The Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow has been selected to provide evaluation support for the Schools Improvement Partnership Programme (SIPP) set up by the Scottish Government and Education Scotland to help tackle the link between socio-economic deprivation and low educational attainment. 

In 2013 and 2014 the Robert Owen Centre will provide tailored support for up to 10 individual partnership projects in different areas of Scotland, to determine how well the overall Programme and each individual partnership project have been implemented and finally to assess whether the Programme as a whole has contributed to teachers’ learning and development – particularly in the area of tackling disadvantage in Scottish education.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell MSP, announced this programme earlier in the year and stressed the importance of partnership working as a solution-focused approach to achieving this.  Speaking on today’s announcement he said, “Our education system is on a journey from good to great. And whilst we are seeing positive results in our international standings we haven’t got there yet. We still have big gaps in attainment. The Schools Improvement Partnership Programme is one measure we have put in place to help address this and I welcome the Robert Owen Centre in their new role to help us tackle this issue for once and for all.”

Alastair Delaney, Strategic Director at Education Scotland said, “One of our key objectives for education in Scotland is to eradicate inequity in educational outcomes.  This programme has a significant role to play in that and we look forward to working with the Robert Owen Centre to help deliver positive changes in local schools and communities across the country.”

Professor Chris Chapman of the Robert Owen Centre said, “We are very pleased to have been chosen to provide support for this extremely important programme.  We look forward to working with the local authorities, schools, practitioners and all other partners involved in the programme and we hope very much to be part of a significant shift in educational outcomes in Scotland.”

Education Scotland is leading the development of this programme and managing its implementation and has worked with a steering group which includes ADES, COSLA, AHDS, SLS, and EIS to develop the rationale and detail of the programme. 

The initial group of partnerships will look to identify the approaches which are best suited to tackling the effects of disadvantage on educational achievement. There will be a focus is on building staff confidence and expertise, sharing effective approaches and then trying these out. Staff will be encouraged to learn from each other, experiment with their practice and monitor and evaluate change.

The results of the action research in this first year will be shared widely, and will be used to inform how and to what extent this programme may be rolled out in future years.

 

Notes to Editors

The programme currently supports the following 9 partnerships across 15 authorities:

  • West Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire Councils (involving 16 primary schools)
  • Angus, South Ayrshire and Edinburgh Councils (involving 3 secondary schools)
  • East Renfrewshire (2 primary schools and support agencies)
  • Falkirk Council (the Falkirk and Grangemouth learning communities, including primary and secondary schools from the clusters, parents, CLD and family support workers)
  • Orkney and Western Isles (involving early years, primary and secondary schools)
  • North Lanarkshire Council (two primary schools)
  • Midlothian and East Lothian Councils (cross sectoral partnerships)
  • Glasgow and Fife Councils (local improvement groups across sectors)
  • South Lanarkshire Council (Trinity High School and other schools across the authority)

Media enquiries:Kelly.Murphy@educationscotland.gov.uk / 07931167858.

First published: 18 December 2013

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