““Every School a Great School” Strategies for School Transformation in

London

Presentation to the SSAT Every School a Great School

Strategies for School Transformation in London Workshops Friday 6th November 2008

Professor David Hopkinsformerly HSBC iNet Chair of International Leadership

Overview of Workshop Overview of Workshop 8:45 – 9:15 Registration and Refreshments

9:00 – 9:30 Welcome and Introductions

9:30 – 10:50 Session 1: Every School a Great School Prof David Hopkins

10:50 - 11:15 Refreshments

11:15 – 12:30 Session Two: Personalising Learning, Professionalising Teaching Prof David Hopkins

12:30 – 1:15 Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 Session Three: A case study , SWOTAnalysis Prof David Hopkins

2:30 – 2:45 Refreshments

2:45 – 3:30 Session Four: System Leadership and the Transformation of Schools Prof David Hopkins

3:30 Close

Session 1

Every School a Great School

Moral Purpose of SchoolingMoral Purpose of Schooling

All these …. whatever my background, whatever my abilities, wherever I start from

All these …. whatever my background, whatever my abilities, wherever I start from

I know how I am being assessed and what I need to do to improve my work

I know what my learning objectives

are and feel in control of my learning

My parents are involved with the school and I feel I

belong here

I enjoy using ICT and know how it can

help my learning

I can get the job that I want

I know if I need extra help or to be challenged to do better I will get the

right support

I know what good work looks like and can help myself to

learn

I can work well with and learn from many others as well as my teacher

I can get a level 4 in English and Maths

before I go to secondary school

I get to learn lots of interesting and

different subjects

The G100 CommuniqueThe G100 CommuniqueA group of 100 principals from fourteen countries (G100) met at the National Academy of Education Administration (NAEA) in Beijing, China 16-19 October 2006 to discuss the transformation of and innovation in the world’s education systems.They concluded their communique in this way - We need to ensure that moral purpose is at the fore of all

educational debates with our parents, our students, our teachers, our partners, our policy makers and our wider community.

We define moral purpose as a compelling drive to do right for and by students, serving them through professional behaviors that ‘raise the bar and narrow the gap’ and through so doing demonstrate an intent, to learn with and from each other as we live together in this world.

High Excellence High Equity –High Excellence High Equity –Raising the Bar and Narrowing the GapRaising the Bar and Narrowing the Gap

Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and Skills for Life

Low excellenceLow excellence

Low equityLow equity

High excellenceHigh excellence

Low equityLow equity

Low excellenceLow excellence

High equityHigh equity

High excellenceHigh excellence

High equityHigh equityU.K.

BelgiumU.S.

GermanySwitzerland

Poland

Spain

Korea

Finland

JapanCanada

Mea

n p

erfo

rman

ce in

rea

din

g li

tera

cy

• 200 – Variance (variance OECD as a whole = 100)

420

440

460

480

500

520

540

560

60 80 100 120 140

‘‘Every School a Great School’Every School a Great School’as an expression of moral purposeas an expression of moral purpose

• What parents want is for their local school to be a great school.

(National Association of School Governors; Education and Skills Select Committee 2004).

• The three system leadership commitments:

• primacy of student learning and achievement;

• relentless focus on reducing within school variation;

• collaborative working to eradicate between school variation and enhance social equity.

Towards system wide sustainable reformTowards system wide sustainable reform

Every School a Every School a Great SchoolGreat School

National National PrescriptionPrescription

Schools Leading ReformSchools Leading Reform

Building Capacity PrescriptionPrescription ProfessionalismProfessionalism

System Leadership

Four key drivers to raise achievement and Four key drivers to raise achievement and build capacity for the next stage of reformbuild capacity for the next stage of reform

i. Personalising Learning

ii. Professionalising Teaching

iii. Building Intelligent Accountability

iv. Networking and Collaboration

• Learning to Learn

• Curriculum choice & entitlement

• Assessment for learning

• Student Voice

‘My Tutor’

Interactive web-based learning resource

enabling students to tailor support and

challenge to their needs and interests.

(i) Personalising Learning(i) Personalising Learning‘Joined up learning and teaching’

• Enhanced repertoire of learning & teaching strategies

• Evidence based practice with time for collective inquiry

• Collegial & coaching relationships

• Tackle within school variation

‘The Edu-Lancet’

A peer-reviewed journal published for

practitioners by practitioners & regularly read by the profession to keep abreast of R&D.

