Research Projects
Our approach to curriculum is fluid, we listen to children, teachers and we have an outward facing approach, considering new research, regional and national initiatives/ guidance. We have the confidence to adapt the curriculum to the needs of our children whilst still remaining true to our overall intent and the National Curriculum. This is evidenced through the successful implementation of initiatives, such as Read Write Inc, Pathways to Write, Accelerated Reader, Power Maths, STAR reader & maths, Voice 21, Talking through Stories/Reading fluency, Zones of Regulation and a range of research and evidence based approaches. We have strong links with Liverpool Hope University, a number of our SLT and the Headteacher are part of the university's research and curriculum development teams providing lectures and sharing best practice with leaders across Wirral, Liverpool, Cheshire and Nationally. Our EYFS lead is a key note speaker at Westminster Education Forum Policy Conference: Next Stepsfor Early Years Education and the EYFS Maths lead is is now a NCETM Accredited Professional Development Lead for Cheshire and Wirral DfE Maths Hub.
NELI 
The Learning Language and Loving It Program was designed to provide early childhood educators with practical strategies for helping all children in the classroom build language and social skills, no matter what their learning and communication styles are, and even if they have special needs.
The Learning Language and Loving It Program comprises of practical, research-based strategies for:
- Promoting every child’s language development using natural everyday activities, routines and play
- Becoming attuned to children’s interests so you can follow their lead, which is known to foster language development
- Adjusting the way you talk to help children develop more advanced language skills
- Promoting interaction among the children themselves
- Facilitating language-learning in pretend play
- Fostering emergent literacy skills
EEF STARS Incredible Years
Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY – TCM) supports teachers to improve behaviour in their classroom by developing their classroom management technique. Studies estimate between three and six children in each school class will have significant social, emotional or behavioural difficulties that impair their current and future life prospects. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are even more likely to be affected by these issues. This programme supports the whole class and should be particularly helpful for students with behavioural difficulties.
Rasberry Pi ‘Gender Balance in Computing’ research
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/gender-balance-in-computing-research-project-launch/
‘Gender Balance in Computing’ is a collaboration between the consortium of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, STEM Learning, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, and the Behavioural Insights Team. Our partners, Apps for Good and WISE, will also be working on the project. ‘Gender Balance in Computing’ will develop and roll out several projects that aim to increase the number of girls choosing to study a computing subject at GCSE and A level.
Everton in the Community Tackling the Blues
https://www.evertoninthecommunity.org/projects/education/primary-school-provision/tacklingtheblues
Tackling the Blues is a sport, physical activity and education-based mental health literacy programme, which supports children and young people aged six to 16-years who are experiencing, or are at risk of, developing mental illness.
The programme is delivered by Everton in the Community and The Department of Sport and Physical Activity and The Faculty of Education at Edge Hill University (EHU).
These areas include some of the most deprived local authorities nationally, where statistics highlight children and young people experience inadequate health outcomes. Weekly sessions are delivered in multiple schools, engaging more than 750+ children and young people every week.
Attachment, Trauma and Mental Health
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma are experiences of physical and emotional abuse and neglect in childhood, which can have a negative impact upon education experiences, physical and mental health, a greater risk suicide and addiction and more.
Wirral Mental Health Support Team Pilot: Child Well-Being Ambassadors
We are a pilot school for Wirral MHST who are in the process of developing a new training and support package to introduce Child Well-Being Ambassadors into Wirral Primary Schools. Well-being Ambassadors are pupils who have received training in; the principles of positive mental health; how to improve our sense of well-being and strategies to support feeling more positive. They will demonstrate a commitment to share this knowledge within the school community. Ambassadors will have a responsibility for leading on, promoting and raising awareness of well-being, supporting the whole school approach, and championing the voice for children. These pupils will assess and evaluate school well-being practices, make suggestions for improvements and celebrate success.’
