incerts network launch - 'school improvement: how collaboration can play a vital role' by...

Robert Hill Consulting

School improvement: how collaboration can play a vital role


What drives school improvement?

1. The quality of the teaching and learning


What drives school improvement?

“The quality of leadership in a school is second only to teaching in its impact on student outcomes”The Hill report 2013

2. The quality of school leadership

Quality leadership in schools is about more than having effective headteachers: it also involves developing and empowering senior, middle, classroom and student leaders


So how does collaboration help improve the quality of teaching and learning and school leadership?


It helps a school to know itself

• Benchmarking performance • Moderating assessment • Running joint lesson observations

and learning walks • Conducting peer reviews • Jointly investigating common

areas of concern • Sharing school development plans • Learning from student voice


It helps a school to develop expertise

• Deploying lead practitioners

• Training and using classroom coaches across groups of schools

• Sharing subject experts

• Buying in joint programmes to improve outcomes in specific subject areas – e.g AfL

• Enabling joint curriculum and lesson planning


It helps a school develop its staff

• Holding joint inset/training sessions

• Linking joint training to coaching and classroom review

• Setting up action research or lesson study to address common challenges

• Sharing NQT development

• Sharing middle and senior leadership programmes


It helps a school develop a leadership pipeline

• Appointing executive heads

• Providing emerging leaders with opportunities for assignments and secondments

• Using experienced heads as coaches and mentors


It helps a school improve its governance

• Holding joint training and development sessions

• Opportunities to observe each other’s meetings

• Sharing data and practice

• Picking up new ideas


The form of collaboration depends on context

• Is it a rescue mission? !


Good rescue partnerships – phases of supportSorting the basics

• Provide intensive coaching for weak teachers & support the best • Show what good and excellent teaching looks like • Use capability procedures where necessary • Insist on basic systems – especially for behaviour & attendance • Amend curriculum where necessary • Set individual and collective targets for improvement • Improve the school environment and sort out finances

Developing capacity

• Develop critical mass of good or better teaching and learning • Share schemes of work, lesson plans, observation and coaching • Organise shared insets, CPD and middle leadership development • Empower teachers and leaders with potential • Share and compare data

Train governors jointly and observe each other’s meetingsSustaining improvement

• Ensure that progress and attainment is rising • Ensure leadership at levels of the school is working well • Agree long-term arrangements for support of the school



• Is it a rescue mission? !!

!• Is it about accessing specialist

support?


Partnerships providing specific support

From its self-evaluation or development plan School A may identify that it needs: • Coaching for the head or senior leadership

team

• Middle leadership development

• Coaching support for specific teachers

• Subject expertise

• Support to develop the curriculum or improve assessment

• Business management support



School B has the

necessary expertise

School A requiring support

• It is usually better for the support to be provided in School A – i.e. in situ so that practice can be developed in the context of School A’s challenges

!• However, some observation of

outstanding practice in School B may also be appropriate



School B has the

necessary expertise

School A requiring support

The support should be structured and commissioned in a proper way with inputs, expected outcomes and reimbursement formally

agreed



School B has the

necessary expertise

School A requiring support Over time the relationship

between the schools may develop to the point where expertise is

flowing both ways and the partnership is more akin to a

mutual aid arrangement



• Is it a rescue mission? !!

!• Is it about accessing specialist

support? !!

• Is it about mutual aid?


Ten lessons1. Build on existing partnerships and relationships

Source: David Hargreaves for National College, 2012


Ten lessons

2. Keep local partnerships geographically focused

If a partnership is large it will need to consider splitting into small localised clusters for key aspects of its work


Ten lessons3. Develop strong relationships, shared values and commitment to each

other

• Thinking strategically • Communicating well • Developing a shared purpose • Being honest in relationships • Celebrating others’ successes • Facilitating group processes • Involving others • Understanding impact of change • Learning from each other • Mediating conflict

• Setting direction

• Commanding authority

• Being accountable

• Championing an institution

• Persuading through vision

• Understanding different organisations

• Making trade-offs

• Modelling collaboration

Leadership of an institution

Leadership in a partnership


Ten lessons

4. Be clear about governance, funding and accountability

Overall governance arrangements for partnership

School governance exercised by local governing bodies (Focused more on the local school community)

• Formal schemes setting out in detail respective responsibilities and accountabilities for funding, polices and performance

• Mechanisms for consultation and dialogue

• Joint development and training


Ten lessons

5. Involve middle leaders in the leadership of partnerships

Individual lead

Individual lead

Task group

Task group

Task group

Formal governance

Individual lead

Strategic leadership and co-ordination

Operational leadership and co-ordinationDeputy and assistant heads and middle

leaders


Ten lessons

6. Use business plans and action plans to prioritise what partnerships will do together

• Have you identified your key priorities? • Do your projects reflect your key priorities and help to deliver them? • Have you assessed how you will jointly deliver your project – and the

level of support, input or resources that will be required? • Have you agreed your success/impact measures? • Have you established how you will track and monitor progress? • Is there a clear structure for reporting back on outcomes and

evaluating impact?


• Data openly shared and benchmarked – in-year as well as end of year

• Shared lesson observations linked to evidence on effective classroom practice

• Peer and external reviews • Joint investigations of subjects,

departments and issues • Student voice • Tracking measures for partnership

programmes

Ten lessons7. Focus partnership activity on improving teaching and learning

through teacher-to-teacher and pupil-to-pupil engagement




50%

25%25%

75%75%

50%

Joint practice development (Coaching in class, lesson study, joint lesson planning and action research)

Continuous professional development (Seminars, courses, conferences and insets)


Using mentors and coaches is a powerful driver of improvement

• Share understanding of what is meant by mentoring and coaching

• Train and accredit mentors and coaches – particularly middle leaders

• Develop open classrooms and use of video technology

• Encourage peer mentors, student mentors and use of external coaches




School-to-school working develops and deepens the more there is a dense web of interaction between staff and pupils

Joint insetsCoaching

Lesson study

Shared lesson observations

Action research

Student voice

Joint curriculum & lesson planningLeadership

development

Lead Practitioners

Governor developmentNetwork

nights



Digital contact


Ten lessons8. Allocate some resources to pay for some dedicated leadership

or project management time

Individual lead

Individual lead

Task group

Task group

Task group

Formal governance

Individual lead

Strategic leadership and co-ordination

Operational leadership and co-ordination

Executive head/lead head/partnership co-

ordinator and all heads

Deputy and assistant heads and middle

leaders

*May only be one or two days a week


Denton

Grantham Rural Schools Village

Partnership

Strategic Partner in EOS Teaching School Alliance

Collaboration with Huntingtower

Community Primary Academy

Extended School Partnership led by local secondary

school

Denton and Harlaxton Federation

Harlaxton

Ad hoc support for other schools

Support from bursar at local

academy

Ten lessons9. Be prepared to be engaged in multi-partnership activity and for

the form and membership of partnerships to evolve over time


Ten lessons

9. Be prepared to be engaged in multi-partnership activity and for the form and membership of partnerships to evolve over time

• Is partnership mainstream or add-on?

• Depth takes time to achieve and comes as partners build trust and work together more extensively

• Depth is linked with hard-wiring how partnerships work together

Source: David Hargreaves for National College, 2012


Ten lessons

10. Monitor and evaluate the impact of partnership activity

• Quality of teaching and learning • Leadership development and sustainability • Staff motivation • Pupil engagement – as measured through

attendance, behaviour, homework completion, marking of books

• Pupil attainment and progress – both within year and at end of year

• Ofsted outcomes


Questions for discussion with your neighbour

• What one thing most excites you about the opportunities this agenda presents?

!

• What one thing most worries you about the challenges this agenda presents?


Partnerships in general – it can be doneIt requires: • Shared moral purpose • A ‘can do’ culture • Planning, timetabling and

backfilling • Communication – so that

everyone knows (governors, staff, students and parents) what is happening

• Reinforcing the benefits

Yes, you can!

incerts network launch - 'school improvement: how collaboration can play a vital role' by...

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