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2020-07-31-accounts

Annual General Meeting Saturday 21st November 2020 at 10.30 am This meeting will be held remotely

Chair’s Report on behalf of the Trustees of ASPE

Overview

Once again, it is my pleasure to report on behalf of the National Executive Committee of ASPE and its trustees, activities and developments over the past twelve months. Despite a few setbacks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic the year has been a very productive for the Association. As required by the Charity Commission, Members of our Committee have worked collectively to develop and promote ASPE’s objects.

The Association has continued to implement its new strategy which is:

  1. To seek partnerships with other organisations that have the capacity to plan and organise, but may struggle to fully fund such events. In doing so ASPE aims to influence the content to promoting reflective and researched practice, and in suggesting speakers who have written for our Journal Education 3-13. This provide a platform for ASPE to have presence at the event, attracting new members and to promote itself.

  2. To financially support small projects in schools, academy trusts and alliances, and encouraging growth in the number of teachers/schools undertaking their own school-based research. In doing so ASPE provides an opportunity to suggest academics and current researchers who provide coaching on the selection of research methods.

Practitioners are encouraged to collate written reports describing their project and provide opportunities to write articles about the findings to share in the primary education field. ASPE also suggests possibilities for organising dissemination activities at a regional level .

  1. To support the Deputy Editor of Education 3-13 with ‘Special Issues’ linking the theme to events/conferences. This brings together Education 3-13 with ASPE’s programme of activities. ASPE may part-fund such an event.

The overall aim of this strategy is to provide the Association with a wider platform, more recognition and opportunities to promote a better understanding about the core purposes of ASPE to become better known and for its work to be better understood.

The work of the Executive Committee

Members were saddened by the premature death earlier this year of one of our Executive Committee members, Dr John Ryan. He will be remembered for this insight drawn from a distinguished career in primary education and his pleasant and kind personality. He will be greatly missed.

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The Executive has ten Members/Trustees who are individually strong and collectively they promote the purposes of ASPE. They represent schools, universities and the broader education community. They meet four times a year and make an outstanding contribution to activities, events and research project. They are active in ensuring ASPE policies and ways of working are fully up-to-date and fit for purpose.

The Committee continues to embrace newer structures within our education system, including academies, multi-academy trusts, federations, teaching school alliances, SCITTs and other networks.

Earlier in this report, I informed members of the new strategy which aims to focus more sharply on the key objects of ASPE which are enshrined in our Constitution. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has disrupted some of our activities. Our regular meetings are now held remotely. The closure of schools has seriously delayed their plans for high status research projects, and related seminars and events has been curtailed.

However, there has been a positive side. The Committee has taken action by taking steps to combat effects of the pandemic on its plans by doing things differently. Since March 2020, all Executive meetings have been held virtually with improved attendance overall. Whilst some activities have been put on hold, momentum has been maintained through video conferencing. The response has been very impressive.

During the first phase of the pandemic most pupils worked from home, resulting in teachers and managers in schools having to rethink how to maintain contact and address emerging differences. Our Committee decided to engage in their own research to identify the perceptions of parents, teachers, managers and the pupils themselves through Zoom interviews in order to gather evidence.

Events:

  1. In late January 2020, we were delighted to sponsor an Outdoor Learning Conference, in liaison with Plymouth Marjon University and the Peninsula Research in Outdoor Learning (PRinOL). The event was attended by over 110 delegates. As a result of our engagement, nearly all speakers at this event had in recent years written academic articles for Education 3-13. This conference was a real success in bring their research into the work of practitioners present. The supporting of this conference reinforces ASPE’s belief in the broad and balanced curriculum and providing opportunities for children to learn outside the classroom.

  2. In early February 2020, ASPE sponsored the second National Research Conference held at City Hall in London, attended by 180 delegates. the theme was pupil Behaviour and Well-being. This is the second time we have been able to sponsor this series of conferences by the conference organisers the London South Teaching School Alliance. As well as an opportunity to make excellent use of our resources in supporting research dissemination we were successful in putting over our message to those present.

