Collaborating at the Top: Leadership techniques for managing multiple schools

Working within a collaborative structure, such as a MAT or some other alliance, is becoming more and more common in the UK, and the leadership required is different than for individual schools. David Middlewood, Ian Abbott and Sue Robinson show how a willingness to learn from each other can help school leaders thrive in these new partnerships.

The new context of school leadership

‘The days of the individual school are over’ and ‘Collaborate or die!’ These are two of the bolder statements made by school principals interviewed by us during our research into the nature of leadership of schools now that the vast majority of them operate as part of some form of collaborative system.

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      string(5830) "the data has to say is another. It’s important to be careful about attributing success to one intervention or project when it’s only one of many concurrent activities. Its impact needs to be disentangled from the multiplicity of initiatives that are part of school life.Support for impact evaluation – collaborative enquirers need the necessary support to evaluate their own projects. The diversity of these projects, and their orientation towards innovation, requires a creative, flexible and contextualised, as well as rigorous, approach.Mobilisation and sustainabilitySharing outcomes and learning – the alliances are using a range of strategies to share their outcomes and learning with colleagues within their schools, across their alliances and more widely. Many of these approaches are likely to raise awareness, but it is unclear to what extent other colleagues will be sufficiently engaged to ‘jump on board’ and whether the knowledge that is generated will have a wider impact. A rich body of knowledge has been developed, along with excellent practice that demonstrates impact, and yet it isn’t always easy or guaranteed that this will be used elsewhere. Writing about project experiences, findings, impact and learning can also be a challenge and requires support and guidance.Using professional learning strategies to engage others – Some teaching school alliances show a strong learning orientation in their approach to mobilising their new knowledge. This applies especially to those which have used a form of collaborative professional development or development of enquiry skills within or as the focus for their projects, taking this forward as a mechanism to engage more colleagues across their alliance. Using former project participants as leaders of project extensions is a useful strategy as is building project processes and development techniques into several schools’ and alliances repertoire so they can be adapted for use in other situations.Going for depth or breadth – Smaller, more narrowly focused projects may lead to greater depth and practice change but may be harder to replicate and transfer with other teachers. Larger projects with a focus on culture change – e.g. research, enquiry or learning culture – may touch more schools but may not have a quick impact on pupils’ learning and progress. Going for both is ideal, if feasible.Developing research skills – collaborative R&D across schools requires a range of practitioner research skills. Leading these kinds of projects is considerably easier if partnerships already have a strategic emphasis on enquiry and research, and development of these skills is part of the partnership’s professional development strategy. Lack of research capacity and skills are significant barriers to sustainability.The importance of time – an element of the project’s success has been the provision of time for participation and reflection on learning. Alliances received funding for their projects. Lack of funding can be a challenge, although some schools find create ways to connect budgets for different initiatives.Coping with obstacles and managing risks – top down accountability systems can be an obstacle to sustaining collaborative enquiry. Being fearful of engaging in or leading R&D is a de-motivator. Destabilising risks needs managing but may also need rethinking. The project leader concluded that there’s no room for egos, empire building or an ‘us and them’ mentality in a self-improving system that promotes collaborative R&D across schools.Collaborative R&D across a self-improving school systemLooking at these findings from the teaching schools R&D network national research themes project, a number of elements seem to be fundamental to enhance teaching and learning through enquiry-focused collaborative R&D across a self-improving school system, as England’s policies have promoted (see figure 2).Figure2: Collaborative R&D across a self-improving system  Source: Stoll (2015a and b) Professional learning taskWhat examples of collaborative enquiry have you got in your context? How do they compare with the elements described above?Further questions arising out of these points can be found on pages 65-67 of the report (Stoll, 2015a).Final questions for reflective dialogue with colleaguesWhat has this HOW TO added to your understanding about making a difference through collaborative enquiry? What resonates and what challenges your thinking? How might you take this knowledge forward in your own situation?Louise Stoll is Professor at the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, UCL Institute of EducationReferencesButler, D., Schnellert, L. and MacNeil, K. (2015) Collaborative inquiry and distributed agency in educational change: A case study of a multi-level community of inquiry, Journal of Educational Change, 16 (1): 1-26. ■ Jackson, D. and Street, H. (2005) Collaborative enquiry: why bother? In H. Street and J. Temperley (eds) Improving Schools Through Collaborative Enquiry. London: Continuum. ■ Mourshed, M., Chijioe, C. and Barber, M. (2010) How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better. London: McKinsey & Company. ■ Nelson, R., Spence-Thomas, K. and Taylor, C. (2015a) What makes great pedagogy and great professional development: final report. Nottingham, NCTL. ■Nelson, R., Spence-Thomas, K. and Taylor, C. (2015b) What makes great pedagogy: research case studies. Nottingham, NCTL. ■ Nelson, R., Spence-Thomas, K. and Taylor, C. (2015c) What makes great professional"
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'How to do it' Guides

How to … make a difference to teaching and learning through collaborative enquiry

20 May 2019

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Verena West explores the motivation, benefits and challenges inherent in such commitment to collaborate."
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      string(5777) "Inter-school collaboration and the self-improving systemIs inter-school collaboration (ISC) the new normal?  The current situation in education indicates that we have reached a tipping point.  If we consider the most formalised form of ISC, the formation of a multi-academy trust (MAT), and picture MATs at the tip of an iceberg with various forms of ISC beneath it, then the iceberg is growing at a rapid rate. There were 1,010 MATs in operation in England in 2016 (DfE, 2016a), and this rose to 1,230 in 2017 (DfE, 2017).  Considering that the average MAT consists of two to nine academies (Andrews, 2016), these figures represent a significant number of schools.The Coalition government launched The Importance of Teaching White Paper in 2010 (DfE 2010a), which encouraged schools to academise and form or join MATs.  It also proposed the development of a self-improving school system, with ISC, MATs and Teaching School Alliances at its core. The self-improving school system required schools to find their own local solutions to school improvement challenges, which they would identify through collaborative self-evaluation, with minimal ‘hands on’ government intervention. The Academies Act 2010 (DfE, 2010b) facilitated this process by granting additional freedoms to schools converting to academy status, which stemmed from their removal from Local Authority (LA) control.Proliferation and challengeISC was encouraged by Coalition and Conservative governments (2010 to present), but was not mandatory unless a school exhibited serious concerns, in which case the Education and Adoption Act (DfE, 2016b), required them to join a MAT.  Therefore, the rapid increase in ISC is largely due to school leaders voluntarily making the choice to collaborate with other schools, and this raises three key questions:What are the reasons for the proliferation in ISC?If there are compelling reasons for ISC, why is every school not fully engaged with it, and what challenges are preventing some schools from committing to it?If challenges to ISC do exist, how can schools overcome them in both current and proposed ISCs?The Research OverviewThe research was based on a dissertation exploring inter-school collaboration, the self-improving school system, and their impact on pupil equity and outcomes, which formed part of an MBA in Educational Leadership. The aim of this aspect of the  research was to attempt to answer the three key questions identified above.  An online questionnaire was emailed to a systemic sample of 128 primary and 108 secondary headteachers selected from 20 Greater London boroughs, and 3 boroughs in the Home Counties.  The Greater London boroughs were selected by repeatedly choosing the fifth name on an alphabetic list, whilst the 3 boroughs in the Home Counties were selected using three points of a triangle drawn over a map of London for geographical coverage.  The headteachers were identified by repeatedly selecting the fifteenth (primary) and the fifth (secondary) school from an alphabetic list of schools in each borough, to ensure full coverage of each list. In anticipation of a low response rate to the systemic sample, the online questionnaire was also emailed to a convenience sample of 15 primary and 10 secondary senior leaders, including headteachers.  These potential respondents were encouraged to forward the questionnaire on to other school leaders via a snowballing sample technique, in an attempt to increase the response rate.  Completed questionnaires were received from 16 primary and 7 secondary respondents from both the convenience and snowballing samples.  No completed questionnaires were received from the systemic sample.The online questionnaire consisted of 26 questions and statements: 20 statements were followed by Likert Scale options ranging from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree’, and 6 questions allowed school leaders to write free-text responses.  The questions and statements focused on the key reasons for ISC, the types of activities school leaders would consider collaborating on, and the key challenges to ISC.  However, before we discuss the outcomes of the above research, it is important to explore what we mean by ISC.What Do We Mean by Inter-School Collaboration?The collaboration heritageInter-school collaboration is not a new phenomenon, as historically schools have collaborated in different ways, for example, as part of national initiatives (Armstrong 2015) such as Beacon schools (1998), Specialist Schools (1997) and City Challenges (2008).Despite the lack of evidence to support ISC improving outcomes for pupils, except marginally in top-down or hierarchical collaborations (Armstrong, 2015), the Coalition and Conservative governments (2010 to present) strongly encouraged schools to academise and collaborate, favouring MATs and Teaching School Alliances as their main vehicles.  As a result of this, more actors and diverse collaborative arrangements now exist between schools.  In the above research, ISC was defined in its broadest sense to encompass the spectrum of school collaboration, from ad hoc collaboration to; sharing expertise and staff development, joint professional development, hierarchical school improvement, clusters of schools working together, to schools being fully federated into a MAT.  A continuum of collaborationThe various forms of ISC can be organised on a continuum.  Collaboration by ‘association’ (Chapman, 2015), can occur through LA activities or close school"
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Professional Development

To collaborate or not collaborate

18 Apr 2018

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      string(364) "... shouldbe carried out first and then the services and ICT can bedesigned so that they can support this. In many cases the 63June/July 2008    Managing Schools TodaySustainable schools   The Learning EnvironmEntservices and ICT strategy are already set and this limits gooddesign and flexibility of teaching spaces.FF&E budgets ..."
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      string(5687) "spaces wherepractical and theoretical work can be carried out withinone large area. The limitations of practical laboratoriesstill apply where gas, water, electricity and ICT services arestill required in serviced bollards. We designed hexagonalserviced bollards based on a DNA structure which could‘grow’ by the addition of extra bollards or loose tablesdepending on the group size required.Other Project Faraday initiatives include a move awayfrom traditional laboratories into new classrooms such as‘robot labs’, with open source equipment, where studentscan create their own experiments and tests of prototypes.Other experiences include ‘drop zones’, which are tallvertical enclosures within the building allowing objectsto be dropped and their motion observed and measuredusing sensors or cameras. These concepts were developedby the students of East Barnet School, an exemplar school inHertfordshire, where Faraday principles are to be adoptedas part of the new school redevelopment and where wehave been engaged as the FF&E consultant.Breakout areas are another example of whereschools are using space more flexibly. We recentlydesigned a school where the head requested a layoutthat will enable the school to move to a smallergroup of 20 pupils, an idea he hopes to implement inthe future. This was certainly a challenging requestas, at present, the Building Bulletin Guidelines andaccommodation schedules simply do not al lowenough space or budget to do this. However, this canbe addressed for facilities such as science or designtechnology where, in certain cases, data logging ordesign work on computers can be carried out in areasadjacent to the main practical rooms.The numbers and locations of breakout spaces are, ofcourse, limited to areas that are not noisy or busy – whichprecludes most of the main circulation routes. In this casewe designed loose furniture for ICT use in a widenedcorridor on the top floor of a school to allow breakout spaceadjacent to a sixth form science laboratory. Open areas areflexible by nature and can be used by all year groups. Buttheir success is ultimately determined by the effectivenessof the school management.Less demandDesign & technology areas are also changing. We arefinding there is less demand for traditional resistantmaterial workshops and machines, although ‘lighter’DT subjects such as 3D art, graphics and textiles remainpopular. Increasingly, modern and expensive equipmentis needed to teach manufacturing techniques that arerelevant to current industry methods, and this includesCAD/CAM, plastics machines, rapid prototyping and 3Dprinting. This has increased pressure on FF&E budgetsand has meant that, for some projects, we have procureda reduced number of modern machines which can beshared between two or three spaces. Most ICT spaces,for DT areas, need to be segregated as dust and noiseprevents their effective use, and we now design segregatedCAD/CAM bays which allow vision and line of sight to anumber of workshops, but which are located centrally inthe DT area.Perhaps the biggest challenge in DT is the shortage ofteachers. We have worked on a number of schools which,after opening, have decided to close their DT workshopsand make them into other teaching spaces. Exceptions tothis rule include exemplar schools such as the Dyson Schoolof Engineering and the JCB Academy where advanced DTis to be taught to reverse the decline in take-up.We have found there is insufficient early consideration ofhow the school can function from the inside out and howthe FF&E will work in these spaces. In our view this shouldbe carried out first and then the services and ICT can bedesigned so that they can support this. In many cases the 63June/July 2008    Managing Schools TodaySustainable schools   The Learning EnvironmEntservices and ICT strategy are already set and this limits gooddesign and flexibility of teaching spaces.FF&E budgets for academies generally allow a goodstandard of FF&E provision. However, these are lower forthe BSF schools, especially in the case of  refurbishment orrefreshed areas. A lot of FF&E is still provided by traditionaleducational suppliers who do not have design and co-ordination skills to make the school work as an integratedbuilding. Many products being put into schools are notsufficiently robust and do not comply with the relevantBritish Standards governing the specification of furnitureand equipment. This is an important issue for BSF, wherecontractors are required to operate and maintain the FF&Efor 15 or 20 years.FF&E budgets are also particularly vulnerable to cuts latein the programme to fund overspends on the building. Thisis because loose FF&E, which is not physically connectedto the building, is procured much later in a buildingprogramme.I am always surprised at how much attention is givento ICT compared to FF&E, as the internal teachingenvironment is arguably the most important area of aschool, and the capital spend is often lower than for theFF&E when licensing, software and training costs arededucted from the budget. In our experience, we havemoved a long way from the attitude displayed in theearliest BSF projects. Having said this, the bar has beenraised, as many local authorities in the later BSF wavesare demanding transformational schools with adaptablelearning spaces and design teams are responding withmore flexible and innovative designs which better meetthe needs for the future.Lawrence Brenchley is a director of FFE Consulting,which is working on a number of school programmesin"
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Leadership

