Leadership

Initial Destinations of Senior Phase School Leavers

This report by the Scottish government presents data on initial destinations of school leavers from local authority and grant aided schools in Scotland.

The results show that in 2016/17, 93.7% of senior phase school leavers were in a positive initial destination, an increase from 93.3% in 2015/16. The percentage of leavers in a positive initial destination has increased year on year for a six-year period from 2011/12 when 90.1% of leavers were in a positive destination.

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      string(410) "... schools to prioritise the development of middle leaders in order to improve teaching in the classroom and support the development of the next generation of senior school leaders. Recommendations: The Department for Education could consider commissioning research on causal pathways linking shared staff purpose and school performance. Future research should ..."
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      string(4751) "It says the government must take action to ensure that the success of high-performing schools with deprived pupils can be repeated across the country. The report says the government’s efforts to support teacher recruitment and retention need to be focused on the needs of lower-performing schools in poorer areas outside of London. The DfE needs to ensure that factors affecting teacher supply, such as the availability of affordable housing, good transport links and quality of life, are being addressed across the government. The research suggests this will help to attract teachers into areas with low-performing schools. The most successful schools have teachers who believe in their school’s ethos and are confident that their work can make a difference. The report suggests that the DfE explore this further to research the link between “shared staff purpose and school performance”. It says that this further research could assess what strategies are successful in supporting disadvantaged pupils and ask, “How does a shared sense of purpose impact on the performance of teachers and pupils’ results?” As successful schools were found to be more likely to make effective use of data, the report calls for more to be done to support this. It calls on teacher training providers, especially in the primary phase, to ensure that initial teacher training (ITT) programmes show new teachers how they can use data to lesson-plan and monitor pupils’ progress. The report also says schools should ensure that new and recently qualified teachers have access to training that builds their data literacy. And it calls for the DfE to ensure that school governors have training on data literacy to allow them to better hold schools to account. The report says that high-performing London schools went further than other schools to work with parents to develop their expectations for their children. In some cases, high-performing primary schools employed a dedicated member of staff to provide outreach and support for parents and families, rather than assigning this responsibility to existing teaching staff. The report recommends that the DfE should collate examples of effective practice in engaging parents so that they can be shared with schools. The research identifies a clear link between school effectiveness and “strong and visionary leadership”. It calls on the DfE to share examples of great leadership with schools across the country. It also calls on schools to prioritise the development of middle leaders in order to improve teaching in the classroom and support the development of the next generation of senior school leaders. Recommendations: The Department for Education could consider commissioning research on causal pathways linking shared staff purpose and school performance. Future research should collate and disseminate approaches to building a shared sense of purpose in schools. Teacher training providers, especially in the primary phase, should ensure that initial teacher training (ITT) programmes introduce new teachers to how they can use a combination of data sources to inform classroom practice, for example by informing planning and monitoring pupils’ individual support needs. Schools should ensure that NQTs and recently-qualified-teachers (RQTs) have access to training that builds their data literacy. The Department for Education should consider how to improve governors’ data literacy, ensuring that its governance training and development providers provide sufficient data literacy training as part of their programmes. Schools and local authorities should encourage their governors to attend training and development programmes linked to data literacy. The Department for Education should collate examples of effective practice in engaging parents to share with schools. Any moves to support recruitment and retention across the country should pay particular attention to the needs of lower-performing schools in disadvantaged areas outside London. The Department should ensure that factors affecting teacher supply and retention, such as the availability of affordable housing, good transport links and quality of life are addressed across government. Schools should prioritise development of middle leaders, in order to enhance the quality of teaching in classrooms, as well as to nuture the next generation of senior. WEB LINK School Cultures And Practices: Supporting The Attainment Of Disadvantaged Pupils  KeywordsSchool cultures, practices, attainment, disadvantaged pupils, support, London, teacher recruitment, low-performing schools"
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Leadership

