Transforming teaching and learning – lessons learnt from the London Challenge Professor David Woods CBE
London – the learning city Context and scale • • 1813 primary schools 311 languages • • 38% English as an 484 secondary schools Additional Language across • London (50% inner London) 144 special schools • • 30% Free School Meals 63,500 teachers across London (43% inner London) – National Average • 43,000 support staff 15% • 32 Local Authorities (10% of London’s children are educated privately)
THE CHALLENGE • Lowest performing region in terms of attainment and achievement. • Low morale and motivation. • High levels of deprivation especially in inner London and high percentages of children with English as an additional language (EAL). • Too few good and outstanding schools - too many schools requiring improvement. • A poverty of expectations in some local communities about what schools can achieve but also amongst some teachers and school leaders. • Professional isolation of schools – not linked to best practice elsewhere in leadership and teaching and learning.
THE PROGRAMME Effective partnership Shared vision, purpose and networking and objectives Making full use of Structural and the performance radical solutions data Strong accountability Rigorous attention to closing gaps in student and school performance A relentless focus System leadership on teaching and and school-to-school learning support PURPOSE, PASSION, PROGRESS AT A PACE
Shared vision, purpose and objectives • Ambition, aspiration, high expectations and moral purpose backed by shared, committed leadership. ‘This great city needs and deserves a truly world -class education system which serves every community and entitles everybody to fulfil their potential’ ‘Make London the world’s leading learning and creative capital city’ ‘Make London increasingly the place where it can be demonstrated that the link between deprivation and worse education outcomes can be broken’ Core objectives • A system focus on improving leadership and teaching and learning. • Raise standards of performance and close attainment gaps. • Create more good and outstanding schools. RAISE THE BAR AND CLOSE THE GAP
Moral Purpose • An unswerving belief in the difference that education can make to children’s life chances. • A compelling and inclusive moral purpose based on equity, social justice and unshakeable principles to be shared and acted upon by everyone. • All London’s children’s and young people deserve the best possible education whatever the realities of race, poverty and other social barriers. • London’s leaders first responsibility is to their own schools but they should also support other schools and children.
The DNA of the London Challenge • A compelling and inclusive moral purpose and strong, shared values, principles and beliefs. • Ambition, aspiration and the highest expectations to drive and secure improvement. • A clear focus on raising standards and closing attainment gaps between groups of pupils and schools so that all children and young people achieve their potential. • Support and challenge through expert leaders, teachers and advisers designing strategies and brokering solutions.
The DNA of the London Challenge • System leadership which involved the best school leaders directly supporting other schools in strengthening leadership and teaching. • Collaboration, partnership working and practitioner networks managing knowledge of teaching and learning and sharing best practice through a range of activities and programmes. • Well mobilised intellectual, social and organisational capital maintaining vision, energy, depth and staying power to produce excellent educational outcomes. • A sense of place, pride, purpose and partnership
Make full use of the data • ‘Confront the brutal facts’ related to standards at pan -London, local authority and individual school levels – Raiseonline. • Forensic tracking and analysis at school and student level using data and evidence to challenge assumptions and expectations. • Benchmarking through families of schools data sets based on prior attainment and deprivation factors with particular attention to ‘trend busting’ schools. (Now Department for Education ‘Similar Schools’) • Challenge, intervention, and support based on data and targets for improvement.
Families of schools Family of schools of similar socio-economic background including prior attainment Rate of improvement over 3 years QUADRANT B QUADRANT A 2 X 1 10 X X 4 3 X 11 X 12 X 5 X X 13 X X Average of all schools 6 14 X X 7 15 16 X X X 8 X 17 X 9 18 X X QUADRANT C QUADRANT D Key Stage 2 or GCSE Key = X: These are 18 schools, numbered 1 - 18
Rigorous attention to closing gaps • Performance of particular groups of children, particularly those on Free School Meals, with English as an additional language, special needs and gender. • Benchmark performance between ‘similar’ schools and ‘similar’ Local Authorities. • Free School Meals link to attainment / sharing of best practice among schools with similar profiles. • Pan London English as an Additional Language programme/ sharing of best practice. • Partnership with agencies re- vulnerable groups [Now the Pupil Premium].
The Challenge DEMOGRAPHICS, DEPRIVATION AND DISADVANTAGE SHOULD NOT BE DESTINY ‘ What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy ’ John Dewey
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL-TO SCHOOL SUPPORT (1) • London Leadership Strategy is run by executive groups of Heads for Heads with expert support from Challenge advisers. • The best schools and leaders extend their reach across other schools so that all schools improve in the system. • Specific partnerships between London Consultant Heads and schools (now National Leaders of Education) and ‘keys to success’ (underperforming) schools – support for leadership, teaching and learning, and other key issues. • A range of programmes to develop leadership capacity with an overall focus on learning partnerships, sharing expertise and best practice to secure the best outcomes for all schools and students. E.g. ‘Securing Good’ and ‘Going for Great’.
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL-TO SCHOOL SUPPORT (2) • A model of partner schools and groups of schools - towards a school led system of improvement. • Evaluation, support and challenge well established within and between schools including peer review. • Leading from the Middle programmes designed and run by the London Institute of Education. • The emergence of Teaching schools (on the model of Teaching Hospitals) and alliances taking responsibility for leading leadership development and school-to-school support.
A Relentless focus on teaching and learning • Pan-London recruitment and retention programmes. • Chartered London Teacher status – morale, motivation & recognition. • Teach First and Teaching Leaders. • The Teaching and Learning syllabus – improving teacher programmes, outstanding teacher programmes – practitioner networks. • Use of system wide expertise e.g. Expert practitioners (Specialist Leaders of Education) – moving knowledge and expertise around . ‘THE QUALITY OF AN EDUCATION SYSTEM CANNOT EXCEED THE QUALITY OF ITS TEACHERS…’
A SYSTEM FOCUS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING A model of inter- school ‘excellence’ visits, learning walks and • innovation exchanges, ‘stop looking down and start looking out’. • An overall focus on collaboration and partnerships in outward-facing schools sharing expertise and best practice – “communities of practice”. • Joint Practice Development in well established within and between schools developing leadership and teaching capacity to raise standards. • The development of Teaching Schools and Alliances to act as hubs to promote teaching and learning – ‘professional learning communities’. LOOKING OUT TO IMPROVE WITHIN
EXCELLENCE VISITS Some Principles and Practices:-
Systemic Leaders of Teaching and Learning (expert practitioners) – Going Deeper and Wider Systemic leaders of teaching and learning share a strong professional motivation to collaborate. • In providing support and challenge they seek reciprocal benefits that leads to self-improvement through observation, evaluation, reflection, joint practice development and the dissemination of best practice. • Systemic leaders help ensure that autonomy does not lead to isolation, diversity does not become a barrier to collaboration and accountability does not simply rely on regulation. • They take professional responsibility for leading, co-ordinating and delivering sustainable School improvement.
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