Paul Hamlyn MoE Project: Interim Report

Iona Towler-Evans & Eirwen Hopkins January 2022

This Evaluation is of a Training Programme run as part of Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Participation Programme, designed to assist teachers to access new pedagogies, and to embed effective new teaching methodologies in general educational practice.

This Training Programme was led by two highly experienced Heathcote practitioners, Luke Abbott and Tim Taylor, who have done much to promulgate her pedagogy in schools and universities, nationally and internationally. The programme was co-ordinated by a teacher and deputy head teacher, Helen Chapman, who had previously undergone training with the trainers, and who was practising it in her teaching context. Her work with children, and other schools’ Heathcote practice, had been witnessed by some teachers in neighbouring schools, and teachers had been persuaded of the benefits of learning more of the pedagogy. Helen Chapman selected nine schools to participate in the programme; all church schools: Carreghofa, Welshampton, Oakmeadow, Newtown, Trefonen, Llansantffraid, Whittington, Morda, and Llandysilio.

This interim report gives details on the progress of the project since 2019, including details of the effects of the COVID crisis, and outlines some of the benefits recognised but the project teachers at the halfway point. These include:

• A significant number of PTs were committed to teaching the curriculum in a more meaningful way. This was particularly noticeable in the Welsh schools, where the curriculum has recently changed.
• A significant percentage of teachers expressed considerable understanding of the principles behind Mantle pedagogy before the PTs actually began their training
• This was particularly true of the 5 teachers whose narratives we explored in depth
• Seeing the effect of Mantle on children’s learning, independence and responsibility was a key factor in their belief that Mantle was worth doing
• Most expressed a desire to work collaboratively with others
• The role of the Co-ordinator within the schools’ network was highly significant in fuelling their beliefs in Mantle as a worthwhile approach, particularly as she was a qualified Mantle practitioner, who demonstrated the practice to colleagues