Finding the good bits:
In a content-rich world digging out the really useful stuff can take longer than it should. Given how precious we know teachers’ time to be, we felt the least we could do was share some of the stuff the Right to Succeed Team have been reading with interest.
The theme:
This week we are going to focus on collective impact, and how employing this method helps with meeting the complex needs of vulnerable students.
At Right to Succeed we believe that no one can solve the problem of education inequity on their own, but that together we can. All our projects on the ground begin with a discovery phase during which we work with a local area to create the conditions that allow a collective, place-based approach to be effective.
Why is this so important? The Dartington Service Design Lab recently did some really interesting work looking at the mis-match between children’s needs and the services they receive. The data shared in this report was released earlier this year so we think it is well worth a look.
If you find yourself having a rare moment of quiet in the staff room, it’s worth taking in this piece from the New York Times which looks at the success Canada is having with collective impact approaches and how they appear to be winning the battle against poverty.
For those considering employing this approach to take on a specific challenge in a specific area, this report, whilst pretty lengthy, has some powerful insight into the power of ‘joined-up’ systems change.
If more education providers look to this kind of approach, more children will reach their full potential both at school and beyond. And we need to act, disadvantaged pupils in the UK begin school up to 4 months behind their peers. This gap widens over time.
On average these children are up to 2 years behind their peers by the time they leave secondary school. That’s not right.