The secret to excellent middle leaders

A strong work culture and climate is integral to the success of your middle leadership. Andy Buck, Dean of the Leadership Faculty at education charity Teaching Leaders, explores ways you can empower your leaders.

Great delivery in schools doesn’t happen by accident. It is the result of all the staff and pupils working together to achieve a clear set of objectives. To move from a vision or a strategy to strong delivery requires buy-in and focus from the school-wide team. The role of middle leaders in enabling this is critical. They are the people who most directly lead and manage the front line of delivery in classrooms. But as the diagram below summarises, the relationship between leadership and results is not a direct one. Creating the right culture and climate is essential.

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      string(331) "... that are deemed to be facing challenging scenarios at any given time. The idea is that the NLE works alongside teaching schools and other system leaders to provide the highest quality support to those who need it the most.  Working through challengeIt’s no secret that many schools and headteachers ..."
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      string(5662) "Headship is a varied and difficult job and the training and preparation for it can be equally varied.  NLEs (National Leaders of Education) are available to provide additional support and capacity to those heads that find themselves in challenging circumstances at particular points in their career.  They work directly with heads in a mentoring role, but also provide additional practical help and support at an exact moment in time.NLEs are a group of accredited serving head teachers recognised as strong school leaders and have experience of effectively supporting and improving schools and heads that are deemed to be facing challenging scenarios at any given time. The idea is that the NLE works alongside teaching schools and other system leaders to provide the highest quality support to those who need it the most.  Working through challengeIt’s no secret that many schools and headteachers across the country are in need of greater, more fine-tuned support, but, in reality, how does an NLE drive successful outcomes amidst consistently challenging and sometimes difficult situations?If we look first at what is needed to become an NLE, you start to understand the level of work involved.  Heads who meet the eligibility criteria are free to apply; this includes having a strong track record of headship (supported by an Ofsted judgement) and a strong record of school to school improvement work which has led to improved outcomes for pupils.  The application to become an NLE is dove-tailed with that of the headteacher’s school to become a National Support School (NSS). Again, this must meet the criteria of being a good school with high levels of attainment and progress and with a senior and middle leader team with capacity to support another school, which must be supported by the most recent Ofsted judgement.NLEs are defined as being outstanding headteachers who, together with the staff in their national support school (NSS), use their skills to increase the leadership capacity of other schools to help raise standards.Whilst NLEs are not paid directly for their work, they can apply for a £6000 bursary for their school to cover costs, such as travel or supply cover for meetings and training events and the cost of recruiting additional staff to increase capacity in the school.  Beyond that, the NLE must negotiate the cost of delivering the school improvement work with the school directly or apply for additional grants on the school’s behalf.Are NLEs a good thing?The current recruitment and retention situation in schools across the country can mean that some heads have had very limited experience before taking on the role or once appointed find themselves in circumstances they have never experienced before – and that can be daunting to say the least.  Although heads in the early years of headship often benefit from the intervention of an NLE, the support can be equally useful for more experienced heads that find themselves in new circumstances (as a result of the ever-evolving trends in education) or indeed find themselves affected due to reduced capacity or lack of resource. On several occasions, I have worked with experienced heads who have had their capacity reduced because of long term illness (their own or close family members). On other occasions, I have worked with ‘reluctant’ heads, excellent deputies who never expected to be headteachers, but find themselves needing to be in that position. The support of an NLE can be just the boost a head needs at a particular point, it provides a welcome new perspective and enables the head to make accelerated progress when under external pressure.New headteachers often rely on their previous role models for their own inspiration. If, for whatever reason, the role model wasn’t good enough, the new head can feel very out of their depth.  Working with a new head in this position was an inspiring piece of work and showing him new ways of thinking, offering him alternative ways of working and suggesting systems and processes that worked allowed him to make rapid progress to improve his school, securing a ‘good’ at his next inspection.It’s often the case that heads who have only ever worked in one school or have had limited experience of particular circumstances, can really welcome the outside support and challenge of a new perspective.  Working with a colleague to raise questions about ‘added value’ and the impact in a non-judgemental way often leads a head to a new perspective.  Leading reflective conversationsIn one school I worked with, the head had only ever worked in two or three form entry schools; they were used to high levels of delegation and found the challenge of adapting to a small school with very small staff numbers presented challenges they just hadn’t expected.  It is easy to see how this kind of thing can happen to so many.  Leading reflective conversations and providing practical examples of alternative models was very helpful, allowing the headteacher to explore new approaches.I have worked with several headteachers over the years that have only ever worked in one school; as senior leaders, they had not had experience of some of the challenges they now faced as headteachers.  For example, one head teacher had to deal with falling rolls and, with close support, was able to think of several different ways of re-organising staff and classes to help reduce costs in practice.  Another headteacher I worked with used the support gained from an NLE to develop"
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Executive Leadership

What exactly does a National Leader of Education do?

26 Sep 2017

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      string(5622) "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? How can you prove this?When was the last time they monitored a series of lessons?How have they improved guided reading?What actions have they taken as a result of rigorous data analysis?How does their subject action plan relate to the school development plan?When was the last time they led a whole school twilight?How do they moderate writing results?How do they challenge underperforming staff?An effectively"
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Leadership

How to keep calm and learn to love Ofsted

4 Jul 2012

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organisation can be transformed for the better. Nick Zienau’s
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      string(376) "... my work elsewhere that a bigsecondary school could achieve excellence only throughthe capacity of its middle leaders. In one outstanding schoolI could see that its success in examinations and in cultureand in learning was almost wholly based on having enoughcommitted and capable middle leaders to make the machineof the school"
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      string(5657) "A group of sixth formers gave astructured input to a training day about teaching andlearning, explaining what worked for them and what didn’t,what they remembered about being in the lower years andwhat they could see the younger pupils needed. This hada huge impact. It was hard for sceptical staff to deny theauthenticity and good intentions of young people interestednot only in their own education but that of others whofollowed them in the school.Two years after we took the initiative I ran another roundof focus groups. Figure 1 shows the positive findings fromstudents.Figure 1: Feedback from the initiativePositive changes reported by students two years after the initiativeThe school is better than they expected – you can do really well and people are friendlyMore of the lessons are interesting and most teachers are pretty good – this is very different to 2 years agoBehaviour is fairly good – there is little trouble between students – older ones are mainly kind to younger onesTeachers are friendly to students and want them to do well. Discipline is much less of a problem than 3 years agoThere is quite a lot to do – the range of opportunities is pretty good and there is quite a lot of varietyAlthough the quality of tutors varies, you do hear how you are doing at regular intervals which is also a change from beforeStudents feel there is a lot to be proud of at the school that people outside don’t know about. They wanted the school to be better atcommunicating thisMost students commented how unusual it was that at most staff listened to students, took notice of what they said and sometimeschanged thingsActions that people suggestedFind more to do at breaks and lunchtimes – maybe let people into classrooms. Improve food and reduce queuesLiked the idea of a better website and a smart newsletter in which students would speak about what they were achievingMore competitions and activities with other secondary schools – start new events and invite other schools hereMore activities for primary schools – with students going to the primaries and maybe an event like a big sports day organised by theschool for primary kidsMuch more use of IT in lessons – involve students in making this happen (they often have untapped skills)More consistency among tutors – some are great – others don’t have so much impact on studentsMore opportunities for older students to work helping younger ones – this has been really successful for both and could take pressureoff teachersMake year reps meetings more regular and take them seriously – minutes, agendas and report back to students in tutor group time31www.teachingtimes.com n Vol 3.1Leadership SkillsChange ManagementOne student said: “It’s very simple. When I started it felt like itwas ‘their school’ and I felt I had been sent to another world.Now it’s ours and I’m proud of it and I can see that everyonehas the same feeling. The great difference is they really listento us and they encourage us to listen and take account ofeach other as well.”I think a key to success in this kind of approach isto adopt a coaching approach and explain to everyonehow important it is to use a non-judgmental but honestapproach to all this communication. We knew already thatthe biggest fear of both staff and pupils was that they weregoing to get accused or criticised or judged. In fact thatwas the prevailing ethos which had caused problems in thefirst place. Resistance is always caused by fear. This may bepersonal fear – “what are the consequences for me?” – orfear of consequences for others or for the organisation. Thesafer you can make a change process feel to the participants,the faster it will go.The secret to achieving change in this enormous schoolwas to be friendly, open and straightforward and recognisethat the pupils were actually the biggest stakeholders in theschools’ success. I was lucky to be working with a head whoboth saw the truth of this and was able to stay true to thisprinciple in his behaviour and his decision-making. The hardpart of this is to do it in the sort of fractured and troubledcommunity that we found ourselves in – typical of a 21st-century world city like London.Creating a community school in such a place involves anact of faith by leadership because no-one in the communitybelieves that a unifying and harmonious culture could existthere. In a way, the school becomes the model for studentsand, in the process, for the future of the community. Go in tothis now and you will see pupils and staff alike enjoying itsharmony and stability. Of course, it’s not easy to maintain,and there are always challenges – but the culture shines outat you in the faces of people and in their hopefulness andopenness.Next stepsThe school disappeared from my view for a few years. A newleadership team emerged. Previously, the head had been a lonefigure; now he had a team. We talked about leadership andthe need to create sustainability in the culture that had beenestablished. We had already made some attempts to developleaders: subject leaders had gone on leading from the middleand I had done some work with the heads of year whose rolewe had built up during the cultural change process.It had become clear from my work elsewhere that a bigsecondary school could achieve excellence only throughthe capacity of its middle leaders. In one outstanding schoolI could see that its success in examinations and in cultureand in learning was almost wholly based on having enoughcommitted and capable middle leaders to make the machineof the school"
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Leadership

Whose school is it anyway?

4 May 2011

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      string(334) "... children seem to be morestressed and less happy thantheir Nordic counterparts.It is for all these reasons thatI consider the current Englishsystem to be a muddle.My visionA country’s education system is too precious to allow it to remain a muddle. I acceptthat politicians have an important leadership role ..."
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      string(5633) "(One school has been reported as operating an admission scheme inwhich points can be gained for church attendance, singing in the choir or arrangingflowers.) Knowledgeable parents who ‘understand the system’ have a considerableadvantage but even so,cannot avoid the risk ofmissing a place in their chosenschool. Less knowledgeable– or less confident ones – face abewildering array of possibilitiesand often end up with the leastpopular schools.We also have expensive andinflexible pre-school provision,divisive selection, streamingand setting, costly inspections, aplethora of testing, a politicallytainted curriculum and a morassof qualifications. Furthermore,our children seem to be morestressed and less happy thantheir Nordic counterparts.It is for all these reasons thatI consider the current Englishsystem to be a muddle.My visionA country’s education system is too precious to allow it to remain a muddle. I acceptthat politicians have an important leadership role – we elect them to act on our behalf– but believe that they also have a duty to behave responsibly with regard to society asa whole, rather than indulge their personal whims. I do not believe it is in the interestof our society to divide, so systematically, each generation into different types ofschools. In their book ‘The spirit level’, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett argue thatmore equal societies ‘almost always do better’2. This is borne out by my experiences inNordic countries.What England surely needs is a system in which the high quality teaching I haveseen can flourish. A system that is ambitious yet flexible, able to cope with futurechanges in our understanding of learning and in technological developments and onethat works well with pupils from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds, withthose who find learning easy and those who don’t. In other words, a system able tocope with the population as it is.In my book, I outline some radical changes – to be debated alongside suggestionsfrom other education writers such as Michael Fielding and Peter Moss3, Stephen Ball4,Richard Pring5 and Melissa Benn6 – to create a more inclusive education system in45Vol 5.5School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comSchool ImprovementDiscussionwhich excellence sits easily with fairness rather than being seen as its opposite.Such a system would not depend on teaching to the test and endless practicesessions. It would recognise the need for schools to imbue in their pupils a moralcompass and promote good character, as well as to train minds, develop knowledgeand skills and stimulate the imagination. Utopian? Perhaps, but is this not what thenext generation deserves?Leadership and inspectionsI suggest that the education system should still be led – but not, as now, micro-managed – by a minister. Individual schools should be self-managing but overseen bydemocratically elected authorities promoting innovative and collaborative institutions.This would be in contrast to the policies of recent governments that diminishthe role of local authorities, but is in keeping with the increasingly obvious need foran intermediate authority between central government and schools. An ambitiousminister could usefully explore ways in which private schools could be integrated intothe system so the current fault line that exists in our society could begin to fade.I further argue that inspection should be scaled back to its essential purposeof ensuring that no school is unacceptable, rather than its current pursuit ofendeavouring – in extremely limited time and with only partial information – to ‘finegrade’ each institution.Achieving a balanced intakeSelection should be outlawed and faith schools – that so often claim to be superior– should be opened to all pupils and should no longer be permitted to promotefaith-based practices. Instead, different religions, if they wished, could each providea religious leader to meet with pupils of their faith after school hours. The school day,however, would be spent in the company of pupils from all and no faiths – as will bepupils’ subsequent lives.In order for all secondary schools (especially urban ones) to have the potential tobe good schools, I believe it is essential to ensure that all receive a balanced intakeof pupils – those who learn easily and those who do not, those who come fromadvantaged families and those who do not. In other words, schools would no longerreflect a particular postcode, but represent a fair cross section of our society.There are three ways of ensuring a balanced intake – bussing, banding and randomallocation. All pose problems, but without one of them, pupils who live in poor areaswill go to school in a poor area and those who live in more advantaged circumstanceswill mix only with their peers.Desegregation bussing, the practice of assigning and transporting students toschools so as to balance out intake, has not solved similar problems in the UnitedStates, despite energetic promotion.Banding, the practice of assigning pupils school places based on ability, is usedby the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) and is still favoured by many people.My problem with bandingis that I think the publiclabelling of pupils (ajudgement that wouldhave to be shared withnot only the pupil, butthe parents and allfuture teachers – to saynothing of friends andrelatives) leads to aninevitable downgradingof expectations. For thisreason, it is not permittedin Finland.7Reluctantly – because Ithink it is the hardest ideato explain – I have cometo the conclusion thatthe"
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Leadership

A vision for a better education system

10 Feb 2014

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