SHAW LANE
Int.
How long have you been in the school and what have been the biggest changes
since you’ve been here?
I’m just coming into my third year here. I initially came here – prior to getting
the job – on a senior leadership internship with the previous head teacher and I
was then appointed an assistant head teacher for teaching and learning in the
specialisms and the specialisms were pretty much cut the following week. We
did sort of continue with that for a while but really it wasn’t a key priority. I was
in that role for a year and then very quickly, through issues of staffing, I took
over the post of acting deputy to do the staffing which has been my role now for
two years. Within that as well I’ve been sharing curriculum timetabling and also
supporting inclusion as well. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the situation?
Sharon was the deputy head for inclusion but her husband was killed in a skiing
accident last year so we had that situation and another situation with a senior
leader literally within one week. So when you ask about my role my role has
been quite various. My role at the moment is full deputy and I still have an
assistant head’s role so I’ve still got some of the teaching and learning and then
staffing as well as other things. So it’s been a dynamic role.
Int.
This school was involved in an impact project that Nottingham University did a
few years ago which was looking at schools that had gone from being poor to an
improving school but that research was done when the previous head was in
charge.
It would have been James.
Int.
Can you tell me a little bit about the changes that you’ve seen in the school?
Well the key change has been the expectations and the leadership of SLT, to be
honest with you. It literally was a change of senior leadership team because
prior to that you were dealing with a senior leadership team where the head
teacher didn’t have a laptop so he had absolutely no technology whatsoever and
the timetable was handwritten and remained exactly the same year in and year
out. So there are teachers in this school that, for several years, would have
taught 7X on Monday lesson one for ten years. Everything was in that sort of
state and there was a tannoy system and if the head teacher wanted to speak to
someone he would use that - and it was used. The senior team were very much
always up here and they didn’t go out and about. There was no real monitoring
or observation and SLT would leave prior to the girls to avoid any issues. So SLT
would leave at about three o’clock. So that’s what you were dealing with: you
were dealing with people who were very much working towards their retirement.
James’s philosophy, from what I can gather, was about happiness: he wanted
warmth and a family feeling and happiness and I think, in some respects, he
achieved that but there was nothing there about progress and achievement and
aspiration. And so we came in and basically the first thing we did was address
the technology side. I mean there was no email link between staff. And then we
started planning things strategically because none of that had been going on. So
it was about coming in and addressing some very key issues immediately and
starting to put some strategic thinking into place and insuring that = I mean
staff had no concept of national expectations or teacher’s standards. And when I
came in one of the senior leaders who was here said to me ‘well what could your
role be?’ because they had no concept of teaching and learning. So I was there
to actually raise the conversation about teaching and learning and the strategies
for sharing and all that sort of = and CPD because CPD was just a meeting. So
when you say impact it was just bringing the school up to speed actually at first.
And just with that and with the expectations suddenly raised the results grew in
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SHAW LANE
two years and that was with the same teaching staff because we only had a very
low turnover so you are talking about the very same teachers.
Int.
So the staff is fairly stable then?
Yeah.
Int.
What’s the absence rate like?
Not too bad. Again one of the things Alison has brought in is looking at HR and
absence is something that she is looking at a little bit more formally now and we
have a return to work interview and we have a structure in place whereby if
there are so many days off then the staff are spoken to. However it’s not a
massive issue: we do have some staff – the usual suspects I suppose you would
call them – but it’s not a major problem. I have worked in schools where this
has been much more of an issue.
Int.
And what is the age profile of the staff?
A good variety. I was at a meeting yesterday where they were talking about
London, where I come from – and I would agree with this – that so many
schools there are either composed of teachers in their first three years of
teaching or their last three years of teaching. But we’ve got a good broad mix
here which is very healthy.
Int.
Most of the schools that we’ve visited have a very young staff because they are
much more receptive to change. But were the staff here ready for change?
When we came in I think they were definitely ready and especially some of the
younger staff because they were thinking of leaving because there was nothing
here for them. So they were, I would say, very receptive to change and the fact
that it literally was a clean sweep of out with the old and in with the new so they
knew it was going to happen anyway. The other thing that happened, which
really supported it, was the Ofsted we had in the January. And Ofsted clearly
showed that what we were doing was working and, at the same time, the areas
that we were trying to address needed addressing so it was a fantastic
opportunity for us because there was hard evidence there.
Int.
So Ofsted helped you with implementing the new changes?
Yeah. So they could see very clearly that key issues were being addressed or
were in the process of being addressed and they could see that there had been
an impact on the staff in lesson observations and we got ‘good with some
outstanding features’ and I think that was very fair.
Int.
How long ago was that?
That was two years ago.
Int.
So you will have another visit from Ofsted next January. Would you expect to
get outstanding next time?
It’s been the aim. If they came in today – no. I think we’ve had problems with
the support mechanisms: IT has been a major issue and this MIS system has
just caused chaos and that took one of the deputies out of his role for almost six
months. However we have IT technicians whose skill base is very low – and we
inherited this. So we have an IT issue and I think that has had an impact.
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SHAW LANE
Things like the actual sort of site managers and things like that and I know it
shouldn’t impact on the teaching and learning but if we can’t get a resource into
a classroom because there is a site manager whose back is hurting and he can’t
do his work then, actually, it does. So there are little things like that which have
an impact. We have, recently, got certain people in place who will support
teachers and resources. I just think that there are elements still to do with data
and ease of communication to teachers to help them do their jobs. I’m a great
believer that, in order for someone to do their job, give them the tools but don’t
overburden them because they don’t need to know the reasons why, wherefore
or whatever. I think, at the moment, they are still not having that ease of data
and information and, therefore, they are not addressing those sort of key
aspects. I think, by this time next year, we will be there. I mean if you’ve got
teachers who, two and a half years ago, were literally coming in the door at half
eight and going out the door at quarter past three = I mean there was no
monitoring by anybody; there was no accountability; there was no information
given regarding national expectations. Teachers just got on with what they were
doing. So moving them to where they are thinking now on teaching and learning
and planning and expectations has been a big job but we have almost got there.
Int.
You can change mind sets but you have to change the skill levels as well.
That’s exactly it and I think we have changed the mind set and we’ve upped the
skills that were already really there. These are all professional teachers who
have all been to university and who have all been trained so it’s a case of
bringing it out.
Int.
I wonder if gaining academy status has given you more freedom to address
those things. With the unions, for instance.
I think it will do. We had a situation not so long ago with performance
management and two of the unions were working to rule over the new appraisal
systems which hadn’t fully come in properly but the unions advised members
not to go along with the appraisal: we could review objectives but not set any
more which was a very stupid thing to do because it was a breach of contract
completely and some schools were actually deducting pay. Anyway our
NAS/UWT rep called a meeting and had a vote and none of them are going to do
their targets. So somebody came to see me and said that this is what happened
in this meeting and they asked me what I felt about that and I just said that
anybody who chooses not to do it is in breach of contract and that could result,
in theory, in some pay reduction because you are not fulfilling your job role and,
next year, it could impact on their pay progression. So I left it at that. I sent out
one email about performance management and I kept it low key and the only
person who didn’t put in their target was the NAS/UWT rep but every other
teacher did. She thought that they hadn’t so when she came back after half
term and found out that the whole staff had it was interesting. I mean she’s held
out till this week but she’s just put them in. So when you say unionised – yes
but no. I think some of the older ones are very fixated on workload – which is
heavy.
Int.
I think the unions are even further behind the pace of change because things
are changing so quickly.
I had a discussion with a member of staff about whom we’ve had serious
concerns because we have to address underachievement and we’ve had
complaints from parents about this member of staff. This person cannot do their
role and it’s as simple as that and I was talking to her the other day after a
lesson observation where she got a Grade 4 – she got inadequate – and I knew
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SHAW LANE
it was inadequate when she sent me the lesson plan because the learning
objective wasn’t a learning objective but a teacher activity. At one point in it she
turned round to me and she said that she would be speaking to her union and I
said that’s her right but, at the end of the day, we are being told that we have
to address performance and they can speak to their union but if we are
monitoring correctly and transparently then we are doing our job. I think she
thought it was going to be a threat but it wasn’t.
Int.
The outstanding schools have overcome that mind-set where observation is
seen negatively and it is seen as a support and as a constructive exercise which
will make people better practitioners.
