Members of the group each had to undertake a practitioner research project as part of a pilot programme led by Dr Rachel Lawrence-Byron, director of professional development at the Brooke Weston Trust.

The pilot included school-based training for the staff on how to successfully design and implement a research project within a school context. They formed a community practice and gave each other encouragement and support.

The teachers were able to use a range of research-backed measures for gauging the impact of interventions they had designed. They used academically validated measures and national benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of their projects.

“We wanted to develop a culture that ‘breathed’ evidence informed practice. This meant not just relying on the research others did, but pushing ourselves to meet the standards of academic research when we initiated change,” said Matt Dobbing, Senior Vice Principal.

Working with ImpactEd, an organisation which helps with continued professional development, the five teachers involved were able to complete a module of the Chartered Teacher progamme run by the Chartered College of Teaching.

“ImpactEd has contributed significantly in our journey to embed evidence-based approaches into all that we do, confident that it will help us to further improve outcomes for our students and increase the sense of agency, motivation and engagement of our staff,” said Principal Richard Scott.