Research School Network: Aspirer RS Manchester update What’s been going on?

What has been going on at the Aspirer Research School Manchester Hub?

Wow, what a busy few weeks we have had at the Wilbraham Hub. Firstly, let’s introduce ourselves. I am Sarah Izon, the Research Lead at the Manchester Hub. I am in my 11^th year of teaching and I am currently working 2 days a week in Year 3, which I am really enjoying. I am also the Y3/4 Middle Leader and the Literacy Co-ordinator.

Steve Wheeldon is the Headteacher at Wilbraham Primary School, he is in his 11^th year as Head and his 25^th in teaching! He is also a Local Leader in Education (LLE).

I (Sarah Izon) attended our first Research School meeting with Aspirer and Alexandra Park, which was at Peover Superior School, and we had a great tour of the school and saw how research had informed their practice in every class we visited. The following week Steve attended the Regional Meeting and came away with dates for Research Breakfasts and Twilights; you can sign up for these here. Our Research Breakfasts are free and offer you the chance to learn about the latest research, network with other colleagues in the area and, of course, enjoy a free breakfast!!Our first research breakfast, (on Thursday 14^th November) is focusing on Literacy in KS1 and KS2 and, following this, we are really looking forward to putting on our first Literacy Bites course after half term – keep your eyes on our Twitter feed (@Aspirer_MancHub) for more information. Our second breakfast (on Thursday 21^st November) will focus on Maths in KS1 and KS2 and we will be putting on some brilliant maths courses in the New Year!

Steve also attended some training in London on the latest Improving Behaviour in School Guidance Report (found here) and we are hoping to offer some courses on this in 2020.In school, we are working on creating an area to showcase all the Guidance Reports from the Education Endowment Foundation, which can be found online here. We are also ensuring that we are becoming more and more evidence-informed when making decisions that will impact on our children. With reading, we are tweaking our approach to ensure that we include all 6 strategies mentioned in the KS1 and KS2 reports -

Prediction

Questions

Clarifying

Summarising

Inference

Activating Prior Knowledge

In writing, we are implementing IPEELL into Y3 and Y4. This covers the key writing strategies:

Planning

Drafting

Sharing

Evaluating

Revising

Editing

Publishing

IPEELL is a version of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) strategy (Harris and Graham) that was developed for the UK. It was also an EEF promising project that we were a part of last year.In Key Stage 1, we are securing our use of an SRSD writing cycle that incorporates all the above writing strategies too. We have had a lot of support from Lisa Hesmondhalgh, the Head at Peover, with this and her advice has been invaluable. The version that Peover use is the Aspire translation of the SRSD writing strategy from the original research. It was designed from the evidence base to suit the context of Peover and accelerate the writing progress and attainment. 

We are really excited about all the events that are planned this term and we cannot wait to make links with schools and colleagues in Manchester. Please follow us on Twitter for information on all future events. 

Sarah Izon

Research Lead at Aspirer RS Manchester Hub