Can Outstanding Schools Ever Bottle Their Success?

Roisin Killick and Peter Matthews analyse an innovative project called Growing The Top, in which the senior leaders of trios of outstanding schools pooled knowledge and expertise to find solutions to systemic challenges.

A strategy for the continued improvement of great schools: Growing the Top

It is an adage that outstanding schools don’t remain outstanding by standing still. ‘The key question for school improvement is what are outstanding schools doing that sets them apart, and how can we bottle it?’ asked Dr Josephine Valentine, who conceived this programme aimed at finding out…

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      string(378) "... Leadership Scheme,PRIME: Leadership in the Civil Service,the NHS Leadership Centre and, ofcourse, NCSL. It also underpinned thebelief that ‘superheads’ could be found totransform schools in trouble.Management styles: shared leadership30 July/August 2004However, in spite of the search,leadership could never quite be pinneddown. One of my favourite ..."
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      string(5636) "ongoing search to identifythe attributes – usually referred to as‘competences’ – that make atransformational leader6. This is the kindof thinking that you will find in manyprogrammes and institutions, includingthe Public Service Leadership Scheme,PRIME: Leadership in the Civil Service,the NHS Leadership Centre and, ofcourse, NCSL. It also underpinned thebelief that ‘superheads’ could be found totransform schools in trouble.Management styles: shared leadership30 July/August 2004However, in spite of the search,leadership could never quite be pinneddown. One of my favourite quotationswhich summarises this positioncontinues to appear on the NCSL’swebsite7: ‘There is a magic about a fineleader in action which the Collegecannot bottle’.Focus on the individualOne obvious theme in leadershipresearch and explanations is that thereis a focus on individuals who areformally appointed to the role ofleader, or who have the potential forsuch appointment. Implicitly, andsometimes explicitly, the assumptionof the ‘great man’ conception ofleadership is at work; and this, as wesaw in the views of staff referred toearlier, continues to be most people’sunderstanding. So, it is individualswho acquire competences, becomequalified for headship and, quiterightly, ‘carry the can’ when things gowrong or right.A good example of the attributionof leadership to a single person can befound in the case of Birmingham’s ex-CEO Tim Brighouse. Now, anyonewho knows or has heard TimBrighouse will confirm that he isundoubtedly an enthusiast for goodeducation; so, when Birmingham LEAshowed a successful turnaround andthis was verified by inspection, it waseasy to attribute the success to hisleadership. For example, the followingcomments appeared in a report in TheGuardian (9 April 2002):� ‘He gave Birmingham teachers abelief in themselves’� ‘An energising and inspirational man’� ‘He is outstanding … He givesteachers a great sense of belonging’The report therefore perpetuated theconventional wisdom which underpinspopular acceptance of the attribution thatwhen good leadership has occurred, itmust be due to the action of one person.What is interesting about this case isthat Brighouse’s own account8 has amore collective flavour:� ‘We have been very, very focused’� ‘We set out always to improve’� ‘We have gone on to be at the leadingedge’What I want to suggest is that Tim’scomments reflect something importantabout leadership that offers a contrast toinvidualistic conception, and which researchhas also identified. I will briefly summarisetwo pieces of research which suggest a morecollective and distributed conception.The collegial approachFirstly, Alma Harris9 studied severalschools facing difficult circumstances andfound that improvement was achievedthrough collaboration and collegial waysof working. All teachers could take thelead and, in so doing, advance a school’scapacity for change and development.She identified four dimensions thatcharacterise what she calls ‘teacherleadership’. These are:� Brokering – the way staff translate theprinciples of school improvement intopractice in classrooms and otherlocations within the school. Linksbetween everyone are secured, andopportunities for learning anddevelopment are seized and maximised.� Participating – staff are empoweredand given ownership for particularchanges or developments. Everyonefeels they have a part to play inchange. Collaboration is sought andwork is directed towards acollective goal which everyone hashad part in setting.� Mediating – everyone, potentially, is asource of expertise and keyinformation. It is possible to drawupon additional resources andexpertise if necessary and to seekpersonal assistance.� Relationships – there is mutuallearning through close relationshipsbetween staff. Learning is thesource of school improvement.Professional learning anddevelopment are distinctive withinthe school. There is work to buildthe capacity of everyone to helpmanage the school.In addition to this emerging research,further support has been offered, rathersurprisingly, by one of those evidence-based studies so favoured by the DfES.The study10 set out to answer thequestion ‘What is the evidence of theimpact of school headteachers andprincipals on student/pupil outcomes?’.After a search of databases, whichyielded references to 100,000 papers andbooks, 27 studies were eventually selectedfor review, from which eight showed thatschool leaders had an impact, to varyingdegrees, on student outcomes. Theseeight were selected for analysis.The results confirmed thatleadership was important in schoolsuccess but (and this is crucial) theimpact of headteachers upon studentattainment was indirect and mediatedby others. Significantly, the work ofteachers, school organisation andrelationships with parents and thewider community were identified askey intermediate factors. Thus,leadership was not just a feature of theheadteacher or senior management: itwas distributed among staff and others,where it proved to impact directly onstudent learning outcomes.Now, I suspect that this research hasconfirmed what many headteachers andschool managers already know. However,we still need more evidence, especiallyfrom within schools, about how thesuggestion of distributed leadershipactually occurs. This is what I hoped toOne obvious theme inleadership research andexplanations is that there isa focus on individuals whoare formally appointedto the role of leaderManagement styles: shared leadership 31July/August"
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Leadership

The Teacher as Leader

19 Jul 2017

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      string(342) "... and GCSE results, which included a small increase in top scores, were trumpeted to the mountain tops as evidence of the increase in ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ schools (by Ofsted judgements), while the real reversal in the closing of the ‘Achievement Gap’ and the alarming increase in the number of children ..."
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      string(4130) "There is no doubt that Boris Johnson’s splashing the cash immediately after his election sent a little frisson of excitement throughout the education community. It might be a piece of early electioneering, but £14.2 billion was something worth believing in. Wiser counsels might have warned that the current disastrous period of cuts in education was augured in by the self-professed liberal government of David Cameron, with the half-truth that he was maintaining the protection on education spending, when he was doing the exact opposite. The half-truth was maintained by conflating absolute spending amounts with real spending adjusted for inflation, new pension arrangements and increasing school rolls.Half-truths and statistical manipulations have always been the stock-in-trade for politicians, but you can’t help feeling that in this ‘post-truth‘ era we have moved into a different league. And the manipulation of the truth is spreading downwards and outwards from the top.To start with, Boris’ new spending largess was part of a £50 billion give away bonanza leading up to the Conservative Party conference. The likelihood of it ever being fully realized is entirely remote. The Education Policy Institute were also quick to point out that only £2.5 billion over 5 years was new spending, the rest was planned adjustments for inflation and wage rises. Of that £2.5 billion, most of it was set aside for ‘levelling up’, which, in itself, could have a damaging impact on schools in high need areas of deprivation, as these are the very schools that were already at a disadvantage to more well-off schools that have fewer free school meal pupils.In short, it would only need the slightest fall in projected public expenditure, perhaps as a result of Brexit, for the promises for additional spending to education to vaporise. Even now, the Coalition Against Cuts, which comprises most of the education unions, have issued an analysis of the just announced cash allocations for schools, showing that by 2020, 83 per cent of schools will have less money than in 2015. To recover the funding position of 2015, the government needs to triple the amount of funding available.It is not just in the area of funding where false narratives are being constructed to promote the success of our education system: Academisation and the role of Ofsted are also front and centre.The recent A-Level and GCSE results, which included a small increase in top scores, were trumpeted to the mountain tops as evidence of the increase in ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ schools (by Ofsted judgements), while the real reversal in the closing of the ‘Achievement Gap’ and the alarming increase in the number of children leaving without any A-C exam grades are completely ignored by the government, as is the rise in formal and informal suspensions, the collapse of special needs provision and the mysterious disappearances of pupils from some school rolls.One of the most curious aspects of this dichotomy and divergence in education realities has been the failure of Ofsted to intervene in any meaningful way to stop disappearances and suspensions or to deal with the lack of support for children in danger of failing. It seems they have been compromised by the success narrative that underwrites their continued existence. Ofsted’s new framework can’t be judged a success as long as any of these negative indicators are not being reversed. In truth, however, the acknowledgement of areas of concern alongside indications of success could actually be held together and offered up to the public as credible assessments of where we are now, and could provide some realism and relief from the non-stop statistical manipulations and warpings of the truth. But that would suggest that the government and Ofsted are willing to express the complex realities of education system improvement and restore a little faith in public service and political probity; sadly that is something that has yet to be seen."
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Leadership

Beware of Politicians Bearing Gifts

3 Mar 2020

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      string(334) "... he said.He is now able to work again. Another superhead – Dame Maureen Brennan – turned round a failing school in Dudley.   Unfortunately part of the school’s success was based on a lie – Dame Maureen and her deputies routinely altered attendance data to make the school appear to be better ..."
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      string(5725) "is a very double-edged sword.She  successfully appealed to allow  her to reapply to teaching  after two years and following a review she is now able to work again.    Superhead Greg Wallace also earned the wrath of friends in high places. He was the founder and chief executive of the Best Start Federation of schools in Hackney and became one of Mr Gove’s “Magnificent Seven”.  In 2012, Wallace was praised as a “magnificent” academy head in a speech by education secretary Michael Gove, for running outstanding schools in deprived areas.But an external audit subsequently revealed that the financial systems in his rapidly expanding federation of schools were not as excellent as the educational attainment of the pupils.  Mr Wallace had shown rival IT tenders to his preferred supplier for a contract worth £1 million. He also received a personal payment of £4000.00. The preferred supplier was someone he had been in a relationship with.  Despite a recommendation from the National College for Teaching and Leadership that he be retained in the profession the Secretary of State took a contrary view and prohibited him from teaching. The High Court overturned the ban and criticised the Secretary of State for the harshness of his judgement.  Mr Justice Holgate found the public interest in Wallace remaining in work as a teacher outweighed the DfE’s argument that his behaviour amounted to unacceptable professional conduct likely to damage the reputation of teaching.Holgate said there was a “clear conclusion” that the department should have been satisfied with an earlier misconduct finding against Wallace, “because the public interest in maintaining the appellant’s exceptional contribution to education would be satisfied without ‘unacceptably compromising’ the maintenance of public confidence in the teaching profession”.A less severe measure “could and should have been adopted” by the DfE, he said.He is now able to work again. Another superhead – Dame Maureen Brennan – turned round a failing school in Dudley.   Unfortunately part of the school’s success was based on a lie – Dame Maureen and her deputies routinely altered attendance data to make the school appear to be better at engaging children than it was. In her case, the subsequent finding of Unacceptable Professional Conduct by her regulator has not prevented her career flourishing.  She was not barred, perhaps because her offense did not involve money. She is now an executive head of a Multi Academy Trust. Ironically, she is leading a MAT where the founder and chief executive was forced out for alleged financial misconduct. This case is ongoing though and cannot be commented upon.All four of these individuals were highly effective heads with an ability to transform failing schools into centres of excellence. Their common attribute was an ability to communicate a certainty to staff and pupils that their way worked.  I suspect that many successful heads have a singular vision and the drive and passion to sweep up all those around them into delivering on that vision.  Different heads have different visions. Some our disciplinarian: insisting on dress codes for staff, smarter uniforms and advocating zero tolerance of disruptive behavior. They transform their schools, but staff may leave and pupils may be excluded.  To critics it appears they are engaged in training rather than education but as an approach it is certainly effective in delivering against the metrics by which school performance is measured. Others model appropriate behavior constantly and persuade others (staff and pupils) by the sheer force of their personality to live up to the high expectations they are setting. Disengaged staff and pupils surprise themselves by becoming better. Others have a certainty about education method and an insistence on a pedagogical approach that sets them apart.   Fellow professional either embrace that approach or leave. Most pupils, but perhaps not all, thrive.   In my experience of superheads they work tirelessly for their school communities and many end up embodying that community – having no private life away from the school and being there from dawn to well after dusk. They have, of necessity, a certain arrogance. Their success is measurable – another school in special measures has become outstanding, a community of children previously written off is offered the passport of quality GCSE results. Their success is rewarded with high salaries and public honours.   Perhaps the very qualities that bring success for the superhead also contain the seeds of their downfall.   Once you have devoted your life to a school community, then it may make sense for the school to provide you with a taxi service, a telephone, a car, a venue for your birthday celebrations and so on. All these services help you to be a more effective leader who devotes ever more time to the school.  Your transformations of a school may have been achieved so quickly because you did not dot every I and cross every t when securing a good IT contract or a new build. Your success is rewarded and you’re asked to do it again.   You’re not hiding your methodology or your corning cutting. And all the time your success will be creating enemies and stoking jealousies. Eventually someone whistleblows and practices that have never been challenged: your employment of your sister, payment of your mobile phone bills whilst on"
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Leadership

Why do so Many Superheads fall off their perch?

