Sarah Gallagher’s top picks of this week’s education topics. Click on the headings to access the original content
The chemistry of school improvement
Communication is key in forming relationships to make schools work. Rob Coe’s blog about the schools in Opportunity North East is enlightening just for confirming that. But what’s more intriguing still is the notion that there needs to be an ‘energy’ to make that relationship work.
The EEF-funded research suggests that it wasn’t as simple as pairing a national leader of education (NLE) with a leader in a ‘requires improvement’ school. It needed the chemistry between both parties to work too.
I must confess this reminded me of Married at First Sight (my daughter made me watch it!). Joking apart, that a partnership must be carefully considered for it to work for the best is an important insight in a sector where so much can be expected on the basis of a CV or title. As one HMI once said to me during an inspection, just because a leader has success in one school, it’s not a given they will have the same in the next.
Green energy
This inaugural episode of the new UK Schools Sustainability Network podcast is a conversation with Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) fellows Paul Edmond and Helen Burge.
I found the discussion interesting, and not just because our primary school is in the middle of re-activating our ECO committee and trying to re-establish our environmental commitment. The timing was also pertinent because many of us are emerging from a pandemic during which we have thrown away much more than we ever have in the way of masks, paper towels, gloves, etc.
The talk about meaningful change only being embedded if you involve everybody, celebrate successes on the way, and consistently re-iterate why you’re doing what you’re doing is very much part of leadership in schools in general. As is (echoing the Opportunity North East project) the need to recognise people’s energy, passion and experience to make headway.
Electrifying science
Staying with sustainability, this cracking Tiny Voices podcast from Toria Bono introduced me to Explorify, a free resource for primary science teachers. The site has a wealth of low-prep activities designed to be accessible no matter the teacher’s subject confidence and ideas to weave sustainability into every science lesson to encourage full pupil participation.
Here, Bono talks with Explorify’s Stacey Reid and Dr Becky Ellis and their focus on science being for everybody is a social justice approach that really resonated with me. Many of our children don’t believe they can be a scientist, and we’re working hard to dispel the notion that ‘it’s all white men in lab coats’. Three women promoting the idea that everybody can be involved in science is invigorating, and their efforts give me hope that we can tackle the perennial problem of too few girls choosing STEM.
Superpowered deep dives
This Twinkl blog by Hannah Mason about Ofsted’s subject deep dives is an empowering read that shows teamwork really does make the dream work. A former English lead, Mason’s piece should give heart to all subject leaders in schools facing inspection, as it focuses on building up subject teams rather than placing all the emphasis on one person to ‘hold’ the deep dive.
The idea that the school’s fate is in your hands during an inspection is a frankly ridiculous amount of pressure to put on anyone, and Mason shows that there are many more benefits than drawbacks to taking a team approach. The team she bases her blog on had representation from different year groups, expertise and (linking again to the notion of energy) people with genuine interest in the subject.
In day-to-day management, the team model spread the load of monitoring and enabled greater room for analysis as their discussions were that much more insightful. And their outcome was impressive, the report glowing.
Which all goes to show, we don’t need a ‘saviour’ model of an amazing leader batting away pressures like some superhero. We need the teachers of today to choose to come back tomorrow, and that means being kind to ourselves and respectful of what each person brings to the table.
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