Research School Network: Bradford Opportunity Area Plan

“Bradford is a great city and its children and young people deserve high quality education, opportunities and support.” This is how Anne-Marie Canning, Independent Chair of Bradford Opportunity Area partnership board, introduces the Bradford Opportunity Area Plan, which you can find here.

We are pleased that Bradford Research School features heavily in the plan and we hope that we will play an integral part in the success of the work in the Opportunity Area. Here is our summary of some key messages from the report.

The plan sets out three key principles:

• This is a plan for Bradford and will be a plan led by Bradford
• A partnership approach to ​‘place-based’ working
• Evidence based interventions

The commitment to evidence informed decision making is refreshing. After all, 11 million pounds will go into funding this plan, so we need to ensure value for money and impact. The OA will fund activities ​“only where there is strong evidence that they will make a difference”. We can never guarantee that anything will definitely work, but we can ensure that we place the best bets, and make changes not based on whims but on evidence.

The four priorities set out by the Opportunity Area board are as follows:

• Priority 1 – Strengthening school leadership and the quality of teaching
• Priority 2 – Improving literacy in Bradford’s primary schools, particularly for disadvantaged pupils
• Priority 3 – Improving access to rewarding careers
• Priority 4 – Using evidence and research to remove barriers to learning

These OA priorities are aligned to many of our already established Research School priorities. We continue to explore what the research says about literacy in our regular blogs: What the Research Says about Primary Literacy Priorities in Bradford; Sentence Combining to Improve Writing Fluency. Priority 4 is obviously an area that we will play a huge part in and we are excited to see the role played by Born in Bradford in this strand too.

There are many reasons outlined in the report why we should celebrate the foundations already laid across the city. Key Stage 2 results are improving at a rate faster than the national average; there was a 9 percentage point gain in the number of pupils reaching expected standards in reading, writing and maths combined; Progress 8 scores place Bradford as the fourth most improved local authority area in the country.

The report is optimistic and sets challenging goals, but it is no less than Bradford deserves. It’s the youngest major city in the UK and has a rapidly growing economy. With a diverse population, Bradford can celebrate the 153 languages spoken in its schools and its status as a ​‘City of Sanctuary’, continuing to welcome and support refugees and international arrivals.

There are obviously challenges which we need to address, but Bradford, and the abundance of expertise already in the city, is where we will find the solutions.