FEATU


FEAT RE SHAR NG BEST PRACTICE TURE:: SHARIING BEST PRACTICE


Therefore, it is im staff, governors and


trustees governance attend portant that teachers, wider


regular meetings and have a full awareness of what initiatives schools within the trust are working towards.


Focus Trust’s vision of collective efficacy is implicit in everything the Trust does and includes teachers and senior leadership staff from taking on secondments within other schools. In doing so, they offer a new perspective on teaching, learning and leadership in order to collectivel y challenge current m change.


As a result of the


The structure outlined by the Education Development Trust is threefold: Stage 1: Self-review Stage 2: Peer-review


Stage 3: Follow-up workshop and school-to- school support


dynamic approach to sharing ethods and foster positive


teaching methods and the willingness of staff to move between schools when the need arises, there has been a notable impact on staff development and career progression. Not only does it allow teaching staff to improve their own skillset and adaptability but taking up these new positions often results in the offer of more senior level positions within the schools they are seconded to.


We there fore see that the implementation of collective teacher efficacy not only benefits the children within the academy, but the teaching staff too, ensuring motivation is kept throughout the Trust and influencing everyone who is part of Focus-Trust .


Peer review Peer review


The Education Development Trust’s Schools Partnership Programme Peer Review Framework is a model of development within schools whereby the vision is to build a ‘sustainable, self-improving, school-led system’ where schools are jointly responsible for the improvement of themselves and others.


Focus-Trust has b programme within i


ts academies since 2016 and een facilitating the


has been named one of the UK’s five ‘strategic hubs’ for the programme.


The premise behind the programme is a series of stages that develop a continuous cycle of school improvement: self-review, peer review, improvement workshop, action plan, school-to- school support and impact evaluation. By splitting the constituent sch ools into five groups of three and nominating staff from each school to take on the roles of ‘Peer Reviewer’ and ‘Improvement Champion’, Focus-Trust has successfully


implemented a system whereby schools can learn from and empower each other, whilst celebrating the good practice and fostering development and school improvement.


Octobe r 2019 2019 www. wwweducation-tod ya .co.uk.co.uk 73


As part of the initiative, following the three stages, an action plan is devised that focuses on a specific area for improvement. The school then implements the agreed action plan, before a further review 90 days later to evaluate the impact, celebrate achievements to date and re- focus on agreed further actions.


Michael Rowland, Head Teacher of Thornhill School in Dewsbury, was the first Head Teacher to participate in a school peer review. On the practice, he commented: “As the host of a review, you need to move out of the ‘showcasing’ mode that heads are often forced to adopt. “The peer review is entirely different. If peer review is going to be helpful, you need to be open and honest about your school’s performance in order to get some useful feedback.


“For your school’s staff, the peer review process can feel a bit strange. You need to let them know that it is not about trying to produce a ‘show lesson’ just for the reviewers. That means getting out of the Ofsted mindset. You need your staff to embrace the process.


“It’s about modelling behaviours that


demonstrate an openness to learn. That means being open about vulnerabilities and concerns, without fear that it will be used against you. “As a reviewer, you need to embrace the coaching model, the SPP training model is really useful to help you get into that. You need to spend time understanding the context of the school you are reviewing. If you already have familiarity with the school and the people, I hav e found that helps .


“You need to be able to synthesise the findings and reflections from the review team, quickly. Being able to summarise at the end of the review day in order to give feedback is really challenging to do – but really rewarding when you do it well. “We’re not there to judge, but to offer feedback on a specific issues. As a leader, you must keep the team focussed on the brief. You need to take on the views of the review team – and remember that your conclusions should be based on fact, not opinion.


“Respect is not deference; it is often the quality that enables leaders to take on those so-called ‘difficult’ conversations.”


In conclusion, Peer Review is now an integral part of our academy improvement cycle and such is our belief in its impact, we are now


participating in SPP’s pilot model ofMAT toMAT Peer Review with Anthem Trust.


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