Schools In England Research Articles

Parents' perceptions of children's emotional well-being during spring 2020 COVID-19 restrictions: A qualitative study with parents of young children in England.

BackgroundDuring COVID‐19 restrictions in England in spring 2020, early years settings for young children were closed to all but a small percentage of families, social contact was limited and play areas in parks were closed. Concerns were raised about the impact of these restrictions on young children's emotional well‐being. The aim of this study was to explore parents' perceptions of young children's emotional well‐being during these COVID‐19 restrictions.MethodsWe interviewed 20 parents of children 3–4 years due to begin school in England in September 2020. Interviews were conducted via telephone (n = 18) and video call (n = 2), audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interviews focused on childcare arrangements, children's behaviour and transition to school. A sample of transcripts were coded line by line to create a coding framework, which was subsequently applied to the remaining transcripts. Coded data were then analysed using a nurture lens to develop themes and further understanding.ResultsParticipants were predominantly mothers (n = 16), White British (n = 10) and educated to degree level (n = 13), with half the sample living in the highest deprivation quintile in England (n = 10). Five were single parents. Three themes developed from nurturing principles were identified: creating age‐appropriate explanations, understanding children's behaviour and concerns about school transition. Parents reported that their children's emotional well‐being was impacted and described attempts to support their young children while looking ahead to their transition to primary school.ConclusionsThis study is one of the first to examine in‐depth perceptions of COVID‐19 restrictions on young children's emotional well‐being. The longer term impacts are not yet understood. Although young children may be unable to understand in detail what the virus is, they undoubtedly experience the disruption it brings to their lives. The well‐being of families and children needs to be nurtured as they recover from the effects of the pandemic to allow them to thrive.

Alternative COVID-19 mitigation measures in school classrooms: analysis using an agent-based model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has impacted children's education, with schools required to implement infection control measures that have led to periods of absence and classroom closures. We developed an agent-based epidemiological model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a school classroom that allows us to quantify projected infection patterns within primary school classrooms, and related uncertainties. Our approach is based on a contact model constructed using random networks, informed by structured expert judgement. The effectiveness of mitigation strategies in suppressing infection outbreaks and limiting pupil absence are considered. COVID-19 infections in primary schools in England in autumn 2020 were re-examined and the model was then used to estimate infection levels in autumn 2021, as the Delta variant was emerging and it was thought likely that school transmission would play a major role in an incipient new wave of the epidemic. Our results were in good agreement with available data. These findings indicate that testing-based surveillance is more effective than bubble quarantine, both for reducing transmission and avoiding pupil absence, even accounting for insensitivity of self-administered tests. Bubble quarantine entails large numbers of absences, with only modest impact on classroom infections. However, maintaining reduced contact rates within the classroom can have a major benefit for managing COVID-19 in school settings.

Evaluation of the PhunkyFoods intervention on food literacy and cooking skills of children aged 7–9 years: a cluster randomised controlled trial in Yorkshire Primary Schools UK

BackgroundChildhood obesity rates more than double during primary school in England. Acquiring competent cooking skills is a key part of children’s education that can lead to improved knowledge of a healthy lifestyle and dietary behaviours. Evaluation of the impact of ‘PhunkyFoods’, a school-based food and nutrition education programme, will assess food literacy, cooking skills and dietary behaviour in primary-school children.MethodsA cluster randomised controlled trial will be undertaken in 28 primary schools in North Yorkshire, UK, including a total population of children aged 7–9 years (n = 420). The trial has two arms: (a) the intervention group receiving PhunkyFoods programme (n = 210) and (b) the wait-list control group receiving the usual school curriculum (n = 210). The intervention ‘PhunkyFoods’ will be delivered by Purely Nutrition Ltd. The participating school staff are supported with training, policy development and access to resources to improve the delivery of nutrition education. Children participate through whole school assemblies, classroom activities, and after-school clubs about food preparation, cooking healthy meals and healthy living. Schools, parents and children have access to healthy meal recipes through the PhunkyFoods website. The primary outcomes are differences in food literacy and cooking skills scores between control and intervention arms after 12 months of the intervention and adjusted for baseline values. The secondary outcome is differences in fruit and vegetable intake between the arms after 12 months (adjusted for baseline). Treatment effects will be examined using mixed ANOVA and regression analysis. Primary analyses will adjust for baseline food literacy and cooking skills scores and secondary analysis will adjust for pre-specified baseline school and child level covariates.DiscussionThe PhunkyFoods programme is a flexible menu of options for schools to choose from, making this a highly complex intervention. Following Medical Research Council guidance, research perspectives will focus on effectiveness and theory-based approaches: to what extent the intervention produces the intended outcomes in real-world settings and what works in which circumstances.Trial registrationISRCTN ISRCTN68114155. Prospectively registered on 22 October 2021

Retrospectives: On the Evolution of the Rules versus Discretion Debate in Monetary Policy

Episodes of macroeconomic upheaval associated with monetary policy failure have provided the stage for important debates on rules versus discretion. We discuss the main features, results, commonalities, and differences in the debates that emerged after three such episodes. The modern debate was born during the Great Inflation of the 1970s and focused on both rules versus discretion and the properties of alternative rules. The middle debate originated with Henry Simons and the Chicago School during the Great Depression in the 1930s and focuses on policy uncertainty. The earliest systematic debate involved the Currency and Banking Schools in Britain in the 1820s, but, in spite the views of many of its participants and doctrinal historians, it seems to have primarily been about the degree of activism under a single rule—that of the gold standard.

Problematising conceptions of “effective” home-school partnerships in secondary education

ABSTRACT This conceptual study seeks to understand parent and teacher perceptions of “effective” home-school partnerships across three secondary schools in England, before problematising these normative understandings. Currently there is little research into home-school partnerships at a secondary level in the UK, and the policy environment is anaemic. To aid the possible direction of future research, six themes are reported from in depth case studies with three schools chosen due to a reputation of good practice. These findings create four principles of perceived effective home-school partnerships: relationships, community, pastoral support, and supporting learning at home. We then problematise these principles and suggest key areas for future research and practice, particularly around the ethics of the relationship with parents, and constructing parents as “co-educators”.

Covid-19 and the lost hidden curriculum: locating an evolving narrative ecology of Schools-in-Covid

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic brought seismic changes to children and families, with schools at the forefront of the daily battle to maintain learning. We report on our reflexive thematic analysis of data collected with 28 participants in 14 schools in England during the summer of 2021, following two extensive national lockdowns, and two transition points of returning to school under Covid safety measures. Our data reflects an emerging narrative ecology of Schools-in-Covid, developing as the pandemic continued to unfold for children and families, schools, policy makers and ourselves, in a co-construction of what this pandemic has brought to our lives. We present our findings as a reportage, as our collective experience continues to unfold. Our superordinate themes re-position the UK Government priority of academic catch up as secondary to mental health, and argue the re-establishment of the hidden curriculum was the main vehicle for social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellbeing through direct instruction, modelling and practice, typically associated with improved attitudes about the self, others and school and with consequential higher attainment. We report a partial inversion of expectations; rather than a heavy emphasis towards widening disadvantage, our participants report some benefit to vulnerable children and young people who gained from a changed in-person learning environment, and overwhelming distress to those deemed less vulnerable. Our findings identify Schools in the Community, Care before Curriculum, Agility (adapt, survive and thrive), and Reflective and Responsive, as the key aspects of an emerging narrative ecology of Schools-in-Covid.

It's Not Over, Not Over, Not Over, Not Over Yet Resistance to Academisation from the Inside

Since 2002, the number of academy schools in England has increased – first gradually and then, since the 2010 Academies Act, rapidly. For some, a full academisation of the school system in England appears inevitable. In this paper, however, I explore how new teachers and senior leaders within academy primary schools quietly resist identifying as academy teachers, and in doing so resist the wider process of academisation. This resistance gives those who are opposed to academisation hope that another future is possible, one in which academisation is stalled and perhaps reversed.

Executive Leadership and the Coupling Nature of the Relationship between Educational Organizations and Member Schools in England

ABSTRACT This paper draws on coupling and systems frameworks to investigate the relationships between two English Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and their member schools in how decisions are made around budgeting, recruitment processes, and curriculum and assessment. Findings demonstrate when and under what conditions executive leaders and specifically CEOs, as primary agents of coupling, created greater consistency across schools either through centralization or deliberate alignment of school improvement planning, while operating within their complex institutional environments. Implications for practice, policy, and research on system-wide reform are discussed.

Crisis policy enactment: primary school leaders’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in England

ABSTRACT This paper explores the enactment of government policy during the Covid pandemic in primary schools in England. Based on interviews with school leaders and teachers across the period 2020–21 (n = 66), drawn from two major studies of primary schools’ priorities during the crisis, we argue that school leaders’ responses can be understood as a distinct form of policy enactment particular to an unprecedented crisis. Policy arrived in schools differently, and was enacted differently. Our findings suggest that enacting policy during the Covid crisis was a process dominated by the need to act at speed, informed by the prioritisation of children’s basic needs and based on a knowledge of the local circumstances. Thus dimensions of context which affect policy enactment were altered during the crisis, with the material circumstances of the school and the values of the headteacher becoming highly significant. The approach we term crisis policy enactment is response to policy which is focused first on coping but is also agentic, demonstrating a commitment to children’s welfare and a belief in the power of schools to make a difference.

A Further Clarification of Ludwig von Mises as a Currency School Free Banker

This article refutes the view that Ludwig von Mises proposed freedom in banking as the most suitable means to render the issue of additional fiduciary media completely impossible and shows why Mises’s proposal should not be credited as such. Following in Joseph T. Salerno’s footsteps, this article interprets Mises’s thoughts in light of the nineteenth-century debate between the currency and banking schools in Britain. It finds that Mises’s free banking theory incorporates theoretical insights from both sides and as such represents an incomplete resolution to the old debate and presages the ultimate split in modern literature on free banking. This article also addresses the law of reflux of the banking school within Mises’s free banking theory. After a critical exposition on the law of reflux, it is revealed that the actual and common employment of standard sound money in exchange and cash holding is fundamental in order for the law to serve as a strong restriction on the supply of fiduciary media in a fractional reserve free banking industry.

Capturing variations in how spelling is taught in primary school classrooms in England

AbstractMastering spelling is important for children to progress in writing. The National Curriculum in England details spelling lists linked to each year group in primary education. Assessment practices also emphasise the importance of teaching spelling. However, to date, little is known about how teachers feel about teaching spelling nor the instructional methods that they use in primary schools in England. This study addresses this gap by investigating approaches to teaching spelling. An online survey was distributed to primary‐based teaching staff with roles in supporting teaching and learning. The survey asked for information about the respondents’ teaching experience and school setting, and about their attitudes and approach to teaching spelling. The survey was completed in full by 158 respondents. Approaches to teaching spelling were varied and over two‐thirds of the sample highlighted that their school did not have a spelling policy. The importance of explicit teaching of spelling was supported by the majority of teachers. This judgement was more frequent and rated more highly by teachers supporting younger children. Teachers largely reported devising their own spelling resources, highlighted that the curriculum spelling lists lack guidance for teaching spelling strategies and questioned their suitability for pupils of varying abilities. A range of spelling programmes and strategies were recorded. The findings provide insight into universal instructional approaches. Practical implications for teacher training and professional development are discussed.