I mean one of the things that I did with teaching and learning when I first came
was I set up a teaching and learning group and we bashed out the policy which
is literally what we’ve done for the past two years and there are key strategies
which I implemented and then put into a time line.
Int.
Are those national policies?
It was influenced a lot by national policies that were happening at the time but
not so much by standards at this point because people here weren’t even talking
about teaching and learning. But one of the key things in it was about sharing
and we have a teaching and learning group and we have a teaching and learning
magazine that we do. We’ve got critical friends; we’ve got the coaching and
mentoring programme; open door fortnight twice a year. So it’s exactly what
you are talking about and what I was trying to do was to actually open it up and
saying that this isn’t just about SLT but it’s about all of us and the middle
leaders now do faculty learning once a term as well. And many of these things,
at first, will make some people anxious but it’s really about everyone supporting
each other. We’re finding that some departments aren’t accessing this on a
regular basis and so my job is to go and support them until they do.
Int.
It changes the mood of the school, doesn’t it, when you can get all departments
pulling together and not competing negatively with each other because if one
department is failing then that will reflect on the whole school.
I think that teachers know when change is just for change’s sake and that’s
where the unions, in some respect, maintain their power because you can
understand the frustrations of a teacher approaching sixty who is being asked to
move this way and that way.
Int.
How do you integrate particular policies into whole school strategy? What is the
process of introducing a new policy into the school?
At the moment we have been fire fighting in terms of new policies because we
came in and there weren’t any or they were from 1975 and they were locked
away in the cupboard. I mean with the teaching and learning one I wanted to
establish a dialogue straight away and I went in with all guns blazing in order to
raise the profile and that was very important to me but some of the policies
have been just updated and it’s just about getting them in place. I think that
next year it will be the difficult bit because we’ve got them in place but we will
have to develop them and that’s where the strategy will come in. When Alison
came in there was no policy on CPD or management or anything like that and
some of the policies she sort of brought from her previous school and updated
but that made them very generic. So, literally, I just updated the performance
management policy and I’ve been able to do pretty much what I’ve done with
the teaching and learning one and it is totally focused on what I have put in
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SHAW LANE
place so it is very focused on what we are doing and the programmes that we
have and so it is not generic.
Int.
So when national standards come in how will that affect it?
Well it’s the teacher’s standards and they are already there. They don’t all link
totally so you’ve got the teacher’s standards here and you’ve got the career
expectations of the city here; you’ve got the new ( ? ? ? ? ) sitting here and
performance management is in the middle and addresses them all. So teacher’s
standards links in a lot with lesson observations and things like that and that is
more and more part of what we’re doing. So with something like my NQTs they
all have a target each half term and our lesson observations are all linked to it.
Career expectations are now being linked to it as well. So you’ve got something
like this and this is the sort of thing that is developing and so it is going to link
in. So you’ve got the standards here and that links in with how they go up the
pay scale. So that is where we’re at and we’ve got everything in place and I’ve
started the next policies and they are going to be the ones that are going to lead
us to being outstanding because they are personal to our school and they are
really about what we do.
Int.
Which policies have had the most impact on the school?
The teaching and learning one, definitely.
Int.
What about the external ones that come from the government?
I think we are literally at the bottom of a really big hill that we are about to
climb and I think the change is coming and I think it really will be linked in with
performance management and performance related pay and I think that is going
to change everything. The whole profession is going to be impacted by it.
Int.
Has that actually been signed off on?
It is coming out on the first of April. However, from the first of September 2013,
schools should have their policy in place. The theory, at the moment, is that if
the starting pay of teachers is, say, twenty-one thousand and the top of the
teachers’ pay scale – so if you are talking about UPS – is about thirty-six then,
within that range, it doesn’t have to go up in stages and you can play about with
it however you like and people won’t just naturally go up year by year. So you
can have people on, say, scale 2 for four years. So that is where your
performance management then comes in and where your teacher’s standards
come in and that’s where the data //
Int.
Are there guidelines to how you might want to structure that?
Like all things at the moment with the government we get a drip feed. We sort
of know what they expect and, along the way, we’ve had lots of different things
that they told us would happen but they haven’t and we’ve had this awful
master teacher standard that we’ve been threatened with but that doesn’t now
seem to be appearing. But the key point is that yes it will come in but we’re
waiting to see how. And the other impact is then how that will result with things
like academies. If we chose, as an academy, to then turn round and say right
we can’t work outside of the higher and lower tier but we can start every
member of staff on twenty-five thousand – which we can do - then will that NQT
come here rather than down the road? So it starts to become like a private
sector business. So that will have the biggest influence.
