Freeing Schools: Shaping the Big Society – a report from Antidote

Press coverage:

Left Foot Forward – 23/10/2010

Education Today – 20/10/2010

Children and Young People Now - 19/10/2010

Press release:

NEW REPORT CHALLENGES POLICYMAKERS TO GIVE SCHOOLS THE FREEDOM TO RAISE STANDARDS  AND DESCRIBES THE BIG SOCIETY IN ACTION

On the eve of the Government Spending Review, a report published today (19 October 2010) by Antidote – a charity and social enterprise that empowers schools to improve teaching, learning and behaviour – provides evidence that giving schools the tools and freedom to stimulate change from within can be the cheapest and most effective way of bringing about a step change in academic achievement and behaviour.

The report Freeing Schools: Shaping the Big Society , will be launched on 19 October 2010 at an event hosted by Greg Dyke, Ex Director General of the BBC, at Social Finance Ltd, London, W1 .

The report urges policymakers to explore ways of assessing how much money is wasted on implementing strategies which are ineffectual because they don’t address the issues of staff and students.  It also questions whether the measures currently proposed for giving freedom to schools can work on their own.  The report includes case studies from headteachers and recommendations for all those who influence schools; school leaders, policymakers and school inspectors.   The report describes:

  • a primary school in a deprived area where the pressure to achieve better results was sapping teachers’ confidence and making lessons very dull. Antidote came in, got staff and students to explore what was happening and to think about how to change things. The result was a 23% improvement in SATS results in one year.
  • a secondary school where the teachers were so busy coming up with exciting ways of delivering lessons that they hadn’t noticed how the depletion of time to spend with students was causing young people to conclude that teachers weren’t interested in them. As a result some became more interested in disrupting lessons than in enjoying them. Again, once people knew what was happening, it was possible to start turning things around.

Antidote receives widespread support – from Headteachers and schools across the country – for their innovative PROGRESS Programme which starts with the collection of confidential data from all staff and students about how they experience teaching, learning and the environment of the school.   Through this process, even the most cynical and disaffected discover that they have a voice which can be heard. The survey then identifies effective strategies to improve learning, behaviour and wellbeing.     The results can be transformational.   Susan Papas, Headteacher, Heavers Farm Primary School in Croydon says; “A year after finishing the PROGRESS Programme our school scored its best SATS results ever”.

Antidote’s Director, James Park, explains “It enables schools to dig deeper into why certain things are issues.   Policymakers often look to parents as the drivers of improvement in schools. In reality, children and young people are the ultimate ‘consumers’ of their learning, and school staff are often best placed to pick up the messages they give out.  Our experience is that when young people can articulate what does and does not work for them, and when these statements can be heard and thought about across the whole school community, it becomes possible to shape more dynamic learning environments and the results can be profound”.

Greg Dyke, sponsor and supporter of Antidote, says : “Antidote’s research has shown a relationship between kids feeling valued and listened to and their performance.  Antidote’s tools make learning more enjoyable and education more effective.”

Headteachers involved with Antidote say:

“Our results went up 23% last year because we found a way of making lessons more exciting.  Staff became more excited: students became more excited.  In that excitement, they were learning.”

“The children’s behavior has changed as a result of getting the opportunity to think about where they would like the school to be.”

“We now have a staff that doesn’t present problems, it presents solutions.  Also, the children do that.  That’s a shift in our culture and really good news for us.”