Improving educational outcomes for children looked after
I feel better able to support the young person and carer in meetings and prepare more effectively. I feel more in control as an educator and better able to hold other agencies to account.
About
Following the success of the London Fostering Achievement programme (funded through the London Schools Excellence Fund) the Fostering Network and Achievement for All have continued to work in partnership.
They have established two hubs to support the education of children looked after in the capital. The hubs are aimed at supporting London designated teachers for children looked after by sharing good practice and giving them an opportunity to network.
The London Designated Teacher Hub was hosted by Virtual School headteachers and ran pan-London twilight sessions for designated teachers. These sessions shared evidence-based practice with a positive impact on educational outcomes for children looked after.
The Croydon Designated Teacher Hub embeds the good practice explored in the London Designated Teacher Hub and provides local support and professional development for teachers. It was led by Edenham High School and supported by an Achievement for All coach and the Croydon Virtual School. This hub has now been mainstreamed into the Croydon Virtual School Designated Teacher Arena.
Resources from the hub have been incorporated into the London Fostering Achievement Toolkit for Schools, which is free to access and full of tools and information.
To get involved:
Case Study
The Croydon Hub for Designated Teachers has been fantastic support and CPD for me as the Designated Teacher this year. The opportunity to meet with other Designated Teachers (DTs) and to suggest training I would like has enabled me to learn a huge amount in a very short time.
I would absolutely recommend attending future meetings to every DT. As a result of one of the hub meetings, we have developed our learning interventions using the Sutton Trust research to create a one-to-one metacognition session weekly with each of our Children Looked After (CLA).
We have also changed the way that we work with foster carers to develop our level of communication following a talk at the hub from a foster carer about how key this is. We now email our carers weekly. We’ve changed our Personal Education Plan (PEP) procedure so that we consult more fully with CLA before the PEP to do it how and where they want to.
Anna Robinson, Designated Teacher, Archbishop Tenison School
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