Improving Reading: How Pupils’ Views Can Help

As part of a school improvement project involving Enfield LEA and the Cambridge Institute of Education, one secondary school decided to mount a survey of the reading habits of their pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9. John Beresford presents the results of the survey and outlines the use the school made of the findings. In so doing he suggests an approach which could be adopted by any school concerned about its standards of literacy.     

Young people with high‐functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome planning for and anticipating the move to college: what supports a positive transition?

For many young people in England, the move into continuing education involves a transfer from the school where they were educated to a further education college. For those with high‐functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome, this can be a challenging process. Past research has demonstrated some of the problems that these young people can encounter. This article by Wendy Mitchell and Bryony Beresford, both based in the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York, adds to the evidence base by describing how best to support these young people, focusing specifically on ‘young person endorsed’ practice. Data are gleaned from qualitative interviews with 18 young people with high‐functioning autism/Asperger's syndrome. Findings reveal that young people welcomed the involvement of practitioners; however, specific forms of help and knowledge were particularly valued. In addition, it was parents, as opposed to professionals, who typically emerged as the most significant and valued source of support. Implications for practice are discussed, including the support needs of parents.     

Ask the Children

Actively canvassing the views of pupils on aspects of their learning is rapidly becoming accepted as an important part of a teacher’s planning and evaluation. In this article, John Beresford shows how the views of nursery, reception and infant children in a Barking infants’ school helped inform staff about the effectiveness of the school’s reading policy.     

航天飞机

宇航员,作为人类探索太空使命的先锋,无疑有更多对生命、家庭、爱情的思考与怀念。在遥远的高空,他们承载着人类的希望。当他们用鲜血与热情灌注的生命之花在瞬间照亮天空,我们只能以我们真诚的烛火与眼泪来祭奠与怀念我们的英雄。     

Social work and social care: the struggle for knowledge

This article, written in the context of the redefinition of public service professionalism, and the roles of public service professionals by government policies and market interventions, examines the role and implications of the new movements of welfare state service users for professional practice, knowledge and analysis. Its particular focus is the field of social work and social care. It raises questions about the nature, purpose and social relationships of research, the credibility and claims of different knowledges, and the relationship between direct experience, research and knowledge. This article argues that currently a hidden battle is taking place in the context of social care between traditional sources of knowledge and service users' knowledges. It sets out ways of enabling the equal inclusion of service users and their knowledges, and suggests that this is likely to be supportive of progressive understandings of professionalism and public service, as well as contributing to more appropriate, rights-based approaches to policy and practice in public service occupations     

IQEA and special schools

Projects focused on Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) have been running for ten years. The Nottinghamshire special schools IQEA project is the first to draw schools exclusively from the special education sector. In this article, John Beresford, IQEA's research officer; Hilary Stokes, co-ordinator of the Nottinghamshire special schools IQEA project; and John Morris, secondary inspector and IQEA co-ordinator for Nottinghamshire LEA, briefly outline the philosophy in which IQEA is grounded. They discuss the particular challenges encountered in a special schools project and illustrate responses by providing a case study of one school's engagement in the project. The article concludes with a tentative assessment of the benefits that participation in the project has brought to the special schools and units involved.     

Developing Students as Effective Learners: The Student Conditions for School Improvement

This article outlines a Student Conditions instrument which is intended to complement existing IQEA mapping instruments. It briefly conceptualises each condition, using a combination of a review of the literature and findings from empirical research from within IQEA. Data from 6,000 students in 36 schools in various IQEA projects are presented and analysed. It suggests that the findings derived from the conditions survey provide a useful focus for the dialogue between teachers and students which is a critical factor in improving students’ learning.     

Aboriginal non-attendance at school: Revisiting the debate

Non-attendance at school among significant numbers of Aboriginal students has been officially recognised as a major problem since at least the mid 1980s. This article reviews the findings from recent literature on non-attendance within the context of a case study in Perth, Western Australia. Data for the study was obtained from a questionnaire of service providers and district-wide statistics on non-attendance. From this data the following have been identified: the various forms of non-attendance, causal factors associated with non-attendance, and limitations in service provision. Implications relating to policy development are also discussed.