26 Oct 2017

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      string(5631) "adults, onesof trust and respectwhere children feel safe.“”66Vol 4.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourcesThe Achievement of Pupils.Now we move into the first of the four ‘headlines’ in the Ofsted criteria! This aspectof the inspection is of course, data driven! Ofsted look for evidence of how teachersare challenged to produce high standards of pupil attainment. Excellent evidence forthis is performance management documentation, the teacher’s own data analysis,(Outstanding schools often ask all teaching staff to produce termly progress reports) upto date planning files and children’s IEPs. Ensure all these are monitored – ‘Rigorouslyand Regularly!’ Progress within lessons is also being highlighted in Ofsted reports,especially how teacher questioning is used to drive progress and challenge themore able pupils. Remember though, behind all of the data is a story, each cohortIS different and YOU know the cohorts, not Ofsted! It’s not about having excuses for‘underperformance’ – it’s about understanding the reasons and being able to articulatethese succinctly to the inspection team.Teaching and Learning.Put yourself in the position of an inspector walking, for the first time, into one of yourclassrooms; would the classroom environment ‘blow them away’ or would it lookdull and unappealing? First impressions count – classrooms should be inspirationalplaces! Ofsted inspectors are also hoping to see lots of collaborative learning, paireddiscussions and how SMSC thrives in the classroom! As ever, and quite rightly in myopinion, there is still a huge focus on ‘AfL’ – the use of success criteria to help childrenreflect on their learning is vital here. Inspectors are particularly highlighting theinspirational lessons they have seen, for example one report highlighted how a teacherhad asked the pupils to investigate the best ratio of bicarbonate of soda to vinegar toproduce the most effective volcanic explosion – when it comes to learning activitiesdon’t hold back on creativity!Phonics is also rigorously monitored by inspectors, including sessions led byteaching assistants; Phonics needs to be differentiated, systematic and regular withhigh quality input by the adult; these same principles are also applied to ‘guidedreading’ during an inspection. It does seem contrary to the proposed new nationalcurriculum based heavily on ‘subjects’ but inspectors are looking for cross curricular67Vol 4.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileLeadershipResourceslinks; especially links with maths and reading – high quality displays are a great wayto show how maths is integrated into the curriculum. In one school I visited, up on thedisplay board were line graphs that were designed to create a scale drawing of the‘Clifton Suspension Bridge’ – the displays looked magnificent and of course, showed afantastic link with maths and Victorian Britain! There are no excuses for not using mathsacross the curriculum; it just takes a bit of thought! Marking is also important to a goodOfsted inspection, children should be regularly given next steps and comments shouldbe linked to the learning intention. Finally, never forget the 80/20 rule – a rule I wholeheartedly agree with; it means that in any one lesson the teacher should be talking foronly 20% – to put this I perspective, in a one hour lesson the teacher should be talkingfor no more than 12 minutes! Too much teacher talk ends all hope of a good lesson!Behaviour and SafetyI’ve read lots of reports since January and the clear message is that children’s mannersare very important! Ofsted look for politeness, a calm and orderly corridor and expectplaytimes to be harmonious! Children are also being asked about ‘Types of Bullying,’for example physical, emotional and cyber. Ask yourself: What kinds of systems I havein place for ‘E-safety?’ Do the pupils know what to do if they are bullied on line? Areparents aware of ‘E-Safety?’ It is worth bearing in mind that lots of the evidence for thissection is taken from the views of parents and pupils; paper evidence is not enough!Attendance also comes under this heading, if the attendance at your school isbelow the average, what is being done about it and what impact is it having? If yourattendance is above average, how can you prove that the actions of the school haveled to this fantastic achievement? Perhaps a little in contrast to previous inspections,the safeguarding aspect of the inspections is minimal, but only if all statutoryobligations are met!Leadership and ManagementFor this section I’m going to focus heavily on middle leadership and management. It isclearly a focus for Ofsted and one in which they will monitor heavily. It should be said,that as a primary deputy head teacher I write from a primary perspective; however,many of the points I make can be applied to all educational sectors. To give advice onthis, it is best to think of a concrete example. Perhaps think of your head/co-ordinator/leader of English and consider the following questions:What impact have they had in terms of raising standards? 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Leadership

