Following the initiation of the LocalED project in April 2022, the North of Tyne Combined Authority has shared a report on progress over the first six-months:

North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) are committed to developing locality-based support for schools, teachers and children through their investment in Education Improvement and Child Poverty Prevention programmes. Through this pilot the NTCA is keen to better articulate and test the value of working across a combined authority to implement the actions in the Education Improvement programme.

The NTCA see their role as adding value to the local education system by complementing the work of individual local authorities, trusts and schools. This includes encouraging and supporting schools to develop innovative ideas and practice, identifying what is working well and helping to spread this across the system, and acting as an honest broker and facilitator connecting schools and trusts across the region to each other and key partners.

The NCTA is investing resources to build the capacity for high quality school improvement support across the region and develop sustainable capacity for support at a school level by facilitating deep connections between schools and trusts and filling in where gaps exist. They are also helping to connect to other parts of the system that can add value such as the local economic partnership and major local employers.

There are five main strands of activity proposed in the Education Improvement Programme:

  • Objective 1 – Support the education recovery of North of Tyne pupils most affected by COVID-19.This strand includes pilots with 12 schools across the region leading education recovery projects and producing a compendium of effective blended learning practice across regional, national and international settings, for other schools and trusts to access.
  • Objective 2 – Support the development of our teachers and school leaders. This includes a focus on professional development for school improvement leads from LA’s, trusts and system leaders through the Association of Education Advisers, a leadership development programme being run through the local Research School with EEF involvement and a new mental health support programme to support schools.
  • Objective 3 – Improve transition into and between schools. This includes pilots of early school readiness and early literacy programmes, as well as a new pilot programme with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and 20 schools to test a new model of careers support during the KS2-3 transition.
  • Objective 4 – Better support our schools in challenging contexts with a focus on developing a cohort of middle leaders with support from the TS Hub in Literacy and looking at how best to deploy additional capacity to support literacy across schools.
  • Objective 5 – Improve career pathways for North of Tyne pupils. This strand focuses on a joint careers curriculum programme developed by the LEP to support curriculum leaders in North of Tyne schools. Initial focus is on progression to Level 3 STEM subjects, with a particular focus on Physics.