Voice 21
Becoming a Voice 21 Oracy School is a commitment: to transform oracy teaching and learning across school, enabling all children to access and benefit from a high-quality oracy education. Our Voice 21 Oracy School membership reflects the ambitions of school leaders who understand that oracy is not a programme to be completed one year and gone the next, or an extracurricular endeavour for a select few, but rather an essential facet of an effective, empowering and expansive education.
Read Write Inc.
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/phonics/
Read Write Inc. Phonics has been developed by Ruth Miskin Training and is a professional development and teaching programme. It includes systematic synthetic phonics, reading and applying phonics to decodable books, and skills for writing, including handwriting and compositional writing.
Fresh Start
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/fresh-start-fast-track-tutoring/
Read Write Inc. Fresh Start Fast Track Tutoring provides a fast track to rescue struggling readers.It teaches students at their challenge point so they learn to read accurately and fluently - quickly.It teaches them to spell correctly and use correct punctuation to help them get their ideas down on the page.The Education Endowment Foundation recently ran a project investigating the effectiveness of Fresh Start, which found that the intervention shows considerable promise as an effective catch-up intervention for low-attaining readers at the transition phase from primary to secondary school.
Accelerated Reader
https://www.renaissance.com/products/accelerated-reader/
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/accelerated-reader
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a reading management and monitoring programme that aims to foster independent reading. The internet-based software assesses reading age, and suggests books that match pupils’ needs and interests. Pupils take computerised quizzes on the books and earn AR points as they progress.The EEF study found that pupils who were offered Accelerated Reader made 3 months’ additional progress in reading compared to other similar pupils. For pupils eligible for free school meals the figure was 5 months’ additional progress.
NFER / EEF The Storytime Trial
The trial will compare two popular ways that teachers read in their classroom: a sustained reading – ‘GO! Approach’; and reading with pauses to ask questions – ‘STOP! approach’. Reading the story without pausing is a popular way of reading aloud that builds on an established tradition of sharing stories, exposing children to a wide range of texts and seeking to instill in pupils an enjoyment of, and motivation for, reading. In contrast, there is evidence to suggest that reading the text and pausing to ask questions may help to model to children the implicit processes that accomplished readers undertake when reading, helping them to develop these skills for themselves.
Power Maths
https://whiterosemaths.com/power-maths/
Power Maths is a UK curriculum mastery programme designed to spark curiosity and excitement and nurture confidence in maths. The only mastery programme perfectly aligned to the White Rose Maths progressions and schemes of learning. Written specifically for UK curriculum classrooms by leading mastery experts from around the world and recommended by the UK’s Department for Education.
NCETM Mastering Number R, Y1, Y2
https://www.ncetm.org.uk/news/mastering-number-a-new-programme-for-early-primary-pupils/
A large-scale nationwide programme for teachers of pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, designed to help children embed good number sense. Mastering Number is a new programme offered in 2021/22 by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and the Maths Hubs Network. It aims to develop solid number sense, including fluency and flexibility with number facts, which will have a lasting impact on future learning for all children. It also involves high quality professional development for teachers.
NCETM Mastering Number Y4 & Y5
A pilot programme for introducing Y4 and Y5. Knowledge of multiplication and division, and its applications, forms the single most important aspect of the KS2 curriculum and is the gateway to success at secondary school. It is also a key area that pupils often struggle with. Automaticity with multiplication tables relieves cognitive load and develops pupils’ confidence to achieve success.
The project offers schools that are involved in Mastering Number at Reception and KS1, and are also actively engaged in a Sustaining Work Group, the opportunity for teachers to develop the knowledge and skills to secure good multiplicative number sense and automaticity in times tables. The programme will focus on Years 4 and 5
NCETM Sustaining Mastery
https://www.ncetm.org.uk/maths-hubs-projects/primary-teaching-for-mastery-sustaining/
This is for all primary schools who have previously been involved in teaching for mastery via a Development or Embedding Work Group, or who are Mastery Specialist schools. It brings together schools across the Maths Hubs Network that are working on continued development to sustain their teaching for mastery approach to mathematics.
https://cheshireandwirralmathshub.co.uk/
As we have worked closely with the Maths Hub since 2019 and are now sustaining our mastery approach; we have been chosen as a Case Study. We will be working closely with the hub to share the how we teach and continue to develop Mathematics as a school.