A “Curriculum of Hope”: Designing and Evaluating a Remote Mentoring Program for Pupils in a Pandemic

Purpose This paper reports the evaluation of an ongoing intervention, the GROW Programme, aimed at meeting the needs of 15–18-year-old pupils who were unable to attend school in England for periods during 2020–2021. The aim of the paper is to theorize the underlying basis of practice in such a lockdown context to inform future responses. Design/Approach/Methods Thematic analysis of a mixed-method evaluation, using surveys and interviews of teachers and mentors, and pupil focus groups, of the remote mentoring of pupils and their learning during lockdown, is further analyzed by means of Bernstein's knowledge codes and concept of open schools, to identify the form of knowledge inherent in online mentoring. Findings The analysis offers a framework for open schooling valuable to schools in uncertain times and identifies the shift to metacognition and self-regulated learning as holding particular benefits for learning under disruption. Originality/Value The paper takes a novel view of the disruption brought about by the partial closure of schools and offers a methodology for evaluating its effects by means of a unique intervention. It makes visible the characteristics and the potential benefits of alternative approaches in order that schools can make informed choices.

Visually communicating exclusiveness: how specialist music secondary schools in England represent themselves on the web

ABSTRACT This article examines how specialist music secondary schools in England present themselves on their websites and social media platforms. We consider visual communication codes and how such patterns reflect cultural distinctions and social boundaries. Multimodal critical discourse analysis is used to demonstrate how the choice of semiotic resources convey the meaning of specialisation in a socially exclusive manner. Although the schools in question use different resources, similarities in function can be noted in their self-promotion. A school’s social matrix and use of classical aesthetics are conveyed through non-verbal, visual communication. An elite code associates advanced musical training with certain principles of behaviour and social values. Those, in turn, represent class-based distinctions, cultural boundaries, and characteristics of privileged education.

Imposing Compulsory Rugby Union on Schoolchildren: An Analysis of English State-Funded Secondary Schools.

ObjectiveTo establish the extent to which Rugby Union was a compulsory physical education activity in state-funded secondary schools in England and to understand the views of Subject Leaders for Physical Education with respect to injury risk.MethodA cross-sectional research study using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) from 288 state-funded secondary schools.ResultsRugby Union was delivered in 81% (n = 234 of 288) of state-funded secondary school physical education curricula, including 83% (n = 229 of 275) of state-funded secondary school boys' and 54% (n = 151 of 282) of girls' physical education curricular. Rugby Union was compulsory in 91% (n = 208 of 229) of state-funded secondary schools that delivered it as part of the boys' physical education curriculum and 54% (n = 82 of 151) of state-funded secondary schools that delivered contact Rugby Union as part of the girls' physical education curriculum. Subject Leaders for Physical Education also perceived Rugby Union to have the highest risk of harm of the activities they delivered in their school physical education curriculum.ConclusionNotwithstanding discussions of appropriate measures (i.e., mandatory concussion training, Rugby Union specific qualifications and CPD) to reduce injury risk, it is recommended that Rugby Union should not be a compulsory activity given that it has a perceived high risk of injury and is an unnecessary risk for children in physical education.

An Investigation About the Challenges of Adopting Performance Management in Educational Leadership in England

Since the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) introduced the performance management system in general education in September 2000, it has become an important component in education reform in England. The goal of this study is to explore the challenges that teachers and principals may encounter in adopting performance management in educational leadership in England. This study finds that performance management provides a single, unfair mechanism for teacher evaluation, and within this framework, teachers’ personal development is largely ignored. And for leaders, performance management results in a lack of leadership responsibility. This study argues that performance management is not conducive to the development of schools in England.

