Secondary Networks

Evidence-Informed Implementation Support with the East London Research School

Introduction and summary

Implementation is never straight forward and usually messy. This programme will support school leaders to develop an evidence informed implementation strategy, using the Education Endowment Foundation’s recently updated Implementation Guidance.

An educational approach or idea may seem great in principle, but what really matters is how it manifests itself in the day-to-day work of people in schools, colleges, and early years settings. 

The aim of this programme is to: 

"Make sure new approaches or practices have the biggest possible impact on children and young people’s outcomes."

In summary:

• Support evidence-informed improvement in classroom practice through meaningful and sustained behaviour change.

• Empower school leaders to further develop their evidence literacy to identify the most effective school improvement activities and optimise impact. 

• This programme will support school leaders to consider why something might fail and how to mitigate against these factors.

• It is not enough to ‘read’ research and implement, it is essential to:

  • Take into account existing practices

  • Accurately identify a high leverage priority that is amenable to change (start with finding the right priority, rather than making an intervention suit your sense of a priority)

Based on a new review of the evidence, the EEF updated guidance is focused on three key elements:

• The behaviours that drive effective implementation.

• The contextual factors that facilitate implementation.

• A structured, but flexible, process to enact implementation.

The process is designed to support you to do implementation, while the behaviours and contextual factors help you to do it well.

Programme Outline

Tuesday 19th November 9.30am - 3.30pm at the Tomlinson Centre

Familiarisation with EEF resources:

• Evidence Store

• Toolkit

• Guidance Reports

• Additional resources for practical implementation 

• How to be involved in research trials

• Evidence Based Implementation 

• Evidence Literacy

Gap task: 

• Establishing an Implementation Team

• Gap Task ‘Gathering Good Data’

• Read ’A School’s Guide to Implementation.’ 

Wraparound Support Session - Tuesday 3rd December 8.30am - 12.30pm - online

30 minute slots available over half day: support with the gap tasks or any expansion on Day 1.

Gap task: 

• Writing the ‘problem’ and ‘intervention description’ aspects of the implementation plan

Tuesday 21st January 4-5pm, online

Professional Development: what works, including behaviour change models

Gap task: 

• Designing implementation strategies

Tuesday 28th January 4.00pm - 5.00pm, online

Discussion and case studies based on previous module

Tuesday 25th February 4.00pm - 5.00pm, online hub meeting

Monitoring and Evaluation: the leaky bucket analogy

Gap task: 

• Plan evaluation activities and implementation outcomes on plan

Tuesday 11th March, 4.00pm - 5.00pm, online hub meeting

Discussion and case studies based on previous module

Tuesday 22nd April, 4.00pm - 5.00pm, online

Embedding and Sustaining Change

Gap task: 

• To be agreed

Tuesday 6th May, 9.00am - 12.30pm, F2F hub meeting at the Tomlinson Centre

Peer review and facilitator review of implementation plans. Peer supported troubleshooting and drawing on learning in the programme.