  3. The Executive looks forward to the next Conference in this series in March 2021, which will be sponsoring again. Two of our Committee members Gill Johnson and Naheeda Maharasingam will be presenting at this virtual event.

  4. The Education Learning Trust (ELT), based in Greater Manchester, are, despite the lockdown continuing to work towards representing their research at a forthcoming conference based on the theme of Children’s Agency in the Curriculum. This work has attracted the attention of Professor Dominic Wyse, of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (HHCP) at UCL. A virtual

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seminar has been launched in November 2020 to gain common agreement on how the promote this initiative nationally with a plan to run a large national event in June 2021. This development is a partnership involving ASPE, the ELT and the HHCP. The November Seminar has attracted over 20 invited guests put forward by the three partnership groups.

ASPE nominations include the Chair of ASPE and Megan Dixon, together with leading experts in the field of Primary Education:

It was with regret that the conference Approaches to SEND in a highly challenging inner-city area, planned for March 2020 had to be cancelled. This conference was planned to follow the ASPE funded research on the subject, based in Liverpool John Moores University and the City Learning Trust in Stoke-on-Trent. The Education 3-13 ‘Special’ linked to this theme was successfully published earlier in 2020.

Research Projects

As mentioned earlier we are developing partnerships with colleagues in universities colleges and schools. ASPE’s policy is to part-fund these projects and help advise and shape the direction of them. We encourage those participating to publish a report on the design and approaches used and the outcomes. ASPE also encourages dissemination of the project and its findings through seminars and workshops.

The Projects

  1. The Executive’s own research into the impact of COVID-19 on the primary school community. This has been led by Gill Johnson with contributions from other committee members, and the cooperation of a small sample of schools from across the UK representing a wide range of communities they serve. The research involves interviews and questionnaires that have been analysed and documented for validity. The research represents the views and perspectives of parents, pupils, and staff in schools and will be later extended to governors. When complete there will be four separate Bulletins with the findings based on the perspectives of each of these groups. I would like to thank Gill for coordinating this worthwhile project.

  2. ASPE continues to support for the Education Learning Trust in Stockport, in Greater Manchester and the development of its project involving some 15 teachers from different schools researching their ‘Children’s Agency in the ‘Primary Curriculum’ . As mentioned earlier this has attracted the attention of Prof. Dominic Wyse at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy at UCL.

  3. Support continues for the Metacognition Research Group led by the Executive Headteacher from Rathfern Primary School in Lewisham, S.E. London. The project involves 16 teachers from 8 schools from the local Research Hub and will research the Effectiveness of Metacognition as part of day-to-day Teaching. The project is in collaboration with the University of Exeter. COVID19 has delayed this project that will now run into 2021.

  4. ASPE has provided financial support to St Ebbe’s CE Primary School in Oxford where research is being undertaken to Developing a curriculum focusing on the use of ‘Narrative Techniques’. This will be supported by Dr Debra Kidd. The schools research itself has been supported by Professor Hugh Starkey of UCL Institute of Education, who chairs the school’s Curriculum Committee.

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  1. A very recent research project is being led by Dr Alex Southern from Institute of Education, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) in association with the UWTSD Athrofa Professional Learning Partnership (APLP). There will be links between the University of Nottingham and teachers in ten Welsh Partnership primary schools and the project will include professional development of teachers from the schools in the application of research skills to enable them to independently evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches in both teaching and learning.

ASPE is particularly interested in this development because it exemplifies the Welsh Government’s policy to introduce research skills into the training and development of all teachers.

- Seminars emerging from Education 3 13 Special Issues

Part of the new strategy is to try, where possible, to link the themes from the Education 3-13 Special Issues to conferences and events where research can be disseminated to practitioners attending them. We are building on the success of our first seminar based on an earlier Special Issue on the Humanities (published in June 2017). The guest editor, Dr Tony Eaude, organised a seminar which has later led to the creation of a new driving force in the broad and balanced curriculum: Humanities 20:20.

