LT4 ROOM
Developing a
self-improving system
Creating a Self Improving System
Sarah Heesom – Teaching School Director
Rebecca Meredith – NLE & Executive Headteacher
Peter Brown – Academy Principal
Steve Cox – Operations Director
The National Context
National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) have developed a
vision of a self-improving system, ‘where schools and academies take
collective responsibility for leading sustainable school improvement’
In this system, leaders:
• care about and have the skills and capacity to work for the success of
other children beyond their own school
• collaborate with other leads to share and develop common solutions
• make effective use of resources to raise standards
• shape thinking, policy and practice
• will be school and academy based by 2016
The National Context
• David Hargreaves was commissioned in 2010 by NCTL to
explore the conditions necessary to achieve a sustainable,
self-improving school system
• He focused on the development of school clusters and the
associated provision of cluster leaders
• He chose a time horizon of 5 years in his thinking
• These documents have subsequently informed the evolution
of Teaching Schools
The Journey so far…
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Round 2 TSA – Established in May 2012
Grown from an initial 10 schools to 45 schools
Primary, Secondary, Special, Early Years – City & County
Outward looking – public and private sector partners
Everyone contributes
Values-led
School-led
School-led
• Leadership Committee – schools and partners - provides
overall strategy
• Whole Alliance Days – provides themed strategy
• Research & Action Learning Groups
• Working Groups
• NLEs, LLEs, SLEs, OFPs – Building Capacity
• Aspiring Leaders - Talent Management underpins growth
Working Groups
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Focused working groups lead Alliance priorities
Needs-led – gaps identified and priorities agreed by schools
Each group operate within core Alliance values
Each group has Headteacher involvement
Each group agrees outcomes
Each group feeds back to the whole Alliance
Working Groups
Outstanding
Facilitators
Data
The Arts
ICT &
Computing
SEND
School to
School
Support
Primary
Curriculum
Talent
Management
Specialist
Leaders of
Education
Initial
Teacher
Training
Leadership
for Learning
School to School Support
Vision for Teaching School Alliances
Play a fundamental role in a self-sustaining system where:
• Trainees, teachers and leaders learn from the best, supported by a
culture of coaching and mentoring;
• Professional development is school-led and high quality – with
improvement through exposure to excellent practice, through
observation, mentoring, coaching, practice, reflection, sharing with
peers;
• Talent development and distributed leadership are the norm – staff
are encouraged to lead and are given structure and stretching
opportunities to grow and develop;
• Leaders have local knowledge and can identify where key resources
and expertise lie
School to School Support Mission
“As partners we embrace opportunities within
Transform to transfer best practice from our
own organisations to support others. Being a
partner also requires us to maintain the best as
part of our collective endeavour for children”
Values and principles
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Partnership of equals
Trusted relationships between schools
Peer review
Shared and deliberate focus with clear purpose
Shared accountability
Partnership work
A balance between taking from and giving to
Commitment
• Every partner will work collaboratively with
another partner over the course of each year
• We will open ourselves up to honest, supportive
and challenging conversation across the Alliance
about data in our own schools
• We will develop a range of provision so local
leaders can identify and access key resources and
expertise to support school improvement
• We accept that all school to school support will be
quality assured
`
Curriculum
Development
Project
Leaders Programme
- Governance
- Finance
- Leadership
- Workshops
School led System
Headteachers leading
SCHOOL TO
SCHOOL
SUPPORT
ITP/OTP/OFP
OTAP
Quality of Teaching
Data Work Group
Headteachers
Classroom Practitioners
New Members
Governors
Talent Management
Audit
Sharing knowledge &
skills
ITT
- Teach First
- School Direct
SLEs
24 available for
deployment
Aspiring SLEs
Working Groups
SEN, IT
Talent Management
Research and Development
Tiers of Support
Tier 1 (Reactive)
Intervention
Tier 2 (Proactive)
Prevention
Tier 3 (Proactive)
Entitlement
Tier 4 (Proactive)
Sharing Practice
Tier 5 (Proactive)
Supportive & informal
Pilots
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Support + impact of support
Process and protocols
Peer led health checks
2 other pilots in development
Remit of the Working Group
• To continue to develop and oversee the S2S Support
programme
• To determine where support is best deployed
• To question and challenge the appropriateness of
the support brokered
• To receive updates on progress and impact
• To oversee quality assurance
• To capture evidence of impact & progress
Resiliency & Sustainability
“…easy decision to join
[Transform]”
“…it enables us to look outside [our school],
otherwise we can all be a bit parochial and
left behind”
“…very solid values and foundations”
“We feel a lot of trust within the Alliance”
“[Transform] brings good people
together and provides blue skies
thinking as a way of driving school
improvement”
“No-one is there to point the
finger; it’s about support and
doing it together”
“We feel part of something special”
“…feel incredibly strong”
“Headteachers value the peer to peer
support….as we value the knowledge
of our own peers”
“…very solid values and foundations”
“We feel a lot of trust within the Alliance”
“We feel part of something special”
“…very solid values and foundations”
“We feel a lot of trust within the Alliance”
“We feel part of something special”
The establishing and sharing of these
“very solid values and foundations”
engenders trust and reciprocity, and
suggests that the self-sustaining TSA has
longevity built in
“When this is a truly
commercial model, will it
sustain itself?“
“…because it has worked so
well for us, [Transform] should
be around for a long time”
Where now?
• Continual review of values and commitment of members
• Pro-actively growing the system – creating the right
conditions - aspiration
• Talent Management & Succession Planning
• Constantly looking for opportunities
• Pushing ourselves and boundaries
• Reflection built in - all stakeholders
Transform will give you wings!
Developing a
self-improving system