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Senior leadership handbook

2020 - 2023Courthouse Junior School

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45

35 37page

Dimensions of educational leadershipWhat should leaders pay attention to?

Vision and strategic priorities

What are we aiming to achieve and why?

Strategies and their active ingredientsWhat aspects of our strategies need to be implemented with fidelity?

Understanding impact

What difference can we make and how can it be measured?

Managing change

How do implement strategies effectively and preserve climate?

Professional learning

What activities will develop our knowledge and practice?

Cultural leadership

How do we create and maintain a high performing culture?

41Feedback

How do we talk to our teams about how they are doing?

Leading meetings

How do we make sure that meetings are effective?

42

50Self evaluation

How do we know well we’re doing?

44Prioritisation

How do we decide what is worth the effort?

51Strategic curriculum leadership

How do we design and implement our curriculum?

Contents

Dimensions of educational leadership

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Ensuring an orderly and safe environment

Leading teacher learning and development

Ensuring quality teaching

Resourcing strategically

Establishing goals and expectations

Average effect on pupil outomes

Set goals

Allocate materials, money and staffing to the

pursuit of the goals

Ensure quality of teaching by supporting

and evaluating the curriculum and pedagogy

Learn more about what staff need to learn in order to achieve the

goals

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The more leaders focus their relationships, their work and their learning on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their influence on student outcomes.

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Every child flourishing

The pursuit of knowledge

Doing the right thing

Leadership and teamwork

A world class experience

The curriculum offer is regularly reviewed to check that

children have learned what was intended and iteratively

improved to keep it ambitious. The transition from Y2 to Y3

is carefully designed to minimise the junior school dip. We

ensure equality of access for all children, including providing

rich experiences to complement the curriculum and life

beyond school. We ensure an extensive music and sport

provision and prioritise social and emotional development to

build character. We celebrate diversity and difference

through whole community events.

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Developing leaders

We provide authentic leadership opportunities through

distributed leadership. Succession planning ensures the

continued focus on strategic priorities. We ensure that

leaders develop extensive knowledge of common problems

and solutions through a bespoke leadership curriculum. We

contribute to system leadership through school to school

support and use these opportunities to generate income to

benefit our children.

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The right support at the right time for families

We maintain a nurturing environment. Our practices

prioritise mental health and social development. We are a

buffer for vulnerable families before early help is available.

We foster strong community links and provide a hub for

vulnerable families during holidays.

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Addressing underachievement

Our practices are research informed and developed through

effective professional learning. We prioritise oracy and

literacy, ensuring equality of access to the curriculum for all

children. Our mastery curriculum is underpinned by a

mastery mentality and we have high ambition for all children

regardless of SEND or disadvantage.

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A skilled workforce and a high performing culture

We provide effective professional learning opportunities for

all staff to gain expertise in solving the problems that they

face. The conditions of autonomy, mastery and purpose are

prioritised by leaders. Staff work hard but only on practices

that make a difference. Staff collaborate in planning for and

providing a world class experience, learning from each other.

This is underpinned by an effective appraisal system.

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A calm and purposeful environment

We ensure that children experience success so that they are motivated. Kindness and gratitude are the default interactions. Lessons are free from disruption and time is used efficiently. All adults have equal authority and consistently lead behaviour in and out of classrooms. Children take up varied leadership positions. Children have a sense of pride in the school environment.

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Active ingredients10

Reading strategy Active ingredients


Developing leadersA world class experienceA skilled workforce and a high performing culture

Addressing underachievement

A calm and purposeful environment

Vocabulary instruction

Teaching background knowledge

Teaching fluency (including phonics) and prosody

Reading to children / oral comprehension

Knowledge of books / promote reading

Expert choices of books

11

Writing strategy Active ingredients

Internalisation of model texts

Sentence construction

Spelling instruction

Underlying structure / boxing up

Writers’ toolkits

Modelled and shared writing

Editing, redrafting and publishing

Audience and purpose



Developing leadersA world class experienceA calm and purposeful

environmentA calm and purposeful

environment

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Maths strategy Active ingredients

Daily review

Worked examples and guided practice

Scaffolded tasks for novices

Sufficient time to work without scaffolds

Depth tasks for quick graspers

Fluency / automaticity of facts and procedures

Reasoning and problem solving throughout

Concrete, pictorial and abstract representations





environment

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Behaviour strategy Active ingredients

Consistent, calm adult behaviour

First attention to the best conduct

Equality of adult authority

Reasonable adjustments

Analyse, don’t personalise

Positive language choice

Relentless routines, taught and practised

Enable success because success breeds motivation

Every child has unlimited potential for us to unlock





environment

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Site improvement strategy Active ingredients

What you walk past, you accept

Regularly communicate expectations

Collective responsibility and ownership of the environment





environment

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Oracy strategy Active ingredients

All staff model ambitious and challenging norms for talk

Regular and purposeful discussion across the curriculum

Everybody talks, everybody listens in different groups

Model and insist upon prosody

Vocabulary, grammar conventions and sentence structures

Speaking opportunities with varying formality

Communication to build community





environment

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SEND strategy Active ingredients

Positive relationships between families and school

Wave 1: scaffolded tasks for specific needs

Wave 2: carefully selected in-class, small group and 1:1 intervention

Wave 3: external assessment and expertise

Develop independence through tiered support

Assess, plan, do, review

Remove barriers to learning and life opportunities

Education about opportunities and ambition for children and families






environment

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Pupil premium strategy Active ingredients

Key measure of school effectiveness is how well disadvantaged children achieve

Positive relationships between families and school

Education about opportunities and ambition for children and families


Remove barriers to learning and life opportunities

Tiered approach





environment

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Professional learning strategy Active ingredients

Short feedback loop

Low stakes to encourage risk taking

Collaborative / contextual development of knowledge and practice

Tailored induction for new staff

Sequenced and ambitious professional learning curriculum

Sustained over time

Focused on outcomes for children

Beliefs and attitudes drive habit change

Evidence informed

Autonomy over own development

Clear intended impact

Draw on external expertise





environment

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Workload strategy Active ingredients

Work hard, but only on things that make a difference to children’s outcomes

Shared curriculum planning

Efficient communication

Flexible working conditions





environment

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Cultural leadership strategy Active ingredients

Build safety

Share vulnerability

Establish purpose

Leaders there to serve and protect staff

Consultation / opinion seeking / everyone has a voice

High levels of mixing (inclusion)

Communicate in person

Advocate change

Reference to the bigger picture outside of education





environment

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Curriculum strategy Active ingredients

Regularly reviewed

Teacher autonomy over task choice to meet curricular goals

Broad and ambitious, centred around the Courthouse context

Anchored by rich texts

Carefully sequenced overviews to link across the key stage and between subjects

Prioritise long term learning over short term performance

Substantive and disciplinary knowledge

Threads of key concepts developed over the key stage

Components build to composite pieces

Semantic design through explicit instruction complemented with episodic elements

Cross curricular links where they develop schemata





environment

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Experiences strategy Active ingredients

Community focused

Free to children

System to encourage independent continuation

Complements the curriculum

Future focused – life beyond school

Increase cultural capital





environment

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Homework strategy Active ingredients

Manageable for teachers, useful for children

Specific automaticity for selected children

Independent access by children

Short feedback loop

Opportunity for some to do extra – excellence through practice

Non academic options to ensure success for all

Media to suit the task (online/ paper / oracy)

Review and consolidate learning in school





environment

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Transition strategy Active ingredients

Multiple visits to school over Summer term

Adults visit feeder schools

Early and regular parental contact

Early assessment and intervention

Detailed handover between current and new teacher / TA





environment

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SEMH strategy Active ingredients

Regular screening

Tiered response with increasing adult specialism

Explicit teaching of social and emotional skills

External expertise

Reasonable adjustments

Analyse, don’t personalise

Supporting families to access external services





environment

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Leadership development strategy Active ingredients

Develop knowledge of persistent problems

Coaching mentoring to address theories of action

Personal reading

Distributed leadership and job rotation

Transparent career paths and leadership shadowing

Access to qualifications and extended external training





environment

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Adults’ knowledge

Adults’ behaviour

Systems and processes

Climate Outcomes for children

Culture

Impact – What difference can we make?28

Subject knowledge (including common

misconceptions)

