Research School Network: Bananarama meets Gardeners’ World – Reflecting on EEF’s Guidance Report Putting Evidence to Work – A school’s guide to implementation

The big reveal … it’s all to do with their iconic lyric:

But how now to link in to the EEF?

Well, today sees the launch of a seminal piece of evidence-based guidance, Putting Evidence to Work: A School’s Guide to Implementation. This brand new guidance report offers six practical and evidence-based recommendations to support successful implementation. They can be applied to any school improvement decision:

• programmes or practices;
• whole-school or targeted approaches;
• internal or externally generated ideas.

The report is free to access and available via this link.

The report highlights how good and thoughtful implementation is crucial to the success of any teaching and learning strategy, yet creating the right conditions for implementation – let alone the structured process of planning, delivering and sustaining change – is hard.

Essentially even the very best intervention or idea will fail to have the impact it could have if implementation is not aligned to context and necessary detail.

The six recommendations detailed in this new guidance will be invaluable to those working in education. They will support schools in giving their innovations the very best chance of success by working carefully through the who, why, where, when and how of managing change. The real beauty of these recommendations comes in the shape of just how applicable they are.

Just like the EEF’s evidence-informed school improvement cycle they can be applied to any school improvement decision from the individual teacher shaping a new evidenced approach to a scheme of work right through to whole school initiatives and even beyond through TSA/MAT programmes and even system wide change.

The report frames implementation in four stages: explore; prepare; deliver; and sustain. It also provides guidance on how schools can create the right environment for change, from supporting staff to getting leadership on board.

In this super helpful blog, Shaun Allison, Director of Durrington Research School has summarised the main findings and provides insights to aid to understanding the context and introducing the recommendations of this long-awaited guidance report.

But going back to the title … where does Gardner’s World come in? Well, even the grandest of planned gardens or vegetable plots, planted up with the very best quality plants, will wither and fade if:

• the ground is not prepared well enough (too cold, too stony, too thin, too rich etc)
• the plants you choose don’t match the conditions you have
• those chosen are sited in the wrong aspect (in full sun/​shade/​partial shade)
• you fail to water the new plants appropriately (too little/​too much)
• the weather takes an unpredicted turn

So whether it’s for your teaching, leadership of change, gardening or next DIY project, this brand new guidance report, Putting Evidence to Work: A School’s Guide to Implementation will be invaluable in seeing the green shoots of your ideas grow, thrive and flourish, and ensure your next venture is provided the very best chance of success.