Effective Governance in a Changing World

What’s new?????

What challenges are we all responding to?

• The changing world - technology, globalism, uncertainty

• The changing context - policy, frameworks, expectations and priorities

• Changing relationships• Dealing with uncertainty

Eric Hoffer

• In times of change, the learners shall inherit the earth while the learned will remain beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists

David Cameron

• And the learners who can create and innovate, who can identify opportunity and manage risk will shape that inheritance and define the future

What makes learning successful?

• ''My father would cry reading Dickens to us as kids. These are the passages I remember.'’ Malcolm Gladwell

• ''One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers - but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material - but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.'’ Carl Jung

The Passionate Teacher‘Of some of our teachers, we remember their foibles and mannerisms, of

others, their kindness and encouragement, or their fierce devotion to standards of work that we probably did not share at the time. And of those who inspired us most, we remember what they cared about, and that they cared about us, and the person we might become. It is the quality of caring about ideas and values, this fascination with the potential for growth within people, this depth and fervour about doing things well and striving for excellence, that comes closest to what I mean in describing a ‘passionate teacher’.

Robert Fried

Why teachers and books matter“I was supposed to be a welfare statistic……. It is because of a teacher that I

sit at this table. I remember her telling us one cold, miserable day that she could not make our clothing better; she could not provide us with food; she could not change the terrible segregated conditions under which we lived. She could introduce us to the world of reading, the world of books and that is what she did.

What a world! I visited Asia and Africa. I saw magnificent sunsets; I tasted exotic foods; I fell in love and danced in wonderful halls. I ran away with escaped slaves and stood beside a teenage martyr. I visited lakes and streams and composed lines of verse. I knew then that I wanted to help children do the same things, I wanted to weave magic.”

(From evidence submitted to ‘The National Commissionon Teaching and America’s future’, 1999.)

What do learners need?

• Basic skills – literacy, numeracy• The specific skills required by subjects or

vocational choices• The skills to access knowledge including the

skill of questioning

• The capacity to think, learn and adapt• The ability to innovate and create• The commitment to sustained enquiry or task• The ability to choose, and use, the tools for

learning, life and work• Attainment and capacity

What sort of learning?• Based on the gifts not the deficits• Active• Letting the learner find meaning• Varied• Motivated• Respecting subjects but not dominated by them• Assessed in terms of breadth, depth and application

What makes a difference

There are at least four important ingredients for improving education. The first are the professional skills of those who work with children.

Research has shown that factors like national or regional policies are less influential on pupils’ achievements than factors within each school

Of the school factors, the skills of staff came top.

• The most important of these was effective classroom management

The other factors• The second vital ingredient is the raising of aspirations

and expectations.• Third, staff morale and attitude to their craft. It is hard to

improve what you do through clenched teeth.• Fourth is the climate within the school..a positive

attitude to improvement in which people look at what is happening in classrooms, reflect on it and implement judicious change

Thought!!!!!!

• Data is important but so is the narrative• How it feels as well as how it shows?

Key Principles

Change should only be driven by self-evaluation, provided that self-evaluation is realistic and takes account of economic and social changes

If all learners were experiencing the best practice in our schools, we would not be talking about system change

We need to build on strengths in care, commitment and practice

Key principles

• People work best when they are enthusiastic about what they are doing

• ….. and who they are doing it with and for• Otherwise it makes no real difference

Effective Qualities

• Sharing the management of learning with pupils

• Promoting the belief that attainment can improve

• Using a wide range of sources of information • Identifying a range of needs • Responding to needs • Giving and receiving feedback • Using a range of sources of support

The 4 big questions

• What are you going to do to improve your practice?

• What help or support will you need to make that improvement?

• What outcomes will you expect your young people to achieve as a result of the improvement?

• What evidence will you look at to determine if the improvement has been made?

Why are Governors so important?

• The voice of the child• The voice of the community• Source of support• Source of questions/challenge• A link

Thought!!!!!!

• Data is important but so is the narrative• How it feels as well as what it shows• Asking questions is not adversarial in a culture

of shared self-evaluation• A culture of trust trumps a climate of

suspicion

• How do you help to build that culture?• Will it be based on what is right for us or on

what is right for all of us?

Clarity of Purpose

Purpose is not simply a target that an organisation chooses to aim for - it is an organisation’s reason for being. It needs to express what the organisation wants to accomplish in providing value to its stakeholders - and describe how these accomplishments can be measured.

Some thoughts

“Smart kids pass tests”It’s the last question that holds the key to high achievementAttainments are only for entrance, they don’t guarantee success in the world you enterIt is not our job to enable young people to fail, it is our task to give them the tools to succeed

The Lacuna

Their white dresses swirled like froth, with skirts so wide they could take the hems in their fingertips and raise them up to make sudden wings, like butterflies, fluttering as they turned…..“Indian girls,” she spat……”A corn eater will never be more than she is”

The dancers were butterflies. From a hundred paces Salome could see the dirt under their fingernails, but not their wings

The Real David Cameron

• therealdavidcameron@gmail.com• @realdcameron• 07825654326