School Cultures And Practices: Supporting The Attainment Of Disadvantaged Pupils

3 Sep 2018

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      string(341) "... leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
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      string(411) "... to focus on the leadership on teaching and learning (83 per cent).Following this definition of each latent class, the relationship between each class and school backgroundcharacteristics was analysed. The school characteristics included school phase, school type, FSM eligibilityand Ofsted grading. Overall, there was a relatively even spread of headteachers ..."
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      string(553) "The English education system is experiencing an era of unprecedented change, at least as significant as the move to Local Management of Schools after 1988. Nowhere are these changes more keenly felt than amongst the leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
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      string(5787) "greaterautonomy would impact negatively on their school (30 per cent felt strongly negative). The vast majority (92per cent) did not plan for their schools to become an academy. They were also concerned about the changingrole of the local authority (83 per cent). The majority (82 per cent) did believe working in partnership couldsupport improvement and 49 per cent saw incentives in policy that encouraged partnerships. Nearly one-third (31 per cent) planned to work with a teaching school, although 75 per cent did not plan to join ateaching school alliance and 90 per cent did not plan for their schools to become a teaching school. Morewidely, two-thirds (67 per cent) saw ‘very little’ incentive (rather than none at all) in policy for schoolimprovement.Class 4: Sceptical about policy and demotivated by its potential impactsHeadteachers in this fourth class had similar perspectives to those in class 3, but they were stronglynegative about the potential of policy developments to provide an incentive for improvement. They wererelatively balanced in their perspectives on school autonomy, with 43 per cent feeling autonomy wouldhave a negative impact on their institution but 37 per cent feeling it would have a positive impact. The vastmajority (92 per cent) did not plan for their schools to become an academy. The majority were concernedabout the changing role of the local authority, with 86 per cent feeling this would impact negatively (48 percent negative; 38 per cent moderately negative) on their school. Indeed, 71 per cent did not plan to stopusing local authority services. The headteachers here disagreed that current policy provided an incentive forschool improvement. The majority said policy did not (‘not at all’) provide an incentive to improve studentachievement (84 per cent) or to focus on the leadership on teaching and learning (83 per cent).Following this definition of each latent class, the relationship between each class and school backgroundcharacteristics was analysed. The school characteristics included school phase, school type, FSM eligibilityand Ofsted grading. Overall, there was a relatively even spread of headteachers by these schoolcharacteristics across the four classes. There was also however a statistical likelihood of:— academy principals (both primary and secondary) as well as headteachers of ‘outstanding’ schools beinglocated in class 1— schools rated ‘good’ in both primary and secondary phases belonging to class 2 and class 3— primary, community and voluntary-controlled schools, as compared to foundation schools and academies,belonging to class 4No relationship was identified between the four classes and FSM eligibility bands.65 © National College for School LeadershipSummaryIn summary, most participants perceived current policy as potentially opening up opportunities for partnershipand collaboration and this was viewed extremely positively. However, tensions such as mistrust, timepressures and the privileging of ‘outstanding’ status were seen to undermine opportunities. The vast majorityof participants reported a decline in the local authority’s role in areas such as school improvement servicesand in expertise such as SEN advisory support. Headteachers of small schools reported experiencing evenfurther pressure as a result of local authority contraction.Overall, headteachers tended to be more favourable towards autonomy than other senior/middle leaders,and chairs of governors. Secondary headteachers were also more receptive to the notion of autonomythan primary headteachers. The vast majority of academy headteachers were positive about autonomy ascompared to half of headteachers of community schools. Those schools with, or considering, academy statuswere motivated by a desire to determine specific ambitions such as developing school improvement servicesand products, an alternative to imposed configurations such as executive headship, and financial incentives.Accountability was seen to be an important part of a good-quality education system and the renewed focuson teaching and learning in the revised Ofsted framework was welcomed. The initial questionnaire also drewoverall positive and neutral responses on the issue of curriculum change. However, subsequent qualitativedata in the wake of more intense policy discussion, for example on curriculum and examination reform,indicated a less favourable response.An overview of headteacher views suggests that primary and secondary academy principals tend to be themost positive about policy and are most likely to be engaged in pursuing new opportunities. Heads of primary,community and voluntary-controlled schools appear most likely to feel demotivated by current policy changesand their potential impacts.4 f40 is the name given to the Campaign for fairer Funding in Education and represents local authorities where funding is relatively lower than elsewhere in thecountry. See www.f40.org.ukCase study 1: Local change and the national policy landscapeThe secondary school was inspected under the January 2012 inspection framework and was judged‘good with satisfactory features’. This represents a change from its previous grade of ‘outstanding’. Keyto the new judgement is the school’s attainment data that shows stalling of progress from entry toKey Stage 4. The school has subsequently developed a concerted focus on progression monitoring anddevelopment to elicit improvement for pupils progressing through the school and as they reach the endof Key Stage 4.The headteacher expressed a commitment to leadership"
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Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017

