. The event made a major contribution to a key priority targeted in our work on School Effectiveness: that is, reducing the impact of poverty on educational attainment in Wales."
Leighton Andrews
Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills
Rationale for March RAISE Conference
The overall theme of the conference was ‘tackling the link between socio-economic disadvantage and educational under-achievement’. However, the specific emphasis of this event was on how community-focussed schooling can address the particular needs of disadvantaged learners.
Developing schools’ community focus through greater involvement of the wider community was one of the eight key themes we identified for RAISE in 2009-2010. The School Effectiveness Framework, also, recognises community focus as a key aspect of Working with Others, which is one of the six essential areas of activity for effective schools. The Framework document specifically says, “Whilst the need for community focus applies to all schools, it is particularly important in our most disadvantaged communities, where schools have a major rôle to play in offering children and young people the experiences and opportunities that their more privileged peers take for granted.”
Two of the other key RAISE themes, also, specifically and clearly relate to schools’ community focus. They are multi-agency working and engaging with parents. Parental engagement also obviously links to another RAISE theme: developing nurture groups. Yet another RAISE theme, the relevance and vocational character of the curriculum, also demands that schools take seriously the need to strengthen their links with the wider community. This, in turn, should impact powerfully on two more of the RAISE themes: broadening approaches to language development to improve learning and developing learners’ motivation, behaviour, attendance and self-esteem. The final RAISE theme of supporting transition recognises the heightened significance of all the other themes, at critical stages in a young person’s life.
Similarly, within the School Effectiveness Framework, community focussed schooling in not limited to the one specific reference under Working with Others. The principle has relevance for all elements of the framework. Community focussed schooling has implications for Leadership at all levels: the Networks of Professional Practice we construct; the Intervention and Support we provide for learners; our responsibilities in respect of educational Improvement and Responsibility; and, critically, the Curriculum and Teaching that we provide.
Community Focussed Schooling has been highlighted as a crucial area for development by a number of bodies that have considered the child poverty agenda in Wales: most notably in the recommendations of the Assembly Government’s Child Poverty Expert Group and the National Assembly’s Children and Young People Committee. The Assembly Government’s current guidance on Community Focussed Schools dates from 2003. This RAISE event offered an invaluable opportunity to revisit and explore again that agenda, as we seek to clarify our vision of community focussed schooling as an antidote to child poverty and educational underachievement in Wales.
Leighton Andrews
Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills
Rationale for March RAISE Conference
The overall theme of the conference was ‘tackling the link between socio-economic disadvantage and educational under-achievement’. However, the specific emphasis of this event was on how community-focussed schooling can address the particular needs of disadvantaged learners.
Developing schools’ community focus through greater involvement of the wider community was one of the eight key themes we identified for RAISE in 2009-2010. The School Effectiveness Framework, also, recognises community focus as a key aspect of Working with Others, which is one of the six essential areas of activity for effective schools. The Framework document specifically says, “Whilst the need for community focus applies to all schools, it is particularly important in our most disadvantaged communities, where schools have a major rôle to play in offering children and young people the experiences and opportunities that their more privileged peers take for granted.”
Two of the other key RAISE themes, also, specifically and clearly relate to schools’ community focus. They are multi-agency working and engaging with parents. Parental engagement also obviously links to another RAISE theme: developing nurture groups. Yet another RAISE theme, the relevance and vocational character of the curriculum, also demands that schools take seriously the need to strengthen their links with the wider community. This, in turn, should impact powerfully on two more of the RAISE themes: broadening approaches to language development to improve learning and developing learners’ motivation, behaviour, attendance and self-esteem. The final RAISE theme of supporting transition recognises the heightened significance of all the other themes, at critical stages in a young person’s life.
Similarly, within the School Effectiveness Framework, community focussed schooling in not limited to the one specific reference under Working with Others. The principle has relevance for all elements of the framework. Community focussed schooling has implications for Leadership at all levels: the Networks of Professional Practice we construct; the Intervention and Support we provide for learners; our responsibilities in respect of educational Improvement and Responsibility; and, critically, the Curriculum and Teaching that we provide.
Community Focussed Schooling has been highlighted as a crucial area for development by a number of bodies that have considered the child poverty agenda in Wales: most notably in the recommendations of the Assembly Government’s Child Poverty Expert Group and the National Assembly’s Children and Young People Committee. The Assembly Government’s current guidance on Community Focussed Schools dates from 2003. This RAISE event offered an invaluable opportunity to revisit and explore again that agenda, as we seek to clarify our vision of community focussed schooling as an antidote to child poverty and educational underachievement in Wales.
