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During its first two years this Partnership was obviously able to bring about some quick changes, have some easy ‘hits’, and get people excited and thinking in new ways. It is our experience that almost any activity, in the short term:
- can provide glowing evaluations from participants (often on the basis that whatever is done, it’s far better than the nothing that existed previously)
- can shift attainment levels, without worrying too much about whether these would have shifted anyway
- can produce dazzling reports on work done with small numbers under relatively artificial conditions
Much harder is the long haul:
- to ensure that the thing done was the best possible use of time, energy and resources, out of the several things that could have been done. Getting the investment right first time is a challenging responsibility for all those trying to manage widescale change;
- to ensure that progress made is bigger, faster, deeper, wider, better- etc than would have happened- anyway. Few of us operate- in an isolated box. The world is a fascinating tangle of interacting developments. No single one of them can claim exclusive rights to being the one thing that made a difference – but at the same time there is a real need to be able to quantify and qualify the contributions our own different actions have made;
- to ensure that real change is brought about for large numbers, across many parts of Birmingham, in lasting ways, within the everyday ways of living, working and being.
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This task of making sure the best things are supported; getting that support everywhere in appropriate ways; and impacting on the lives of huge numbers of people has been the key task for this Partnership during the past year. Within this time we have set up a number of checks and balances to make sure that we are doing all that we said we would do (and more!), in the ways we said we would (but better!), to produce the changes we agreed (and are exceeding these!)
Many of the activities that were established with our support have been built into normal practice and taken on nationwide. Once these start to be listed, you realise the influence we have had around:
- using book gifts to stimulate early interest in reading in families;
- the idea of demonstration classes- linked to best practice in the literacy hour;
- the precursor to the literacy hour in the form of focused, intense, curriculum-based time for reading and writing;
- bringing all post 16 basic skills developments into a coherent Basic- Skills Plan;
- coherent approaches to using ICT to boost adult basic skills;
- the shifts away from isolated projects and towards literacy/numeracy strategies;
- curriculum targeting work to boost pupil understanding and attain-ment;
- gateway support for young people making choices and transitions;
- whole school workshop approaches- to engaging parents in curriculum discussions about childrens’ progress;
- using literacy and numeracy curriculum modules to bridge the gap between leaving primary school and starting secondary school;
- literacy and numeracy summer ‘springboard’ activities;
- homework support structured into all libraries;
- whole city approaches to family literacy and family numeracy.
Our influence has encouraged long-term, sustained, effective change locally- and nationally. |
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