LEADERSHIP


There are now more than 200 teaching schools, all


working to form alliances to drive collaboration and development. National College chief Steve Munby gives us an update


developing leaders and teachers and playing an even greater role in school improvement. Today we have a second group of teaching schools


O


officially designated, bringing the total number to more than 200 and marking a significant step towards a school-led approach to leadership training and devel- opment. The drive towards schools working collaboratively


has been building over the last few years – with a number of key initiatives demonstrating that it is a really effective way to raise standards and bring about improvements right across the system. The City Challenge schemes in London, Greater


Manchester and the Black Country created a real legacy for school-to-school support, while local and national leaders of education, together with national support schools, continue to prove that the people best placed to lead on this work are the great leaders and teachers already in our schools and academies, shar- ing knowledge and expertise with others, as well as bringing on the next generation of leaders and teachers. Recent reports from the House of Commons


Education Select Committee and the all-party group on social mobility have reinforced how important the


ne year ago, the idea of teaching schools was taking shape. We knew that the next stage for our education system would see our best schools and our best school leaders taking even greater collective responsibility for


Teaching schools


quality of teaching is to ensuring children reach their full potential. Leaders play a crucial role in achieving this, but they cannot do it in isolation. Teaching schools provide an opportunity to embed excellence and develop high quality leaders and teachers right across the education system. Working within alliances – groups of schools


and other partners including universities – teaching schools are already beginning to develop innovative and exciting approaches to delivering initial teacher training, leadership development, succession planning and school-to-school support. Many of the alliances which started work in


September have begun running programmes such as the Improving Teacher Programme and Outstanding Teacher Programme. Others are devising twilight ses-


Taking the lead: Boarding Schools’ Association Board meeting


Headteachers of both state and private boarding


schools held their annual gathering recently.Hilary


Moriarty reports WHAT DO you need for a good conference? A good hotel, great food, convivial company and star speakers. Apart from losing education secretary Michael Gove at the last minute, the Boarding Schools’ Association, of which 38 are state boarding schools, did well on all four counts for its annual conference for heads, in Bristol earlier this month. Speakers included founder and CEO of Carphone


Warehouse, Charles Dunstone, broadcaster and writer Libby Purves, and entrepreneur and CEO of Timpsons, John Timpson. One of the last speakers was Professor Lord Layard, director of the Wellbeing Programme at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance. Ms Purves offered a refreshing view of boarding


from the parent’s perspective. She was admonitory when it came to the sometime difficulties of retrieving a child from boarding school for an event or a weekend – “whose child is he anyway?” she muttered darkly over the lectern. And how many heads who simply obey NHS


rules when it comes to registering a boarder with a local doctor realise the agony a mum may feel when a quick visit to the family doctor in the holidays requires a form declaring “temporary resident”? She was more accurate than her audience may have realised when she said that such moments can reduce a parent to tears and completely reverse a decision to have a child become a boarder. Speaking of the “golden triangle” of trust between


the pupil, the parents and the staff, she stressed the importance of patience and goodwill on all sides. If you have ever been impressed by the service at


Timpsons (shoe repairs and key-cutting) you have the philosophy of John Timpson himself to thank for it.


His primary tenet is that employers should


empower the people at the sharp end who deal with customers. It seemed that Timpsons is a remarkably paternalistic company, but the picture of happy employees, who are enabled to go up to £500 if necessary to fix a customer complaint and with holiday chalets available free, rather indicated that it works superbly well for them. As a long-term foster parent, John’s account of his efforts to help many children over the years was inspiring. Breakout sessions included a presentation from


Gerri McAndrew, CEO of the Buttle Trust, a charity which has long helped vulnerable children to find places in boarding schools, and has recently launched a campaign to place another 500 such children in boarding schools in the next five years. Are you a teacher who might spot a child in


difficult home circumstances who would benefit from boarding and gain stability and an education for life? Then contact the Buttle Trust as miracles can happen. Brought from a leading independent school in


New England, Dr Christopher Thurber entertained his audience with a presentation on Appreciative Enquiry. Schools were not created, he said, to be bundles of


problems, they were created to meet a need, and most of the time they met that need very well. If as head you had to deal with problems, at least keep them in context: most of what a school is doing is going well; now work together positively to find the fix for the little bit that isn’t. An update on the new inspection regime for


independent boarding schools – out from under Ofsted’s scrutiny – and a reflective session from Prof Lord Layard on the capacity of schools to teach wellbeing, and the importance of finding a language for values in an atheist age, sent heads back to their schools with much to reflect upon. And most precious of all, perhaps: the memory


of the Uppingham Chamber Choir, their voices soaring into the vaulted heights of Bristol Cathedral at evensong. The theme of the conference, chosen by chairman of the BSA, Richard Harman, the head of Uppingham, was Belonging in the 21st Century. There was no doubt that his school’s choir belonged in the cathedral. Heads were but humble, grateful visitors.


• Hilary Moriarty is national director of the Boarding Schools’ Association. Visit www.boarding.org.uk


sions for teaching and learning, peer-to-peer support opportunities and in-house Master’s programmes. They have designated the first 1,000 specialist


leaders of education, many of whom are using their expertise in specific areas of leadership to support individuals and teams across their alliances. And in April, teaching school alliances were among


those who were awarded licences to deliver key elements of the National College’s leadership devel- opment offer and our qualifications, including the National Professional Qualification for Headship, from September. It is still early days, but over the next year we expect


to see the number of schools involved in and benefiting from teaching school alliances start to grow. We expect to see teaching school alliances starting to have an


Heads up: Education chief Michael Gove is pictured with the leaders of the first 100 teaching schools last autumn


impact on the quality and number of qualified teach- ers, the quality of CPD and improved standards in the schools they are supporting. In a genuinely sector-led school system, the success


of teaching schools will rely on other schools choosing to work in partnership with them. Choosing to work with the teaching school alliance because they know they will learn from the partnership and that their own organisation will benefit. They will not choose to work with teaching school alliances if they feel they are being “done to”. For this reason, teaching schools have to dig deep


into the practice of collaboration and be skilled at lead- ership that takes others with them, showing leadership that is engaging, inclusive and compelling. Success will also depend on the quality and expec-


tation of what’s being offered. It cannot be superficial – simply sharing resources around those involved in alliances, irrespective of quality. Teaching schools and their alliances will have to


be 100 per cent confident about what excellent prac- tice looks like and be relentless in striving for this so that both their own schools, and others, can improve further. Evidence-based research undertaken by the teaching schools’ research and development network will play a key role in ensuring the bar is defined by the very best practice taking place in the system. And ultimately, being a teaching school is not about


acquiring a badge or accolade – it is about making a difference to children and young people. Teaching schools must represent all that is great about leadership with a moral purpose, looking beyond organisational or personal interest. It is about doing what is right for the children and young people in this country. It is an exciting vision. A vision that is gradually


unfolding, presenting an opportunity to create an edu- cation system that challenges and supports itself to greater heights, where all schools can become as good as they possibly can, and for every child and young person to receive the education they deserve.


• Steve Munby is chief executive of the National College for School Leadership.


Further information


The next application round for teaching school sta- tus opens in June. Visit www.education.gov.uk/ nationalcollege/teachingschools


Taking the lead: Future Leaders Six steps to outstanding


Vice-principal Mari Williams explains the


areas her school focused upon in order to achieve


‘outstanding’ FOUR YEARS ago, I was appointed assistant principal at The City Academy in Hackney, which opened in September 2009. I took the job after my first year with the Future Leaders programme, during which time I visited schools in the US and heard from many experienced heads about what worked. Setting up an amazing school is genuinely not


rocket science; it is about having a principal with a clear vision that all staff are behind and that is applied consistently. The principal’s vision for City was to set up a school that gave children the qualifications they needed to succeed in the real world. The first step was to recruit a group of exceptional staff who believed this was possible and would devise a curriculum to inspire and enable young people to excel. I have never worked with a group of such positive


and talented teachers. I believe our focus on the following areas has enabled us to be rated “outstanding” by Ofsted despite significant challenges – half of our students are eligible for free school meals and more than 60 per cent have English as an additional language.


Achievement


Putting achievement at the centre of what we do has been crucial. Students know where they are when they come in at year 7 and what GCSE grades they are aiming for. There are five points in the year where grades are collected and three opportunities to discuss progress with parents. Students are rewarded for meeting these expectations and if they fall behind, there’s a wide net to ensure they are helped back up. We have three additional studies lessons that run


after school. If students are on target, they can choose chess, gardening or PE. If not, they must attend literacy, numeracy or homework catch-up sessions.


Discipline Excellent discipline has been central to what we have achieved at the school. We made a decision before the school opened that we wanted a high level of order in the school including silent transitions between lessons and students walking in single file. After visiting schools in the US, like Boston Prep, where a high level of discipline allows teachers to focus on learning, I saw that this was possible. So we tried it and it’s worked – children arrive on time, are orderly and ready to learn.


Sustainability When you start a new school, you have one opportunity


to set a tradition from day one. Everything you do for the first time becomes the way you should do things thereafter. If you maintain and insist upon keeping those standards then you have a culture which can sustain itself.


Consistency Everyone doing the same thing can be better than a few people doing what they think is best. For example, every subject uses exercise books and in the front of every book is the same target sheet. All students know what level they achieved at primary school and their latest level in that subject.


Simplicity This is a tenet that our principal has really stuck to. Teaching is a tough job. Planning and marking should take time and it’s important that teachers have the time to do this. Timetabling department meetings, shared lesson planning and monitoring by outcomes all help to make teaching about just that.


High expectations The higher these are, the higher young people will rise to meet them. We will have our first exam results in two years’ time, though children who started here below the national average are already above it. An “outstanding” school can have a significant impact beyond it walls and parents, carers and community now expect all students to achieve.


• Mari Williams is vice-principal for teaching and learning at The City Academy in London. The Future Leaders programme prepares teachers for headships in challenging schools. Visit www.future-leaders.org.uk


SecEd


SecEd • May 24 2012


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