In the pipeline there are Special Issues on Reading with the guest editor Professor Roger Beard and following on from this will the Science Education , which will be an international issue, with guest editors from India and Johannesburg.

Publications

The Journal: Education 3-13

The ASPE Journal Education 3-13 has increased to 8 issues per year. We have recently the annual report form our publishers Routledge. The highlights from this report include:

Our editor Mark Brundrett is delighted with this outcome which shows that the number of downloads is continuing to rise, the submission of articles is continuing to increase, satisfaction levels are high, and the Journal’s impact factor has risen once again. I would like to thank Mark

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and his team for their continued commitment to the Education 3-13 Journal. The indicators show the Journal is making a major contribution to research in primary education throughout the World.

In addition, it is important to recognise that the revenue from the sale of Education 3-13 enables ASPE to fund research projects in schools and conference events. It also helps to further our objects in promoting study and research in primary education so well.

The ASPE Bulletin.

I am pleased to report that this exciting initiative, launched in January 2019, has been well received by those in the primary community and beyond. Due to the lockdown we have had to send out the Bulletin in electronic format but they are still available in published and printed format for distribution at future events.

I am very grateful to all those who have agreed to write for the Bulletin. Their work has been valued, especially in schools, throughout and beyond the UK. As mentioned earlier our committee has launched as special series covering the impact of the pandemic on the primary school community as perceived by pupils, parents, teachers and school leaders and school governors. I am grateful to Gill Johnson, one of our Executive Members for coordinating the expertise of our Committee in researching the COVID-19 series. I would also like to thank Malini Mistry, our Bulletin Editor for her support and for helping to make the Bulletin initiative such a success.

Successful issues and topics covered over the past year have included:

Website and social networking

We have further improved to our website in order to make it more appealing. If you would like to submit anything of interest for the website, do not hesitate to get in touch with our web editor Malini Mistry at - malini.mistry@beds.ac.uk

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I would like to thank Malini for her work in liaising with our publisher and others, in order to keep the website up-to-date.

We have recently identified a keen practicing teacher to coordinate and help make better use of our Twitter account. This will prove useful to the education community in forthcoming months. I would like to thank Chloe Lasher for accepting this role.

Membership

Our Membership Secretary will provide a full report later in this meeting. We have a loyal core membership of ASPE, some members have supported the association for many years. Overall membership is stable and we currently there are 118 members. We have an active PO Box and dedicated email address to enable membership enquiries. The general email address is aspeinfo@aol.com Recruitment of new members has been a challenge this year with fewer opportunities to present at conferences and events.

Finances

Our Treasurer will outline in her report our current finances. We continue to be in a very strong financial position. We are continuing to ensure that royalties received from Education 3 -13 are spent on events and other activities that promote the overall objects of ASPE, as outlined in our commitment to the Charity Commission supported by the new strategy described earlier. I would like to thank our Treasurer, Jill Adams for her work in keeping our finances in good order, throughout the year.

Conclusion

This year has been a very important one for ASPE. We have developed a new strategy for making our Association more relevant to members and at the same time strengthened our purpose through more focused delivery. We strive to lead the way in encouraging practitioners to develop learning opportunities based on good evidence, professional dialogue and the very best of classroom practice.

I would sincerely like to thank all members of our Executive Committee for their excellent work and commitment throughout the year. I would like to thank our Vice-Chair, Roy Hughes for his commitment and support. I would also like to thank the Education Learning Trust, its Chief Executive Michelle Murray and her staff for coordinating our membership enquiries, chasing payments etc. and for the administration and publication of the Bulletin. Both duties are time consuming in the ever-demanding workload in schools.

Despite having very busy lives, all of our Committee Members give their time generously to execute their duties in a very professional manner through attending meetings and other events and responding to initiatives throughout the year.

Finally, I would like to thank all ASPE members for their continued loyalty. Please help us to recruit and spread the good word to your friends and colleagues. We are the only Association that promotes, solely as its main purpose, the significance of researched practice in Primary Education. There has never been a time when ASPE’s work is so much needed and relevant.

