BETT award for school improvement project

Monday, January 25, 2016

Category: News

Oxford University Press School Improvement Pathways wins BETT award

A school improvement resource designed by Oxford University Press, and linked with OUDE, has won a prestigious BETT 2016* award for ICT Leadership & Management Solutions. OUP School Improvement Pathways is an online system for primary school practitioners to address school improvement issues and learn about best practice. An advisory team of educational experts, schools and researchers (including Professor Pamela Sammons and Susila Davis) work closely with the publishing team at OUP in producing content and material for Pathways. Professor Sammons contributes advice and research underpinning the resource, while Susila, a student and research assistant at OUDE jointly supervised by Professor Sammons and Dr Maia Chankseliani, is conducting a design-based DPhil study on the use and development of Pathways and its links with school improvement and effectiveness. The first Pathway – Managing and Implementing the National Curriculum – was launched in November 2013. To date there are 20 Pathways available for schools to access via subscription to Oxford Owl, including eight whole school improvement Pathways (covering topics such as Assessment for Learning, Closing the Gap, and Special Education Needs and Inclusion) and twelve Pathways dedicated to teaching & learning in English and mathematics. Please visit http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-school for more information.

The judging panel stated that they were “impressed with the product”, and there was “good involvement of current practitioners, school advisers and subject experts”. Cath Haynes, Head of Educational Services and Home Learning at OUP said “At Oxford University Press, we’ve been working for a number of years now in school improvement, and we realised that school leaders were really looking for a system to help them with their school improvement so we worked with a range of experts to put together a robust yet simple school improvement cycle. If you make a system for school leaders who are incredibly busy that’s simple to use, they will use it, they will enjoy using it, and therefore it will have an impact in the school.”

*The BETT Show is an annual event that has been running for over 30 years in the UK and showcases the use of information technology in education (http://bettawards.com/).

More information:

British Medical Journal
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford