British Model Schools Studied

The current British Government has made education one of the Kingdom's key issues. The identification and public recognition of 'good practice' has become the policy foundation of the nation's public services. The study undertaken for this paper offers a brief policy study on the Beacon school initiative, which has been held up as one of the key elements of governmental policy for the sharing of excellence. In order to cope with the elementary education crisis, the Labor government launched the "raising educational standards" campaign to promote and achieve school excellence. The Beacon school initiative is of central importance in the government 's raising standards agenda. It was introduced at the beginning of the 1998/99 academic year, under the aegis of the Department for Education and Employment, as a means of identifying and disseminating good practice between schools. Schools who received this designation were thus empowered to demonstrate their strengths in particular areas of their curriculum design or school management, as identified through school inspection processes. The designated schools can offer support and guidance to other schools wishing to improve in those areas. The government has identified 1,150 such schools by now and many of which are established in urban areas as part of the "Excellence in Cities" strategy. The strategic aim is thus to identify Beacon Schools in a full range of geographical, social and educational contexts, in particular 'inner city schools' to ensure that any poor school seeking assistance will find support from a Beacon School operating in a similar context.The Beacon initiative is intended to create a climate of co-operation and sharing. Its aim is to create a national network of schools to ensure that all schools have access to practical advice and support, which will lead to improved levels of pupil achievement. In the process of implementation, the beacon initiative illustrated the great diversity of activities and relationships taking place under a single rubric. The initiative received many support and formed support mechanisms. The Beacon Schools were at the heart of professional learning communities, facilitating networks so that best practice can be shared widely. As a result, the Beacon School policy played an important role in the school improvement and helped many poor schools go out of the failing conditions.Taking policy analysis as the methodology framework, this paper mainly explores the policy background of the Beacon School Scheme. The paper addresses the policy text and analyzes the process and outcomes of the policy. Based on this, the paper evaluates the policy from the angle of school improvement, poor school improvement and teacher professional development. By summarizing the basic experience of the policy, the paper ends with several pieces of advice for the reform of poor schools in China.