Teaching children and adolescents about mental wellbeing: an exploratory multi-site case study in England

ABSTRACT Attention on children and young people’s (CYP) wellbeing has increased internationally over the past two decades, particularly in the context of education. This small scale, preliminary study was conducted across four state-funded schools in England (two primary; two secondary) amidst a time of policy change that saw the introduction of Mental Wellbeing Support Teams in schools, and the mandating of statutory Health Education curricula. The study investigated whether psycho-informed lessons could be developed aligned to curriculum guidelines, and how pupils would engage with this learning content. Drawing on Positive Education (PE) theory, and Self-Determination theory (SDT) the researchers worked collaboratively to co-develop and deliver lessons to CYP (aged 9–11 years, and 14–15 years). This paper describes the theoretical underpinnings of the lessons, learning activities used, and critically reflects on pupils’ engagement. Implications for practice are considered and recommendations made regarding possible future teaching of mental wellbeing in England.

Researching ‘off rolling’ as a sensitive topic: ‘Hard’ evidence and experiential accounts

ABSTRACT This paper will explore the ways in which behaviour features in the accounts of ‘off rolling’ processes in schools in England volunteered by participants – senior school leaders, SENCos and parents, in an ongoing multi-stranded research project. In addition to analysing these accounts, this paper draws on contextual features and concepts such as parrhesia and authenticity in a probing of methodological considerations. The status of such accounts as data will also be considered given the high stakes accountability environment in which school principals strive to fulfil their legal remit in the field of inclusion. The trustworthiness of findings in qualitative research is more usually the focus of attention; however, our studies to date imply that some professionals carefully manage the image of their school and visibility of exclusionary practices to the detriment of students with mental health and behavioural issues. The methodological implications of conducting research in politicised and highly sensitive areas will be discussed.

Categories in Discourse about Church of England Primary Education

Urban areas in the United Kingdom with multi-religious populations can be served by Church of England schools and they can attract families from a variety of different religious backgrounds. Using focus group discussions and interviews with parents, school governors, and teachers, this article focuses on how participants understand the relationships between Christian belief and practice, and their own cultural and religious beliefs and practices. The findings show how emergent ways of talking about the interaction between different cultural practices, and between Christianity and Islam, produce reasoning wherein people understand their place in diverse communities through analogy.

Digital media and relationships, sex, and health education in the classroom

ABSTRACT Young people’s socio-sexual lives and development have become increasingly digitally mediated over recent years. There are implications for classroom-based Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE), which has recently been made mandatory in most state-maintained schools in England. The evidence base pertaining to good practice in RSHE is extensive and identifies a need for RSHE to be relatable and relevant to learners, and to position learners as active participants in the pedagogic process. Typically, young people’s use of digital media is considered a risk or problem to address in RSHE and this includes their use of digital media for formal and informal learning about sex and relationships. This paper explores the potential value of digital media to classroom based RSHE. It considers how using digital media in the classroom could help to convey material in a relatable and relevant way, including how the ‘influencer model’ may represent a new opportunity for or form of peer delivered education. It also discusses the value of strengthening young people’s skills in identifying reliable and trustworthy content and in applying the content to their own lives, which may necessitate opportunities for independent and self-directed learning away from the classroom.

Educators' positive practices with refugee pupils at two schools in England

AbstractExtensive evidence indicates that education is an integral part of the settling in process for refugee and asylum‐seeking children. Furthermore, it has been suggested that positive teaching practice with refugee pupils should be asset‐based and holistic in nature. The present study examines educators' positive practices with refugee pupils and explores factors that shape these practices. Data were collected through participant observation and semi‐structured interviews with 17 class teachers, specialist teachers and teaching assistants at two schools in England. Numerous examples of positive practices were identified, from creating welcoming environments to promoting social–emotional well‐being to supporting English language learning. Factors that shaped these practices were identified using an ecological model of educator development. Such factors included educators' individual pedagogical knowledge about teaching refugee pupils and collective school‐level knowledge and practices. Some aspects of the national education system, such as rigid exam‐based curricula, were also cited as influential. Overall, this study offers examples of how individual educators and schools managed to enact positive practices with refugee pupils despite an unsupportive national context.