As always, if you have any comments to make about anything raised in this report, please let me know. I can be contacted at aspecommunications@aol.com

15[th] November 2020

Paul Latham Chair ASPE

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ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2020
2020 2019
INCOME £ £ £ £
Subscriptions 1,515.00 1,070.00
Interest 117.93 88.55
Other Income 0.00 0.00
Royalties- Informa UK 69,219.19 60,510.89
Conference Sales 400.00 71,252.12 1,795.16 63,464.60
EXPENDITURE
CommitteeTravel 2,542.08 3,177.40
NAPE Publication 0.00 1,750.00
AdministrationServices 5,972.37 6,717.66
Liverpool JMU 0.00 6,432.80
ASPE Chair Expenses 1,500.00 6,000.00
Research Project 0.00 3,500.00
3-13Publication 21,086.00 26,653.00
Insurance 374.44 374.44
CommitteeMeetings 1,736.00 2,388.00
Conference Costs2019/20 8,722.54 41,933.43 3,960.00 60,953.30
ProfitfortheYear 29,318.69 2,511.30
ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 JULY 2020
2020 2019
CURRENT ASSETS £ £ £ £
CashatBank
ReserveAccount 77,774.74 63,990.05
CurrentAccount 250.00 78,024.74 250.00 64,240.05
CURRENT LIABILITIES
Royaltiesin Advance 22,292.00 37,916.00
Subscriptions in Advance 1,605.00 23,897.00 1,515.00 39,431.00
54,127.74 24,809.05
REPRESENTED BY:-
AccumulatedFund as at1 Aug2019 24,809.05 22,297.75
ProfitfortheYear 29,318.69 2,511.30
54,127.74 24,809.05
BANK RECONCILIATION STATEMENT AS AT 31 JULY 2020
£ £
Balance as per BankStatement 77,774.74
Add: Outstanding Lodgements 0.00 0.00
Less: Unpresented cheques 0.00 0.00
Balance as per cashbook 77,774.74

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examlner 5 Report Raport to tho trustso81 mombars of 15s cf4Afi C TAE CJF ÉrLEAfi4L On acoounts for the y•ar ended Charfty no (If any) aoso IOq14-ql Sat out on page8 I report to the trustees on my examination of th8 accounts of the abov ch8rity (Ihe Trust.) for the year ended Rosponslbiliti•s and ba818 of report As th8 charity's trustees, ar8 responsible for th8 pr8paration of the aeeounts In a¢cordanc6 wlth the requlrements of the Charltles Aet 2011 (Ihe Acr). I report in respe(* of my oxamination of the Trust's accounts Carried out under s8Ctron 145 of the 2011 Act and In c4rrying out my examlnation. I have followed all the applicable Th'rection5 given by th8 Charrty Commission under sec1M￿ 145(5Xb) CA the Acl. Inde￿ndant rrhe charity's gro￿ income éxeeeded £250,1YXI and l am qualified to èxamln•f8 ststement undertakè the examinati¢)n by being a qualif￿￿ membèr of linsert name of applcabk hslea tsodyll. De18¢e [ ] Mnot appknble. I have ￿rnpleted my examination. l ¢x)nfKm that no material matters have come to my attention in c¢Mn8CtK)n with the eXamInatK￿ (other than that dlsclosed belthy") g￿e$ me ca(sse to bet¢fft h. any matthal respèct. the accountlng records not keFI In acoxdanca 8eGtlon 130 of the Charitie8 Act; or the accounts did not compty with the applicable requirements concemirKJ the fomi and content of &txounts set out In the Charitl8s (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement consldefed as part of an Independ8nt examlnatlon. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection wilh the ex8min8tion to which attention should be dravm in this report in order to enable a woper underslandino of Ihe acc(xmls to be reactr￿. ' Pl88se delete e words In thé brackets If they do not apply. Name: R•l•vanl wof•••ioftal quallficatlon(8) or body IER Oct 2018