Beacon Status

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Beacon Status was a progressive educational initiative that the United Kingdom implemented based on the idea that organizational learning could be advanced through a competitive process of identifying successful organizations and recruiting them to disseminate their good practices.^[1] The beacon status initiative was launched by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in 1998 and ran through to August 2005 for primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. Beacon Status was for providers funded by the Learning and Skills Council, which are mainly Further Education colleges. The Learning and Skills Improvement Service was still awarding Beacon Status in 2011.^[2]

The initiative was discontinued due to uncertainty as to whether or not the initiative actually improved Beacon schools.^[3] The award congratulated learning providers that deliver outstanding teaching and learning and were well led and managed; schools were funded to enable them to build partnerships with each other and to share effective practice with other schools.^[4] For instance, an excellently performing school might have been 'twinned' with another school defined as failing, or in special measures, in order to improve that school's performance.

The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) and the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) were responsible for inspection and making sure the schools maintain their level of excellence and disseminating their practices. The status had to be renewed every three years.^[5] This scheme has been replaced by the specialist schools programme for secondary schools, which includes new initiatives such as the Leading Edge Partnership programme. At primary school level, Primary Strategy Learning Networks (PSLNs) are being created to encourage co-operation between schools.