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‘Collaborating for Impact’ conference

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

On the 4th June 2024, THRiVE and their Learning Partnership team from Stranmillis University College’s Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) – Dr Karen Orr, Prof. Noel Purdy, Dr Millie Symington & Dr Mark Ballentine – hosted a two-day conference at Stranmillis University College, attended by thought leaders, practitioners, and policy makers from across sectors in NI.

The organisers were delighted to have been joined by and to hear from Junior Ministers Pam Cameron and Aisling Reilly, and Justice Minister Naomi Long.

They also welcomed input, via video, from Ministers Paul Givan (Education), Mike Nesbitt (Health), Gordon Lyons (Communities), and Caoimhe Archibald (Finance), who shared their support for the place-based collaboration model evidenced by THRiVE and the need for government and other sectors to work together.

Throughout the jam packed two days, the conference heard from a range of speakers who spoke to different aspects of relevance to the theme of ‘collaborating for impact’.

Speakers included Claire Humphrey, (THRiVE Co-ordinator); Dr Karen Orr (THRiVE Learning Partnership Principal Investigator); Prof. Noel Purdy OBE (CREU Director and THRiVE Learning Partnership team); Young people from Monsktown Boxing Club; Chris Quinn, the NI Children’s Commissioner; Prof. Allisson Metz (implementation science expert from University of North Carolina, USA); THRiVE parent champions (Mary Dripps and Lorna Allison); Jo Blundell from Place Matters; and Dorrinnia Carville, NI Comptroller General.

Additionally, Hugh Nelson (Co-Chair THRiVE) led an informative panel discussion with Collaborative Investors from THRiVE which included representatives from the Education Authority, The Executive Office, Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council, and the Executive Programme on Criminality and Organised Crime.

The conference shone a spotlight on other place-based collaborations from across NI, where delegates got the opportunity to hear from other initiatives involved in the Co-ordinating Organisations Network.

And finally, a key highlight of the conference was an amazing performance from the Whitehouse Primary School choir who inspired and delighted delegates with several songs, one of which reminded us all that ‘When we work together, we get things done’

Over the course of the two days, delegates were invited to explore three key themes associated with place-based collaboration:

  1. PLACE: Throughout the conference, the idea that ‘Place Matters’ was central.  It was proposed that place-based change in communities entrenched in complex and intergenerational inequality (social, educational, health etc.) is made possible by harnessing the collective impact of all agencies (statutory and non) and stakeholders (including children, young people, parents) via equitable collaborative infrastructures.
  2. PEOPLE: Building on the concept of PLACE, delegates were reminded that it is imperative that the PEOPLE within the place are central to the change processes.  The conference pointed to the importance of bottom-up community driven and co-designed agendas, with the voice and influenceof young people (and community stakeholders more broadly) central.  The conference unpacked HOW to achieve this, with a focus on the relational aspects of this work, the importance of considering power dynamics, trust, competition, and the necessity for challenging mindsets and ‘silo’ mentalities.
  3. PROCESS: Finally, within and around both PLACE and PEOPLE are the processes and wider systems that facilitate and inhibit impact and change.  For example, strategies and policies (e.g., NI Children’s Services Co-operation Act 2015) and administrative/governance systems, finance systems and funding models that underpin statutory and non-statutory service provision.  Additionally, within the processes, the conference pointed to the necessity for impact and implementation infrastructures, that is, the space, data and evidence to learn about HOW processes are implemented, as well as WHAT DIFFERENCE they have made.

Dr Karen Orr and Claire Humphrey closed the conference by aligning their Conference Calls to Action with these three core themes of PLACE (asking for visibility of place-based approaches in the Programme for Government), PEOPLE (encouraging equitable engagement of those who live and work in communities) and PROCESSES (calling for investment in the systems needed for place-based change – funding, impact and implementation).

The synergies, resonance, energy and passion in the room over the course of the two days were clear indicators of the willingness of agencies (statutory and non) to move beyond current systems and processes towards more collaborative, place-based and evidence informed practices, in order to achieve truly child-centred and holistic services that best meet the needs of our children and young people, particularly those most vulnerable and furthest from opportunity.

Speaking about the event, Dr Karen Orr said ‘The energy and enthusiasm evident during the ‘Collaborate for Impact’ conference has been a clear endorsement for the place-based collaborative efforts championed during this two day conference. CREU are proud to have brought their expertise to this conference and to the THRiVE Learning Partnership. We look forward to maintaining the energy and connections made as we work to improve the educational opportunities and outcomes for all children and young people’

One month on from the Conference and organisers, Dr Karen Orr (CREU) and Claire Humphrey (THRiVE) are considering next steps… stay tuned!

For further information and recourses related to the conference, please click here.

For further information regarding the THRiVE Learning Partnership, please contact Dr Karen Orr (K.Orr@Stran.ac.uk).

 

How cyberbullying impacts the lives of children and young people in NI

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

To mark Anti-Bullying Week 2023, a new ‘Spotlight’ report highlights the nature and extent of cyberbullying among children and young people in Northern Ireland.

Drawing out key insights from their recent large-scale research project Growing Up Online: Children’s online activities, harm and safety in Northern Ireland funded by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI), the research team at Stranmillis University College’s Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) has shone a particular spotlight on bullying behaviours as reported by children and young people aged 8-18.

The findings presented in this Spotlight report highlight the wide variety of online bullying behaviours which are experienced by children and young people in Northern Ireland, ranging from mean or nasty comments being made or sent to them and being excluded from WhatsApp groups, through to online blackmail, threats and being told to self-harm.

