Leadership for

LearningIn a time of change, challenge and opportunity

David Cameron

What changes are we responding to?

The changing world - technology, globalism, uncertainty

The changing context - policy, frameworks, expectations and priorities

Changing relationships

Inhabiting ambiguity

Eric Hoffer

In times of change, the learners shall inherit the earth while the learned will remain beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists

David Cameron

And the learners who can identify opportunity and manage risk, who can innovate and create, will shape that inheritance and define the future

Adding value is not enough for some of our young people, we need to challenge their destinies. We are not editing life stories, we are creating new narratives

Improvement will not be enough

Effective

Ineffective

Traditional

Forward Looking

What do learners need?

The capacity to think, learn and adapt

The ability to innovate and create

The skills to access knowledge including the skill of questioning

The commitment to sustained enquiry or task

The specific skills required by disciplines or vocational choices

What sort of learning?

It has to be active

It has to involve the quest for meaning

It has to be varied

It needs motivation

It should respect disciplines but not be dominated by them

It must be assessed in terms of breadth, depth and application

What makes learning successful?

''My father would cry reading Dickens to us as kids. These are the passages I remember.'’ Malcolm Gladwell

''One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers - but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material - but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.'’ Carl Jung

The “Mortimore” factors

Purposeful leadership of the staff by the head-teacher

The involvement of the deputy head-teacher

The involvement of teachers

Consistency among teachers

Structured lessons

Intellectually challenging teaching

Work-centered environment

Limited focus within sessions

Maximum communication between teachers and students

Record keeping

Parental involvement

Positive climate

 "There can be no educational development without teacher development;....the best means of development is not by clarifying ends but by analysing practice.”

Lawrence Stenhouse

"The greatest problem in teaching is not how to get rid of the 'deadwood', but how to create, sustain and motivate good teachers throughout their careers.”

Fullan and Hargreaves 1992

"People learn what they need to learn, not what someone else thinks they need to learn.” Fullan (1994)

"In the end, it is the teacher in his or her classroom who has to interpret and bring about improvement.” Fullan and Hargreaves

"You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators, without teachers having these same characteristics.” Sarason (1990)

In short, it is the task of all educationalists outside the classroom to serve the teacher.. For only they are in a position to deliver effective learning

Adapted from Lawrence Stenhouse

Key principles

Where change is imposed or driven by others, we play at it, defuse it and subvert it

It affects interviews far more than practice

It makes no difference to pupil achievement

You work best when you are enthusiastic about what you are teaching

More Principles

Change should only be driven by self-evaluation, provided that self-evaluation is realistic and takes account of economic and social changes

If all learners were experiencing the best practice in our schools, we would not be talking about system change

Any change has to be rooted in current practice

And……………

Focus on learning

Support and challenge learners

Whatever you do, do it right, consistently and persistently

Improvement comes through systems, priority for practice and looking at the needs of individual learners

What do we need from leaders?

Certainty (where possible), confidence at least

Early anticipation/creative response

Clarity - of purpose and of expectations

Cohesion

Engagement

Direction and support

Common purpose

What do leaders need?

Clarity

Commitment

Courage

Collegiality

Clarity of Purpose

Purpose is not simply a target that an organisation chooses to aim for - it is an organisation’s reason for being. It needs to express what the organisation wants to accomplish in providing value to its stakeholders - and describe how these accomplishments can be measured.

Aims and ambitions

Schools must make it very clear what they stand for and must have a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve. The vision will always be there for them as a goal and will support and encourage when things go wrong or are difficult. Knowing what you want to achieve is crucial. Without that, there will be no progress

A real vision

..we believe that people are important, the children placed in our care, the adults who spend their working lives in the school, the parents and members of the wider community.

We believe that education is about every aspect of human personality and achievement. This view requires that teachers give generously of their ideas and the community to welcome those ideas

What we teach must work for all the children and tap all their potential talents, not just some of them.

The curriculum that we offer must be broad, balanced and progressive. It must reach out and touch all children in a way that makes sense to each individual child. It must motivate each child, involve each child, inspire and enlighten each child. It must be a curriculum that recognises that there are many kinds of knowing, feeling and expressing truth.

So……………?

We need to create a culture where we all believe we can make a difference and have a common view about what that difference is

We need to create the conditions where we can make that difference

We need to listen, to learn and to act

We need to build on the work done

In this context….

Leadership has to be collegiate

It concerns leading people not managing institutions

It has to be founded on belief, knowledge and understanding

It requires skill

It needs purpose

It has to be informed by evidence

It must be judged by outcomes

But let’s think……

Targets need to reflect ambitions and not just requirements

We need to get beyond set standards and qualifications

There are many ways of assembling the vital elements

We need to think about learning AND leadership

Leadership lessons

Consistency

Persistence

Generosity

Getting beyond self

Getting the best people and enabling them to be the best -create the team

…. And more

See things clearly – tell them simply

Keep the focus

Get rid of the clutter

Everything fit for purpose

Leadership and management = 2 wings/1 bird

Leadership without legacy = pan+ flash

The Lacuna

Their white dresses swirled like froth, with skirts so wide they could take the hems in their fingertips and raise them up to make sudden wings, like butterflies, fluttering as they turned…..

“Indian girls,” she spat……”A corn eater will never be more than she is”

The dancers were butterflies. From a hundred paces Salome could see the dirt under their fingernails, but not their wings