Research News

St. Luke’s prides itself on being a highly reflective school, which actively engages in educational research within the school and actively draws on the results of rigorous research within other educational settings. It has close relationship with the Institute of Education in London and was involved in a very exciting two year project looking at the impact of research in schools.  We also work closely with the University of Brighton and we are members of the Cambridge Review programme.

Our research follows an annual cycle and our research planning follows the pattern outlined below:

Autumn Term

  • Use data to identify areas for improvement
  • Define a question to investigate
  • Propose possible solutions based on changes to practice

Spring Term

  • Establish baseline data
  • Trial the approach
  • Review and refine
  • Present findings

Summer Term

  • Adopt changes to practice where there is clear evidence of benefits/improved progress for the children

At present we are looking at dialogic learning and teaching and exploring the best ways to create purposeful dialogue in the classroom where children jointly co-construct knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills through planned talk.

 

 

In the past, we have researched among many things:

Best practice in supporting disadvantaged pupils

Promoting Growth Mindset towards writing in the Early Years

Improving the impact of Teacher Assistants

The best way to bring choice into the curriculum

Mixed attainment approach to teaching

Promoting effective collaborative learning

The impact of ‘free writing’ opportunities on a child’s attitude to writing and themselves as a writer

The link between handwriting competency and broader writing attainment

 

Educational Resources to challenge your thinking

Do you feel like some challenging ideas around teaching and learning? Have a look at some of the following videos.

Sir Ken Robinson talks about past education approaches and possible futures

Sir Ken Robinson updates his Learning Revolution talk

Dr Guy Claxton looks at how we can really understand the point of school

Art Costa explains his ‘Habits Of Minds’ – effective dispositions for learning

Maybe you fancy a bit of reading? The Sutton Trust has produced a really useful tool to support schools in where to develop its expertise.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/index.php/toolkit/