The Norfolk Learning Collaborative

We want our Norfolk children and young people to be excited and engaged in learning so that they Flourish within a strong inclusive education system. To that end, the Norfolk Learning Collaborative is comprised of colleagues from across the education sector, committed to working together to improve the education system in Norfolk so that all children and young people can flourish. Their role is to develop, influence and shape collaborative work to achieve our shared Learning Ambition for Norfolk children.

The collaborative aims to do this via a number of sector-led task groups, which focus on the core issues affecting schools, colleges and settings. These issues were identified through a range of engagement activities, and formed the basis of the task groups for our Learning Ambition.  These groups are the vehicle by which the goals of the Collaborative are realised, working with professionals in the education system to deliver change.

Membership

The Learning Collaborative is made up of education leaders from across the county, and includes Trust CEOs, maintained school leaders, college principals and local authority personnel, along with representatives from the Department for Education, the Norfolk Governance Network, and the Norfolk dioceses. If you are interested in joining, or finding out more about the work the Collaborative does, please do get in touch .

Meeting Updates

September 2024

At their third meeting on the 19th September, the Collaborative met to consider the Norfolk Picture and the implications of future education policy. Members heard an update from Becky Taylor, Head of Delivery at the DfE (East of England), concerning recent and upcoming developments in education policy and took questions from members. Members also heard from Sara Tough, who invited colleagues to consider the Norfolk picture and local priorities, along with ongoing work to influence policy at a national level. 

NLC members discussed how the Collaborative would shape itself moving forward to ensure impact and it was agreed that a working party would be convened. The working party will consider operating models best suited to the goals of the collaborative. Once this group has been established, this group will undertake research on behalf of the wider collaborative, reporting findings and recommendations.

As last year KS2 outcomes were identified as a central priority, the collaborative is considering the activities that it can facilitate to support improvement. 

June 2024 meeting

During this session, the Collaborative were provided outcome and contextual data from the 2023 Key Stage 2 cohort. This included comparison between schools' structural arrangements, relative size, geographical location, SEND needs and deprivation, all compared against national outcomes and Norfolk's statistical neighbours. Discussion was focused on the disparity between Norfolk, national and statistically similar counties, and the reasons behind this. This led to a collation of key themes that were felt to be key barriers to improving outcomes in Norfolk; these were collated and fed back to the group after the session for discussion. It was agreed that at the next meeting the Collaborative would refine these themes, agree a set of priorities to focus on and determine actions that can be taken to tackle them. This would include how the Collaborative will organise and agree the resource and capacity to undertake specific pieces of work.

February 2024 meeting

At the first meeting, colleagues came together to discuss the core issues facing the education system. Through discussion, there was an agreement that a high priority area for improvement should be outcomes at Key Stage 2, and they requested that data be made available to understand the root causes underlying a gap in outcomes between Norfolk schools and national data.

They also heard updates from across the Learning Ambition Task groups, and in more detail from the Communication and Engagement task group, where they discussed the need for practice sharing and collaborative work across the education system.

It was agreed that the next meeting should focus in more detail on the issues surrounding outcomes at Key Stage 2, and that ahead of that, the Norfolk Research School and colleagues from Children's Services would collaborate on some potential diagnostics to better understand the causes. Additionally, colleagues in Children's Services would provide collated data on outcomes and other contextual factors relevant to Key Stage 2 outcomes. This would provide an evidence base to support any actions going forward.

What is the Learning Ambition?

We want Norfolk to be a county where all children and young people can flourish. Our ambition is that all children and young people are achieving their full potential and developing skills which prepare them for life. This is a key part of our Norfolk Flourish ambition.

Why do we need a Learning Ambition?

We know that there exist challenges within our education system, which affect outcomes for  children and young people across the county. Over the course of the last year, we have been engaging with a wide range of education settings and stakeholders, to discuss the best way that Norfolk County Council can support a self-improving system.

Some of the priority challenges were identified as:

• Recruitment and retention of skilled staff
• Demands on support for Early Years learning
• The percentage of school pupils with SEND
• Increasing levels of challenging behaviour in Norfolk's mainstream schools
• Achievement at KS2
• Participation at post 16

We feel that our role as a Local Authority is to create the conditions for success within the system, facilitating joint pieces of work which help education providers to collaborate, support, challenge and learn with each other.

What does the Learning Ambition look like?

We want to be clear about our role in the education system and the areas in which we feel we can be most supportive, so that everyone understands how the system can work together.

Childrens Services is now engaged with a range of complementary strategies to address wider needs, all of which align with our Flourish ambition and which are designed to bring the system together.

These strategies are:

• The Learning Ambition
• Attendance is Everyone's Business
• Local First Inclusion
•  Speech and Language Transformation
• Prevention & Early Help Strategy
• Mental Health Strategy

Within the Learning Ambition, we have worked with the education system to identify and agree some core themes. Each of these has work currently underway, and is based around collaboration with schools, colleges and settings to achieve its aims.

