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| Proposals
for action |
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| b)
Sharing school improvement responsibilities with groups of schools |
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Part 1 of this
paper sets out the reasons behind the Government’s belief that a
body beyond school level must retain oversight on behalf of pupils,
parents and communities of the essential monitoring and challenge
of school performance, and, where necessary, undertake direct intervention
in specific schools. However, it is also clear that the majority
of expertise in school improvement is actually to be found at school
level, in our best schools.
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| The
Government would like to see Local Education Authorities working with
groups of schools, selected on a geographical or other basis, to see
how far it is possible to devolve to such a group day to day responsibility
for the school improvement functions of monitoring and challenge in
relation to all schools within the group. The schools could provide
each other with, or jointly purchase, external review and the stimulus
to further improvement, rather than relying on the LEA to do this.
Such groups, once established, might also take responsibility for
triggering and undertaking direct intervention in weak schools, although
this would need to be done with oversight and additional funding by
the Local Education Authority. |
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Existing groupings
such as Excellence in Cities partnerships or the schools involved
in an Education Action Zone, which have enabled schools to work
closely together, might be used to pilot such arrangements. In one
Education Action Zone, for example, information and communications
technology has been used to link schools across two Authorities
so that the teachers can share good practice, live, using a videoconference
link. These groupings would not remove the Local Education Authority’s
responsibilities but arrange for them to be discharged in a different
way. The Department would welcome the opportunity to discuss possible
pilot projects with interested Authorities and schools.
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