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Breakthrough Program - Raising Boys’ Achievements
In September 2003, UK IF partnered with the Innovation Unit of the UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to create the Breakthrough Program to raise the level of boys’ achievement within school. The participating schools come from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, with one thing in common: aspiration – to help boys achieve their potential by working to change the systems by which schools deliver teaching and manage learning.
Key points
There were five key themes to raise boys’ achievement:
- improving teaching and learning methods
- using strong leadership to create an environment for change
- creating capacity
- mentoring and targeted intervention
- using data to drive improvement.
The first two waves were funded by the Innovation Unit and in 2005 the program began being funded by participating schools and their Local Education Authorities.
Achievements
All schools involved reported significant improvements in ethos and culture as well as improved attendance, behaviour and motivation amongst their boys. The program also impacted positively on the girls. In particular, the General Certificate of Secondary Education results showed that participating schools’ A - C grade performances were significantly higher than the national average.
Last Updated 27 October 2011
What is the Model for Improvement?
The Model for Improvement provides a framework for developing, testing and implementing changes. It helps to break down a change effort into small, manageable chunks which are then tested to ensure that things are improving and that no effort is wasted. It is always worth remembering that while every improvement is certainly a change, every change is not an improvement.
The Model for Improvement consists of two equal parts; the first part, the “thinking part”, consists of three fundamental questions to guide improvement work:
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- How will we know that a change is an improvement?
- What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?
For more information about the Model for Improvement visit: http://apcc.org.au/about_the_APCC/the_model_for_improvement/
What is a Collaborative program?
A Collaborative is an improvement method that relies on the distribution and adaptation of existing knowledge to multiple settings, to achieve a common aim. Healthcare Collaboratives are built on a tried and tested method, developed in the USA , which has been applied to a wide range of management challenges. It was originally applied to healthcare systems by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in the USA, and has been adopted in other countries. A Collaborative is not a research project, a set of conferences or a passive exercise. A Collaborative is about actually doing and improving.
What is the Collaborative Methodology?
Adapted from the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology, in the Australian context, the Collaborative methodology is used as a framework for the APCC Program. This methodology has been applied to a wide range of management challenges. Originally applied to healthcare systems in the USA, it has since been adopted in other countries, including the UK, Scotland, Canada and New Zealand.
The Collaborative methodology is proven to be highly effective in achieving large scale systems change and demonstrating measurable outcomes. It provides a generic quality improvement model that can be applied to achieve incremental, rapid and locally relevant improvements across a broad range of clinical and practice business issues.