Among the key findings from the 6500 survey responses and interviews with almost 100 children and young people are that:

  • A total of 13% of children aged 8-13 reported that someone had been mean to them online within the previous two months, with a higher incidence among girls than boys.
  • Girls aged 14-18 were more likely than boys to report that mean or nasty comments had been made about them or sent to them, more likely to have had lies or rumours told about them, and more likely to have been excluded from an online group.
  • Boys aged 14-18 were however more likely than girls to report that someone had tried to blackmail them, that they had been threatened online, or that their account had been hacked.
  • LGBTQI+ young people aged 14-18 were more likely than heterosexual young people to report that they had received mean or nasty comments or that they had been threatened.
  • Less than a third (31%) of 14-18 year olds said that they had reported the cyberbullying compared to almost half (47%) of 8-13 year olds. In both cases children and young people are more likely to tell their friends than family members or someone at school.
  • While incidents of online bullying were reported to have very significant emotional impact on the children and young people concerned, it was striking how some of the young people appeared to accept a certain level of online risk and danger, and appeared confident in dealing with such incidents.

The authors of the Spotlight report welcome the news that the UK’s Online Safety Act was granted Royal Assent on 26 October 2023, which legally obliges internet and social media companies to do more to protect their users, with hefty fines imposed if they fail in their new duty of care.

Lead author, Prof Noel Purdy, commented, “This is an important report which provides fresh evidence of the extent of online bullying among our children and young people in Northern Ireland.  In this Anti-Bullying Week, we hope that the findings will help inform educators and policy makers as they seek to keep our children safe online.”

The Growing Up Online Spotlight Report on Cyberbullying can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/spotlightcyberbullying

Education Workshop goes ‘Beyond the Stereotype’

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

A lively discussion involving around 50 representatives from churches, schools and a range of other key organisations with a role in education took place in Portadown, on Friday (25th March) with a view to helping our children and young people to reach their full potential.

The workshop at Seagoe Parish Centre was hosted by the Transferor Representatives’ Council (TRC) – representing the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian Church and Methodist Church in relation to education in Northern Ireland – and focused on a new research report from Stranmillis University College, Beyond the Stereotype: Approaches to Educational Under(Achievement) in the Controlled Sector in Northern Ireland.

The study, which was commissioned and funded by the TRC, aims to go ‘beyond the stereotype’ of the well-documented challenge of underachievement among Protestant working-class boys from disadvantaged inner-city communities, and to ‘cast the net wider’ to provide a broader and more representative picture.  Particular challenges in rural communities, which have not been reported extensively to date in previous studies, are identified with some school leaders speaking of the difficulty in motivating boys to work hard towards GCSEs.

Significantly, Beyond the Stereotype also finds that while pupils view educational achievement as largely related to success in external exams (such as GCSEs and A-levels), many school and community leaders (including employers) place greater value on a wider range of skills and abilities, and pupils’ mental and physical health, self-confidence, happiness and willingness to learn.

Dr Noel Purdy, who led the research through Stranmillis’ Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement, said: “We’ve certainly identified lots of challenges – there are big challenges facing controlled schools and indeed every school in Northern Ireland – but what we did see was a diverse, committed, community-orientated and innovative sector which is committed to maximising achievement for all children.  In other words, allowing all the children in schools to stand tall and achieve to their full potential.”

The TRC represents its member churches in all matters of education in the region, and oversees the appointment of over 1,500 governors to controlled schools.  The three churches transferred (hence the origin of transferors) their school buildings, pupils and staff into state control on the understanding that the Christian ethos of these schools would be maintained.

You can find out more about the TRC through its website at www.trc-churcheducation.org.  More information on the work of the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) can be found at www.stran.ac.uk/research/creu

 

Taoiseach announces research funding for Stranmillis-led ‘BUDDIES project’

Posted on by Andrew McAteer

An all-Ireland team led by Stranmillis University College’s Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) have been successful in being awarded a significant funding award for research through the Irish government’s Shared Island initiative and SCoTENS. The development was announced today in a keynote address to the Shared Island Forum by Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

The BUDDIES Project will examine the role and potential of the Home-School Community Liaison (HSCL) coordinator in terms of addressing educational disadvantage across the island of Ireland.

The research will be a collaborative project with University College Dublin (UCD) and Marino Institute of Education (MIE).

Led by Dr Glenda Walsh, Assistant Director of CREU and Head of Early Years Education, the Stranmillis research team includes Dr Jill Dunn, Dr Ken Gibson and Dr Karen Orr, working in conjunction with southern partners Dr Seaneen Sloan at UCD, and Dr Cliodhna Martin at MIE.

Professor Colleen McLaughlin, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, will play a role as an expert advisor.

The HSCL works at the intersection between home and school, supporting children and families in the process, particularly in areas of high deprivation and those at risk of educational underachievement. It is all about enhancing partnerships with families so that they value and support their children’s education more fully.

The research aims to provide a fuller understanding of the role of HSCL coordinators across the full educational spectrum and to guide policy-makers and practitioners in their knowledge and appreciation of the value of HSCL coordinators, particularly for those facing disadvantage.

Welcoming the news, Dr Glenda Walsh said “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to work with University College Dublin and Marino Institute of Education on such a timely and significant project.  Positive home-school partnerships are hugely beneficial in terms of tackling educational underachievement so learning more about best practice in this field will no doubt prove beneficial across the educational spectrum.”

Director of CREU, Dr Noel Purdy, said “There is so much to be learnt from the sharing of experiences and expertise with our closest neighbours and so we are very grateful to SCoTENS and the Shared Island initiative for funding this north-south research.  I know that the findings will be keenly anticipated by school leaders, researchers and policy makers on both sides of the border.”