The impact of residential experiences on pupil progress and attainment in Year 6 (10-11 year olds)
Lyones et al, University of Cumbria, 2019
A comparative study aimed to explore the impact of residential experiences on progress and attainment in Year 6 as highlighted in previous research findings, and to improve understanding around the complexities of the factors influencing the outcomes of residential experiences.
This study was a successor to the 2015 Learning Away research report which sought to demonstrate the positive impact that high-quality residential learning can have on learner engagement and achievement, on peer and teacher-student relationships and on the professional development opportunities they can provide for staff.
The 2015 report found that school residential experiences improve student engagement with learning, improve knowledge, skills and understanding, support student achievement, foster deeper relationships with peers and teachers, improve student resilience, self-confidence and wellbeing, provide opportunities for student leadership, co-design and collaboration, boost cohesion and a sense of belonging, smooth transition experiences between primary and secondary schools, and widen and deepen teachers’ pedagogical skills.
Findings
- Curriculum focused residentials: Where residential experiences were designed specifically to address curriculum content they impacted significantly on progression and attainment.
- Supporting vulnerable pupils: Residential experiences supporting pupils facing unanticipated challenges enabled those children to achieve expected results in SATs tests.
- Behaviour change: Residential experiences developed a range of positive learning behaviours that affected socialisation, maturation and proactive learning behaviours that were sustained in the classroom post-residential.
- Impact on relationships: Due to the unique nature of school residential experiences, the “informal” period outside of designated activity time allowed for positive relationships to be built and developed between pupils and teachers which significantly impacted on teaching and learning after returning to school.
- Progression: Due to the duration of sessions and the opportunity to experience progress in both practical, learning and social skills over the extended time, school residentials have an enhanced impact on the capabilities of pupils to make progress and to take responsibility for their own learning.
- Increased understanding and awareness: Teachers used the residential experience to get a greater understanding of the current, hidden and new interests and capabilities of their pupils. The residential experience provided teachers with the opportunity to see how new learning strategies and approaches helped engage pupils and influence peer relationships, which they were then able to use and build on after returning to school.
Implications for practice
- The importance of the informal time made possible by the intensive, 24/7 nature of a residential experience cannot be underestimated in terms of building and strengthening a learning and social community.
- Where schools reinforced the personal development lessons learned on the residential and used the study that took place during that time, this led to an increase in predicted SATs results.
- Residential experiences support vulnerable learners and enable them to achieve their expected results in SATs assessments.
- The real value of residential experiences is in developing character, resilience, pro-social behaviours and learning communities.
