Steering a steady course through

the choppy waters of education

policy

Inspiring Leadership conference

8 June 2017

John DunfordChair, Whole Education

1

School leaders

Volume, range and speed of

change

Instability caused by

politicisationof education

Conflicting pressures

Policies not based on evidence

Steering the school on a steady

course: seizing the agenda

Since 1988, the government has set the schools’

agenda

Teachers have been de-professionalised; school

leaders have been constrained by regulation and

accountability

Funding, staffing pressures and exam and test

reforms are a toxic mix of constraints

BUT …

There is space for creativity and innovation

3

Seizing the agenda

The central message of The School Leadership Journey is that, if

school leaders are secure in their values, and work together in

local and national partnerships, they can seize the agenda and

steer a steady course, both in their schools and nationally.

4

Ten things learned on my leadership

journey1. Hold to your values

2. Be creative

3. Water the plants

4. Work with other schools, not against them

5. Leadership style should suit the occasion

6. Focus on learning

7. Look outwards, not upwards

8. Good leadership is 10% action, 90% communication

9. Smile

10. The 4Hs of school leadership

5

Hold to your values

• A values-led school is almost always a good school

• Values-led leadership

• The school’s statement of values

• Application of values to every part of school …

• … every lesson, every student

• First impressions matter: the 90:90 rule

• Community values

• From poor to good … from good to great …

6

Steering a steady course

The agenda can be seized on:

Structure

Curriculum

Assessment

Accountability

Disadvantage

Professional development

School leaders can then steer their schools on a

steady course

7

Seizing the agenda … on school

structure

Navigating a route for the school

Choosing a leadership structure that’s right for your school

Building partnerships

You are part of a great movement to improve the life chances of

young people

You are a co-leader of education locally and nationally

A new landscape of school leadership

Teaching school alliances and multi-academy trusts

8

Building successful partnerships of

schools1. Know the partnership schools quantitatively

2. Know the schools qualitatively

3. Adapt strategies to each school’s context

4. Deploy expertise strategically

5. Coach improvement in teaching and learning

6. Use inquiry-based learning as the flywheel to accelerate

improvement

7. Empower the middle leaders

8. Evolve and apply some non-negotiables

9. Work with and learn from other schools

10. Know the impact of each school improvement interventionSee https://roberthilleducationblog.com/academy-chains/205/ and http://www.future-

leaders.org.uk/insights-blog/school-improvement-multi-academy-trusts

9

Seizing the agenda … on curriculum

Becoming curriculum developers again

Define the school curriculum broadly

10

Using curriculum freedoms

The school curriculum is much bigger than the

National Curriculum or exam specifications

11

SCHOOL CURRICULUM

NATIONAL

CURRICULUM

Seizing the agenda … on curriculum

Becoming curriculum developers again

Defining the school curriculum broadly

Local, national and international elements

Building a strong co-curriculum

Curriculum-related visits and exchanges

Designing a curriculum entitlement

The importance of the arts

Developing skills as well as knowledge

Aiming for a 'Whole Education’

12

The warp and the weft of the curriculum

Skills

Personal qualities

Knowledge

Seizing the agenda … on

assessment

Improving the quality of assessment

Applying assessment principles that are well grounded in

research evidence

Recapturing external assessment for the profession

A bigger role for teacher assessment

Measuring what we value, not just valuing what we

measure

A confusion of purposes: Bring back the APU!

14

Seizing the agenda … on

accountability

Taking ownership of accountability

Using intelligent accountability that reflects the broad

aims of the school

Setting the school’s own success criteria

Building the school’s own data sets

Developing quality assurance, not quality control – with

internal and external components

Using peer review

15

Seizing the agenda … on

disadvantage Raising attainment and closing the gap

Using your autonomy with pupil premium

‘Stop looking up and start looking out …’

An opportunity for innovation and creativity

Accountability for impact

Setting your own success criteria for PP strategies

Using curriculum to help close the gap

‘Individual need and classroom rigour’

16

Look outwards, not upwards

• A generation of central prescription

• A profession lacking in self-confidence

• Stop looking up and start looking out …

• Set an example from the top

• Evidence from research and from successful schools

• Important for all staff … especially the school leaders

• Combatting isolation

• Inward-looking schools stand still and then fall behind

• Co-leadership of schools in the area

18

Seizing the agenda … on

professional development

Watering the plants

Re-professionalizing the teaching profession

An outward-looking staff

From CPD to JPD

Evidence-informed practice

Engagement in research

Retention first, recruitment second

Leadership development and talent management

but …

Some staff need some strong stuff in the water!

19

can be found in Robinson, Lloyd, and Rowe, 2008.)

While there are no hard and fast rules about how to interpret this statistic in educational research, an

Building a strong professional

development community

1. Promote a climate of learning by setting an example

2. Appoint an SLT member to oversee PD and LD, and

include research in his/her brief

3. Join a local teaching school alliance

4. Encourage staff to participate in local and national

networks

5. Filter research evidence and disseminate to staff

6. Become a school member of the Teacher Development

Trust and use its quality-assured database of PD

21

Being creative

• Dream your dreams … and next morning go into school and put them

into action …

• Space for innovation in curriculum, assessment, combatting

disadvantage, accountability, professional development

• Adapting good ideas from elsewhere

• Creating an innovative climate

• Giving permission to fail

22

SMILE!

23

The 4Hs of school leadership

Humility

Humanity

Hope

Humour

24

Contact

John Dunford

at

jd@johndunfordconsulting.co.uk

www.johndunfordconsulting.co.uk

Twitter: @johndunford

Blogs: http://johndunfordconsulting.wordpress.com/

TES blogs: https://www.tes.com/news/author/john-dunford

www.wholeeducation.org

25