Supporting Whole School Approaches to Global Learning: Focusing Learning and Mapping Impact. Research Paper No. 13 for the Global Learning Programme

Within the Global Learning Programme (GLP) in England there has been an explicit focus on encouraging more holistic 'whole school' practice and the need for better evidence of its impact. This paper describes how support for a whole school approach to global learning was rationalised and developed within the programme, and how such an approach was used to structurally generate impact evidence. Based on evidence from existing work, it offers learning about how taking a whole school approach, and using the tools to measure it, can add value to global learning practice in England and beyond. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of the value that impact measurement has within global learning and, outside of this field, adds to the limited research to date on what a whole school approach actually means and how this kind of approach can be promoted for other initiatives. Specifically, the paper responds to four key questions: (1) Why might schools adopt a whole school approach to global learning?; (2) What support do schools need in order to adopt a whole school approach to global learning?; (3) How do GLP tools support a whole school approach to global learning?; and (4) How do GLP tools measure the impact of global learning? In this paper, analysis across a range of whole school initiatives suggests that there are five main elements for how whole school approaches are seen to be delivered effectively: (1) incorporating activities for the initiative across multiple areas of the school; (2) involving a range of stakeholders in the initiative; (3) relating work to the wider vision or ethos of the school; (4) having strong leadership of what is being promoted; and (5) integrating interventions into existing school practices.