Design from the inside out

14 Jul 2008

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      string(5685) "16Personnel managementManaging Schools Today    June/July 2008In today’s world of policy change, increased communityscrutiny, reduced spending and wage control, schoolsface ever more complex challenges as they seek toattract, motivate and retain the best talent. This articleconsiders strategies that headteachers can use to retainstaff – particularly their best performers. This involvescreating a work environment that promotes engagementand commitment among staff and encourages them to givea maximum contribution. Finding out how staff perceivetheir work environment and comparing results toperformance data is also important as it helps toensure that the right retention efforts are targetedat the right people at the right time.Why do people leave? Last year several high-level employees at a City brokerage housereceived £500,000 bonuses. One brokersaid: “Getting the money was great, butit was also a bit of a letdown. WhatI really wanted to hear was‘Thanks – you did a great job’but all my boss did was handme a cheque.”Holding on toyour talentTake care to retain andreward your star teachers,says Jody Goldsworthy, andyour efforts will be repaidmany times over17June/July 2008    Managing Schools Today   Personnel managementThere is no question that pay and tangible benefits playan important role in engaging and retaining staff. However,when teachers are asked why they leave schools and indeedthe profession, money doesn’t rate anywhere near the top. TheSchool Teachers’ Review Body (2008) reported that the mostcommonly cited reasons for leaving the profession were highworkload, government initiatives and stress. Those leaving theprofession tended, disproportionately, to be either young witha few years’ service, or older and approaching retirement.When staff don’t like their work environment they willeither perform below their capability or become frustratedand detach from the organisation. Annual turnover forstaff across education is reported to be 13.1 per cent(CIPD, 2007). Recruitment advertising is both laboriousand expensive, with £120m spent by schools each yearin England and Wales. Furthermore, a recent study by thethen DfES showed a drop in graduates applying for PGCEtraining and teaching positions. This all makes finding theright staff increasingly more difficult.We should also consider the needs of the new generationof employees. If we were to look back to the 1950s, teacherswould have been far more likely to find a job in a school andstay there until they retired. Over the years, this has slowlychanged and it is now increasingly common for teachersand other members of staff to move, either in search ofpromotion or due to personal circumstances. The resultof this is a rising cost of recruitment, which is having a realimpact on the financial management of schools.It always costs much less to retain a good employee thanto acquire one. Furthermore, loyal, engaged employees givemore discretionary effort, which translates into increasedproductivity, and retaining them safeguards the school’sknowledge base, which gives a competitive advantage.OpportunitiesIt is useful to remember that there are also benefits in staffturnover. Turnover creates opportunities for the school toupdate and redefine roles to meet the changing needsof policy, pupils and the community, and to look outsidefor diverse experience and practice. Innovation is keptalive by diversity and the bringing together of differentperspectives, backgrounds and ideas.Because a certain amount of turnover is a good thing, retentionshould be focused on keeping the best employees on board foras long as possible and is reasonable given their aspirations andavailable roles. There are a range of tactics that can help increaseretention and they cannot be considered in isolation.The CIPD found that the most frequently taken actions toaddress retention are increasing learning and developmentopportunities (38 per cent), improving the inductionprocess (36 per cent) and improved selection techniques(35 per cent). Revising reward strategies came further downthe list. Other tactics included improving line managers’HR skills (for example in performance management),improving employees’ work-life balance and involvement,communicating a strong employer ‘brand’ and changingworking conditions.Research by the Hay Group, meanwhile, reveals sixelements that support retention and performance:n	 clear and promising direction – establishing what theschool is aiming to achieve and communicating itclearly, consistently, and constantly in line with people’svaluesn	 confidence in leaders – ensuring that staff have confidencein leadership throughout the schooln	quality and customer focus – ensuring that jobs have asense of mission and intrinsic value that is relevant tothe stakeholders and community the school servesn	 respect and recognition – acknowledging those who doa good job; holding poor performers to accountn	development opportunities – creating opportunities forstaff to fulfil their potential through development, newcareer options, coaching and trainingn	pay and benefits – ensuring that pay, incentives andbenefits are competitive.Who are your best performers? These are the peoplewhose contribution most affects the results of your schoolbeyond their own roles or classrooms. Your best, mostcommitted teachers help you to put new initiatives inplace and influence the expectations and behaviours ofthose around them, raising standards across the wholeschool. Schools might consider going to some extra effortto retain these"
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Leadership

Holding on to your talent

14 Jul 2008