(ii) Professionalising Teaching(ii) Professionalising Teaching‘Teachers as researchers,

schools as learning communities’

• Moderated teacher assessment and AfL at all levels

• ‘Bottom-up’ targets for every child and use of pupil performance data

• Value added data to help identify strengths / weaknesses

• Rigorous self-evaluation linked to improvement strategies and school profile to demonstrate success

‘Charteredexaminers’

Experienced teachers gain certification to

oversee rigorous internal assessment as a basis for externally awarded

qualifications.

(iii) Building Intelligent Accountability(iii) Building Intelligent Accountability

‘Balancing internal and external accountability and assessment’

• Best practice captured and highly specified

• Capacity built to transfer and sustain innovation across system

• Keeping the focus on the core purposes of schooling by sustaining a discourse on teaching and learning

• Inclusion and Extended Schooling

‘Leading Edge Practice

Partnerships’Schools develop

exemplary curriculum and pedagogic practices

and share with others

(iv) Networking and Collaboration(iv) Networking and Collaboration

‘Disciplined innovation, collaboration and building social capital’

Networks & Collaboration

PersonalisedLearning

ProfessionalTeaching

SYSTEM

LEADERSHIP

Intelligent Accountability

4 drivers mould to context through 4 drivers mould to context through system leadershipsystem leadership

System Leadership: A PropositionSystem Leadership: A Proposition

‘System leaders’ care about and work for the

success of other schools as well as their own. They

measure their success in terms of improving

student learning and increasing achievement, and

strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s).

Crucially they are willing to shoulder system

leadership roles in the belief that in order to change

the larger system you have to engage with it in a

meaningful way.’

Leadership as Adaptive WorkLeadership as Adaptive Work

Technical SolutionsTechnical Solutions

Adaptive WorkAdaptive Work

Technical problems can be solved through applying existing know how - adaptive challenges create a gap between a desired state and reality that cannot be closed

using existing approaches alone

System Leadership

The Nature of Adaptive WorkThe Nature of Adaptive Work

An adaptive challenge is a problem situation for which solutions lie outside current ways of operating.

• Adaptive challenges demand learning, because ‘people are the

problem’ and progress requires new ways of thinking & operating.

• Mobilising people to meet adaptive challenges, then, is at the heart

of leadership practice.

• Ultimately, adaptive work requires us to reflect on the moral

purpose by which we seek to thrive and demands diagnostic

enquiry into the realities we face that threaten the realisation of

those purposes.From Ron Heifetz – ‘Adaptive Work’ (in Bentley and Wilsdon 2003)

Three Phases of Educational Change

Initiation Implementation

Institutionalisation

Time

“The Implementation Dip”

The ‘Iceberg Model’ of Educational Change

Values and Beliefs

Behaviours

Content & Structures

The Experience of Educational Change

change takes place over time; change initially involves anxiety and

uncertainty; technical and psychological support is crucial; the learning of new skills is incremental and

developmental; successful change involves pressure and

support within a collaborative setting; organisational conditions within and in

relation to the school make it more or less likely that the school improvement will occur.

Turnaround Schools – Emerging Themes Turnaround Schools – Emerging Themes

Develop a narrative for sustained improvement :• The ability to determine the capacity needed to undertake

improvement activities

• An understanding of the regularities needed to sustain improvement in a school

• To identify and transfer best practice internally, with the potential to work externally

• The creation of an ethos of high expectations

• To work and negotiate with a range of stakeholders and other schools

A Framework for School ImprovementA Framework for School Improvement

Priority for School Development

Strategy

Enhanced Student Learning and Teacher

Development

Conditions for Classroom

Development

Conditions for School

Development

A Three Phase Strategy for School A Three Phase Strategy for School ImprovementImprovement

• Phase One: Establishing the Process

• Phase Two: Going Whole School

• Phase Three: Sustaining Momentum

Phase One: Establishing the ProcessPhase One: Establishing the Process

• Commitment to the School Improvement Approach

• Selection of Learning Leaders and School

Improvement Group

• Enquiring into the Strengths and Weaknesses of

the School

• Designing the Whole School Programme

• Seeding the Whole School Approach

Preparing for School ImprovementPreparing for School Improvement

Pre-conditions School Level Preparations

Unifying Focus Means

Commitment to School Improvement

General consensus on values

Understanding of key principles

Shared values A mandate from

staff Leadership

potential Identification of

change agents Willingness to

make structural changes

Capacity for improvement

Improvement Theme

-An enquiry into Teaching and

Learning

School Improvement

Strategy

The School Improvement GroupThe School Improvement Group

The school improvement group is essentially a temporary membership system focused specifically upon enquiry and development. This temporary membership system brings together teachers (and support staff) from a variety of departments within the school, with a range of ages or experience and from a cross-section of roles to work together in a status-free collaborative learning context. One teacher has described it as the educational equivalent of a research and development group.

The school community need to make a The school community need to make a number of tacit commitments:number of tacit commitments:

• To support each partnership in whatever way possible – time, resources, visits to centres of good practice, the adoption of recommendations etc.

• To agree to remain informed about the progress of each area of enquiry in order to maintain collective ownership of the directions being travelled.

• To support the implementation of new practices, new structures, or new ways of working.

• To be open to the research process by contributing ideas, responding to research instruments, opening up our classrooms for observation, offering our professional support in whatever way required.

• To engage in workshop activity within full staff meetings, staff days or other school meetings in order to contribute to the on-going knowledge creation and learning process.

School Improvement Group DevelopmentSchool Improvement Group DevelopmentPhase 1 - Uncertainty about focusPhase 1 - Uncertainty about focus• What is School Improvement?

• What is the role of the SIG group?

• Where is it all going? It’s hard to make things happen.

Phase 2 - Clearer about focusPhase 2 - Clearer about focus• Using existing structures in new ways, e.g. department meetings with

single item research agendas.

• New ways of working.

• Beginning to shift from staff development mode to school improvement mode.

Phase 3 - Change/renewal of the SIG groupPhase 3 - Change/renewal of the SIG group• Establishment of research culture within the school

• Involvement of students as researchers

• The school generates its own theory

Phase Two: Going Whole SchoolPhase Two: Going Whole School

• The Initial Whole School PD Day(s)

• Establishing the Curriculum and Teaching Focus

• Establishing the Learning Teams:

− Curriculum groupings

− Peer coaching or ‘buddy’ groups

• The Initial Cycle of Enquiry

• Sharing Initial Success on the Curriculum Tour

Curriculum TourCurriculum Tour

WHOLE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PRIORITYAn Enquiry into Teaching and Learning

Dept. A(Inductive Teaching)

Dept. B(Inductive Teaching)

Dept C(Inductive Teaching)

Memory SynecticsGroup Work

WHOLE SCHOOL WORKING TOWARDS REPERTOIRE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES

StageI

StageII

StageIII

‘Curriculum Tour’

The Range of Staff Development The Range of Staff Development Activities Activities

• Whole staff PD days on teaching and learning and school improvement planning as well as ‘curriculum tours’ to share the work done in departments or working groups;

• Inter-departmental meetings to discuss teaching strategies;

• Workshops run inside the school on teaching strategies by Cadre group members and external support;

• Partnership teaching and peer coaching;

• The design and execution of collaborative enquiry activities, which are, by their nature, knowledge-generating.

In addition, SIG members are involved in:In addition, SIG members are involved in:

• Out of school training sessions on capacity building and teaching and learning;

• The pursuit of their own knowledge in support of their role – about leadership, the management and implementation of change, the design of professional development activities etc.;

• Planning meetings in school;

• Consultancy to school working groups;

• Observation and in-classroom support;

• Study visits to other schools within the network.

Structuring Staff Development

Workshop

• Understanding of Key Ideas and Principles

• Modelling and Demonstration

• Practice in Non-threatening Situations

Workplace

• Immediate and Sustained Practice

• Collaboration and Peer Coaching

• Reflection and Action Research

Peer CoachingPeer Coaching

• Peer coaching teams of two or three are much more effective than larger groups.

• These groups are more effective when the entire staff is engaged in school improvement.

• Peer coaching works better when Heads and Deputies participate in training and practice.

• The effects are greater when formative study of student learning is embedded in the process.

Phase Three: Sustaining MomentumPhase Three: Sustaining Momentum

• Establishing Further Cycles of Enquiry

• Building Teacher Learning into the Process

• Sharpening the Focus on Student Learning

• Finding Ways of Sharing Success and Building

Networks

• Reflecting on the Culture of the School and

Department

Enquiry-driven School ImprovementEnquiry-driven School Improvement

Schools which recognise that enquiry and reflection are important processes in school improvement find it easier to sustain improvement effort around established priorities, and are better placed to monitor the extent to which policies actually deliver the intended outcomes for pupils.  

• Systematic collection, interpretation and use of school-generated data in decision-making.

• Effective strategies for reviewing the progress and impact of school policies and initiatives.

• Widespread involvement of staff in the processes of data collection and analysis.

• Clear ground rules for the collection, control and use of school-based data.

Moving to Scale

Cohorts of 6 - 8 Schools

6 - 8 Members of School Improvement Group

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

PLAN

Cohort A | | ……………………….

Cohort B | | ………….........

Cohort C | | ………….....

Activity Activity SWOT AnalysisSWOT Analysis

• What are the preconditions of improvement in a school?

• How does a school organize for improvement?

• What are the key strategies employed to raise achievement?

• How does professional learning take place?

• How are cultures changed and developed?

• How effective is your own school’s approach to improvement?

Coffee!

Session 2

Personalising Learning Professionalising Teaching

System Leadership and Student AchievementSystem Leadership and Student Achievement

To sustain improvement:

• the leadership develops a narrative for improvement

• the leadership is highly focussed on improving the quality of teaching and learning (and student welfare)

• the leadership explicitly organises the school for improvement

• the leadership creates:• clarity (of the systems established)

• consistency (of the systems spread across school), and

• continuity (of the systems over time)

• the leadership creates internal accountability and reciprocity

• the leadership works to change context as a key component of their improvement strategy

The Key QuestionThe Key Question

What teaching strategies do I and my

colleagues have in our repertoires to

respond to the student diversity that

walks through our classroom doors?

‘‘Seven Strong Claims about School Leadership’Seven Strong Claims about School Leadership’

• School leadership is second only to classroom instruction as an influence on student learning.

• Almost all successful (school) leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices.

• It is the enactment of the same basic leadership practices – not the practices themselves – that is responsive to the context.

• School leaders improve pupil learning indirectly through their influence on staff motivation and working conditions.

• School leadership has a greater influence on schools and pupils when it is widely distributed.

• Some patterns of leadership distribution are much more effective than others.

• A small handful of personal “traits” explain a high proportion of the variation (such as being open minded, flexible, persistent and optimistic) in leader effectiveness.

Leadership for LearningLeadership for Learning

Setting direction 

• Total commitment to enable every learner to reach their potential 

• Ability to translate vision into whole school programmes

 

Managing Teaching and Learning

• Ensure every child is inspired and challenged through personalized learning

• Develop a high degree of clarity about and consistency of teaching quality

 

Developing people 

• Enable students to become more active learners

• Develop schools as professional learning communities

 

Developing the organization 

• Create an evidence-based school

• Extend an organization’s vision of learning to involve networks

CURRICULUMCURRICULUM

POWERFULPOWERFUL

LEARNING LEARNING

TEACHING and TEACHING and LEARNING LEARNING STRATEGIESSTRATEGIES

ASSESSMENT FOR ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNINGLEARNING

I wrote (with Bruce Joyce) some time ago I wrote (with Bruce Joyce) some time ago that:that:

Learning experiences are composed of content, process and social climate. As

teachers we create for and with our children opportunities to explore and build important areas of knowledge,

develop powerful tools for learning, and live in humanizing social conditions.

Three ways of thinking about TeachingThree ways of thinking about Teaching

Teaching Teaching RelationshipsRelationships

Teaching Teaching ModelsModels

ReflectionReflection

Teaching Teaching SkillsSkills

Teaching SkillsTeaching Skills

• Active teaching

• Engaged time – ‘time on task’

• Structuring information

• Effective questioning

• Consistent success

• And … ???

Teaching RelationshipsTeaching Relationships

Expectation effects on student achievement are

likely to occur both directly through opportunity to

learn (differences in the amount and nature of

exposure to content and opportunities to engage in

various types of academic activities) and indirectly

through differential treatment that is likely to affect

students' self-concepts, attributional inferences, or

motivation.Good, T.L. and Brophy, J.E. (1994)

Looking In Classrooms (2nd ed)

Teaching ModelsTeaching Models

Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually models for learning, Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually models for learning, that simultaneously define the nature of the content, the learning that simultaneously define the nature of the content, the learning strategies, and the arrangements for social interaction that create strategies, and the arrangements for social interaction that create the learning contexts of our students. For example, in powerful the learning contexts of our students. For example, in powerful classrooms students learn models for:classrooms students learn models for:

• Extracting information and ideas from lectures and presentations

• Memorising information

• Building hypotheses and theories

• Attaining concepts and how to invent them

• Using metaphors to think creatively

• Working effectively with other to initiate and carry out co-operative tasks

Whole Class Teaching Model - SyntaxWhole Class Teaching Model - Syntax

• Phase One: Review

• Phase Two: Presenting Information

• Phase Three: Involving students in discussion

• Phase Four: Engaging students in learning activities

• Phase Five: Summary and review

Cooperative Group Work Teaching Model Cooperative Group Work Teaching Model - Syntax- Syntax

