HeadStart local evaluation: qualitative perspectives from schools: Second Report
Abstract
HEADLINES There is some discontent within schools as to the levels of support from HeadStart, and a clear confusion about responsibility for the programme/s offered. Some school staff seem to want or expect HeadStart staff to run the programme/s, and there has been little take-up of staff responsibility for these. This lack of consistency from, and communication with, the HeadStart team has affected schools’ involvement and satisfaction. Where HeadStart initiatives and programmes have had time and resources allocated to them by the schools they are reported as being effective for raising the resilience, self-esteem and selfconfidence of children, but schools are clear on the need for high quality training for all members of staff, which needs to be maintained as staff move key stages or new staff join the school. There is a clear perception that schools have been hampered by the turnover of HeadStart staff and what they see as a lack of consistency in the support offered. The intermittent participation of schools and discontinuous support from HeadStart has resulted in limited impacts on children. Although the profile of MHWB has been raised for staff and children, the Standards still dominate the school outlook and the input from HeadStart has not by itself been enough to meet the growing need identified by our research participants. The development of a shared language through the use of the SUMO highlighted as a clear positive in round 1 of the research was much less obvious in this focus group exercise, with respondents stating that this was not being used by staff or students in schools.Citation
Smith, M., Bramwell, L. and Littley, D. (2019) HeadStart local evaluation: qualitative perspectives from schools: Second Report. Wolverhampton: Education Observatory, University of Wolverhampton.Publisher
University of WolverhamptonType
Research reportLanguage
enCollections
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