LEADERSHIP A new level of leadership


The leaders of the first 100 teaching schools came together


earlier this month. Chief of the National College Steve Munby outlines the key role teaching schools have to play in leading professional development


L


eADershiP DeveLOPmenT in the english school system took an exciting new direction earlier this month. The national College hosted an


induction event at our nottingham headquarters where we welcomed the


leaders of the first 100 teaching schools. The event represented the official start of the teaching


school programme, with the heads and principals of the schools gathering to begin their work. As teaching schools they will lead alliances of schools and work with other partners, including at least one university, to deliver high quality support for teachers and leaders at all stages of their career. A major part of their work will be to designate the


first 1,000 specialist Leaders of education (sLes) – a cadre of outstanding professionals in leadership positions below the headteacher who will support their counterparts in other schools that are struggling to improve. These schools will, over the next three years, be


joined by 400 others so that by 2014 there will be a national network of 500 teaching school alliances spearheading professional development across the country. Together they will be responsible for the designation and deployment of 5,000 sLes by 2015. it is a grand and exciting vision but it is one that is still developing. We have been working with schools


What Michael Gove had to say…


Education secretary Michael Gove spoke to the first cohort of teaching school headteachers at the National College’s induction event. Here are some extracts from what he had to say.


“There is a growing trend among world-leading education systems toward more classroom- based teacher training. Research undertaken by McKinsey’s in 2010 looked at eight high performing education systems around the world. What they found was that the best systems embed professional and talent development in schools. And that’s no surprise to me. Because that’s where the real experts in education – teachers and leaders – tend to be found.”


“Higher education institutions will continue to make a significant and important contribution to teacher training. But we want schools to play a much bigger role. As employers, schools should have greater responsibility for recruitment; be more involved in the provision of quality placements; and have more say in the development of content for training. We will allow schools to recruit trainees and then to work with an accredited teacher training provider to train them to be qualified teachers. Schools will be expected to employ these trainees after graduation. So there will be an


incentive on the part of the schools to recruit the very best – thus driving up the standard of prospective teachers further. And as a further incentive to attract top graduates into the schools that most need them, trainees who are recruited and selected by schools with a high proportion of pupils on free school meals will receive a larger bursary.”


“I believe no institutions are better placed to provide superb CPD for teachers than your schools. At the moment, too much CPD provision is, frankly, a bit scattergun. Teaching schools can help, not only by advising other schools on great CPD services they’ve used, but also by providing such services themselves. Teaching schools can use their close relationships with other schools to develop CPD programmes that genuinely fit existing demand. And other schools will choose whether or not to take advantage of these programmes, making teaching schools accountable to their peers.


“As the prime minister pointed out last week, there are far too many coasting schools in the country, with a level of performance we still term satisfactory but we all know isn’t good enough. Teaching schools have the capacity to form partnerships with these schools, providing them with advice and support. Many of these schools will themselves have the capacity to improve but they need encouragement, a guiding hand, and the setting of higher expectations. We’ll be saying more, shortly, about how we ensure progress is made. But your role will be critical.”


for the past year on the broad principles of teaching schools and the induction event was another step in our work together to develop the detail. This will continue in the coming months and years


as the first 100 schools begin their work and more schools join. What is already clear is the potential of teaching school alliances to make a massive difference to leadership development in all our schools. But this success does depend on teaching school


leaders taking an uncompromising approach in the way they will work with other schools in their alliance. We know that in too many cases collaboration,


rather than championing high quality practice, can be quite superficial. This can lead to many school leaders seeing it as a waste of time, causing them to retreat into their schools to work it out on their own. This is about a new level of system leadership.


Teaching schools will be uncompromising as far as quality and expectations are concerned. This will not be easy. it may even go against the prevailing culture in some areas. it will require leaders


to constantly challenge practice in their own schools as well as in others, and to be dogged in their pursuit of the very best practice so that their own school and their own alliance can keep improving. For this to work, teaching school leaders will need


to be absolutely collaborative and inclusive in their approach. They will need to go that extra mile to make sure that colleagues in their own schools and across the alliance of schools feel valued, empowered and included, while at the same time making no compromises on their aspirations for children, the quality of teaching, the quality of professional development and what it really takes to develop the leaders of the future.


Taking the lead: HTI Leading professional learning


Anne Evans on the importance of school leaders,


driving, modelling and taking part in professional learning


There is a huge amount of change taking place in the education system at the moment and behind every one of these reforms lies a leadership challenge and also an implication for professional development. There was an interesting debate in The Observer


recently. Five experts from education explored how we can make our schools fit to face the 21st century. There was a predictable consensus that what matters most to school improvement is the quality of the leader and the quality of the teaching. They also agreed that schools need cultures of


inquisitiveness and experimentation to allow all staff to advance their practice. As one participant astutely pointed out, the best schools, no matter what breed they are or in what circumstances, build in time for CPD and that includes their heads. in these times of change and austerity, our


schools need courageous leadership. Of all the things that headteachers do, leading, modelling and taking part in professional learning has been found to have the greatest impact on student outcomes: twice that of any other leadership activity. While most school leaders know that professional


development is important, many are less adept at identifying the kind of development that is most likely to have the greatest impact. This is hardly surprising with so many new types and configurations of schools confronting an increasingly diverse range of challenges and with tight financial constraints. As one head recently said, when there is so much


going on, funds are limited, there are diminishing levels of support from local authorities, and difficulties in measuring the benefits of external


courses, the temptation is to rely on internal training opportunities to reduce cost. The problem is that this can lead to inconsistency and inconsistency is the great barrier to real progress. Before any investment in, or decisions about,


CPD are made, the starting point has to be understanding the professional learning environment you have and what it needs to be for the benefit of staff and pupils. Changes in the way we lead, manage, fund and deliver education require us to think more strategically about the purpose of professional learning, its impact and how to manage it more coherently. Think about a chain of academies, a free school,


a sponsor-led academy, a school in special measures, or a school which is – to use David Cameron’s term – “coasting”. each of these examples will have very different professional learning needs. We know an awful lot about how to set up an effective learning environment for pupils, less about how to set up one for staff. The Centre for Use of research and evidence in


education has synthesised research drawing together what is known about facilitating pupil learning, what is known about CPD, and an emerging evidence base about the nature of teacher learning. Just like young people – although there are differences in starting point, “identity” and end goal – teachers need opportunities to learn how to learn, how to learn collaboratively and where specialist input can be deployed to best effect. Together, based on this knowledge, hTi has


created a new service to help school leaders get the most out of their CPD investment and shape and direct it where it will have maximum impact on student learning and attainment. Using data, benchmarks, tools and resources


– as we do for pupil learning – schools will be able to identify a coherent whole-school approach which develops in-school CPD capacity, shows how specialist expertise can be used more effectively and provides the evidence not just to track progress and inform future decision-making, but to demonstrate an explicit connection between staff and pupil learning.


• Anne Evans OBE is chief executive of HTI, an independent social enterprise working to develop exceptional school leaders. Visit www.hti.org.uk


if teaching schools are going to make the difference


we believe they can make then leaders will need to assume the mantle not just of school leadership but of system leadership with confidence, with gravitas and with humility. We know this can be done because the first 100


teaching schools are all excellent examples of how very skilled leaders, who lead some of the very best schools in the country, have ensured both collaboration and quality across a group of schools. if we know what great leadership is then we have no


excuse not to replicate it across the system, so that every child in every school feels its benefit. For the leaders of the first teaching schools the role


is nothing to do with acquiring a badge or an accolade: it is about making a difference to children. Teaching schools must represent all that is great


about public service leadership, looking beyond organisational or personal interest, drawing on great professionalism wherever it may reside across the alliance; doing what is right for the young people in this country – especially those who need quality education the most. That is so paramount that any teaching school that does not commit to that notion will ultimately face de-designation. i hope and believe that teaching schools will be


models not only of great system leadership, but of terrific public service leadership. if we get this right it is an opportunity to do


something that has never been achieved anywhere else in the world. A system that challenges and supports itself to greater heights, with those who lead schools, leading the whole system, bound to each other in their commitment to give each and every child the best start in life. it is now time for leaders to really take on the


mantle of leadership, not just of their schools or even of their teaching school alliances, but of their profession, so that more young people will get the chances they deserve.


SecEd


• Steve Munby is chief executive of the National College for School Leadership. For more information about the teaching schools programme, go to www.nationalcollege.org.uk/teachingschools


SecEd • September 22 2011


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