The Hope Challenge

One of the School of Education's most engaging projects is working together with schools on the Hope Challenge Programme.

The Hope Challenge Programme has been developed to support the work of Local Authorities and HMIs in working with schools in socioeconomic challenging circumstances and those judged as requiring improvement, across secondary, primary and special schools. Liverpool Hope University is working proactively with Local Authorities, regional HMIs and schools to lead North West collaboration with the aim of improving the life chances of children. For the purposes of the Hope Challenge Programme - schools in socioeconomic circumstances are deemed to be those where Pupil Premium is at least 25%.

Purpose:
The purpose of the 'Hope Challenge' is to support Liverpool Hope University and its partner Local Authorities to ensure that all schools within their influence are at least ‘good’, a particular challenge for many LAs with reduced capacity. This particular project is Liverpool Hope University’s response to the new ITE Ofsted requirement to work with schools in ‘challenging socioeconomic circumstances (Pupil Premium at least 25%) and those judged as requiring improvement’ (RI) by Ofsted. HMIs now have a regional responsibility to work with all schools including those judged as ‘requiring improvement’ or those who are in a ‘category’.

The benefit of working collaboratively is to ensure coherent and planned ways of working that support the improvement plans of schools to create synergy, add value and build capacity, rather than onerous parallel working which has little impact. The Programme also develops research informed teacher education and enables staff and students to undertake action research and to use their findings to inform future practice.

The Hope Challenge is also a response to reports from Ofsted notably ‘The Unlucky Child’ and ‘Unseen Children’, as well as considering the needs of Young Carers.

The overarching aims of our programme are as follows:

• To promote a collaborative and coordinated way of supporting key partners in school improvement across the North West Region.
• To improve outcomes for pupils, particularly in terms of progress.
• To increase capacity for schools and LAs.
• To develop a coordinated approach to 'Continuing Professional Development'.
• To lead to sustainable outcomes for schools.
• To build resilience in newly qualified and recently qualified teachers so that they are able to be successful in a range of schools.
• To increase the number of talented graduates working in schools in challenging socioeconomic circumstances.
• To publish research findings to inform future provision.
• To develop a coordinated approach to research evidenced best practice.

Our partner schools currently working in partnership with the Hope Challenge programme are:

Everton Free School

Halewood Academy

Little Luke's Preschool

Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Primary School

St Andrew the Apostle Catholic Primary School

St. Andrew's CofE Primary School Warrington

St. Margarets Anfield CofE Primary School

St. Ann's CofE Primary School

Florence Melly Community Primary School

Our Lady and St. Swithins Catholic Primary School

Croxteth Community Primary School

Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School

"The school's partnership with Hope University has been influential in increasing expectations and the level of challenge in lessons.

For example, during the inspection, trainee teachers and class teachers were observed teaching pupils about electricity and simple circuits.

Pupils were utterly captivated and eagerly set about applying this knowledge;

they proudly showed inspectors the charming, twinkling Christmas decorations they had made and could explain exactly how a circuit works."

Our Lady and St Swithin's Catholic Primary School - Ofsted Inspection Report, December 2015

Pedagogy underpinning The Hope Challenge

The School of Education has been working on a range of pedagogies of practice, influenced by the work of Smith, Lee, & Newman (2001) and Lampert et al (2013) to support the development of ambitious teachers. An Ambitious Teacher is a teacher who has a sense of moral purpose and who can respond in an intelligent way to the unique needs of the pupils they have before them in the classroom. To prepare ambitious teachers there is a requirement by teacher educators to create and provide opportunities for rehearsal and enactment. Trainee teachers need opportunities to work on approximations of teaching practices which can be theorised and reflected on, allowing the trainees to anticipate and rehearse possible learning scenarios. In all of the Hope Challenge projects the trainees are given opportunities to rehearse,
before enacting with pupils the planned learning and then reflect and subsequently refine their practice. This pedagogical process forms the basis of the Hope Challenge Cycle shown below in Figure 1.

The cycle involves an initial stage of dialogue and discussion with the university tutor and school teachers outlining the context for the learning. It is important to develop this democratic and dialogic space in which the school teacher provides their expert knowledge of context alongside the university tutor’s expertise of subject knowledge and pedagogy. Trainees are then encouraged to reflect and anticipate what may be the factors which will influence a successful learning event for the pupils in the particular school context. The trainees need to begin to consider what may be potential barriers, hinge points within the session and key formative assessment opportunities. The session is planned collaboratively and then rehearsed; often modelled initially by the tutor and then by the trainees. The session is then enacted by the trainees with
the pupils and subsequently evaluated. This evaluation and reflection is a collaborative, as well as individual, experience, this is a key element of the Hope Challenge cycle. By reflecting on the common shared experience different perspectives and understandings can be discussed and the learning is more powerful as a result of this collective analysis.

Figure 1 - The Hope Challenge Cycle

Impact Studies

Listed below are our impact studies of projects completed to date:

2016-17

Attendance

Communication in the Community

EAL/MFL Intervention

GCSE Maths

Mathematics Place Value

Reading

Science

Spelling

2015-16 Primary 

Music and Early Reading

Metacognitive Learning

Music and Design and Technology

2014-15 Primary

EAL

Writing

2014-15 Secondary

Writing secondary

GCSE Mathematics Intervention

Dissemination

Findings from individual projects so far have formed the basis for several papers for National conferences;

TEAN (Teacher Education Advancement Network)

Creating Ambitious Science Teachers for schools facing challenging circumstances through new partnership pedagogies, Annual Conference 2017

Lead Presenters: Tim Griffiths & Sue Cronin

Expanding Teacher Educator’s Pedagogical Practices, Annual Conference 2015: The Hope Reading Challenge

Lead Presenters: Michelle Pearson and Sue Cronin

The Hope Writing Challenge: Developing pedagogies of enactment to progress PGCE Secondary Trainees’ teaching, Annual Conference 2015

Lead Presenters: Karen Rogan and Sue Cronin

BERA (British Education Research Association)

BERA Symposium, Annual Conference 2016: Landscapes of Practice - New ways of working

Lead Presenters: Jane Moore and Claire Lloyd

BERA Symposium, Annual Conference 2016: Creating Substantial and Sustained School-University Partnerships

Lead Presenters: Jane Moore & Claire Lloyd

BERA Symposium, Annual Conference 2016: School-University Partnerships:New ways of working

Lead Presenters: Sue Cronin, Claire Lloyd, Jane Moore and Michelle Pearson

BERA Teacher Education and Development Symposia, Annual Conference 2015: The Hope Challenge Phonics Intervention – applying pedagogy of enactment to the work of teacher education.

Lead Presenters: Michelle Pearson and Sue Cronin

BERA Teacher Education and Development Symposia, Annual Conference 2015: Developing ambitious teaching in beginning teachers: The Hope Challenge Creative Writing Intervention.

Lead Presenters: Karen Rogan and Sue Cronin

For more information about the Hope Challenge programme, please contact: