University of Oxford: A different approach to a university-schools collaboration

This case study outlines key highlights, opportunities and challenges surrounding the University of Oxford’s attainment-raising collaboration with The Challenge Academy Trust in the North West.

In 2019, the University of Oxford and The Challenge Academy Trust (TCAT, based in Warrington, Cheshire) launched a new and innovative programme focused on raising attainment and widening participation to higher education in the North West. The programme is called Oxplore-Raising Attainment in Schools (RAIS).

The collaboration takes a unique approach to attainment-raising in contrast to interventions elsewhere that often focus on subject-based interventions during learners’ later schooling at Key Stages 4 and 5. The differences fall into three main categories:

1. Oxplore-RAIS uses a longitudinal and systems lens approach to support teachers and learners to improve attainment and achievement by engaging with learners from age 10 onwards. The evidence-informed programme seeks to reduce ‘leaks’ in the attainment pipeline from primary through to the end of secondary education, and ultimately diversify the pool of potential applicants at university entry.
2. In addition to engaging with learners, the partnership collectively invests time in enhancing teachers’ continuous professional development and learning, and improving teacher-learner relationships and mutual expectations.
3. The aim is to engage as many learners as possible in curriculum enrichment and not solely those already identified as ‘more able’ or with high prior attainment. ‘Ability’ and ‘potential’ are therefore not equated with prior attainment.

The programme is anchored by Oxplore, Oxford’s digital resource that aims to challenge learners aged 11-18 years with ideas and debates that go beyond the curriculum.

Oxford's access ambitions are limited by the low numbers of school students from disadvantaged backgrounds who achieve three grade As or above at A-level or equivalent. Attainment gaps between children from more and less advantaged backgrounds are clear from the start of primary school and only increase as they progress into and through secondary school.

TCAT academies, made up of four primary schools, five secondary schools and one sixth form college, vary widely in terms of intake and context. Free school meal eligibility among the secondary academies for example ranges from 9.6 per cent to 40 per cent.

Oxplore-RAIS aims to support TCAT schools to close the attainment gaps between different student groups using an 'enrichment for all' approach. The programme is underpinned by research evidence in both widening participation to higher education and school improvement and effectiveness fields.

Working with senior leaders, teachers and learners in TCAT, the University of Oxford's Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach department co-leads and co-designs sessions to support raising attainment for bigger, mixed prior-attainment groups.

Strategies for raising achievement are focused in two areas: modern foreign languages (MFL), and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with a focus on learner and teacher outcomes.

The collaboration consists of three streams:

1. Teacher continuous professional development and learning: Teachers are supported in ideas around effective classroom practice, curriculum design and pedagogical support in STEM and MFL, challenging common notions around 'aspiration’ while looking at student expectations and their relationship with attainment.
2. Learner delivery days: Anchored by Oxplore Big Questions, these days focus on enabling opportunities for higher order questioning, reasoning, and elements of inquiry-based learning. Teachers and Oxford’s Early Career Researchers work together to co-design delivery and resources.
3. Embedding enrichment in the classroom: This stream aims to co-create resources that enable higher order questioning, and provide opportunities for reasoning, extended writing and assessment for mixed-prior attainment learners. An online platform is being designed to share these resources with all schools nationally.

Challenges that shaped the approach

The programme's theory of change focuses on the need to develop and study broader measures that support young people's learning, i.e. predictors of high attainment. The programme team looks at learner dispositions about their learning and belief systems, including their sense of 'possible selves' and expectations and aspirations for the future, alongside teachers’ perceptions and approaches to change and expectations.

One of the key challenges for Oxplore-RAIS is that traits such as academic self-concept and self-regulation are complex and interact with each other in intricate ways. The same applies for teacher outcomes with the complex interaction of teachers' perceived changes in practice and learners’ attitudes, behaviours and outcomes. This interdependence underpins the programme team’s reasoning for constructing a target based on both learner and teacher outcomes.

Teacher interviews between 2020 and 2021 indicate that the partnership has enabled the building of a 'third space' where learners and teachers 'have permission' (teachers' own words) to consider attainment differently, such as the enabling of greater academic expectations and collective responsibility for outcomes.

All 23 teachers interviewed expressed that Oxplore-RAIS has helped to improve students’ educational motivation, confidence and self-belief, with secondary teachers reporting increased unprecedented take-up of languages and triple sciences (pre-COVID).

Positive and significant changes were recorded in learners' responses to 'I really like my school', 'My teachers believe that all children can do well', and 'My lessons are more interesting than what I see in my textbook'.

For learners eligible for free school meals, positive and significant changes were reported for 'My teacher really understands my learning needs', 'I feel that my contribution is valued by my teacher' and 'I really like my school'.

There were also encouraging increases in how learners eligible for Pupil Premium rated specific aspects of their teachers' classroom practice, their home learning environment, experience of lessons and items such as 'I feel good about myself as a learner', 'I feel confident to answer in my class', 'I feel confident that I can do well' and 'My teacher makes everyone feel good about their learning'.

Can this approach be replicated elsewhere?

Replication of this approach is likely to require:

• collaboration with university education departments and academics who have expertise for example in educational psychology and educational improvement
• meaningful buy-in from school senior leadership, where teachers and learners are given time to learn in new ‘third spaces’ which may not yield results immediately
• a recognition that the university is not the 'main player' in the programme. Universities can be there to facilitate and help to create new spaces to consider attainment differently, but the main players of the programme remain the teachers, senior leadership and learners. Without this approach, the sustainability of the work after the university departs from the arrangement will be difficult, if not impossible.

Scaling up: what next?

The university is working towards designing an open access online platform to house materials from Oxplore RAIS and ways to support all schools and higher education providers to potentially collaborate and harness the strengths of each sector.

One of the key strengths of Oxplore-RAIS is the collaboration between Oxford's early career researchers and teachers in TCAT. The university’s intention is to co-build a system of 'national and local empowerment' where early career researchers and outreach teams in universities across the country are able to support schools and work with teachers and learners in their local areas, and ultimately help to build capacity for an enrichment-for-all approach nationwide.