Four
Leadership and direction: focusing on
what’s important
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Give yourself a mark out of ten for each statement (extracted from LfL)
1. I ensure that we have clear planning frameworks at strategic and operational
levels
2. I help people to see the big picture and where their work fits in
3. I actively promote the involvement and empowerment of staff
4. I help people to focus on what’s important
5. I ensure that staff have time to meet and discuss developments
6. I have created effective channels of communication
7. I encourage staff to have regular conversations with learners about their progress and
next steps
8. I ensure that budgets and resource allocations are open and transparent
9. I ensure that everybody around me is risk-aware
10. I use a systematic approach to solving problems under pressure
Total marks 100
a) What have you learned about your own leadership from the above exercise?
b) What practical steps do you intend to take to improve an area for development?
NB You can repeat this exercise over a period of time and compare your findings.
You could ask another person(s) you trust to complete this exercise for you and compare
the results. You can quickly create your own statements based on what you consider to be
key elements of personal leadership – and use the findings in a variety of ways.
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Four: Leadership and direction: focusing on what’s important
How do we help learners to take control of their own learning?
There has been a major emphasis for some time now on ensuring that learners are
active in their own learning. It is all about giving learners the opportunity to think for
themselves and respond to well thought-out challenges. It is also about teachers and
learners working together to create to create a rich learning environment. Here are some
statements from LfL which were made by young people talking about leadership of their
own learning.
“We lead our own learning when we plan our homework over the week, do independent
research, have target sheets and choose what to put into our record of achievement.
(Primary pupils)
Some of our teachers give us responsibility for organising our groups. In RME we have to
appoint a facilitator, scribe/writer, timekeeper, materials manager and reporter/
spokesperson. (12 year old learner)
I feel that I am a leader of my own learning because I know what I want to achieve from
my education – I have received enough support to do this. (College learner)”
The report also states that,
‘Learners who are helped to engage positively in conversations about:
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How they are doing
Where they want to go; and
What they need to get there
have an increased chance of continuing to learn and strengthening their own leadership
for learning’
QUESTIONS
■ In what ways are your learners given opportunities to take responsibility for their own
learning?
■ Can all learners be given the opportunity to take control of their own learning?
■ What support do learners need to become leaders of their own learning?
■ Can learners lead their own learning in some curriculum areas more than others?
■ Can you think of examples where learners have surprised you in taking forward tasks?
■ Can you each give two examples where you gave learners the opportunity to (a)
engage positively in conversations about how they are doing, (b) where they want to
go, (c) what they need to get there?
■ What have you learned from this exercise? And what are you planning to do as a result?
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Four: Leadership and direction: focusing on what’s important
Four
Leadership and direction: focusing on
what’s important
Enabling staff to work effectively in teams
If we are serious about involving others in the leadership of learning we need to find
ways of getting people together to share ideas. Time always seems to be a scarce
commodity so we should be planning how time can be found to allow key ideas to be
discussed and strategies for change formulated. It is possible that not all staff will want
to have that kind of close involvement and teams have to be created which share
common objectives and allow colleagues to agree on and take on different roles. Schools
will wish to consider how to use collegiate time to enable this.
Important features include:
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The development of key remits for working groups and/or committees.
The identification of clear tasks linked to improvement priorities.
Establishment of SMART targets with associated milestones.
Regular monitoring and progress reporting.
Timetabled opportunities (‘key time’) for staff in e.g. care, health and education to
agree, along with the young person, targets across care, health and education.
These points above are designed to help you think about your own context and to
stimulate reflection, discussion and debate.
QUESTIONS
■ Create a list of strategies you have used to help staff come together to share ideas.
Can you think of any others?
■ What areas of knowledge or skill do you have that you could share with others in
order to improve learning? Can you suggest ways in which these skills might be better
used to the benefit of learners?
■ Think of others that you might need to or would like to work with you. Who might
they be and how might time be found to allow you to work together?
■ Think of any working group that met last session. What did the group achieve? What
impact did the work of the group have on practice? How might you improve the
effectiveness of future groups?
■ How effective are you at preparing people to work in teams? What has helped people
work more effectively as a team member? What kind of training and review has taken
place? What might you do to improve team effectiveness?
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Four: Leadership and direction: focusing on what’s important
Managing risk
Managing change often also means having to manage risk.
Risk can range from planning and carrying out an educational excursion to making
changes in the curriculum or to learning and teaching.
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If you haven’t had to manage learning away from the classroom then taking young
people away for a learning experience does imply the need to manage the risk
involved.
If the ways in which we teach are expected to change there is a risk to the ‘comfort
zone’ in which we teach.
If we are asking learners to take on new and unfamiliar challenges we are asking
them to risk stepping outside their own ‘comfort zones’.
For educational leaders, an awareness of risk and the potential effects it can have is very
important indeed.
The text above is designed to help you think about your own context and to stimulate
reflection, discussion and debate.
QUESTIONS
■ How can you tell if teachers and leaders are operating within a ‘comfort zone’?
■ What are the elements that make up your comfort zone? List them below:
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Now compare your list with the list of a colleague. What are the similarities? What are
differences? What does that outcome tell you?
Think of an example of something from your experience that challenged you to move
out of your comfort zone. What were the risks involved (a) to you and (b) to the
learners?
When do people think it is safe to take a risk?
What does this mean for leading educational change?
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Four: Leadership and direction: focusing on what’s important
Recording sheet
Tick
Leaders matter: exerting influence and making a difference
Vision, values and aims: sharing a common purpose
Leadership and direction: focusing on what’s important
Developing people and partnerships: building leadership capacity
Leadership of change and improvement: achieving results
Pathways for leaders
SECTION
Date
Theme
Key Points Arising
Action Points