A move towards greater school autonomy, an end to funding for National Strategies and challenging local authority spending settlements are forcing most local authorities to revisit how they support and promote school improvement.
The expectation at government level seems to be that schools, deprived of local authority support, will develop new networks to share expertise and create a new model for school improvement, driven by outstanding schools keen to share their successes with others.
There is no doubt that many outstanding schools are enthusiastic at this prospect and will be able to make a significant contribution. Charities and private companies along with local authority traded services groups will also contribute to create a new market for school improvement services. But how do we get from where we are today to this new world? It is unlikely to happen without the support and encouragement of local authorities keen to ensure that schools are equipped to thrive.
This is where EdisonLearning can help.
Not only are we able to provide support for school improvement in the more traditional sense, for example assisting in turning around underperforming schools, we are also uniquely well positioned to help develop the expertise and capacity that individual schools and groups of schools will need to become successful and autonomous institutions.
Our Partner Schools Programme develops school-based leadership capacity and, by refining operating practices helps schools to create the time and space needed for leaders to become system leaders.
