A YORK school is part of a pioneering £2.5 million project to get the best new education research into teachers’ hands.

Huntington School is one of just five across England to be named a “research school”, and each will get £200,000 over three years to build a network and help 1,000 other schools.

The project, which has been launched today, is funded by grants from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the York-based Institute for Effective Education (IEE) in a bid to ensure research about teaching and learning make a difference in classrooms.

Huntington deputy head Alex Quigley is director of the new research school, and said they were delighted to get started.

“It is crucial, at a challenging time for teachers and school leaders, to support schools with the best evidence and tools possible. We believe research evidence can play a role in supporting decision-making in schools to improve education for the children of Yorkshire and support our school-led system.

“There are lots of exciting partnerships to develop between great schools and it is great to see York at the heart of this development.”

Huntington and schools in Macclesfield, Lincoln, Kingsbridge in Devon and Sandwell in the West Midlands are the first research schools to be named. Next year, another five will be announced.

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Huntington headteacher John Tomsett said: “The benefits to Huntington are huge as we get access to the best thinking on teaching and learning in the world. Our job then is to make sure we support other schools in benefitting from such expertise.”

He said their challenge was to help grow other research schools to create a network across the region, which are using evidence to support the development of teaching. Huntington will use communications and events to help other schools to use evidence-based programmes in their teaching. It will set up training for other teachers on how they can use research to improve classroom practice, and will help schools find their own innovative improvements, and provide the expertise to evaluate its impact.

Professor Bette Chambers, director of the Institute for Effective Education, added: “There is increasing demand from the profession for evidence-based programmes and practices to help teachers ensure the success of their pupils. It is heartening to see the strong leadership these first five Research Schools are bringing to this endeavour.”