Executive Leadership

How Senior And Middle Leaders Can Learn To Love Each Other

In the current school climate,where shared leadership at all levels is required, the division of tasks and delegation of decision-making by senior leaders is becoming critically important for the success of the school. Dr. Nasima Riazat reports

Ensuring the right people are in the right posts, and then striving to get the very best out of each team member is a critical component of any successful school striving to be able to meet all its priorities. This is reinforced by Ofsted where leadership is assessed at all levels across the school for effectiveness. But the fact is that senior and middle leaders often have poor communication and even hostile, resentful relationships. How can they work together more collaboratively to further develop the success of their schools?

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      string(5679) "30Vol 5.4School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningSchoolcultureCreating a successculture in your schoolA positive culture focused on success is the keystone of anexcellent school – but what kind of culture does your schoolpromote? Paul Trainor looks at practical ways leaders can takea fresh look at their school’s underlying attitudes, and reinforcethe vision and values that drive success.When looking at a tree, the easiest part to see is above the ground. Fromour understanding of how a tree grows, we know there is a significantamount of activity underground to sustain the life of the tree. Damagingthe roots or contaminating the soil may result in the death of the tree.The culture of a school works in a similar way. There are many aspects of a school’sbusiness that we can easily see, but there are also other aspects that occur below thesurface, which serve the organisation’s overall health and progress. Margaret Wheatleydescribes those aspects above the surface as the processes, structures and patterns1.The roots, under the surface according to Wheatley, are the school’s culture – its31Vol 5.4School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningSchoolcultureidentity, the relationships that exist and the connectionswith staff, pupils, parents and the community.Culture in a school has a number of definitions, but isoften described as ‘shared beliefs and values of a school’or alternatively ‘the way we do things around here’.School culture is an ‘underground flow of feelings andfolkways [wending] its way within schools in the form ofvision and values, beliefs and assumptions, rituals andceremonies, history and stories, and physical symbols’2.‘[It] can be the ultimate form of “capacity”— a reservoirof energy and wisdom to sustain motivation and co-operation, shape relationships and aspirations, andguide effective choices at every level of the school.’3Peterson wrote about the two extremes of schoolcultures as ‘positive’ or ‘toxic’. In describing positivecultures, he stated that such schools are:where staff have a shared sense of purpose and theypour their hearts into teachingwhere the underlying norms are of collegiality,improvement, and hard workwhere student rituals and traditions celebratestudent accomplishment, teacher innovation, andparental commitmentwhere the informal network of storytellers, heroes,and heroines provides a social web of information,support, and historywhere success, joy and humour abound.4Peterson also stated that ‘strong positive cultures areplaces with a shared sense of what is important, a sharedethos of caring and concern, and a shared commitmentto helping students learn’.On the other hand, a toxic school culture:blames students for lack of progressdiscourages collaborationbreeds hostility among staff.School leaders from every level are key to shaping schoolculture. Senior leaders communicate core purpose andvalues in their everyday work. Middle leaders developtheir teams in line with those values. Teachers reinforcevalues in their actions and words.See your school through others’ eyesWhen we are fully immersed in leading a school on aday-to-day basis, it is easy to miss the most obviousthings, as they often blend into the background of ourworking environment. This could be the behaviour ofour colleagues, the atmosphere of the corridors, or theenvironment of the classrooms. It could also be thatregular processes become comfortable, automatic and‘the way we do things around here’.This is our Reticular Activating System (RAS) atwork. The RAS is a set of nuclei connected in the brain.One of its most important features is to act as a filter ofthe incredible amount of information our brains haveto cope with. The human mind can actively processand concentrate on around five to nine simultaneouspieces of information before it becomes overloaded andconfused. As a result, we are only consciously aware of■■■■■■■■The human mind canactively process andconcentrate on aroundfive to nine simultaneouspieces of informationbefore it becomesoverloaded and confused.“”32Vol 5.4School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningSchoolculture information that is actually needed in the mind. Another way of looking at this is if youhave ever bought a house near a motorway or railway line. When you first move in,you notice the noise from the cars or trains, but over time, you become unaware of thenoise as your RAS filters it out.Michael McIntyre jokes about complacency creeping into his marriage: ‘Just lastweek, I wrote on my wife’s card “I still love you. See last year’s card for full details.”’Great leaders in any arena are able to ensure that they develop a culture wherecontinual development is at its core and their RAS does not lead to complacency in anorganisation.What is the culture like in your school? If an outsider was to walk around thecorridors, walk into classrooms, wait in your entrance or speak to your staff and pupils,what would they see? What commonalities would they see between attitudes andatmosphere?As Professor Richard Elmore of Harvard School of Education explained, ‘Culturesdo not change by mandate – they change by the specific displacement of existingnorms, structures and processes by others. The process of cultural change dependsfundamentally on modelling the new values and behaviours that you expect todisplace the existing one.’5What’s your school’s story?You have just met a stranger on a train platform. Your train leaves in two minutesand they have"
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Leadership

Creating a success culture in your school

20 Nov 2013

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Leadership

SLT 7.6 The Leadership Recruitment Challenge

13 Mar 2017

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      string(301) "... prior to this. I work closely with the Headteacher, who was appointed at the same time as me. The ethos of the school is ‘Children learn what they live’. Our staff code of conduct is based on the poem with this title written by Dorothy Law Nolte. When all staff ..."
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      string(5645) "Moon’s Moat First School is a larger than average First School in the West Midlands. The children are part of a three-tier system where they transfer to Middle School at the end of Year Four. The school is situated in an area of high levels of deprivation. The majority of pupils in the school are White British. Twenty-seven per cent of pupils are classed as Pupil Premium children. The school has been part of the Achievement for All family for four years. It gained Quality Mark status in 2015 and Quality Lead status in 2017. The school was judged to be good at its last inspection in March 2017.I became Deputy Headteacher in 2006, although I had undertaken the role as an acting deputy for the school year prior to this. I work closely with the Headteacher, who was appointed at the same time as me. The ethos of the school is ‘Children learn what they live’. 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We began asking ourselves questions such as, we think our parents feel valued, but how do we know?Structured ConversationsTaking part in Structured Conversation training really opened our eyes to how we were delivering information to the parents. We started asking: Were we really listening to them? How were we delivering sensitive information to them? Were we involving them as much as we should in decisions about their children? We invited all families involved in the programme to a Structured Conversation meeting with their child’s class teacher, which lasted between 30-60 minutes. Staff were released during the school day to conduct these. This had a considerable impact on the school budget, but the school used Higher Level Teaching Assistants and Cover Supervisors where possible and the Senior Leadership Team made it a priority that the parents had this opportunity to talk about their children in this way with staff. Because parental engagement for these parents had been low when we started this process, many did not keep to their agreed meetings. Our staff were relentless in making sure that all parents attended. We currently have between 90 and 100 per cent attendance each time we hold Structured Conversations. These meetings have become so successful that we now hold them for all parents of SEND children and for all children who join the school at a point other than the start of Reception. The training also impacted on how we conduct home visits, particularly in terms of the questions we ask the parents and the balance between teacher, parent and pupil talk. All Structured Conversations are followed up with a progress report towards meeting targets and set in the half term following the meetings. We are also fortunate that the Middle School where most children transfer to also values the importance of Structured Conservations through their own involvement in Achievement for All. We looked at the information and records we keep for our SEND and Pupil Premium children. We realised that the pupils and parents were not as involved as they should be when setting targets. Our Individual Provision Maps were revised and these are shared half termly with parents. Pupil Voice is obtained frequently and their views inform the their target setting and are crucial for transition information. As a cluster of Achievement for All schools we looked at the information we send home to help parents when working with children at home. We created our own personalised Home School Link books and these are amended each year to fit with changes to the curriculum and school priorities. This has positively impacted on attendance figures as the importance of good attendance is shared through this. Parents are informed of their child’s individual targets and information is included about English and Maths stages they should be reaching and about maths calculation strategies they should be using. Our parents are now surveyed at least three times a year. We used to find it difficult to get parents to return questionnaires. Now all parents are asked to complete a questionnaire before they leave parent consultation meetings, depending on their own ability to read and write. We now have 75-80 per cent of our parents giving their views for each survey. They have been surveyed about school priority areas, behaviour, homework, school meals, workshops and many other things. 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Executive Leadership

Challenging Parents!

2 Jul 2018

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      string(5691) "respondents are presented in the table.The percentages in this table are weighted by school type, size and student FSM eligibility.Source: NFER and IOE leadership survey for the National College, 2012Typical responses from middle/senior leaders concerning curriculum development included: ‘embeddingcreative teaching styles throughout Key Stage 3/4 to meet requirements of new GCSE’, ‘reviewing primarycurriculum provision in our special school’, ‘developing topic-based learning’ and ‘to implement creativecurriculum’.The telephone interviews with 20 headteachers provided a wealth of further information concerningimprovement actions currently in place. As might have been expected from the prominence given tosupporting improvements in teaching and learning in the ‘important but not urgent’ tasks, all headteachershad strategies in place to further improve teaching and learning in their schools. Data was used extensively,both external (RaiseOnline, Fischer Family Trust, benchmarking data provided by the local authority) andinternal assessment to enable individual pupil tracking and reporting to parents. Regular progress meetings93 © National College for School Leadershipwere common in schools where senior leaders meet with classroom teachers in primary schools and headsof year or equivalent in secondary schools, to look at individual students’ progress, to design interventionsand to evaluate the impact of these. Focused interventions were described in detail in several cases. Headsof special schools and small primary schools in the sample reported that national data sets were inapplicableor had limited use, but each used their own systems and small size of the school to monitor individualprogress and set targets.Many schools were developing professional learning communities and grouping staff for peer observationand mutual challenge and support. Staff were grouped in pairs or triads and, in secondary schools, bothwithin and across subject areas. Several staff were involved in learning walks, both senior and middleleaders in most schools and all teachers in some. ‘Unannounced’ observations, ‘drop- ins’ or mini-inspectionswere used in some schools as part of the lesson observation and feedback cycle, running alongside theperformance management process. Middle leadership development in providing feedback and challengingpoor practice was seen as an integral part of improving teaching and learning across the school. Coachingwas mentioned by many respondents, with further development of a coaching culture a priority forprofessional development.Headteachers used professional development that was bespoke to the needs of their schools to improveteaching and learning. ‘Learn to learn’, ‘thinking schools’ and ‘open schools’ are examples of approaches takenin different schools in the sample. All heads were looking for specific expertise, tailored to the needs of theirschool. They sent teachers on courses when there was a specific development need for which this was mostappropriate, for example the use of external providers for leadership training.The eight case study schools were also adopting a range of improvement strategies but it was not possibleto state how effective they were proving to be. Examples are given below from two schools: School A, asmall, rural primary school and School B, a large secondary academy.In School A, a key focus of leadership was on improving the quality and consistency of teaching.— For pupils this focused on their wellbeing, attendance and engagement in learning. The school hadadopted the international primary curriculum which was seen to support creativity and enjoyment withinsix-week thematic learning units.— For teachers, the focus was on monitoring pupil progress and the use of data. This had in part beentriggered by Ofsted’s recommendations for improvement in the consistency of teaching writing andin monitoring progress. Teachers now completed pupil-tracking data that was reviewed in pupilprogress review meetings with a focus on underachieving pupils and those not meeting nationalprogress measures. This was combined with book scrutiny on assessment and the establishment of anintervention tracker which enabled staff to view the interventions pupils had received during their wholetime in the school).The school had also introduced lesson study, which comprised the joint planning and observations of classesby teachers within a phase. The current focus was on formative assessment. There was also an attempt todevelop a school culture in which staff were encouraged to give ‘constructive criticism’.Another challenge for the school was to sustain and improve pupil outcomes. The headteacher wasdeveloping a whole-school approach to improving the quality of teaching and learning rather than acontinual ‘quick fix in Year 6’. This approach included play-based learning and then rigorous and enjoyablelearning. There was however pressure to secure results during this process of change.In School B, following an Ofsted inspection in 2009 a whole-school programme of teaching and learningimprovement had been developed. Every department had been observed teaching by the SLT with theobservations reported back to heads of department (HoDs) with subsequent discussion of individualsupport needs and collective inset focus. A recurring theme had been assessment for learning (AfL) anddifferentiation, with teachers often good at focusing on middle- and low-attaining students, but not so goodat stretching higher achievers. This led into a student"
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Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017