LEADERSHIP Walk the talk


What is the secret to building a legacy of enduring educational excellence? David Douglass says that there isn’t one


is to be admired; the will, the commitment, the determination and the resolve to remain the best in the world over a period of 16 years. His true achievement then, was the enduring nature of his success – this is the true measure of greatness. Herein lies the challenge for today’s school leaders – how to build a legacy of enduring excellence. To


S Taking the lead: Future Leaders Spending the Pupil Premium


School leader Lee Faith on why a combination of


evidenced-based strategies is required when allocating the Pupil Premium


THE PUPIL Premium has a number of aims including increasing social mobility, enabling more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to get to the top universities, and reducing the attainment gap between the highest and lowest achieving pupils nationally. There is a plethora of credible research showing


that it is difficult to identify a correlation between demonstrable evidence of improved outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, and the way in which money is often spent and targeted in schools. There is no one-size-fits-all, so evidence-based


approaches are often the best way to decide how money should be spent. With school budgets under pressure and heads increasingly having to make less money go further, it is essential that schools make informed decisions about how they use the Pupil Premium to ensure it has an impact on achievement. Evidence from the Department for Education


shows that schools which are most effective in nar- rowing attainment gaps achieve this through a com- bination of high quality teaching, strong leadership, a relevant and coherent curriculum, a culture of high expectations, and targeted catch-up and enrichment activities. A Sutton Trust report last year, Strategies to


Improve Learning, looked at improving learning and attainment to help schools make more informed choices about how to allocate the Pupil Premium. It found that the strategies which had high/moderate impact on achievement were: effective feedback, Assessment for Learning, peer tutoring, one-to-one tutoring, the use of ICT to support learning, parental involvement, summer schools, and sports participa- tion. In light of this, and other examples of best practice


from schools in challenging contexts, here is a set of practical suggestions that are easily transferable across most school contexts. • Financial support of disadvantaged pupils should extend to equipment (such as pencil cases, calcula- tors, art pencils etc).


• Purchase laptops which could be loaned to disad- vantaged pupils who either do not have access to a computer at home or who have difficulty with access.


• Extend the opening hours of the school library and provide support for pupils. This will give extended access to ICT and printing facilities, a quiet area of study and adult support with homework.


• To address the low reading ages of significant numbers of our pupils we bought reading software which pupils could use both in school and at home and introduced a reading scheme in which pupils are issued with a reading book and a reading log and parents are asked to ensure that the pupils read at home.


• To address underachievement in English, maths and science, recruit 6th form students as tutors, providing one-to-one tuition.


• Approach Learning Support and English and maths departments to offer literacy and numeracy summer schools for year 6 and key stage 3. I’ve learnt that none of the above strategies are the


definitive solution and that a combination of bespoke strategies is the most effective high impact way to ensure the Pupil Premium is supporting those it is aimed at. However, when planning how best to spend the


funding, senior leaders and others involved should focus on the demonstrable impact on outcomes for pupils. In my school, I plan to drill down into the specific learning needs of individuals and groups of disadvantaged pupils and ensure there is a package that meets their needs. Identifying what combination of strategies is best


for each pupil will inform how best to allocate the Pupil Premium based on those strategies that will have the most significant impact.


•Lee Faith is principal designate of the Greenwich Free School in south London. He has recently completed the Future Leaders leadership development training programme which prepares teachers for headship in challenging schools. Visit www.future-leaders.org.uk


ir Steve Redgrave is, without doubt, one of the greatest Olympians of all time. He holds a place in history, not just for winning a gold medal, but for winning a gold medal at five consecutive games – a feat only shared with three others. It is this enduring excellence that


aspire and maintain the drive not just to win a gold medal but be good enough to win one year-in, year-out, despite the bar continuing to rise. The secret perhaps, is that there is no secret. The


best schools up and down the country simply do things well, very well in fact. They define and focus on “core business” and ensure that there is quality in everything that they do. The beauty of this approach is that it is not driven by socio-economic factors, or funding, or buildings – instead it is driven by a sense of dynamic leadership founded on a strong moral purpose to deliver the best for students. Furthermore, the principle applies to schools moving from any category to the next one up. Of course, the reality is that success does not


happen overnight – and perhaps we should take note of this too. Over recent years, schools have been quick to embrace and implement many “quick fixes” to raise achievement. This is to be applauded – and the changes have had a clear impact, but in order to secure achievement for the longer term, to reach and sustain “good” and beyond, a different philosophy is needed. By definition, enduring success can only arise from something that is founded on a much longer-term approach to school leadership. Schools are currently seeing a rapid period of


change, and there is nothing new about this – history tells us that such paradigm shifts will continue. The challenge is one of how organisations respond to change – particularly when they may be external recipients of the change in question. Schools should be cognisant of such change, but should guard against any reflexive action; this balance of pro-action versus reaction is essential. The same could be said of innovation. Innovation


is crucial in providing new ideas and ways of working and is vital for the betterment of the school system. The modern mantra of “by schools, for schools” promotes and celebrates the dialogue between school leaders who recognise that elsewhere in the system, it is highly likely that someone will have already addressed, or will at least share, their latest challenge. Schools that wish to continue to develop will always want to network, not just to share but equally to benchmark their practice too. Attendance at conferences and events are important


in keeping schools abreast of the latest policies, ideas and approaches. Perhaps most importantly for many, they offer that opportunity to benchmark and to swap practical strategies that are founded on experience. Of course we all know that what may work well in


one school may not in another. This is to not dismiss innovation – without change and evolution there will never be a legacy of success. Instead, it is about something at the core of leadership – understanding and implementing those things that will have an impact, and abandoning those that do not. Abandonment of processes and events is


something which is not practised enough in schools, it is too easy to fall into the trap of “but we always do it…”. What could you stop from today that would have no impact on achievement? Do we have any schools that are still asking busy teachers to write up department minutes instead of planning lessons? Can your reporting process be shortened even further? The best leaders never lose sight of their core


purpose and any innovation is always aligned with the goals of their organisation. Innovations should serve to enhance what is already being done – no individual strategy can be viewed as the “saviour” of a school. Before implementing any new idea, the school leadership team needs to ensure that they know about


SecEd • April 26 2012


any underpinning structures required to ensure it will “take” in their context. Arguably one of the main reasons why chains of schools are so successful in embedding and developing raising achievement strategies across their schools is because their senior leadership teams fully understand and can establish the necessary foundations. Like any Olympian, a secure awareness of what


needs to be improved and, importantly, in what order is essential. The demise of a prescribed format for self-evaluation provides an opportunity for schools to assess themselves in a manner which fits their own context. There is an exactness that is needed for this to be effective – the best organisations do not rely on guesswork or assumption. Again, leaders need to have the courage to address


any areas for development, and the conviction to always strive for better – the pursuit of excellence is endless. Sometimes, there will be no quick solution and, naturally, any change will need to be prioritised and managed – with communication being key. In a similar vein, competition is not mutually


exclusive to a culture of collaboration. Schools should work together to overcome these challenges – the result can only be improved outcomes for all and this brings us back to the concept of moral purpose, with a duty to the educational system as a whole. No great thing was ever achieved in isolation, and perhaps schools need to guard against the “atomisation” of wider school communities. Conceivably the greatest challenge is to address the


paradox of maintaining while also driving forwards – this is nothing new and is, after all, the simple age-old play-off between leadership and management. In times of austerity, many often reduce their


investment in research and development. The best, however, use it as a time to change direction – as an opportunity to “become the best” and perhaps school leaders can take something from this approach. The way in which the success of a school is


measured is changing and all schools need to evaluate themselves and invest energy into enhancing all that they do. A commitment to continuous improvement is vital – this is not rhetoric; it is reality. We find ourselves in a brave new world, with


sponsored academies, convertor academies, trusts, federations, voluntary-aided, free and maintained schools. The key to success is not the status of a school but


the culture within it. The best schools, those pushing us all to achieve more, ask the hard questions of themselves each day and invest their energies anew each term only in areas which they know will impact on achievement and teacher quality. They know that student literacy and “within-


department” variation (i.e. teacher quality, exam moderation and formative assessment) are two of the biggest perennial barriers to ensuring sustained progress. The goal is simple, even if achieving may not be – develop the skills and knowledge of all staff and ensure they “walk the talk” every lesson, every day.


SecEd


• David Douglass is an operational director at The Schools Network. He is responsible for the Network’s raising achievement and school improvement work including the Leading Edge programme.


Further information


The Schools Network is hosting the Achievement Show at the Emirates Stadium in north London on June 19 – a one-day event for education practitioners. Visit www.ssatrust.org.uk/achievement


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