Support Staff Research Project
Other Research Projects
The research team behind the Support Staff Research Project are also involved with a number of other research projects. Details of these are shown below.
Class Size Research Project
This project aimed to study comprehensively for the first time in the UK the effect of class size and pupil/adult ratios
upon pupils' academic attainment and on classroom processes such as teaching, pupil attention and pupil relations.
The first section of the study examined the influence of class size from school entry in the reception year (4/5 years)
through Key Stage 1 (5-7 years). The second stage of the study extended the project to an examination of Key Stage 2
(7-11 years). Both stages of the project are now complete.
The study offered an integrated account linking class size, classroom processes and academic attainment, and seeks to solve a long standing puzzle - why the view of professionals and parents that small classes provide a better quality of teaching and learning has not always been supported by research findings.
For further information please visit www.classsizeresearch.org.uk
The Breaktime Project
This project is an independent national survey of break and lunch times in primary and secondary schools in the UK.
The project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation and is directed by Professor Peter Blatchford and Dr Ed Baines.
Systematic information on breaktimes is not collected by the DfES or any other organisation and thus there is
little understanding about these important aspects of school. The research will follow up a national survey conducted
by Prof. Blatchford 10 years ago which identified marked changes in the school day, the reduction and abolition of
lunch and the afternoon break, and the suggestion that pupil behaviour out of school had worsened. Since then further
changes have taken place in schools (e.g. extended school services, and community use, after school clubs and further
adjustments to breaktime) and we are keen to identify the extent of these changes. Results from this research will help
share practice across schools and will inform management decisions and educational and social policy about breaktime and
school.
For further information please visit the project website at www.breaktime.org.uk
Within Class Pupil Grouping Practices in Primary and Secondary Schools
This research was a survey of the nature and use of grouping practices in primary and secondary school classrooms.
This project was funded by the ESRC and co-directed with Peter Kutnick. The research examined the use of different
teaching contexts (e.g. whole class teaching, group-work, individual work etc.) relative to grouping sizes, task types,
classroom organisation, curriculum area and so on.
This project was completed a few years ago. more details are available from the SPRinG Project website at www.spring-project.org.uk