This month Episkopi Primary School in Cyprus became the second school outside the UK to gain the NACE Challenge Award – following in the footsteps of Malta’s Chiswick House School. Assistant Headteacher Rebecca Ross explains how the school has worked collaboratively within a cluster to develop high-quality provision for more able learners, in the context of challenge for all.

There is a shared partnership agreement across the six UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) schools based in Cyprus. We work in collaboration to achieve joint goals and most recently have been developing provision further for the more able. All the MoD schools on the island have followed the NACE Challenge Framework, which has ensured consistency in approaches, and has had a huge impact on provision for more able learners across the curriculum.

Below are five areas of collaboration we’ve found effective:

1. Whole-cluster meetings for more able leaders

While there is quite a distance between the schools, collaboration is of high importance and regular meetings for more able leaders has been essential for developing consistency. Investing in whole-day meetings allows quality time to focus on moderation, assessment and enrichment opportunities. More able leaders each take turns in hosting the meetings at their school. This has been a great opportunity for leaders to tour each school and share best practice. Subject leaders have also collaborated in this way, using the supporting resources provided alongside the Challenge Framework to audit their subjects. These resources have been particularly useful when identifying the characteristics of more able learners in specific subjects and collaborating on strategies to support them to reach their full potential.

2. Building partnerships beyond the cluster

Being on a small island does not limit the opportunities for our learners. All our schools are outward-facing and proactive in seeking a range of partnerships to create innovative opportunities for learning and progression. Budget cuts could limit opportunities, but as a cluster we overcome this by sharing costs and working collaboratively to build quality and sustainable partnerships. Strong links have been made with universities in the UK. For example, Leicester University’s Archaeological Department has been working with our schools for a number of years, providing digs and workshops on the island. Developing links that benefit both parties has strengthened the opportunities provided.

3. Collaborating on enrichment opportunities

A range of enrichment days are regularly run across the island for learners who have a particular talent in a subject or for those who show a true interest. These allow application of skills in new and challenging ways, as well as learning new techniques and strategies with like-minded individuals. It is also good preparation for secondary school and gives our learners the chance to meet some of their future peers. As a cluster, we draw on staff expertise to run these days and pupils travel to the different schools or visit external sites. By not limiting enrichment to just core subjects, many learners with varied talents have benefited from these opportunities.

4. Sharing expertise to support CPD

We do not have easy access to UK training courses; therefore we seek to maximise opportunities for CPD through the use of shared courses, resources, facilities and existing expertise. This is far more cost-effective and encourages staff to actively keep up to date with current research and best practice in their subject. Challenge for all has been a key focus for the Cyprus Schools Consortium and this shared and focused approach has been central to CPD. Regular cross-island subject leader meetings have included both primary and secondary representatives. This has up-skilled leaders in different phases, while strengthening transition links.

5. Collaborating to provide inspiring role models

The cluster works closely to provide opportunities that inspire learners and allow them to consider their futures. Many of our learners have spent their entire lives in a military setting and are not exposed to the same experiences as others their age might be. As a whole-island team, we know that role models are a powerful way to inspire young people about their future possibilities. It is so important for learners to hear real people from their own community and beyond, sharing personal stories of why they do what they do and how they got there – their aspirations, struggles, challenges, failures and how they overcame them. We know that this type of interaction encourages learners to discover their own aptitudes and passions and follow their dreams.

About the NACE Challenge Development Programme

The NACE Challenge Development Programme offers a complete package for whole-school review and improvement in provision for more able learners, in the context of challenge for all. It supports schools, clusters, alliances and trusts already demonstrating good or outstanding provision in this field, as well as those for whom this is a key area for improvement. Schools working with the programme may choose to apply for formal accreditation through the NACE Challenge Award.

Read more or contact us to find out how the programme could support your school or cluster.

Earlier this year, NACE member and Challenge Award holder The Broxbourne School was named one of nine schools to become national language hubs, supporting England’s new Centre of Excellence for Modern Languages. In this blog post, Deputy Headteacher Peter Clift reflects on the school’s journey to becoming a national language hub, and what it hopes to achieve in this role.
 
We are delighted to have been selected as a national language hub. It is an affirmation of all the hard work of the outstanding practitioners we have in our modern foreign language (MFL) department and the enthusiasm they have engendered in our young people to learn a language.
 
We are constantly looking for ways in which to further develop our practice as a school and we believe this will enable us to further enhance the effectiveness of our pedagogy, not just in languages. We are also excited at the prospect of working with other schools to develop their practice; we are confident that as well as having a considerable body of expertise and resources to share, we will also learn an immense amount from the MFL colleagues we work with in other schools. Our lead practitioners are also looking forward to the training they will receive from the Centre of Excellence that will be an integral component of the MFL hub programme.

A whole-school commitment to language learning

We are committed to offering a broad and balanced curriculum to all our students and particularly our disadvantaged pupils, whose attainment exceeds those of non-disadvantaged pupils nationally. Modern languages are central to this curriculum offer. In the past year our curriculum pathways ensured that over 52% of our pupils obtained the EBacc at 4+. In the previous two years this led to the Schools Minister writing to congratulate us for being in the top 100 schools in the country for our EBacc outcomes.
 
In recent years we have given learners a freer choice of languages, which has helped to keep the numbers choosing a language at a very high level, despite a national decline in language numbers. We are keen that the whole school community embrace languages, and this is clear when you walk round our site and see signage in the three languages the school offers.
 
A good part of our success comes down to a considered approach to pedagogy – one of the reasons for our selection as a hub school was the extent to which our daily practice already exemplified the best practice outlined in the Teaching Schools Council (TSC)’s review of MFL provision and practice, which I would urge interested parties to read.

As an economics teacher, I am more than aware of the increasingly global nature of trade (despite certain challenges!) and that our young people are increasingly being asked to compete in a global marketplace for jobs. Facility in a modern foreign language can enable them to compete successfully. More broadly I believe that learning a language and the doors this opens into other cultures can engender empathy and fellow-feeling amongst people around the world at a time when a narrow nationalism seems to be increasingly and worryingly prevalent.

Developing as a national language hub

On a simple level we hope to improve the outcomes and improve the uptake of languages at our school and those of our immediate hub partners. We are looking to ensure a widespread implementation of the pedagogical approach outlined in the TSC review. We would be particularly proud if our work led to an uptake amongst disadvantaged learners, given the cultural capital that access to a modern language can facilitate.
 
Initially it is planned that language hub schools will work with other schools in their immediate geographical area. We are also planning a wider offer of training activities and conferences, and will certainly be welcoming as many colleagues as we can from other schools.
 
Another cohort we think will particularly benefit, and of relevance to our work as a NACE member and Challenge Award school, is our more able language learners. We will be looking to developing a role for them as MFL ambassadors, and from work they have done in the schools as MFL prefects we know they will excel in this.

Peter Clift is Deputy Headteacher at The Broxbourne School, a NACE member and Challenge Award-accredited secondary school and sixth form in Hertfordshire. He has been a teacher for 20 years and a senior leader for more than 10. He leads on pupil progress, able, gifted and talented provision and is the SLT lead for The Broxbourne School’s new MFL hub.