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Current and planned projects

This page describes projects currently in progress or planned.

The National Education Trust has commissioned Tony Eaude to evaluate 6s&7s, an affordable early intervention programme with groups of six children in primary schools, led by two tutors (usually learning support assistants), for six tutorials. The training and support is intended to enable the tutors to run 6s&7s in their own school. 6s&7s is designed both:

• to help to improve the social skills, confidence and emotional well-being of young children who are not confident learners; and

• to assess which children require further support to learn how to improve their relationships with other people and their behaviour.

This approach is in line with the Government’s growing recognition of the importance of young children’s social and emotional development, contributing both to improved mental health and enhanced educational achievement.

This evaluation is in three phases, starting with a preliminary report produced in August 2008 based on one cycle of training in Birmingham. The main report was in August 2009, based on two further cycles of training in Birmingham and one in Gloucester. The third report will be completed towards the end of 2009, based on an analysis of the impact of 6s&7s about six months aftet the conclusion of the programme. For further details about 6s&7s, contact the National Education Trust.

During Summer 2008 and 2009, Tony Eaude was the Tutor for the module 'Contemporary Issues and Debates' as part of the MA in Primary Education at the Institute of Education, London. Working with teachers at Masters level is an area which he hopes to develop further both by leading this module again in 2010 and in supervising MA students there and elsewhere.

Dr Tony Eaude is trying to develop a major long term project, based on three main principles that it should:

• be collaborative with contributions from different disciplines, either within education or beyond;

• have both a philosophical and an empirical element, drawing on the evidence of the project itself and different research traditions and using this to elucidate the implications for policy and practice;

• embrace complexity, but its outcomes will be accessible, and preferably varied, without being simplistic.

• the characteristics of outstanding Church of England primary schools in multi-ethnic communities, especially in relation to community cohesion;

• the moral and spiritual dimensions of school leadership;

• the roots of young children’s moral/character development and routes into moral education (see below);

• how do young children come to understand and internalise values? And what are the factors which lead them to this understanding?

If any researchers or funders wish to discuss any of these, with a view to discussing or developing a more detailed proposal, please contact Tony Eaude.

One of Tony Eaude's articles which has been submitted to a journal and is due to be revised is called

• 'Other Eyes' based on a a small project at St Ebbe's Primary School, Oxford developing co-coaching with the use of video with a group of six teachers, including himself. This was jointly funded by SCETT (the Standing Committee for the Education and Training of Teachers) and the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Foundation.

  Abstract: This article describes how six teachers in one primary school trialled the use of video evidence to support co-coaching. The distinctive elements of co-coaching are described. The practical and professional implications of observing and feeding back to encourage reciprocal learning, and using video to support this, are considered. It is suggested that co-coaching has considerable potential for enhancing teachers’ awareness of how they teach and children respond and promoting professional confidence; and that using video can enhance the opportunities to observe and reflect on the often hidden detail of pedagogy. Concerns and difficulties are outlined to suggest the pre-conditions for this, notably involving only volunteers who agree, understand and follow basic groundrules including that of confidentiality and ensuring that video equipment is easy to use.

A second article submitted is called

• 'Attachment and containment -lessons for mainstream schools and settings'. This will be simplified and submitted to another journal. The abstract is as follows: The reasons why attachment theory has been so little used to help explain children's behaviour and responses in the mainstream school/setting are considered. Its main features are outlined to argue that understanding the nature, and the effect, of deep-rooted models of emotional and behavioural response can help explain how children act and interact. The importance of seeing models of attachment as only one of many factors, including temperament and the social and cultural environment, is emphasised. The lack of containment (of anxiety) helps further to explain why many children, especially those with insecure patterns of attachment, behave in a withdrawn or aggressive manner. While emphasising the importance of expecting self-regulation of emotional responses and behaviour, it is argued that this needs to be supported, especially for vulnerable children, by relationships and an environment which help contain anxiety. This highlights the centrality of reciprocity and of adults being attuned to children's emotional state and being emotionally available.

Tony Eaude hopes to develop this and an article called 'Roots of, and routes into, young children's moral education' which draws on research from the psychoanalytic tradition to present some challenging ideas about the early stages of moral development and the implications for educators into a book on children's moral development and into a major piece of work, in relation either to this directly or the moral dimensions of school leadership.

Tony Eaude currently has several other articles at various stages of planning and writing. These include:

• one on the lessons to be learnt about young children's pedagogy from the primary tradition, provisionally called 'Diving for Pearls- the primary tradition revisited,'
• one on the different meanings of the term spirituality, currently entitled 'Tangled Roots -exploring the relationship and nature.'
• one called 'Small steps -towards schools as moral communities,'