As the end of the School year draws near, whatever role you hold in school, you will be evaluating the work that you and your pupils have completed and will be celebrating achievement.

You may already be looking forward to the next academic year.

How much of this reflection and forward planning, includes the link between good teaching and research? How many times over the last year have you used research to inform practice? How often have you discussed educational research with colleagues and used research outcomes to formulate a training/INSET session?

Most schools allocate about five days a year to whole staff development, on which several will often focus on delivering some aspect of curriculum content, others will focus on statutory responsibilities and the operational aspects of the role. Very little of this time, if any, is spent on translating research findings into effective classroom practice.

There are organisations, however, working to create a culture of researchers and make us more research literate, such as ResearchED and more recently The Chartered College of Teaching which aims to create a knowledge based community to share excellent practice and to enable teachers to connect with rigorous research and evidence. There seems to be an acceptance that we do not have an active culture of research in Education, and maybe we don’t but our professional careers did not start off this way (remember that research based course work on your PGCE? The dissertation on your B’Ed/BA?).

Using identified and published pieces of research can transform practice, and when teachers undertake their own research, it changes not just what teachers do, but what they think as well. The use of research contributes to gains in knowledge and encourages reflection and analysis of personal performance and in doing so, helps to understand and improve outcomes for learners.

For SENCOs and SEND Leaders in School, Research knowledge is invaluable in providing evidence of the success of research based interventions but there is no doubt that undertaking continuous professional development (CPD) which impacts on practice is a challenge, with limited time to undertake it and other demands on time getting in the way.

So, start the new year with a plan.

Use @ResearchSEND to get your School Research Journey started.

@ResearchSEND was launched with a Conference at The University of Wolverhampton in February 2017. It was developed to promote and recognize the importance of research in meeting the needs of learners with SEND.

There is research and researchers who are writing widely on the challenges facing learners with SEND and @ResearchSEND believes that some of this research is not widely known and used. @ResearchSEND believes that for all Learners, every day counts and that we as practitioners should have a repertoire of skills, strategies and interventions at our finger tips to support all learners in our classrooms.

@ResearchSEND has three strands,

Researching the bigger picture considers research undertaken across the educational landscape and considers research undertaken by large research organisations such as EEF, commissioned research projects and large scale work undertaken by Universities.

New researchers. New voices encourages teachers undertaking their own personal research to have the space to share that work.  This maybe to support their CPD and may be part of a further study project, for example a Masters Degree.

ChangeMonday uses the hashtag #ChangeMonday to make research accessible enough to be able to change practice, if that is what is required, easily and simply

Speakers at @ResearchSEND are a combination of professionals from each strand; class based teachers, Senior Lectures with Specialisms in research and specialists working with identified groups of learners with SEND. Speakers have included, Rob Webster, Bart Shaw, Jon Reid, Helen Curran, Christopher Rossiter, Jenifer Donovan, Roseanne Esposito, Nancy Gedge and Marc Rowland, Margaret Muholland, Dr Joanna Vivash & Professor Philip Garner

All believe in a system leader approach to sharing professional knowledge and expertise to make the learning experience count for all our learners.

@ResearchSEND events host a panel of members who have undertaken extensive research on education pedagogy. The first panel included Professor Michelle Lowe, Kerry Jordan Daus, Dame Alison Peacock and Sir Toby Salt.   Panel members are able to address a range of research topics including, integrating research findings into classroom practice, the challenges of being a teacher researcher and future thinking and development.

The next ResearchSEND Conference will be held on the 18^th November at Sheffield Hallam University from 09:30 to 15:30 (GMT)
Sheffield Hallam University – City Campus
Howard Street
S1 1WB Sheffield
United Kingdom

Book your ticket for @ResearchSEND