Pedagogical knowledge

Expectations of quality of work

Knowledge of cultural leadership

strategies

Knowledge of the children you teach

Adults’ knowledge


Pursuit of knowledge

Pedagogy Building and maintaining relationships

Efficiency in core tasks to free up

working memory

Insisting on high standards

Adults’ behaviour


Professional learning

Pedagogical guidance

Core subject strategies

Cultural leadership and behaviour

systems

Planning, assessing and giving feedback



Autonomy Mastery Purpose Team belonging

Climate


Academic attainment and

progress

Physical / creative development

Social and emotional

development

Behavioural and attendance

progress

Feelings of enjoyment and

belonging

Outcomes for children


Outcomes for children

What more will children know and remember?

Test scores

Observation of children’s behaviours

Workbook scrutiny

Independent pieces of work

Discussions with children

Case studies of individual or groups of children

Attendance and exclusion data

Adults’ knowledge

What more will adults know and remember?

Surveys (self reporting understanding of a particular subject area on a scale)

Discussions with adults

Moderation records

Case studies of individual or groups of adults

Adults’ Behaviour

What will adults do differently?

Lesson visits

Workbook scrutiny

Discussions with adults


What routines will be in place?

Lesson visits

Workbook scrutiny

Discussions with adults and children

Behaviour records

Climate

What will it feel like to be in this team / learn in this subject?

Surveys of children, adults and parents

Discussions with children, adults and parents

Measuring impact34

Expert explanations in school

External conferences / school visits

Reading books / blogs

Applying ideas to own practice

Discussions with colleagues

Formal coaching

Observing others

Applying ideas to own practice

Observed by others

Act on feedback

Collaborative planning

Professional learning activities35

Guidance for presenting

Tell stories

Make use of dual coding / cognitive load theory when designing slides

Use a clicker

Explain ideas, don’t narrate your own understanding

Point out connections to previously learned ideas

Consider how delegates are grouped for discussions

Break up periods of talk with discussions / tasks

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Creating and maintaining a high performing culture

Build safetyAre we safe here?

Share vulnerabilityAre we connected?

Establish purposeDo we share a future here?

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How to build safety – a steady flow of belonging cues

Show warmth and kindness in every situation.

Ask questions to draw others out. What do you think? How would you do it?

Show that you care – take an interest in others’ lives.

Close physical proximity (but not too close).

Engage in frequent energetic exchanges.

Give good eye contact.

Prevent interruptions.

Give small attentive courtesies (thank yous, holding doors, welcoming back after absence etc)

Encourage humour and laughter.

Make mixing happen.

Treat each individual as unique and valued.Narrate others’ roles in the future (signalling that the relationship will continue.

Celebrate the humblest of tasks.

Create connections between people – initiate conversations about shared interests.

Eat together.

Show your vulnerability early on. What have I missed?

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How to share vulnerability

Maximise helping behaviour (eg request for help board).

What is one thing that I currently do that you’d like me to continue to do?

What is one thing that I do not do frequently enough that I should do more often?

What can I do to enable you to be more effective?

Face uncomfortable questions head on.

Overemphasise values and how to enact them.

Take a helping, cooperative stance.

Debrief situations and build a shared mental model for future situations.

Negatives always in person.

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How to establish purpose

Over communicate vision, values and strategic priorities.

Narrate a link between the present and the future ideal.

Think of a goal and imagine achieving it. Picture the obstacles as vividly as possible.

High repetition, high feedback training.

Establish vivid, memorable rules of thumb for key situations: If x, then do y.

Fill the windscreen with stories – mental models to drive behaviour.

Change is central, not an add on.

Tell your team why their individual and collective skills were / are important for team success.

Explicit encouragement to speak up.

Create and share visible artefacts to tell our story

Name and rank our priorities.Read energy signals and boost when a lull might occur.

Name the strategies that support our priorities.

Distinguish between where proficiency is needed and where creativity is needed.

Give ownership, provide support and align group energy.

Measure what really matters in appraisal.

40

Giving feedback

You are part of the group This group is special – we have high standards

I believe you can reach those standards

I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know you can reach them.

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Members maintain high levels of eye contact and their conversations

and gestures are energetic.

Members communicate directly with one another, not

just with the team leader.

Members carry on back channel or side conversations

within the team.

Members periodically break, go exploring outside the team and bring information back to

share with others.

Everyone in the group talks and listens in roughly equal measure,

keeping contributions short.

Team meetings – safety and connection42

Sharing information

This could be about what leaders are working on or findings from quality assurance activities.

Cultural leadership

Are there any adjustments to leaders’ language and behaviours required to influence whole school culture?

Problem solving

Are there any issues that require collaboration in order to be addressed? Consider who else needs to be in the room with the right expertise.

Decision making

Are there any decisions that need to be discussed? What are the implications of any decision and who needs to know?

Leadership learning

What knowledge, support and challenge do leaders need in order to carry out their leadership development?

Strategy

Do leaders need to realign actions to the school’s strategic vision?Planning ahead.

Leadership meetings43

What is on the strategic plan related to my responsibility?

Work towards this.

Does everyone know and enact the vision consistently

and effectively?Work towards this.

Is there anything amenable to change?

Consider both tasks and people.

DoPlan

Drop Consider

Impact

Ease

Not easy but could have a significant impact –

typically worth doing.

Easy to do and could have an immediate impact –make this an immediate

priority.

Not easy and may not have a significant impact –

don’t waste your time.

Easy to do but may not have a significant impact -

may be worth doing.

Prioritisation matrix44

Treat implementation as a process, not an event.

Create an environment and climate that is conducive to good implementation.

Link to full document here.

Managing change – implementation guidance45

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/a-schools-guide-to-implementation

Managing change – promoting autonomy46

Managing change – theories of action

Key beliefs and values Actions Consequences

A personal theory about how one might achieve

their goals:

My job is to….

School is for…

The children I teach are…

Behaviours that have become habit in an

attempt to achieve one’s goals

Can be positive and negative

Consider the 5 impact measures.

sustain lead to

The difficulty of change is proportional to the degree of tension between the theories of action in current practice and the theories of action required by the proposed new practice. If leaders do not understand the factors that sustain current practice, they do not understand what is involved in improving it.

Target of changeA theory of action explains observed actions by identifying the beliefs

and values that sustain them.

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Agree on the problem to be solved

Revealing the tacit theory (values, actions

and consequences) that sustains current

practice

Evaluating the relative merit of the existing

and proposed theories

Implementing and monitoring the new

theory of action

To lead change is to exercise influence in ways that move a team or organisation from one state to another. The second state could be the same better or worse than the first.

To lead improvement is to exercise influence in ways that leave the team or organisation in a better state than before.

Clear and open minded statement of concern.

1. What was done or not done?2. Why was that done or not done?3. What happened as a result?

Acknowledge part in the problem and desire to be part of the solution.

Is it worth trying to change the current theories of action?

Agree criteria to be used on the evaluation of alternative programs.

Are the criteria aligned with the analysis of the problem?

Careful attention to variation in implementation and outcomes is needed. Implementation indicators:• Which teachers have an

adequate knowledge of key concepts central to the new theory of action?

• Which teachers have largely positive attitudes towards the new theory of action?

• Which teachers are using new actions and which are not?

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Leader’s change agenda

Leader’s alternative theory of action

Teacher’s theory of action

Agreed interim evaluation of each

theory

Joint decision to change

Joint decision to not change

Leader’s change agenda

Leader’s alternative theory of action

Teacher’s theory of action

No agreed evaluation of either

theory

Teacher complies with or resists leader’s theory

Teacher adapts to leader’s theory

Dialogical process

Persuasive process

Engaging teachers’ theory of action

Bypassing teachers’ theory of action

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Accurate self evaluation

Sources of information for

accurate evaluation

Most recent Ofsted report

Most recent attainment and progress data

Findings from internal quality

assurance

Attendance and behavioural data

External validation reports

Comparable schools’ data (EEF

and FFT)

50

Curriculum design principles51

coherentExplicit connections

between units of work, subjects and experiences

sequencedCarefully sequenced

concepts - curriculum is the progress model

balancedIntellectual, moral, spiritual, aesthetic,

creative, emotional and physical development

rigorousDisciplinary knowledge as

well as substantive knowledge

appropriateMatches challenge to children’s maturity /

knowledge

relevantOur curriculum meets the needs of the Courthouse

community

focusedTeaches the most

important knowledge and key concepts

Curriculum design principles

Strategic curriculum leadership52

How do we know the extent to which the curriculum has been learned?

