I hope you all had an enjoyable winter break. I expect it already feels a long time ago, as many of us are continuing to face daily challenges due to the ongoing issues with Covid. We can only hope that the situation will improve quickly, and that we are within sight of an end to the pandemic. As we progress towards the spring, and hopefully a period of less disruption in our schools, I hope that we can begin to refocus all our efforts on improving learning and outcomes for all our students.

At NACE, we continue to witness outstanding provision for all learners within our growing network of Challenge Award-accredited schools. As stated in the core principles which underlie NACE’s work, we strongly believe that addressing the needs of more able learners will raise achievement for a much wider group of learners in a school. This is one reason we are so pleased to see schools attaining and maintaining the Challenge Award, as a mark of commitment to high-quality provision for the most able, within a whole-school context of challenge for all.

 

In 2021, despite the pandemic, 17 schools and colleges were accredited with the NACE Challenge Award for the first time, while 20 achieved accreditation for the second, third or fourth time. At these successful schools, there is a consistent ethos of high expectations and aspirations, and the education of more able learners is a whole-school endeavour which is embraced by school leaders at all levels.

 

To learn more about the Challenge Development Programmme, on which the Award is based, please contact challenge@nace.co.uk.

The contributions of Challenge Award schools have been central to the first phase of our Making Space for Able Learners research initiative, and will remain so as we develop the second phase of this project. We are focusing on two areas over the coming year: the role of language in learning for high achievement, and the effective use of assessment. Within the assessment strand, we are studying new and effective practices which enable teachers to understand how their learners are progressing on a lesson-by-lesson basis and communicate this to the learners, enabling them to develop their learning more rapidly in the future.

 

If you are interested in learning more about or contributing to any aspect of our research work this year, please contact communications@nace.co.uk.

 

We are also pleased to be reintroducing our face-to-face meetups, free for our members, which will focus on our research themes. There will be the usual opportunities to share effective approaches with colleagues through the “speed-sharing” segment: an agenda item that is always valued highly by our members. Our first meetup of the year, on the theme “rethinking assessment”, will take place on 23 March at New College, Oxford. Limited places are available; if you would like to attend, please register here.

Returning to our core principles, we know that teachers are central to providing a challenging and enriching education for their learners, and their professional development is paramount. Following on from our conference in November (recordings available now if you missed the live event), we are developing a new set of on-demand courses exploring key aspects in creating cognitively challenging classrooms. You can learn more and register your interest here.

 

Some of our operations team are currently working from home, so please contact us via email if you need an urgent response. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if we can be of help in any way, and we look forward to supporting you and your school during the coming year.

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