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SHAW LANE
Int.
But you will want to see higher standards of teaching to reflect those higher
salaries.
But this is where capability as well has been streamlined. But that’s why you’ve
got the value added and our value added is one point three six so anything over
that one means you’re doing very well and our value added is fantastic. I mean
even in a private school if they went in and their value added went negative –
and that could mean that they all got A instead of A Star – then that could
impact on value added. And everyone has to be aware that we live in a very
mixed society. I mean my previous school was a boy’s grammar school and it
had very different needs to a girl’s comprehensive. The other thing is that some
schools that are having staffing issues could use the pay scale to get teachers
in. You can’t get a physics teacher for love or money so will that twenty-one
year old teacher that comes out of university find that they can barter and walk
in at thirty-five thousand. That will start happening. It just totally changes the
nature of not only the pay but the monitoring, the expectations, the valuation,
what you are judged against and accountability – everything.
Int.
And I don’t know what your relations were like with the local authority but //
It wasn’t too bad. But the local authority was just so large so I think they
struggled and that was prior to all the redundancies. One of the reasons that we
became an academy – apart from being able to make our own decisions – was
that the Council was decimated and trying to get someone to answer the phone
was a problem. My NQTs are still accessed by someone from the Council this
year and I’ve been trying, since Monday, to get an answer to one simple
question.
Int.
You’re the third member of staff who has told me that today and that is
probably why so many schools in the city have converted to academies.
But I will be registering my NQTs next year with a teaching school.
Int.
So when initiatives come in what is the process for implementing them? Does
Alison hold a staff meeting //
The trouble is that, at the moment, there is just so much change and so it’s
been a very confusing situation and, like I said before, a lot of it has been drip
fed so you sort of know that something is happening and you are sort of trying
to deal with it and something changes. And that sort of thing has been very
unhelpful. So, on that side of things, Gove has got a lot to answer for in terms
of wasting people’s time. So it hasn’t been a fluid process. Some of it we try to
have teacher sub groups for different things and we try to feed things through
via that. Alison does talk to staff at a morning briefing if something comes
through but, again, with something like the change in the pay structure we will
have to have a formal consultation with staff and we had to do that with the
performance management policy as well and changes to that.
Int.
What about changes to things like the Ofsted framework and those kind of
things?
They are addressed through SLT monitoring this year. We do faculty reviews so
one week, for each year, each faculty has their review and each teacher has a
half hour = what we did was, towards the end of last academic year, we had a
teaching and learning inset day in late June and that was on the Ofsted
framework and we brought in an inspector and he did a whole thing on teaching
and learning. And all the faculty reviews, that we’ve been doing this year, we’ve
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SHAW LANE
told the staff very clearly that it is based on the new framework so it makes
them address the issues and anyone who gets a three goes on a coaching and
mentoring programme which will respond to their needs to support them within
the new framework. So the grading’s that they are getting are not being used
judgementally but to support. We’ve had some experienced members of staff
who have had some problems with this new framework. And this year as well
I’ve brought in a middle leader monitor because middle leaders here had no
accountability and responsibility for leadership. And each half term they have to
monitor certain aspects and we link that in with the criteria so they are learning
as well to be able to mentor. The other thing with management is that all
faculties now produce a faculty training plan and basically what that is is for the
head of faculty to see the professional development objective of their team and
also to link those with their improvement plan for Ofsted and to bring it all in
and to have three objectives themselves for their faculty. So each half term I
give them a two hour CPD session where it is for the faculty to do their own
training and it’s about developing that accountability.
Int.
Would you say that the staff in the school are receptive to change?
They have been but I think they are getting a bit tired now. I think we all are. I
think we need to consolidate now.
Int.
Would you say that the effect of some of the big policies has had an influence on
the job satisfaction on the staff here?
I think that is our role as senior leaders to filter things for them and then give
staff the things that they need to do their jobs. So it is our role to scaffold what
they need effectively and when we do that right I think we do that very well but
sometimes we haven’t got it right.
Int.
Thank you.
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