These themes are:

Capacity and Expertise of the Education workforce

This Task Group has been set up to explore ways that education providers can work together to maximise Teacher and Teaching Assistant recruitment and retention. Their initial aims are to create a 'Teacher Future-proofing Framework', which would cover:

• Apprenticeships
• Teacher talent Pools
• Leadership
• Training & CPD
• ITT
• Recruitment Campaigns

Additionally, the intention to create a 'Teaching Assistant Career Framework', covering:

• Apprenticeship
• TA Talent Pool
• Job Descriptions
• Training, CPD & Induction
• Recruitment Campaigns

 

Ensuring Effective Transitions

This Task Group builds on learning achieved through the Norwich Opportunity Area transition group, including work on a Common Transfer Document. There is also a focus on Post-16 transition with the Education and Training Strategy group, and alignment with SEND transition.

 

Improving Data and Information Sharing

This Task Group  works in line with Education Data Authority workstreams within Norfolk County Council, with the ultimate aim of sharing more responsive, interactive data dashboards, which will enable leaders to benchmark their education setting against local & national data. This task group currently develops School and Community Team-level data, and provides a Universal 'data training' offer, with the ultimate aim of being better able to use data analysis to identify issues for system to address collaboratively.

 

Supporting Resilient Families and Communities

This Task Group is responsible for the introduction of and alignment with School and Community teams, Start For Life and Family Hubs. They also have a role in signposting parents to sources of support, alignment with Local First Inclusion and Attendance outcomes within the county. They aim to establish communities of practice, working with schools and settings to enable parents and families to understand and manage expectations and perceptions of schools and settings.

 

Enhancing the self-improving system through a Norfolk Collaborative Standard​

This groups primarily focuses on partnership projects, and aims to provide a platform to celebrate, capture and promote successes across the system. It will support the production and publication of case studies, and develop and publish materials to support effective, robust collaboration between education providers. It also has a role to support the Education Investment Area, by learning from, promoting and replicating impactful projects across the wider county. Their longer-term aim is the establishment of a Norfolk Collaborative Standard, to support education providers to work together.

 

School, Colleges & Settings Communication and Engagement​

To ensure that all of the above themes are as effective as possible, we are committed to redesigning the ways in which we communicate with schools, colleges and settings. This includes how, when and to whom we communicate key information and updates, support engagement and information sharing between providers, and how we make access to collaboration opportunities easier. This work is carried out with a reference group made up of representatives from across the education system in Norfolk, but we are always looking for more voices to contribute to making it as useful as possible; if you would like to join, or find out more, please get in touch.

Update, March 2024

Work is currently underway to redesign the current eCourier/Management Information system, to make information and updates easier to access and share.

 

Key stage 2 Outcomes

Last year, the Norfolk Learning Collaborative (NLC) identified KS2 outcomes as a priority focus. At their meeting in June, the NLC considered the issues around KS2 and agreed to use the meeting in September to agree a set of priorities that the NLC will focus on and determine the actions that will be taken to tackle them.

This sector led focus on KS2 follows on from the system-led event, New -Horizons- Meeting the KS2 Challenge in Norfolk which took place in July. The conference saw over 150 colleagues from across Norfolk come together to share in the learning from DfE's Priority Areas initiative's writing projects and consider how collaboration and a shared Learning Ambition for Norfolk can improve outcomes at KS1 and KS2.

A Learning Ambition for Norfolk, through the Norfolk Learning Collaborative: Update, June 2024

Within the Capacity and Expertise of the Education Workforce group, joint presentations were delivered to members of the Norfolk School Leaders Association by the  NCC Apprenticeships team and Apprenticeships Norfolk team, with a focus on recruitment and retention benefits of an apprenticeship route. This was received positively, with renewed interest already translating into new sign up to the TA apprenticeship in particular.

There will be an ITT provider webinar for schools on Thursday 10 October at 4pm, where ITT providers will share information about their mentor programmes, and to demonstrate the range of provision across the system and how this can be accessed.

The Ensuring Effective Transitions task group has received a large number of parental responses to the transitions survey which was sent to a group of Norfolk parents: 766 parents returned the survey, which will now be analysed, ahead of the production of a report which will be shared in due course. These responses also will be used to inform any recommendations made by the task group and influence the direction of their work going forward.

A survey was sent to all schools by the Improving Data and Information Sharing task group calling for volunteers to participate in a networking group to consider the needs and wants of future data sharing systems. This was well responded to, with colleagues from a wider range of school phases, structures and roles interested. After an initial meeting, key requirements were captured and will be used to shape any tools created. The pilot inclusion dashboard tool is still ongoing; as soon as a complete draft is available this will be shared with school leaders for feedback.  

A programme of school visits arranged by the Enhancing the self-improving system through a Norfolk Collaborative Standard​ group has had almost 30 signups, with colleagues from across the county visiting and learning from a range of school settings. For many this has been the first opportunity to visit and spend time in another setting outside their own. Colleagues have commented on how useful and inspiring they have been and how they have given lots of food for thought.

The Schools, Colleges and Settings Communication and Engagement task group have been working on the creation of a shared calendar, which will be accessible via the website and contain key dates and events relevant to education professionals. This will be maintained and updated through the year, with the aim of maximising notice for upcoming events. This will launch ahead of the summer holidays. Additionally, a directory of key members of staff will be available on the website, which will also be updated to ensure it remains a useful resource for contacting colleagues within Children's Services.

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A Learning Ambition for Norfolk, through the Norfolk Learning Collaborative: Update, May 2024

The Learning Ambition for Norfolk works to support and deliver the aims of the Norfolk Learning Collaborative, where education leaders from across the county have agreed to work together to address key issues. At the first Collaborative meeting, members identified the Norfolk Challenge of improving the KS2 outcomes across the county as one of the main priorities, and this will be a core focus of the group moving forward, alongside the core themes in the Learning Ambition. The next meeting takes place on Tuesday, 11th June at 2pm at County Hall; if you would like to join please let us know. Six task groups within the Learning Ambition continue to work within these core themes, and we would like to share some of the collective work of these groups with the following highlights:

The School, Colleges & Settings Communication and Engagement​ task group has been working to improve communications with schools, colleges and settings. The new Norfolk Schools website now hosts all news items, categorised and tagged so that they are easier to find, share and revisit. The eCourier bulletin has now been redesigned for ease of access and readability, highlighting items which require action and foregrounding content to share with staff, parents, children & young people and the wider community.

Their next actions are to further develop the website so that information is easier to access. This will include the creation of 'one-minute guides' for a range of topics, including clear signposts to local and national guidance and ensuring that routes into teams within the Local Authority are clear. This, combined with a longer-term ambition to reduce the number of different platforms which are needed by education providers, aims to help education providers to access and use information effectively.

The Capacity and Expertise of the Education Workforce task group has launched a short-term, local recruitment campaign via EducationHR to grow the teacher and teaching assistant talent pools. This campaign is live and runs until the end of the summer term. They have also continued their work to improve retention rates in leadership by beginning to create resources to support headteacher well-being. In collaboration with Educate Norfolk, systems leaders are creating a graduated wellbeing resource for heads and systems leaders to signpost to local and national support available, and featuring Norfolk leaders' anecdotal experiences, challenges, and solutions. If you would like to contribute to this resource, please do get in touch.

The Ensuring Effective Transitions task group, building on work from the Norwich Opportunity Area, and aligned with transition work in Local First Inclusion, has created a questionnaire for parents, designed to understand how the education system can better support transition between all phases. Starting with a pilot year 6 and 7 group, the intention is to make this available across the county. They have also created a template for a research report to support strong transition practice, which will also be shared. Potential aspects for research have been identified, linking a number of other themes of work (such as work to support Key Stage 2  outcomes across Norfolk, and school communications).

The task group focusing on Enhancing the self-improving system through a Norfolk Collaborative Standard​has arranged a number of school visits across the county, including primary, secondary and special schools, to highlight and share good practice. A case study proforma has also been developed, designed to be easy to share and compare school improvement and development experiences. This group has representation from both Local Authority maintained schools and Academy Schools, but is always keen to hear from those across the education sector; if you would like to participate, ask a question or provide input, please get in touch.

If you would like to find out more about the task groups, or if you (or someone on your staff) are interested in supporting the education system, please let us know.

As part of the Norfolk Learning Ambition, some of Norfolk's outstanding primary and secondary schools are opening their doors and inviting colleagues to visit them as part of a programme of exceptional practice visits.

Each opportunity to visit is structured to enable colleagues to hear about another school's approach, see it in action and then have an opportunity to reflect, ask questions and have a professional discussion with the host school and other visitors.

Click on the links to find out more about these opportunities. To assist host schools, please confirm your place on the guest list by using their respective booking links.

The Wherry School - 26 November 2024 - Creating Enabling Environments for Children with ASD

As part of the Exceptional Practice visit programme, The Wherry School is opening their door and inviting colleagues from other settings in Norfolk to visit them to explore how they can support young people with ASD in their settings. 

This event will be on 26 November 2024, 9:30-11:30 am.

Visitors will be able to hear about the school's approach to enabling environments before seeing it in action and having opportunity reflect, ask questions and benefit from a professional discussion with them and other visitors. 

Use this form to book a visit to The Wherry School.

About 

The Wherry School is a specialist school for pupils with ASD.

Who is this for?

SENCos and Senior Leaders 

 

Whitefriars Church of England Primary Academy - 2 December 2024 - Effective EYFS Provision and Subject Leadership

At Whitefriars, we are really proud of our EYFS provision. Our children start in the unit from very low starting points, however the strong routines and high expectations alongside the wonderful learning environment and precision teaching ensure our GLD is above the national at the end of the year.

Over the past few years, we have worked really hard to develop our subject leadership. During our recent Ofsted, subject leadership was a real strength - our subject leaders shone during the deep dives and were able to talk with clarity and confidence about their subjects. 

Join us on 2 December 2024, 9.00 - 11.00am to hear about our approaches, see them in action and explore them with us.

Use this form to book your visit to Whitefriars Primary.

About

Whitefriars Church of England Primary Academy is part of the Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust and are located in King's Lynn.

Who is this for?

We are happy to welcome support staff, teachers, & leadership

 

If you feel your school has expertise it can share with others or you would like to visit another school with a particular area of strength, please contact victoria.groom@norfolk.co.uk.