From broad ranging ‘health checks’ to tailored research and evaluation projects, we can provide your trust or school with insights and evidence to help monitor and achieve your school improvement objectives.
What we are offering
A full programme of research in the form of an overall ‘health check’ of your trust or school, or a ‘pick and mix’ selection of the following:
- Analysis of progress and attainment data to include summary reporting to help inform monitoring and development activities
- Performance analysis for different groups of pupils (e.g. grouping by pupils’ gender, by eligibility for the Pupil Premium, or by comparing across classes or schools) to identify areas for improvement and areas of strengths so that good practice can be shared to support school improvement
- Consultations with parents (via online or paper questionnaires, or in-person activities such as ‘school gate’ polling or interviewing, or more detailed focus groups)
- Consultations with staff (e.g. wellbeing or satisfaction surveys, interviews or focus groups)
- Pupil consultations and opinion gathering using age-appropriate methods (e.g. via surveys, polling exercises, or more in-depth data collection via group activities and discussions)
- Evaluations of change at your trust or school, for example, full and impartial evaluations of programmes or initiatives within the school(s) to assess both the implementation and impacts of these programmes
The research can be offered on a one-off basis for you to assess the current situation at your school(s) and to support you in planning for school improvement, or we can undertake regular activities to assist you in monitoring change on an ongoing basis or across a set period.
What the benefits are
Key benefits to your trust or school include:
An impartial and independent exploration of the situation within your trust or school to provide the evidence to support your planning and school improvement strategy- Be ‘Ofsted ready’ by having a deeper understanding of your data and having your own insights gathered via our range of stakeholder consultations and research
- Develop a deeper understanding of your trust’s or school’s performance through our analysis of data, including question-level analysis, which will be provided in an easily digestible format such as a summary report and/or presentation
- A more in-depth look at your school or trust, for example, by exploring the performance and experiences of different pupil groups (e.g. those eligible for Pupil Premium)
- Develop a thorough and more rounded evidence-base for your decision making, for example, by gathering the views of parents and staff
- Where groups of schools are involved (for example, all schools from a trust) we can produce comparative analyses across schools and provide individual schools with their results set against the results for all schools in their trust as a group
- Monitor trends in your trust or school by opting for a longer-term research approach to help you to assess the impact of change and evaluate any initiatives or programmes within the trust or school
Who we are
These research services are being offered as an exciting partnership between Select Statistics (a statistical consultancy based in Exeter) and Seymour Research (a research and evaluation company based in Totnes). Our teams are led by Jo Morrison and Kathy Seymour respectively who have a long history of successful collaborations on a wide range of educational research projects. Kathy has been a member of Select’s network of freelance consultants since its inception, and Jo and Kathy have worked together delivering successful projects, both in the past and more recently. Together Jo and Kathy have over 40 years of experience in conducting research, analysing and interpreting data and information, pertaining to schools and the education sector. They now bring together our complementary set of skills and expertise to offer these services to trusts and schools.
Jo Morrison
Jo is a Chartered Statistician who has worked in the field of educational statistics for over 20 years. Prior to joining Select Statistics she worked at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Jo has extensive experience of analytical techniques commonly used in the education sector; from simple descriptive statistics, to analysis of surveys and methods used to analyse assessments. She is familiar with analysing data from a variety of sources; from bespoke surveys and management information, through to datasets that are publicly available such as the National Pupil Database (NPD) and international studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Her experience includes analyses for individual schools’ self evaluation, benchmarking each school’s performance against a national comparison. As well as conducting analyses, Jo understands the importance of communicating results and she is adept at explaining statistical concepts to a wide variety of people, including research commissioners, teachers and practitioners, and parents.
Dr Kathy Seymour
Kathy has been an educational researcher since 1997. Before forming Seymour Research in 2012, she worked in educational research roles for two county councils, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), the University of Nottingham and AlphaPlus (an educational research and consultancy company). Kathy has extensive experience in undertaking research of both a qualitative (e.g. focus groups, interviews, etc.) and quantitative (e.g. questionnaires, polls, etc.) nature in the education sector. This includes the evaluation of school improvement programmes and initiatives, undertaking research and consultations for individual schools to assist with identifying strengths and weaknesses and in developing their strategies and improvement plans, and evaluating the effectiveness of broader educational programmes such as regional Music Hubs, SSIF programmes and national initiatives such as the introduction of Research Schools.
Find out more
Please contact us to find out more about how we can help you. We are always happy to have an informal chat about your research needs and to provide no obligation proposals and quotations for your research work.
Kathy
E: Kathy@seymour-research.co.uk, T: 01803 364200 / 07484 501972, or visit the Seymour Research website: 
Jo
E: Jo@select-statistics.co.uk, T: 01392 440426, or via the contact form here. 
Download our ‘Research Services for Multi Academy Trusts and Schools’ flyer here:
