Celebrating the toolkit

Last week the Sutton Trust and Education Endowment Foundation were delighted to receive the Inspiration for Government award from the Institute for Government for our teaching and learning toolkit. This accessible guide on what works at raising results in schools is the first winner of this accolade from outside Government. It came the same week as a study published by the Department for Education found that over half (52%) of secondary schools and a third (33%) of primary schools had used the toolkit. These echoed the findings of a survey by the Sutton Trust. Several thousand schools have now used our guide.

To get such widespread take-up during a period of increasing autonomy for state schools in England is an incredible achievement. And all this has been done without the weight of Whitehall behind it. In fact, the tale of the toolkit is an example of how success can blossom outside Government. This is the story of opportunistic policy making; academic bravery; and the success of an independent body established by Government to work alongside it, not within it.

The idea of a guide to help teachers spend their money more effectively first came when the Pupil Premium was being mooted before the 2010 Election. For the newly formed Coalition the Pupil Premium was, and remains, the Government’s flagship policy for improving the outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Our argument was simple: HOW the billions of pounds would actually be spent by schools would be critical to its success. In August 2010, the Trust said it would commission a “tool-kit for schools providing clear, succinct and accessible advice on how the premium might be best spent to improve the outcomes for less privileged pupils.”

As the chairman of the Trust and the EEF, Sir Peter Lampl, is a former business entrepreneur, the Trust has always adopted an opportunistic spirit to its work improving social mobility through education. Here was an opportunity to impact on a hugely important area. And we grabbed it in a way that I am sure could never have never happened in the glacially paced world of Whitehall.

The moment I saw Professor Steve Higgins from Durham University presenting a DfE seminar, I knew we had found the academic we needed. With his Durham colleague Rob Coe, he was brave enough to get off the academic fence and present a summary of research from across the world which showed which school approaches were the stronger bets in terms of raising attainment in the classroom.

Outside journalistic circles, the power of simple communication is so often under-estimated. We worked hard to develop simple measures that busy head-teachers would be able to understand. Approaches were compared by the extra months progress in a year they made. The most enjoyable thing was presenting the toolkit to teachers across the country, challenging many of the received wisdoms in the classroom.

In 2011, the Sutton Trust, as lead charity with the Impetus Trust, established the EEF, after a Government competition. The EEF is an independent foundation with a £135m endowment from Government dedicated to boosting the results of the poorest children in England’s state schools.

It’s funny to think of the EEF without the toolkit so inter-linked they have now become. In Dr Kevan Collins, the chief executive of the EEF we had a respected school leader who immediately embraced the toolkit as potential vehicle for disseminating evidence generated by the Foundation.

Under the stewardship of Robbie Coleman, EEF’s research and communications manager, the toolkit was developed it into the interactive online all-singing guide you see today. Additional sections have been added. Evidence has been updated. The toolkit is thriving.

The Sutton Trust and EEF have been designated the What Works centre for education by the Government, and the toolkit has been heralded as a model for other fields to emulate. We see it as only the start of the long journey to enable teachers to act on research evidence. But one thing I am sure of: the toolkit’s success highlights in particular what can be achieved outside Whitehall.