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Previous projects

This page describes in more detail some of the projects on which New Perspectives ... has worked and associated reports or resources.

• 'Bowling alone? What can schools do to promote cohesive communities?'

• Anti Bullying Fortnight in Oxfordshire

• The Weekend Opening of Youth Centres in Oxfordshire 2008/9

• Sports Coach Mentoring

• Institutional Quality Standards

• Planning, Preparation and Assessment Time in Primary and Nursery Schools - Implementation and Impact

• Faith in Our Schools

‘Faith in Our Schools’ is a report commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council 's Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee, initially set up to formulate an evidence-based report to provide the basis of a response to a request for a Muslim secondary school in Oxford. The four members of the group asked Tony Eaude, working initially with Professor Richard Pring, and subsequently on his own, to provide an academic perspective over a period of some six months. A first paper set out the issues drawing on the academic literature and provided some essential statistics. Following a number of sessions with expert witnesses, a second paper helped to steer the Committee in the next phase, involving more witnesses and visits to schools, and consultation with a range of interested groups, notably the local Muslim community. The final report reflected the group’s view that the initial question could not be adequately answered without considering the role of faith schools, and of religious faith in all schools. The full Committee accepted the report and its recommendations with only minor amendments and additions, with several members commenting on the quality of the writing. The Executive of the County Council in July 2005 decided not to adopt any of the recommendations except the first (amended slightly) on the broad principles. For the full text of the report, see http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/faithschoolsreview.pdf (pdf 767 kb)

• Primary Innovation Project through Action Research (PIPAR)

The Primary Innovation Project through Action Research (PIPAR) was a three-year national project funded by the DfES and completed in 2004. Eighteen primary schools with a wide geographical spread and range of catchment had been chosen to develop and examine their provision in relation to Gifted and Talented pupils through an Action Research approach. Since the project leader had left Oxford Brookes University, Tony Eaude was commissioned by the University to complete the final stages of the project. As well as reporting to the DfES and the University, this involved giving training and detailed advice on writing case studies (of what each school had done in developing provision for the Gifted and Talented) and action research reports (researching more systematically a particular aspect of provision for the gifted and talented).

Although the reports were sent to the DfES in October 2004, they have still not been put on the DfES website and it is probably fair to assume that they will not be. It is suggested therefore that those interested contact tony.eaude@education.ox.ac.uk direct.

The new course ‘New Perspectives … on gifted and talented children’ draws on the expertise gathered by Tony Eaude’s involvement in PIPAR.

• The Art Room

The Art Room is a small charity based at the Oxford School, set up to help children finding it difficult to engage in both primary and secondary mainstream schools. The children and young people attend on a basis of up to two sessions a week for one term, with the main focus making brightly coloured artefacts, but in an atmosphere where theri emotional and psychological needs are attended to. Tony Eaude, working with Sue Matthew, was commissioned to conduct an evaluation of the Art Room's work and to make recommendations both on the provision and future pathways towards financial security. The report, 'Making Space for Re-Engagement', funded mainly by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, can be downloaded as Art Room evaluation final report (pdf, 522K) . An eight-page summary in hard copy is available by contacting Tony Eaude.

• Sustaining Emotional Literacy

This report, completed in 2006, is an evaluation of Family Links, an organisation which works with young children and their parents to develop emotional literacy, using the Nurturing Programme. The intention was to evaluate the success of the Nurturing Programme in schools where it had been operating for at least one year.

The methodology was in two parts:

-a survey of 127 schools in six different geographical areas gathering data about the school and quantifiable outcomes and asking four different people to complete a questionnaire about the impact of the Nurturing Programme;

- day visits to twelve schools, six where the school regarded itself as fully involved and six where it was partially so.

Put briefly, the evaluation concluded that the Nurturing Programme had worked very well in terms of most of what it set out to achieve with children but that this benefit tended to diminish over time and that it was more appropriate with children in Key Stage 1 than Key Stage 2 where there is scope for introducing new approaches especially in terms of some 'harder' issues. However, this benefit could not be evidenced from the quantifiable data. The work with parents was very successful where sustained but hard to sustain.

The executive summary is available on Family Links summary (pdf, 107K) . Should you wish to read the full report, please contact Tony Eaude, who will need to secure the permission of Family Links.