• Positive interdependence

• Individual Accountability

• Face-to-face interaction

• Social skills

• Processing

Cooperative Group Work Teaching Model Cooperative Group Work Teaching Model - Examples- Examples

• Numbered Heads

• Jigsaw

• Twos to fours or snowballing

• Rainbow groups

• Envoys

• Listening triads

• Critical Friends

Inductive Teaching Model - SyntaxInductive Teaching Model - Syntax

• Phase One: Identify the domain

• Phase Two: Collect, present and enumerate data

• Phase Three: Examine data

• Phase Four: Form concepts by classifying

• Phase Five: Generate and test hypotheses

• Phase Six: Consolidate and transfer

Achievement of students

Nu

mb

er o

f st

ud

ents

Reaching for the “Double Sigma Effect”

Effect Size of Teaching Strategies

• Information Processing – a mean effect size over 1.0 for higher order outcomes

• Cooperative Learning – a mean effect between 0.3 to 0.7

• Personal Models – a mean effect of 0.3 or more for cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes

• Behavioural Models – a mean effect between 0.5 to 1.0. Best representatives are for short term treatments looking at behavioural or knowledge of content outcomes

Effect Size of Teaching Student

Performance

50th percentile

100th percentile

0 percentile

Age 8 Age 11

Students with high performing

teacher

Students with low performing teacher

90th

percentile

37th percentile

53 percentile points

McKinsey & Company, 2007:11

Powerful Learning …Powerful Learning …Is the ability of learners to respond successfully to the tasks they are set, as well as the task they set themselves In particular, to:

• Integrate prior and new knowledge

• Acquire and use a range of learning skills

• Solve problems individually and in groups

• Think carefully about their successes and failures

• Accept that learning involves uncertainty and difficulty

All this has been termed “meta-cognition” – it is the learners’ ability to take control over their own learning processes.

A Typology of Skills

These skills fall into three categories:

Functional Skills: literacy, numeracy and ICT.

Thinking and Learning Skills: are the skills young people need to acquire in order to become effective learners. Gaining mastery of these skills equips students to raise their achievement by developing their ability to:

• improve their achievement by applying a wide range of learning approaches in different subjects;

• learn how to learn, with the capability to monitor, evaluate, and change the ways in which they think and learn;

• become independent learners, knowing how to generate their own ideas, acquire knowledge and transfer their learning to different contexts.

Personal Skills: are the skills young people need to acquire in order to develop their personal effectiveness. Gaining mastery of these skills equips students to manage themselves and to develop effective social and working relations.

Curriculum Development

The Dialectic between Curriculum, Learning and Teaching

Engage Mnemonic Simulations

Mnemonic Inductive Thinking

Group Investigation

Synectics

Role Playing

Simulations

Inductive Thinking

Concept Attainment

Mo

dels o

f Learn

ing

– T

oo

ls for T

eachin

g

Curriculum Development

Explore

Elaborate

Evaluation

Explain

Assessment for LearningAssessment for LearningThe Given

• A detailed map of a given curriculum with precise knowledge of how best to teach to the learning objectives in regular classroom settings.

What Else is Needed• A set of formative assessment tools for each lesson• Formative assessment that is not time-consuming• Using the assessment information on each student to

design and deliver differentiated instruction• A built-in means of systematically improving the

effectiveness of classroom instruction

If classroom instruction could be thus organised, then for the first time, teaching would follow the student.

Issues for Discussion

1. How do you develop a repertoire of teaching models in your school?

2. What exactly is the role of the teacher?

3. What are the implications for staff development?

4. What are the monitoring mechanisms implemented so as to ensure the effectiveness of the model?

Activity Classroom Diagnostic

• Authentic Relationships

• Boundaries and expectations

• Planning for Teaching

• Teaching Repertoire

• Pedagogic Partnership

• Reflection on Teaching

LUNCH!

Session 3

A case study

SWOT Analysis

The whole point of schools is that children come first…

…and everything we do must reflect this single goal

“Students First”

In this case study,leadership for learning

involves…

1. Setting Direction

2. Managing Learning and Teaching

3. Developing people

4. Developing the organisation

1. Setting Direction1. Setting Direction

Total commitment to enable every learner to reach their potential…

Enable every learner to reach their Enable every learner to reach their potential?potential?

Quality in the Classroom

Monitoring and Intervention

Student

Curriculum Design

Quality in the classroom

“The quality of teaching and learning is outstanding. This is because the school has exemplary systems in place to ensure all lessons are planned

very carefully and delivered using the most effective teaching techniques.” Ofsted 2006

“Students are able to select an individual route and work at their own pace, across a range of subjects that suits their ability and their interests, confident in the knowledge that each pathway will lead them

to further opportunities”

Ofsted 2006

Curriculum Design

2. Managing Learning and Teaching2. Managing Learning and Teaching

Ensure every child is inspired and challenged through personalising learning

Pathways

Develop a high degree of clarity about and Develop a high degree of clarity about and consistency of teaching quality…consistency of teaching quality…

The Executive Principal meets:

Every Tuesday with all Vice-Principals (electronic meeting)

Every Thursday throughout the day:

All Heads of Department (SEF, 4xImodel & Development Plan)

All Learning Managers (Praising Stars© & 4xI model)

All SLT (All the above plus the first 2 agenda items are always

students/curriculum & monitoring/performance; 1hr minimum)

In addition, every Tuesday after 2:30pm:In addition, every Tuesday after 2:30pm: A whole college Learning and Performance

session (2hrs) where we:

• reiterate the vision • share good/next practice • develop pedagogy• focus on performance / 4 x I model • Target the needs of all students by

developing high quality lessons

“The Praising Stars© student monitoring and assessment system ensures a very inclusive approach

to student’s support and guidance.” Ofsted 2006

Using specialism to raise Using specialism to raise standards standards (About spec. schools (About spec. schools cntd)cntd)

3.Developing

people

More active learners

“Work based courses offer a more practical approach,

whilst accelerated programmes enable some

students to move on quickly to higher levels of academic study” Ofsted

2006

Developing People…Developing People…

…not just teachers

Develop schools as professional Develop schools as professional learning communities…learning communities…

Develop schools as professional learning communities…

New leadership structures & talent spottingNew leadership structures & talent spotting

• Building capacity

• In-house programmes

• Training school- staff as tutors/presenters

• SLT must presentx2

• SLT presentation to the SLT at meetings as part of agenda

Training School

“First class continuous professional

development of staff makes a

significant contribution to

driving the school

forward.”

Ofsted 2006

CPDCPDLesson

4. Developing the Organisation4. Developing the Organisation

Creating an evidence-based school?

• Student voice continues to develop

• Stoll’s analysis helps to drill down into departments

• Engaged in research- similar to previous DCSF

• Commissioned data-base for observations

• SSAT programmes for own staff

• SEF, FFT,CVA, ALPS, Conversion rates etc

CVA 1024

Activity Activity SWOT AnalysisSWOT Analysis

• What are the preconditions of improvement in a school?

• How does a school organize for improvement?

• What are the key strategies employed to raise achievement?

• How does professional learning take place?

• How are cultures changed and developed?

• How effective is your own school’s approach to improvement?

Session 4

System Leadership and

the Transformation of Schools

Personal Development

Strategic Acumen

Managing Teaching and Learning

Developing People

Developing Organisations

Work as a Work as a Change Agent Change Agent

Lead a Lead a Successful Successful Educational Educational Improvement Improvement Partnership Partnership

Moral Purpose

Partner Partner another another School School Facing Facing Difficulties Difficulties and and Improve itImprove it

Lead and Improve a School in Lead and Improve a School in Challenging CircumstancesChallenging Circumstances

Act as a Act as a Community Community LeaderLeader

System Leadership Roles

A range of emerging roles, including heads who:

• develop and lead a successful educational improvement partnership

across local communities to support welfare and potential

• choose to lead and improve a school in extremely challenging

circumstances

• partner another school facing difficulties and improve it. This

category includes Executive Heads and leaders of more informal

improvement arrangements

• act as curriculum and pedagogic innovators who develop and then

transfer best practice across the system

• Work as change agents or experts leaders as National Leader of

Education, School Improvement Partner, Consultant Leader.

Support an acting head rather than ‘take over’• Draw detail plans for improvement which included:

a) Diagnosis of the key practices the neighbouring school needed to develop

b) Clarity on Robert Clack’s teaching and learning and behaviour systems

c) A visit to Robert Clack for 20-30 staff in early September to witness the behaviour management, assemblies, and teaching and learning in action so as to give an insight into what was possible in very similar circumstances

d) The export and refinement of these systems from one school into the other, employing key staff from Robert Clack to deliver, in particular, Ofsted demands for immediate improvements in behaviour

• A 2 days a week consultant leadership to support implementation of the behaviour systems

The school got out of Special Measures!

Supporting a school in Special measuresSupporting a school in Special measuresThe Head teacher as a consultant leaderThe Head teacher as a consultant leader

• Confidence for the leadership to know what needed to be done to get a school out of special measures

• A committed contribution for staff both a) To help another school through a situation they had faced

themselves and b) To gain unique professional development

• An experience which now underpins Robert Clack’s roles as a mentor school for the London Challenge and a lead school for an SSAT network

The flip side: personal reputations and the school’s resources were put to the test

Benefits for the Robert Clack School Benefits for the Robert Clack School

The Logic of System Leadership

Learning Potential of all Students

Repertoire of Learning Skills

Models of Learning - Tools for Teaching

Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work

Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and Pedagogic Consistency

Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and Between Schools, Clusters, Districts, LEAs and Nationally

POWERFUL LEARNING

EXPERIENCES

Methods of School Improvement (1-4)

• Teaching & learning: is consistently good

− Classroom ethos of high expectations, shared ‘good lesson’ structure, high proportion of time on task, good use of AfL to plan lessons and tailor to need.

• Curriculum: is balanced and interesting

− Strategic planning to integrate basics, breadth and cognitive learning, with KS3 interventions in basic skills, grade enhancement classes and mentoring.

• Behaviour: promotes order and enjoyment

− Consistent rules for conduct and dress, with consistent implications for infringement consistently applied

• Student attitudes to learning:

− Attendance is high, pastoral care is accessible, achievement is acknowledged, students have a voice in school decision making.

Methods of School Improvement (5-9)

• Leadership:− Clear vision is translated into manageable, time bound and agreed objectives,

commitment is established, data is used to tackle weaknesses and internal variation.

• Professional learning community− Dedicated time for a range of CPD opportunities to share experience of improving

practice, with focus on identifying individual need especially for weak / poor teaching.

• Internal accountability: ‘empowers through a culture of discipline’− Agreed expectations for teaching quality and Quality Assurance and peer observation.

• Resources and environmental management: is student focused− Use of funding streams, whole school team, and the environment all supports learning

• Partnerships beyond the school: creating learning opportunities− Parental engagement is encouraged, & support agencies are used effectively.

School Improvement Journeys• Tactics – these schools comprise the ‘common curriculum’ of

school improvement. Tactics are powerful performance of low or slowly achieving schools up towards the (regression) line, but no further.

• Strategies – these school employ strategically the tactical responses but they also:

• all engaged in a co-ordinated response to the challenge of school improvement. • the focus of their work was explicitly at the classroom or ‘learning’ level.

• Capacities (for further improvement) - these schools are already at relatively high levels of effectiveness and build on this as:

• they collectively understand the causes of positive change and the areas of resistance in the school; and• they have developed a willingness to go beyond the incremental approach to restructuring and genuinely see school improvement as a way of life.

Processes of School ImprovementProcesses of School Improvement

• The journey of school improvement− A clear reform narrative is created, and seen by staff to be consistently applied, with: a

vision and urgency that translates into clear principles for action.

• Organizing the key strategies − Improvement activities are selected and linked together strategically; supported by

robust and highly reliable school systems with clear SMT roles in key areas.

• Professional learning at the heart of the process− Improvement strategy informs CPD; knowledge is gained, verified & refined by staff to

underpin improvement; networking is used to manage risk and discipline practice.

• Cultures are changed and developed− Professional ethos and values that supports capacity building are initiated, implemented

and institutionalized, so that a culture of disciplined action replaces excessive control.

The Challenge of Public Sector ReformThe Challenge of Public Sector Reform

““One Size Does not Fit All”One Size Does not Fit All”

A-3

C -I

B -2a,2b

Differential Strategies for School ImprovementDifferential Strategies for School Improvement• Type 111 strategies are those that assist effective schools to become even better.

Exposure to new ideas and practices, collaboration through consortia or 'pairing' type arrangements seems to be common in these situations.  

• Type 11 strategies are those that assist moderately effective schools become effective. These schools need to refine their developmental priorities and focus on specific teaching and learning issues, and build the capacity within the school to support this work. These strategies usually involve a certain level of external support.

Type 11a strategies are characterised by a strategic focus on innovations in teaching and learning that are informed and supported by external knowledge and support.

Type 11b strategies rely less on external support and tend to be more school initiated.  

• Type 1 strategies are those that assist failing schools become moderately effective. They need to involve a high level of external support. These strategies have to involve a clear and direct focus on a limited number of basic curriculum and organisational issues, in order to build the confidence and competence to continue.