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      string(413) "... concertive action. Activity theory (Gronn, 2003)provides the conceptual reasoning for examining the formation, deliberations andoutcomes of various decision-making committees and teams within the school. Effortswere directed towards observing and recording the deliberations of a small number ofkey committees – including the senior management team and other decision-makinggroups. The ..."
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      string(500) "A Case Study in a Queensland Secondary School. The main thesis of the study is that in the turbulent complexity of modern schooling, effective leadership is more likely to be spread across a network of individuals rather than concentrated in the hands of one or two leaders.  It reveals why distributed school leadership has become prominent in the contemporary international context of school improvement and leadership in the past decade. By Matthew Glen - 2009."
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      string(5648) "the end of the project, 14 of these individual interviews were conducted with thenominated participants; 2 interview transcripts were, unfortunately, not able to beincluded in the final research record for technical reasons. One interviewee spoke veryrapidly in the taped interview, so much so that meaningful transcription was notpossible; a second tape had a mechanical fault which rendered it useless. In bothcases, the researcher decided not to attempt a second interview, but constructed asummarised version of the interview from handwritten notes of the discussions. Eachinterview session had to be tightly managed and included opportunities for maximizingflow of information within a succinct timeframe. All respondents were asked to sign anagreement to participate in the research which included agreement to have theinterview audio recorded. Full transcripts of interviews were treated in line with theprocedural principles outlined in negotiation of accounts to ensure fairness, relevanceand accuracy (with the exception of the two anomalies noted above). Appendix Ccontains four full transcripts of taped interviews with selected participants. In order toprotect the identity of all individuals involved in the study, names and locations whichcould be used to identify individuals or the school have been removed or replaced withpseudonyms.3.6.3 Focus group interviewsFocus group interviews have become increasingly common in education andpsychology to elicit a greater in-depth understanding of perceptions, beliefs, attitudesand experiences from multiple points of view (Silverman, 2001). Group interviews arenot simply a number of interviews conducted at the one time with interaction onlybetween the interviewer and participant. Rather, it is the interaction betweenparticipants that is the important part of the dynamics of these interviews (Rubin &Rubin, 1995). Focus interviews are, therefore, in keeping with the study’s activity theoryapproach that presumes meaning arising from and within social interactions. They arealso relatively inexpensive to conduct and can produce rich data that are cumulativeand elaborative. Fontana and Frey (1998) however, warn that group interviews canpresent problems not found in the individual interview. For example, the results cannotbe generalised, the emerging group culture may interfere with individual expression,the group may be dominated by one person and “groupthink” is a possible outcome,and it is difficult to explore sensitive or personal issues in a group setting.  48Focus group interviews were held with two sub-groups of school community members: a sample of participants from  the general teaching  staff; and selected members of standing committees and teams operating within theschool.3.6.4 Observation and taping of meetingsThe use of meetings as a data source is consistent with the conceptual framework ofthis study which is exploring distributed leadership as a phenomenon being enactedamongst individuals operating in concertive action. Activity theory (Gronn, 2003)provides the conceptual reasoning for examining the formation, deliberations andoutcomes of various decision-making committees and teams within the school. Effortswere directed towards observing and recording the deliberations of a small number ofkey committees – including the senior management team and other decision-makinggroups. The researcher initially sought to audio-tape these specific events; however itwas obvious that this would inhibit discussion within the group and it would also provevery difficult to analyse the multiple interactions. The final decision was to observe themeeting and take a series of hand-written notes describing the purpose, conversationtopics and general outcomes of the meeting.3.7 Management and Analysis of DataAs in any piece of worthwhile qualitative research, management and analysis of datagenerated in the study must be handled in an organized and consistent manner(Denzin & Lincoln, 1998; Freebody, 2003; Silverman, 2001, 2002). The data gatheredin this project were managed and analysed in a number of ways consistent with themethodological procedures of activity theory as well as drawing upon other analyticaltechniques consistent with qualitative traditions.Bogdan and Biklen (1992, p. 145) define qualitative data analysis as “working withdata, organising it into manageable units, synthesising it, searching for patterns,discovering what is important and what is to be learned, and deciding what you will tellothers”. This project used inductive analyses of the data, in which most of the criticalthemes and issues emerged out of the data (Patton, 1990). This process is usuallyreferred to as “open coding” (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) which involved developing a setof initial concepts and categories while the data were being collected. This is arecursive process of sorting data segments (from interviews, observations anddocumentary sources) into appropriate concepts and categories, identifying patterns  49and continually revisiting, refining and modifying categories to reflect emergingelements. The second phase of data analysis involved a reconstruction of the data thathad been fragmented by open coding through a more intense process referred to as“axial coding” – this process focused on more specific features and their relationshipswithin and between categories. Entwistle (1997) cautions that great care must be takento ensure that categories come from the data and that these categories fairly reflect theresponses made by participants.With an"
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Leadership

Distributed Leadership

6 Jul 2017

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      string(340) "... used within the formal interview. The panel and content of the formal interview willbe determined by the level of leadership.The Project to dateThe pilot phase of the project began in April 2016 with an initial round of assessmentcentres led by a consultan ,t but supported by senior leaders from ..."
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      string(5715) "evaluative of their own practice■ Maintain a Personal Development Portfolio and update it at least termly62Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningRecruitment Career Progression PathwaysThe Trust has developed Progression Pathways that enable all staff to plan theircareers systematically with the assurance that they will be given opportunities to fulfiltheir ambitions . This includes the opportunity to undertake further accredited stud ,yincluding M asters level qualifications and specialist training.63Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningRecruitmentQuality Standard and the Career Development MatrixThe T rust has developed a quality standard for leadership progression which willsupport staff to develop their knowledge and exper ,tise but also ensure a transparentevidenc -e based process is in place to assess readiness for leadership at each stage.The LiH Career Development Matrices (CDM) are based on the What is GoodLeadership Toolk ,it ,which in tur ,n encompasses the National Headteacher Standards andOfsted expectations.The matrices allow all staff to see the standards expected at each level of careerprogression so that they can evaluate their own skills, knowledge and expertiseindividually or with the support of their ment ,or then identify training needs andexperiences that will enable them to meet the criteria.The CDM shows progression from early leadership – which would typically includenon-core subject responsibility or a time limited project linked to a school initiativ ,esuch as the achievement of a kite mark – through to readiness for ,headship whichincludes head of school, whole T rust responsibilities and equivalent roles beyond thescho ,ols such as director of a SCITT or Teaching School Alliance. (See Appendix 1 for anexample of CDMs)An Assessment Centre ApproachTo enable teachers to progress within the T rust an Assessment Centre approach hasbeen developed which ensures that everyone understands the expectations at eachlevel and tha ,t when staff are ready for pr ,omotion they are given opportunities withinthe T rust rather than having to seek them elsewhere.There are three stages to the process which are designed to be developmental andsupportive.Stage 1 – S -elf EvaluationPersonal reflection on readiness to move to the next level of leadership – this involvescompletion of a -self evalua ,tion including identifying evidence of competency. Thisprocess allows for further evidence collection and the opportunity to seek advicefrom a mentor. The outcome of this process may be readiness to go forward to anAssessment Centre (Stage 2) or the identification of areas for further developmentbefore progressing. (See Appendix 2 for an example of the Self Evaluation Toolkit)Stage 2 – Assessment CentreA discussion session with an assessor to review the -self assessment and supportingevidence to ensure that the standard has been met. The outcome of this processis either an agreement of readiness to progress to Formal Interview (Stage 3) or apersonal development plan to address areas where there is a lack of knowledge orexperience.Stage 3 – Formal InterviewThe expectations within the Quality Standar ,d together with trust specific q ,uestions willbe used within the formal interview. The panel and content of the formal interview willbe determined by the level of leadership.The Project to dateThe pilot phase of the project began in April 2016 with an initial round of assessmentcentres led by a consultan ,t but supported by senior leaders from across the T rust. Thepurpose of this was threefold:■ To evaluate and test out the process and the matrices■ To develop the skills of senior leaders across the T rust in carrying out theassessment centres■ To fill a number of vacancies that had arisen across the T rustIn t ,otal more than 50 assessment centre reviews were carried out for leaders at alllev ,els from head of school to subject and year group leaders. This gave us a really clearpicture of the strengths and weaknesses of the proc ,ess but also proved revealing interms of the generic strengths and weaknesses in the knowledge and skills of thosebeing interviewed.The second phase of the project was to bring together a group of staff from acrossthe T rust who had been involved in the assessment centr ,es either as an interviewer64Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningRecruitment or an interviewee to reflect on the process. Given that some of these staff had beenunsuccessful in the proc ,ess it was fantastic how positive and supportive they were ofthe project.In discussing the matrices, it was agreed that more guidance and exemplificationwas needed and that the processes needed to be viewed more holistically with greaterclarity of who should undertake ACs, pre-AC mentoring and support for unsuccessfulcandidates. We discussed the implications for those in acting roles. It was also feltessential every one taking part had trust in each other’s judgements and that the headof school or executive head needed to be involved in the discussions before feedbackso account could be taken of specific circumstances.The matrices were revised and have been successfully trialled this term.During the assessment centr ,es there were some consistent issues and we agreedthat we didn’t see enough evidence of:■ Clear vision of the drivers for change or improvement■ Articulation of leadership skills or a conscious use of specific skills■ Clarity of intended or actual impact■ The application of skills and"
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Leadership

SLT 7.6 The Leadership Recruitment Challenge

13 Mar 2017

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