‘It’s shifted our focus around school improvement. In the past it would be, right, what do we think needs to improve? Let’s do it. Whereas now it’s, right, what is the data telling us, what are the perceptions telling us?’
‘The best part has been our SIP meetings, and being able to listen to what other people are doing. And even although the work they’re doing is maybe not solely the same as someone else’s, it’s listening to a hurdle they’ve come over, or something that’s worked really well.’
‘… being a headteacher can be a really lonely job at times. And having that collegiate support is huge.’
Every Dundee Learner Matters
The advantage of working with other schools to identify common issues and share ways of improving outcomes for all school pupils, regardless of their circumstances, is among the benefits University of Glasgow researchers have found as a result of implementing the Every Dundee Learner Matters (EDLM) strategy in Dundee.
Researchers from the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the university have been working with Dundee City Council since 2018, and specifically on the EDLM strategy since 2021.
EDLM is an innovative effort to foster equity across a city-wide education system. As such, it involves many stakeholders in a complex process of collaborative development and research. Seen as the local authority’s overall school improvement strategy, Every Dundee Learner Matters is driven by the principle of equity, defined as:
‘A process of improving the presence, participation and progress of all children and young people in nurseries and schools by identifying and addressing contextual barriers’
Focus on the Three Ps
The Every Dundee Learner Matters strategy focuses on the ‘Three Ps’:
- Presence – ensuring that all pupils attend regularly and promptly
- Participation – creating a climate within schools where all pupils feel welcome and valued
- Progress – developing policies and practices that maximise the achievement and ambitions of all pupils.
The project is underpinned by a set of design features informed by a ten-year research programme of research on system change carried out previously by members of the University of Glasgow team. Consistent with the participatory approach adopted, the details of these features have been negotiated with a strategy group made up of headteachers and local authority officers. In carrying out this role the strategy group is supported by university staff.
EDLM aims to increase the agency of schools regarding decisions about priorities for improvement, guided by four principles:
- A focus on problems of practice from multiple stakeholders’ perspectives
- A commitment to collaborative design
- The development of theory and knowledge related to both classroom learning and implementation informed by systematic inquiry
- Developing capacity for sustaining change in systems.
Analysis of evidence
During the second year of the initiative in 2022-23, the Robert Owen Centre team collected and analysed further evidence (informal observations, group interviews, data collected through social network analysis and scrutiny of statistics) regarding the implementation of the EDLM strategy across all early learning centres and schools in the city.
The researchers found that working in school inquiry groups (SIGs) had opened up career opportunities for teachers, and has focused practitioner minds on groups of pupils who are missing out.
Taking an inquiring stance is a key EDLM focus and is known to be a feature of schools that are effective in including all pupils. Evidence regarding the development of inquiry in Dundee, viewing it as way of thinking or being, rather than as an ‘inquiry project’ is particularly encouraging, although it is expressed in a variety of ways.
Change of thinking
For example, a senior colleague in a nursery commented:
“ …. where are the learners you’re most concerned are missing out? Or who are the learners that you think could do much better with you changing something? That was, sort of, the bit that stuck with me, so that’s where our thinking went.”
Staff have seen the benefits of collaborating with schools with which they are less connected, and in particular the researchers found that there is considerable evidence that this has led to the sharing of strategies and expertise between schools regarding ways of reaching heard to reach learners, as a primary school teacher put it:
“…sometimes you always work with the same people, whether that’s your cluster, or somebody you normally sit beside in a Head Teachers’ Development day or whatever. So, it’s good, absolutely it’s good to be working with other people.”
Issues to consider
To move EDLM forward, the researchers have suggested issues to consider:
- How can each early years centres and schools maximise the impact on all pupils?
- How can the school improvement partnerships be further developed as a means of supporting and challenging expectations and practices within their constituent schools?
- How can the work of local authority staff best support developments in the schools and early years?
More specifically, the researchers recommend that:
The primary work of the school inquiry groups should focus on generating and engaging with evidence about those learners who are currently missing out. There is clear evidence from schools within Dundee – and elsewhere – that where this approach is well implemented, it can make a significant improvement to outcomes for all pupils within a school.
All schools and early years centres should use peer inquiry to promote professional learning and strengthen support and challenge between schools. This approach involves headteachers and leads from each school’s inquiry group spending a morning together in each of their establishments, in order that the visitors can gather evidence about how inquiry-based improvement plans are being implemented. This might include discussions with a sample of staff and students, possibly through a series of learning walks. It is suggested that the host school determine the exact focus for inquiry.
Continued efforts
Professor Mel Ainscow from the NSEE team said: “We congratulate all our colleagues in Dundee on their continuing efforts to ensure that all children and young people in the city are well served.
“Building on the good practices that already exist, these efforts are a source of considerable optimism for the future. For our part, we feel privileged to have a small role in these important developments.”
The full report is available for download here: