VIEWS & OPINION
How a governor with HR experience can support cost effective teacher recruitment
Comment by
IAN ARMITAGE, chairman, SGOSS Governors for Schools
Comment by
With good educational outcomes entirely dependent on high-quality teaching, it is evident that mastering teacher recruitment can help improve standards.
It will also save money – vital in the current climate. The UK’s current teacher shortage is a significant and costly problem for the UK’s education sector. Last year the English school system spent £200m on recruitment services for permanent positions – and that figure ignores spending on supply teachers. Expenditure is rising by circa 6% per annum, mostly driven by higher prices for advertising and increased use of specialist search firms. Schools need to be proactive in addressing recruitment issues. The starting point is to make Human Resources – perhaps now better described as talent management - the first priority of Local Governing Bodies and head teachers. Build a three-year staffing plan based on what is needed to deliver the school’s mission. Getting ahead of the competition will help you get the best candidates, save time and minimise the expenditure on agencies or advertising.
An HR professional recruited to your governing body can bring excellent skills and experience to inform your deliberations around the main drivers of school improvement and your largest cost - your staff. Such a person will be well placed to help address the various areas necessary to improve the flow of appropriately qualified, high-quality candidates.
Here’s some advice on factors affecting successful recruitment where an HR professional could get involved.
Number one is to build the school’s reputation – in the way companies build their brands. Be clear about what’s on offer and communicate these strengths at all times. Never under sell your school and the opportunities you can pitch to teachers. Your ability to attract and secure great candidates delivers the twin benefits of better teaching and lower cost of recruitment – by reducing the involvement of outside agencies and advertising. Then work hard at converting the best candidates into employees by shaping the package to meet the things they value highly, beyond pay and rations. For example research amongst The Key’s membership of school leaders shows that the best candidates want good continuing professional development (CPD) programmes and look for solid evidence of staff progression and development within the school or MAT they join. Developing good recruitment habits is essential – here are a few to remember:
• Test different approaches, such as the wording of advertising and any agencies used, then repeat what works.
• Drive suppliers very hard on service levels, as well as costs. Ask for proposals from suppliers every year, to make them feel they are tendering for the business.
• Make the application process simple, using easy to follow forms. Minimise the amount of navigation necessary online. • Keep candidates informed throughout the process to reinforce a reputation for being highly professional.
• Make the selection process comfortable – perhaps even allowing the candidate to choose an interview time and location to suit them. • Ensure there is a clear structure to the process and provide good feedback.
Be careful to pick the right person and reduce staff turnover and hence the need to recruit. We all know that as well as having the appropriate qualifications, skills and experience, the ideal candidate will also have the right attitude, motivations and behaviours. Once you have them, work hard at staff retention, providing job satisfaction, collegiality, pay and opportunities to build skills and progress.
June 2017
DENISE INWOOD, former senior school leader, now managing director of BlueSky
As we head towards the end of term, education professionals will be reflecting on the year’s achievements and challenges, both formally and informally, and beginning to establish plans and set goals for the new academic year.
Developing reflective practice is a key skill for staff working at the ‘chalk face’ in the classroom and is where professional development begins. However, senior leaders who recognise the value of being focussed on developing reflection among new staff, ITTs and NQTs for the coming autumn term, will also be making use of this well-honed and invaluable skill at management level too.
Engaging teachers in a more proactive dialogue about pedagogy and practice to achieve truly successful reflective teaching, requires a systematic process which allows teachers to record their experiences and observations. The process needs to enable them to self-evaluate, as well as to share their thoughts with colleagues and managers. When considering the degree of reflection required, it’s important that SLTs discuss impact and the necessary resulting actions. Having evidence as a backdrop is critical for this – whether for an individual teacher or across an organisation. We know and recognise that this is key in supporting the growth and development of new professionals, but what of school improvement?
Schools generally have plenty of information - for example figures on pupil performance, school self-evaluation, lesson observations and attendance - but commonly it is in silos and not joined up. While the information in each of these elements may be accurate and rigorous, it is of little use in isolation. It is far more useful if the data has been sourced from the same fundamental school improvement drive. To really make a difference, evidence has to be measurable and effectively evaluated, driven by the school improvement plan. It’s vital to be confident the evidence used to reflect against is sound and gives a true picture of what is happening to ensure the outcomes are meaningful and the impact will make a difference. Similarly, grade descriptors for judging the quality of self-evaluation need to be embedded by leadership and management teams as a benchmark standard to achieve. Self-evaluation is a dynamic process, most successfully achieved when it is live and evidence-based, so the ability to capture the latest data to inform judgements is essential. This evidence should form a complete picture of the impact of school improvement activity, from School Self-evaluation activities such as learning walks and works scrutinies, through to lesson observation and the impact of targeted CPL.
An imposed ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is unlikely to promote a sustained impact on improvement. Instead, a positive culture of self- evaluation, which has raising achievement at its core, needs to be open, honest, continuous, inclusive, precise and informative. It is something that is done ‘with’ staff and not ‘to’ them. Having a shared and agreed framework, and the tools for recording and measuring practice in place, ensures activities are carried out in a structured and sequenced manner, with consistency of approach. This can only be achieved if all forms of evidence use the same starting point and backdrop. These in turn should arise from the objectives the school sets in order to effect school improvement.
www.education-today.co.uk 15
Reflection on the past academic year is great preparation for the future
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