Focus on disadvantaged, if they are not learning then we are failing.

Indicators of learning:

Regular low stakes testing in the review stage of lessons

Vocabulary checks

Multiple choice quizzes

End piece or essays (composite tasks)

Assess, plan, do, review (SEND code of practice)

Use curriculum design principles to guide decision making.

Start with the national curriculum to guide content choice.

Map out subject overviews to get the sequencing right .

Clarify the key concepts that thread through the key stage.

Use Ofsted's curriculum intent indicators to quality assure work.

Decide on composite tasks for each unit of work to clarify the desired outcome .

Apply disciplinary knowledge and writing across the curriculum .

Writing medium term plans

Work backwards from the composite task to create components that build knowledge .

Ensure a thread of key concepts.

Identify key vocabulary to be taught.

Determine the prior knowledge and allocate time to check and reteach.

Distil teachers' subject knowledge requirement and provide background reading .

Consider whether a knowledge organiser is appropriate,

Medium term plans to be quality assured against principles, NC and Ofsted's intent indicators .

Plan for CPD to teach the MTP substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

Prepare skeleton presentations for teachers to adapt.

Intent Implementation Impact

We use a mastery approach

All children can master age appropriate content given:• Sufficient time• The right provision• Effort on their part

We teach to the top and scaffold work for children that need it.

Children that grasp concepts quickly are given opportunities to deepen their understanding before acceleration through the curriculum.

Fluency in the basics is a necessary precursor to higher order thinking and these are practised to automaticity.

What makes great teaching?

Subject knowledge Instructional quality Classroom culture and climate

Get to know the subject content well including what it builds on and what comes later in the term / year / key stage

Review prior learning to interrupt forgetting

Ensure quality of interactions between adults and children

Get to know the pedagogical knowledge of how best to teach the content

Get to know the ways children think about content

Get to know the common misconceptions and how to prevent / address them

Model, explain and use worked examples

Ask good questions (see page 2) and get children learning to and through talk

Provide adequate time for guided and independent practice

Scaffold tasks so that all can access the content (see page 3)

Keep high expectations of effort, quality of work and behaviour

Use lesson time efficiently

Assess and feedback / adapt instruction

Get to the know the substantive knowledge – the established facts to be taught

Get to the know the disciplinary knowledge – how we think about the subject content

Set and practise routines so that everyone follows them

Further reading

Principles of instruction - RosenshineWhat makes great teaching? Sutton Trust6 strategies for effective learning – the learning scientists

Modelling and worked examples

Scaffolds and prompts

Concrete resources

Teacher guided

Layered support

Curriculum implementation - Teaching and learning guidance53

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf

https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/great-teaching/

https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/8/18-1

Curriculum review process54

Coherence SequencingScope Rigour

Is there a clear sequence to learning?

Does the sequence need to change?

Did the sequence enable success in the composite task?

Was the content relevant to the Courthouse community?

Was the national curriculum covered?

Was there adequate time spent on the unit?

Was reading prioritised?

Did the composite task capture the scope?

Were key concepts taught within this unit?

Did the composite task give an opportunity to demonstrate conceptual understanding?

Are there opportunities to build in other concepts next time?

Did the conceptual development build on previous units?

Does the conceptual development prepare children for future units?

Was disciplinary knowledge taught?

Was there equality of access for all children?

Are staff adequately trained / confident in the disciplinary knowledge?

Did the composite task present an opportunity to demonstrate disciplinary knowledge?

Are there opportunities to build in other disciplinary knowledge?

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