New Relationship with Schools: Evaluation of Trial Local Authorities and Schools. RR689

This summary outlines the key findings from a national evaluation of the first-year trials of the New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) carried out by a team at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). The trials took place in the period September 2004 to July 2005 and involved 93 schools in eight local educational authorities (LEAs). The New Relationship was first announced in January 2004 after schools and the DfES had highlighted bureaucracy as an ongoing issue in both primary and secondary schools, citing a need for a new relationship between the DfES, LEAs and schools and a need for closer alignment of national and local priorities. "A New Relationship with Schools" proposed "a cluster of interlocking changes that will affect school inspection, schools' relations with local and central government, schools' self-evaluation and planning, data collection from schools, and communications with schools." Findings are based on a questionnaire survey of NRwS headteachers and two waves of in-depth interviews carried out as part of school and local authority case-study visits. The evaluation focused on the four school reform strands of the NRwS: (1) School Self-Evaluation; (2) School Profile; (3) Single Conversation; and (4) and the School Improvement Partner (SIP). The study also aimed to look at processes behind the implementation of these strands, to assess the extent to which the NRwS had: (1) helped schools to raise standards; (2) reduced bureaucracy in the current system; (3) more closely aligned national and local priorities; and (4) released greater local initiative and energy in schools. In evaluation of first-year trials, interviewees expressed need for guidance and training to both schools and local authorities so that they would fully understand the NRwS and the pivotal role of the SIP. Successful implementation was also felt to rely on the degree to which the NRwS was viewed, overall, as a positive and progressive development for schools, and interviewees expressed a view that time and thought needs to be given to promoting the NRwS nationally, raising its profile to ensure that both schools and local authorities are fully on board with underlying principles. (Contains 5 footnotes and 12 tables.