How to keep calm and learn to love Ofsted

4 Jul 2012

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      string(368) "illusion: other inducements – freedom fromthe National Curriculum and inspections, et cetera – are meresideshows. This is all about money, and the present drive to helpprioritise outstanding schools is inherently divisive. It smacks of‘the best and the rest’ and is unashamedly about giving thosethat are already winning the game an extra ..."
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      string(4325) "illusion: other inducements – freedom fromthe National Curriculum and inspections, et cetera – are meresideshows. This is all about money, and the present drive to helpprioritise outstanding schools is inherently divisive. It smacks of‘the best and the rest’ and is unashamedly about giving thosethat are already winning the game an extra advantage – theexact opposite of the ideology behind academies mark 1.It is no secret that members of the present government,and perhaps most white, middle-aged, middle-class menin the country, especially those who themselves went tofee-paying schools, hanker for a time when grammar schoolswalked the Earth, unchallenged and a force for good. Indeed,it might be true to say that most people seem ready tobelieve the ‘ever since we got rid of the 11-plus, schools havegone to hell in a handcart’ rhetoric. It has become trendy toblame everything from teenage pregnancy to knife crime onnnnnnnthe poor beleaguered comp; and even parents who knowfrom their own experience that their local school is doing anexcellent job are easily convinced that they have been luckyto find the one good school among a sea of dross.Well, my message is far from sexy because it is far fromdownbeat; I’m never on telly, and I don’t have the ear of themovers and shakers in Parliament or the media. But for what it’sworth – and it should be worth a lot – I am a primary source. Ihave taught in state comprehensive schools for 37 years and Iwent as a child to what was described at the time as a very goodgrammar school (and I’m sure that it was); so I have seen all thisunfold first hand, with my own eyes. Grammar schools siftedout the most academic 20 per cent and, in 1962, three friendsand I left our primary school with equal talent and aspiration,determined to make this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity count.It was our passport to a better life.Just a couple of years later, 75 per cent of my oncebright-eyed and bushy-tailed cohort were failures; adisappointment to their school, their parents and, mostof all, to themselves. None of the others passed anyexaminations, not one; they left with no qualifications. Whenwe had grammar schools and secondary moderns, 16 percent of our children achieved what we now call five A*–Cgrades including English and maths; today’s comprehensiveschools are achieving 50 per cent. Too big a difference foreven the ‘exams have got easier’ brigade to explain away!The truth is that the vast majority of comprehensiveschools are already calm and businesslike and doing verywell; but if some are not, we are duty bound to ask why. Is itbecause they are not grammar schools or specialist schoolsor ‘free schools’ or academies, or is it because of poorleadership? Inadequate heads will say their budgets are lowand that they haven’t enough money to offer a 21st-centuryservice, that their pupils misbehave because they, the heads,are not allowed to discipline them any more, that they are nolonger trusted to just do their job; and that they are stressedand overwhelmed by unrealistic targets. If any of this werethe case, shouldn’t all schools be struggling? Why can somedeliver and others not? Changing the rules of the game istempting, but it is no substitute for learning to play better.The key factor for school success is and always hasbeen outstanding and visionary whole school leadership.Heads, primary or secondary, with insufficient drive, visionand ambition for themselves and every single child in theirschools, are the problem. Headline-grabbing, gimmickyrebranding will divert, but it will not solve.Competition within schools is good. And day by day, yearon year, trying to improve and perform better is only right andproper. But we should all have an eye to all children, all of whomhave equal entitlement. Moving towards a two-tier system willprove to be extremely easy. Moving back may well be impossible.David Hudson is headteacher of Wickersley Schooland Sports College, an 11-18 comprehensive school inRotherham with more than 1,900 pupils. He is the author ofrecently wrote Good Teachers, Good Schools: How to Createa Successful School, published by David Fulton in 2008."
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Leadership

The best against the rest

15 Dec 2010