Every Dundee Learner Matters
17/10/23
Every Dundee Learner Matters, a drive to improve the quality of education for all children and pupils is proving to be a success.
The initiative enables teachers, head teachers and practitioners to share ideas, examples, and expertise between city nurseries and schools, ensuring a shared responsibility for improving the education system across the city.
The children, families and community committee will hear on Monday that the strategy was launched in 2021 and since then all schools and early learning childcare settings have established at least one School Inquiry Groups (SIG).
These groups (SIG) have enabled educational settings to share feedback and highlight methods of improvement aimed at increasing the three Ps, which are:
· Presence – ensuring that all children and young people attend regularly and promptly;
· Participation – creating a climate within nurseries and schools where all children and young people feel welcome and valued; and
· Progress – developing policies and practices that maximise the achievement and ambitions of all children and young people.
Councillors will hear that Camperdown Primary School focused on improving the punctuality and attendance of a targeted group of pupils and in doing so managed to increase the overall school attendance rate by 1% to 90.8%, this success was then shared with schools across the city.
The report highlights the success of a scheme at Sidlaw View Primary School where they managed to make headway in closing the vocabulary gap in Primary 1. The school saw a vocabulary age increase of 10.9 months on average during a 6-month period.
In addition, councillors will hear that Morgan Academy had focused on improving school attendance. The attendance rate for the targeted group of pupils improved by 6%.
Every Dundee Learner Matters has been developed in partnership with the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow.
Committee Convener Councillor Stewart Hunter said: “Every Dundee Learner Matters allows nurseries and schools to have flexibility to determine how resources can be used to address local circumstances and it’s great to hear that improvements are being made.
“We’ve highlighted ways that schools have been able address their concerns and we hope that it will promote a culture of learning and continuous improvement within schools.
“Going forward we want to ensure that all children and young people in the city thrive and Every Dundee Learner Matters allows us to target learners who for a variety of reasons are missing out.
“This approach is beginning to prove successful.”.
“We will continue to support educational establishments in the city to engage in this strategy and enable opportunities for shared learning.
“I want to thank everyone involved in this for their hard work and to the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change for their ongoing support.”
Professor Chris Chapman from the University of Glasgow said: “We congratulate all our colleagues in Dundee on their continuing efforts to ensure that all children and young people in the city fulfil their potential.
“Building on the good practices that already exist, these efforts will take educational provision across the city to the next level. For our part, we feel privileged to play a role in supporting these important developments.”
Professor of Education Mel Ainscow CBE from the University of Glasgow added: “Every Dundee Learner Matters builds on international research findings, including studies carried out in Scotland by our team at the University of Scotland. We have evidence that it is having a significant impact in Dundee schools.”
The Children, Families, and Communities will meet on Monday 23 October.
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