Estimated 5+A*-C % from pupil KS3 data

1009080706050403020100

Act

ual 5

+A

*-C

% 2

003

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

N = 3313

Low Achieving

N = 483

Underperforming

N = 539

Progressing

N = 1495

High Performing

N = 696

Leading the System

N = 100

Segmentation of the Secondary School SystemSegmentation of the Secondary School System

Below 30% 5+A-C

5+A*-C >=30%, lower quartile value added

5+A*-C >=30%, 25-75th percentile value

added

5+A*-C >=30%, upper quartile value added

Networking and Segmentation:Networking and Segmentation:Highly Differentiated Improvement StrategiesHighly Differentiated Improvement Strategies

Type of School

Leading schools

Succeeding schools with

internal variation

Underperforming schools

Failing schools

Key strategies – responsive to context and need

- Become curriculum and pedagogical innovators

- Formal federation with lower-performing schools

- Regular local networking

- Subject specialist support to particular depts.

- Linked school support

- Consistency interventions

- Formal support in a Federation structure

- New provider

System Leadership Role

- Leading Edge

- Consultant Leaders and National Support Schools

- Education Improvement Partnerships

- 14-19 partnerships

- Raising Achievement Transforming Learning

- School Improvement Partners

- Consultant Leaders and National Support Schools

- School Sponsored Academy

Collaboration – the offer to schoolsCollaboration – the offer to schools

• Every school will have the opportunity to benefit from and contribute to network learning

• The focus of collaboration will be on student learning and achievement and the creation of professional learning communities in schools

• Networking arrangements will be based on the twin principles of inclusivity and local accountability

• Regional Offices will co-ordinate, support and encourage collaboration and network to network learning

• Regional, State and Federal levels will actively support networking for specific purposes – Federations, Achievement Zones …

Segmentation requires a fair degree Segmentation requires a fair degree of boldness …of boldness …

• Schools should take greater responsibility for neighbouring schools so that the move towards networking encourages groups of schools to form collaborative arrangements outside of local control.

• All failing and underperforming (and potentially low achieving) schools should have a leading school that works with them in either a formal grouping Federation or in more informal partnership.

• The incentives for greater system responsibility should include significantly enhanced funding for students most at risk.

• A rationalisation of national and local agency functions and roles to allow the higher degree of national and regional co-ordination for this increasingly devolved system.

Responsible System Leadership

• System leadership at the school level – with school principals almost as concerned about the success of other schools as they are about their own

• System leadership at the local/urban level – with practical principles widely shared and used as a basis for local alignment (across a city) so that school diversity, collaboration and segmentation – that all schools are at different stages in the performance cycle on a continuum from “leading” to “failing” – are deliberately exploited and specific programmes are developed for the groups most at risk

• System leadership at the system level – with social justice, moral purpose and a commitment to the success of every learner providing the focus for transformation.

Coherent System Design

Leadership and School ethos

Teaching quality

High quality personalised learning for

every student

Personalised Learning andProfessionalised Teaching

Intelligent accountability,Governance and

Segmentation

Innovation, Networkingand System Leadership

U N I V E R S A L

H I G H

Recurrent funding

Physical capital

Human capital

Knowledge creation and management

Qualifications framework

Curriculum

S T A N D A R D S

Hardware

Infrastructure

Software

Teaching and learning

Operating system

Reform model

The Systemic AgendaThe Systemic Agenda

• Schools exist in increasingly complex and turbulent environments, but the best schools ‘turn towards the danger’ and adapt external change for internal purpose.

• Schools should use external standards to clarify, integrate and raise their own expectations.

• School benefit from highly specified, but not prescribed, models of best practice.

• Schools, by themselves and in networks, engage in policy implementation through a process of selecting and integrating innovations through their focus on teaching and learning.

• Schools use the principles of segmentation to transform the system

Discuss how you do this

The future reform agenda is about schools supporting each other in a new educational landscape:

Hope

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that

something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is hope, above all, that

gives us strength to live and to continually try new things, even in challenging conditions.

Vaclav Havel

David Hopkins is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Education, University of London, where until recently, he held the inaugural HSBC iNet Chair in International Leadership. He is a Trustee of Outward Bound, holds visiting professorships at the Catholic University of Santiago, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Universities of Edinburgh, Melbourne and Wales and consults internationally on school reform. Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills. Previously, he was Chair of the Leicester City Partnership Board and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Nottingham. Before that again he was a Tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education, a Secondary School teacher and Outward Bound Instructor. David is also an International Mountain Guide who still climbs regularly in the Alps and Himalayas. His recent books Every School a Great School and System Leadership in Practice are published by The Open University Press.

Website: www.davidhopkins.co.ukDavid is represented by Slater Baker: www.slaterbaker.com

Professor David Hopkins Professor David Hopkins