Outstanding schools don’t have better strategies
Outstanding schools don’t have better strategies
When the school improvement movement began in the 1990s it was hoped that over time most schools would end up focussing on the same approach to improvement – an approach that would be universally validated and accepted. But it did not happen.
However we have had a lack of certainty and this has lead on occasion to several different initiatives being run simultaneously within one school.
And as each new idea comes along, so it leaves in its wake a certain level of resistance, with colleagues proclaiming that they have had enough of initiatives and simply want to get on with the work.
This can lead to a singular problem: how is progress to be made?
One lesson that can be learned is that outstanding schools do not do have more initiatives or better strategies than the vast majority of their less successful counterparts.
Rather they have a culture of making things work – a culture which everyone signs up to. (Of course that doesn’t happen all at once – but once this target is set, then gradually the numbers agreeing to join the approach will rise.)
Soon everything and everyone in the school follows the new established approach and the school develops a resolve to focus and deliver on its main focus and achieve “outstanding” performance.
If we take the example of Hurworth School in County Durham, we can see an example of a school that has done exactly this, and as a result has delivered incredible improvement in everything from student behaviour to GCSE grades. Achieving straight 1s in ALL areas by OfSTED in 2008.
What makes this particularly exciting is that this sort of improvement can be achieved by virtually any school that applies its framework of ideas.
In October there is a conference being organised, which centres totally on the issue of the most effective way of changing a school into an outstanding school.
The approach that is used at Hurworth School, and which is the focus of this conference, is Assertive Mentoring.
Over 1000 schools have already become involved with assertive mentoring and have attended these conferences.
I do hope you will be able to attend.
To book places on this course send a fax to 01277 200019 or an email to nicky.dyer@modellearning.com
Ian Harris & Oliver Caviglioli
Model Learning