About Relational Schools
Education research and consultancy group based in Cambridge, UK. We believe that outstanding education begins with good relationships.
Relational Schools Description
Education, in every country, is experiencing systematic and sustained reform; it presents great challenges but also great opportunities. Perhaps the greatest opportunity is to engage with a debate about what education is for. What appears certain, and this sentiment is echoed across national educational movements like Whole Education, work by the Human Scale Foundation and published research by think tanks such as the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), is that, ‘the focus on delivering measurable outcomes has neglected the importance of human relationships’ and, moreover, it ‘risks reducing the complexity and texture of human experience to a simple number, leading to policies and services that do not address the core of a problem’. Even respected international empirical measures such as PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) do not address this issue. It requires a redefinition of the very goals of education as well as its outcomes.
By redefining the goals of education through a relational lens, and a common language and framework of relationships, education becomes less about personal development and far more about the contribution of the individual to the social and political world as a community and as a humanity. In order to answer the fundamental question about what education should be for, Relational Thinking suggests a new vision for what we want to achieve as a society and the processes by which to achieve it; it suggests a new vision for organisations, which results in a different set of academic outcomes, and a different pedagogical process to achieve it. It signals a Copernican revolution which would transform the world we live in.
Reviews
Rob Loe launches the London miniseries of “Reach Teach Talk” with a powerful discussion on the importance of relational teaching. Listen and learn from the global research that supports connection-building in all classrooms.
The miniseries itself is produced by Nat Damon and the team at Reach Academics. Reach Academics launched 10 short months ago—at the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year. Their work extends from Nat's wonderful book, Time to Teach: Time to Reach - Expert Teachers Give Voice to the Power of Relational Teaching, published by Relationships Foundation.
RSE in action. Neuroscience tells us that children learn about relationships from experience and from their interactions with others. Until now, learning about relationship skills has been a lot about luck. It's time to be intentional..
Schools/colleges some of the key sites for relational capability to be taught and corrective action taken. It doesn't have to be this way...
We know this to be true and have published several major reports in this field. Check out our latest: https://relationalschools.org/2019/08/08/ 6223/.
Children's happiness is at its lowest level in 25 years. From poverty and crime, to exploitation and bullying, the realities of modern childhood exposed in our Good Childhood Report are harrowing...
"Secondary school students with more positive than negative relationships with their teachers are far more likely to enjoy school, participate in class and say they aspire to continue with specific subjects and their education more broadly, new research has found."
“More often than not,” Grenier replies, “parents want their children to be happy at school as well as to achieve. But we have a system that separates those things. It measures how well schools are doing in terms of numbers but it doesn’t take account of personal and social development.”
New short film released today (and report to accompany: https://relationalschools.org/…/08/06/c onnecting-activities/)!
Our third major project in the outdoor education space, this time with CVA in Australia and the findings internally uniform: when students build relationships outside of the classroom, they feel more connected to peers back in their class and particularly those with whom they previously had little engagement. They have greater recognition of their peers’ skills and qualities and a stronger sense of belonging in the group.
Emu Gully - Connecting Activities and Relational Proximity This video was filmed around our evaluation of the impact of one Australian school’s trip to Emu Gully camp for a range of outdoor activities. It captures the views of students, teachers and camp staff on how the activities help students to build a wider network of relationships, reset more difficult relationships, develop core relational skills and a better appreciation of their peers and teachers. [ 28 more words ] https://relationalschools.org/2019/08/08/ 6223/
Effective management of social capital within organisations facilitates learning and knowledge sharing, increases employee retention and engagement, reduces burnout, sparks innovation, and improves employee and organisational performance...
Connecting Activities The relational impact of a Year 11 outdoor education program at Emu Gully - A Relational Schools Report Relational Schools assessed how a trip to Emu Gully camp influenced the relationships in three Year 11 classes at an Australian school. Our measure of student-student relationships revealed a significant improvement. This was seen in students feeling more connected to students in their class with whom they previously had little engagement, greater recognition of their peers’ skills and qualities and a stronger sense of belonging in the group. Click here to download the report. https://relationalschools.org/portfo…/c onnecting-activities/
Relational Schools assessed how a trip to Emu Gully camp influenced the relationships in three Year 11 classes at an Australian school. Our measure of student-student relationships revealed a significant improvement. This was seen in students feeling more connected to students in their class with whom they previously had little engagement, greater recognition of their peers’ skills and qualities and a stronger sense of belonging in the group. Click here to read or download the full report. https://relationalschools.org/…/08/06/c onnecting-activities/
According to a recent study by YouGov, 30 per cent of millennials say they always or often feel lonely, a higher percentage than their generation X (20 per cent) and baby boomer (15 per cent) counterparts.
RF Conference: Early bird ticket window over on June 30th - https://mailchi.mp/e7b9af1a82df/our-first -newsletter-802415
RSE, Loneliness and Wellbeing https://relationalschools.org/…/rse-lon eliness-and-wellbei…/
https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/…/sc hool-reforms-have-no…’-attainment-le vels
“This research provides hard-edged evidence that by investing in their workforce, schools can improve both staff well-being and school performance. This finding is particularly timely given the Government’s renewed focus on teacher recruitment and retention.”
Join us for our RF Annual Conference in Cambridge - https://mailchi.mp/c0ad619fa666/our-first -newsletter-791371
Very proud to be sharing in the successes of the Suffolk and Norfolk SCITT. It has been a privilege engaging with them over the last two years.
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