Collaboration

These Locality Pilots will develop a vision of what stronger professional accountability looks like in action. The intention is to use the on-going learning from the pilots to consider how parts of the current accountability system could evolve to provide better support for, and validation of, a system of professional accountability. They will run through to July 2024 with their implementation evaluated by an external team from the University of Nottingham. More information about Locality Pilots.

Milton Keynes is working on Locality Pilot 3: Towards a new model of accountabiity.

Headteachers and other school leaders involved in the development of this project in Milton Keynes are motivated by the opportunity to influence debates about the future direction of national education policy in relation to school accountability. They also believe this work will further strengthen collaboration leading to improved outcomes for children and young people across Milton Keynes.

Who are we working with?

Support for these Locality Pilots comes from across the education system including both headteacher unions, local government, parent groups and education align-centerhips who are all represented in the Locality Pilot steering group monitoring the projects.

What are we hoping to achieve?

Our aim is to develop and trial the use of a ‘Milton Keynes School Report’ as a new style accountability system for schools and colleges which:

• Recognises the value of the breadth of the education children experience
• Incentivises rather than disincentivises inclusion, recognising schools’ achievements with pupils who do not show up well on exam league tables or who have a more challenging journey ahead of them
• Recognises success in improving children and young people’s health and wellbeing
• Takes into account the views of young people, parents and teachers
• Understands the importance of young people’s contribution to the community and opportunities to demonstrate leadership

What is a School Report?

The aim of a School Report is to use of a range of indicators to give a fuller picture of a school and its achievements than those in the current public accountability framework.

The idea of a School Report Card as part of a new system of professional accountability is not a new one. In 2008, there was a DCSF consultation on a government proposal to introduce School Report Cards to give parents ‘a new, simpler and more comprehensive way of understanding schools’ performance and achievements’ based on the model used in New York.

It is also one of the proposals in the Times Education Commission’s report, ‘Bringing Out The Best: How to transform education and unleash the potential of every child.’ (January 2022):

A reformed Ofsted that works collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, rather than operating through fear, and a new “school report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion and attendance to unleash the potential of schools.

What have we achieved so far?

The project was launched in January 2023 with Headteachers and executive leaders from 38 schools and Milton Keynes College attending a workshop with Dame Christine Gilbert exploring the potential for developing the use of a Milton Keynes School Report. This is about a third of all schools in Milton Keynes with representatives from all phases and sectors of education, maintained schools, academies and academy trusts.

The principles and framework guiding the development of a Milton Keynes School Report were agreed and a Project Development Group established. This group has met monthly between February and December to develop proposals for the School Report.

A draft framework for The Milton Keynes School Report has been produced and work begun to identify and develop the content to be included within each section

Milton Keynes Reading for Life

Developing a collaborative approach to school improvement was another objective in our successful Locality Pilot bid and a key focus in the Learning 2050 project.

Improving the teaching of reading across the curriculum in secondary schools in Milton Keynes was identified as a key priority for collaborative improvement by the headteachers of all secondary schools in Milton Keynes.

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