Fragmentation and inequalities are likely to dog our education system for some time. The temptation to create something new to drive more consistent improvement is understandable. However, there are at least three areas that need careful consideration as Labour fleshes out the structure and responsibilities of their new regional improvement (RISE) teams.
First, who decides if a school needs support? Is it Ofsted? Is it the school? Is it the trust that ought to be providing support already? The role of the advisor will be pivotal in terms of negotiating the support that might be needed.
I have no doubt that we have enough talented leaders and teachers across the country to take on these advisory roles, but as many of us learned more than 10 years ago as National Leaders of Education, advising and seeing advice acted upon rigorously are not always the same thing.
I also have a nagging concern that the people who will make up these new teams are already working at capacity in their schools and trusts. We must not spread the talent pool too thinly.
Next, what we have learned is that school improvement support is usually at its most effective when the support taking place does so as close to a classroom as possible.
Where the leaders in a school or trust tasked with raising standards are known and trusted by the staff who need help, then the frequency of interaction and dialogue heightens the likelihood of success.
The idea that improvers commissioned by a regional team can replicate this level of interaction is unrealistic. What is it, therefore, that a body appointed to provide support can do that teams in a single school or even a trust might find difficult?
Having an awareness of the practice that has made a tangible difference in one setting is important.
Brokering relationships between schools and trusts where the advisor has a vested interest in making learning better for more children is an important role for a regional team tasked with assessing capacity and areas of strength.
They must work together and resist a silo mentality
However, transmitting practice from one setting to another is complex.
Change needs to be owned and understood by the leaders and teachers being supported; this is the best way in my experience to cement change into daily practice. What I see in the most effective trusts is an awareness that while change might be non-negotiable, the process to adapt and adopt it lies with the leaders and teachers who are responsible for implementing something better.
More than that, genuine school improvement thrives on collaborative pursuit.
The energy that leaders create when they look for different and better ways to educate children is important. It is one of the compelling arguments as to why trusts work. Colleagues who share the same responsibility for cohorts of children in the same communities have a responsibility beyond just collaborating.
A challenging but respectful conversation with an external advisor who has her own credibility is never time wasted, and I am sure will be welcomed, but the relationship with the classrooms in individual schools is the responsibility of the leaders who work there.
The newly conceived regional teams have an opportunity to:
- look at improvement through a process that starts with identification of need,
- gather an understanding of what works from across the country and the region
- expand into the brokerage of support
- and concludes by holding both the support providers and receivers to account for the progress
This model of identification, evidence, brokerage and review can also be used to better understand the regional challenges that extend beyond individual schools and trusts.
Why do some parts of our region excel at supporting vulnerable learners where others struggle? Where do we have less of a challenge with teacher and leader recruitment and why?
If the regional teams work together and resist the silo mentality that has brought many education initiatives that originated in the centre to a standstill, then the system will be richer for this shared learning.
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