2020-08-31-accounts

Collaborative Lesson Research (CLR)

Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity Number 1183454

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE PERIOD ENDING AUGUST 2020

The Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the period starting 16 May 2019 and ending 31 August 2020.

I. Objectives and Activities

CLR’s ultimate objective is to improve student learning through school-based action research into classroom teaching and subject knowledge. More specifically, our aim is to promote: (a) practical knowledge about how best to teach, how to build curricular coherence, and how to produce better textbooks; (b) professional development of teachers; (c) professional networks and communication channels through which new teaching-related knowledge can be shared. This is to be achieved through the implementation of a form of Japanese lesson study, adapted to the UK environment. We also strive to inform and influence the wider public and policy makers about teaching and learning processes with a view to improving the educational context.

There have been two types of activities during this start-up period:

1. Public events for professional development and knowledge exchange. Activities to share knowledge and information about Lesson Study and how to improve teaching and learning, targeting educators at large, but open to anyone with an interest

2. Research and Development. Developing (a) good practice of Japanese Lesson Study fit for the UK environment, and (b) improved mechanisms to introduce such good practice to develop and sustain communities of practice

In shaping the objectives and planning our activities, the Trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

II. Organisational development

Organisational development was an important focus for CLR during this first period of operation, particularly to ensure the effective participation of volunteers in shaping the organizational work.

Strategy Group (SG) was set up as an executive advisory group comprising 5 Trustees with up to 10 additional members. SG members have: (a) helped to shape our charity’s vision, (b) committed time and energy to advise on the future course of CLR, (c) taken on the key roles to plan and organise activities/events

Development Group (DG) has been under development to create a group of enthusiastic and competent practitioners who would work collaboratively with CLR to develop good

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Lesson Study practices fit for the UK environment, with a view to developing geographical clusters to support the development of communities of good practice.

Partnerships. In recognition that some institutions with similar visions are already active, CLR has focussed on identifying and working with them, particularly in our research and development projects.

III. Achievements and performance

Public events for professional development and knowledge exchange

• Public workshop on curricular coherence and lesson study (July 2019) CLR arranged this as a free public event, in collaboration with Loughborough University. It comprised 2 expert speakers from Tokyo Gakugei University, who have been key partners for CLR and who lead efforts to reform Japanese maths lessons through LS in Japan, as well as British academics from Loughborough and Nottingham Universities. The workshop was attended by a highly diverse group of educators, including teachers, academics, advisors and other maths education experts.

• Professional development workshops on lesson study (December 2019). CLR organised four one-day workshops for maths educators, two in each of two locations, each one featuring a well established Japanese Lesson Study speaker. Participants were charged a fee. In each location, one workshop was designed as an introduction to Lesson Study for educators new to Lesson Study, and the other was designed at intermediate level for those with some previous experience of Lesson Study. The workshops were implemented in collaboration with ‘Babcock International’ in Exeter and with ‘Learning Unlimited Teaching School Alliance’ in Sheffield.

• Newsletters

Over this period, seven issues of the CLR newsletter have been shared with the community. Newsletters included: articles written by members of the community sharing their experiences of collaborative lesson study; reports of CLR events; links to recent research (national and international); information about lesson study events in which members are encouraged to participate.

Research and Development for Good Practices

• Exploratory Visit to Japan on Curricular Coherence and Lesson Study (Nov 2019) The visit was implemented with financial support from Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation . Five delegates from CLR joined a research trip organized by academics in Loughborough and Nottingham Universities in order to explore (a) the nature of Japanese curricular coherence, (b) how curricular coherence emerges as a result of Lesson Study practices, (c) what institutional arrangements underpinned such knowledge creation and dissemination. The group observed lesson studies, interviewed academic and text book publishers and considered the applicability of their observations to the English context.

• An experimental online course for training “final commentators”

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This course was implemented with a Japanese expert based in the US. ‘Final commentators’ play a critical role in ensuring high quality learning in the Lesson Study process in Japan, but it has not been easy for UK educators to assume such a role. The experimental course demonstrated that there was a healthy appetite amongst educators for such professional development, and that CLR could offer some variant of such on-line courses in the future.

• Shanghai-UK Lesson Study Comparison Project

• CLR launched this project with collaborators in Shanghai, mediated by Lesson Study UK , in order to compare the lesson study experience in Shanghai with CLR’s current practice in the UK. The main motivation was to explore what could be learned from Shanghai’s Lesson Study practice, given that Shanghai Maths has been an important influence in the UK. A preparatory grant from Cambridge Maths (£10,000) was obtained to support a pilot project in Autumn 2019, the purpose of which was to improve the quality of CLR’s lesson study processes, through (a) sharing good practice across participating schools and advisors, and (b) developing curricular information resources to support teachers to deepen their research. A partnership with an online professional development company, IRIS Connect , was developed, so that project teams could use its technological platform to take and share videos of the lesson study cycles. Unfortunately owing to the Covid-lockdown, the project could not be completed as planned. The Shanghai lesson video was shared with the UK participants in Spring 2020 and a web-based discussion session was conducted to summarise their observations.

IV. Financial review (financial year ends 31[st] August)

Balance as at May 16[th] 2019 £2 392.71 Balance as at August 31[st] 2020 £10 724.38

Income for the period May 16[th] 2019 – August 31[st] 2019

Income for the period May 16th 2019 – August 31st 2019
1Reimbursement from University of Nottingham	£1 500
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation grant	£7 000
Cambridge Mathematics sponsorship for lesson study project	£10 000
Total	£18 500

Income for the period 1[St] September 2019 – August 31[st] 2020

Income for the period 1St September 2019 – August 31st 2020
2Income from lesson study events held in Exeter and Sheffield	£7 400
TOTAL	£7 400

Notes:

1. In advance of CLR holding a bank account, funds were held by the University of Nottingham. Accumulated funds were later transferred.

2. The proceeds, net of catering, venue and administration costs incurred by the collaborating organizations.

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Expenditure for the period May 16[th] 2019 – August 31[st] 2020

Public events for professional development and knowledge exchange	£4 776.59
Research and Development	£11 864.45
Governance and administration	£927.29
TOTAL	£17 568.33

V. Structure, governance and management

Charitable Incorporated Organization: Charity Registration Number 1183454 Governing document: constitution effective dated 16 May 2019

Founding Trustees: 16 May 2019 for the term of 3 years renewable up to 5 years

• Geoffrey Wake, Chair

• Sachi Hatakenaka, Deputy Chair

• Sarah Seleznyov, Secretary

• Rachael Horsman, Treasurer

• Matt Lewis, Trustee

Strategy Group Members: all Trustees plus

• Dr. Julie Alderton, University of Cambridge

• Dr. Rosa Archer, Manchester University

• Prof. Mike Askew, Wits University

• Simon Mazumder, Director, Alliance for Learning

• Luke Rolls, Assistant Head, Cambridge University Primary School

• Bob Sawyer, Independent Advisor

• Dr. Ruth Trundley, Team Lead/Primary Maths Advisor, Babcock LDP

• Matilde Warden, Vice Principal, Bluecoat Beechdale Academy

• Matt Woodford, Nottingham Trent University

Approved by order of the board of trustees on 17 June 2021 and signed on its behalf by:

Sachi Hatakenaka _____________

Rachael Horsman _____________

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