Leading Parent Partnership Award
Liverpool Hope University Early Years Research & Curriculum Group; English Research & Curriculum Group; Maths Curriculum Group; SEND Research Group 
The National College
The National College provide engaging CPD in a high-quality video format on the latest practice, policy and research, working with some of the leading experts in education. They work with some of the leading experts in education. From inspectors and government advisors to senior leaders and university professors, they ensure their CPD is produced to the highest standard.
Follow the link to read our case study with The National College.
https://thenationalcollege.co.uk/news/case-study-grove-street-primary-school
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Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based programme that has shown, in two decades of independent research on three continents, to have a significant effect in reducing levels of aggression, including bullying, among primary school children while raising social and emotional competence and increasing empathy. With support from the Youth Endowment Fund and evaluation from Sheffield Hallam University, Roots of Empathy is delivering The Nurturing Empathy Before Transition (NEBT) project, in order to find out whether the Roots of Empathy programme is effective in raising levels of pro-social behavior (helping, caring, sharing, including and kindness) and empathy and reducing aggression, including bullying and engagement in risky behaviour, and supporting children as they prepare to make the important and often scary transition to secondary school.
NEBT- Nurturing Empathy Before Transition Project
With support from the Youth Endowment Fund and evaluation from Sheffield Hallam University, Roots of Empathy is partnering on the Nurturing Empathy Before Transition (NEBT) project. A Randomised Control Trial to assess our Award Winning classroom programme impact on:
- Raising levels of pro-social behaviour (helping, caring, sharing, including and kindness) and empathy.
- Reducing aggression, including bullying
- Supporting children as they prepare to make the important and often scary transition to secondary school.
Effective Learning Behaviours
This suite of training is based upon the rich and diverse evidence base gathered in the EEF guidance reports. This course draws upon the evidence represented in multiple reports: improving behaviour, metacognition and self-regulation, special educational needs in mainstream schools, working with parents, and social and emotional learning. Successful learning behaviours rely on layering these areas to wrap around each unique learner. Each is part of a puzzle which makes best sense when all parts connect to build long-term protective factors which fosters deep learning and cultivates effective learners.
ASDA & Rethink Food Social Enterprise Pilot
https://www.rethinkfood.co.uk/education/
We are a pilot school for a trial with Rethink Food and Asda Bromborough. Rethink Food provide schools with online education resources for sessions where the pupils learn about food waste and setting up a social enterprise in the form of a community food hub. The schools then create their own community food hub, stocked by food sourced by Rethink Food.
Infant Language Link
EEF Pilot trial to test the impact of Infant Language Link, a whole-class approach involving universal screening, a universal approach and targeted elements to support pupils with mild to moderate speech and language needs. nfant Language Link was developed by Speech and Language Therapists and had initial development support from the Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge. It was previously evaluated using a quasi-experimental design which indicated that children using the programme make improvements in receptive language and expressive grammar compared to children who were not using the programme. It is currently used by around 2800 schools annually in England, with around a quarter of these schools operating in areas of high disadvantage.
We are taking part in a research project with the EEF and Loughborough University. Previous research indicates that the use of fingers as representations of ordinal and cardinal number is an important part of young children’s early mathematics learning. Further to this, studies have shown that a finger training can improve young children’s quantitative skills. ‘Mathematics at your fingertips’ adapts a systematic finger training programme that has been successful with Year 2 children for those in Reception classes with the aim of supporting children’s early number learning. The development and roll out of this programme is being funded through the Department
for Education (DfE) and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).