seizing the agenda | get the culture right within a school and anything is possible

From Raising the Floor to Raising the Ceiling

Whole Education 6th Annual Conference

Twitter | @WholeEducation #Seizingtheagenda

Establishing a shared vision for school improvement

Seizing the Agenda

Mark Lovatt – PrincipalCatriona Veide – Assistant [email protected]@lordlawson.org.uk @llobacademy@mlovatt1

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

The significance of CULTURE

For the 15th time since he was sworn in as US president, Barack Obama attempted on Thursday to make some sense of an act of mass gun violence and the laws that allowed it to happen.Nine people had been killed and seven injured in a shooting at an Oregon school before the assailant was shot dead by police.

The president was at turns angry, weary and apparently resigned to the intractable opposition he faces in tightening gun regulation."Somehow this has become routine," he said. "The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine."

American Gun Culture

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34424713

CULTURE is HARD to change

Ron Berger and the Expeditionary Learning movement in the US – specialise in going into existing schools and changing culture

“What’s the code of your building?”

Establishing our Core Principles…

Establishing how we operate round here…

Getting the Culture right in Teaching, Learning and Assessment

• T&L was not the driving force for changes and initiatives at LLoB

• Given ‘allotted’ CPD time• Championed by a small

group of keen staff• No over-arching vision to

align CPD and T&L


• T&L was not the driving force for changes and initiatives at LLoB

• Given ‘allotted’ CPD time• Championed by a small group of

keen staff• No over-arching vision to align CPD

and T&L

• Professionalising Teaching is now one of the core guiding principles for the Academy

• Influenced by a high-profile role in the SLT

• T&L model researched and created• CPD linked to T&L strategies that

will have impact on Academy priorities

Essential Principles of Learning: OECD report (Organisation for Economic, Co-operation and Development)

The Innovative Learning Environments report looks at inspiring cases of innovative learning environments from across the globe, as part of the OECD’s Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) project.

The report responds to the question, How to design a powerful learning environment so that learners can thrive in the 21st Century?

The project has gathered 125 examples from more than 20 countries and carried out detailed case study research on 40 of them. These 40 case studies are of powerful 21st century learning environments that have taken the innovation journey.

Innovative Learning Environments presents a wealth of international material and features a new framework for understanding these learning environments. It argues that a contemporary learning environment should:

•Innovate the elements and dynamics of its "pedagogical core".

•Become a "formative organisation" through strong design strategies with corresponding learning leadership, evaluation and feedback.

•Open up to partnerships to grow social and professional capital, and to sustain renewal and dynamism.

•Promote 21st century effectiveness through the application of the ILE learning principles.

Essential Learning Principles

Principles to guide the development of Learning Environments in the 21st Century• Recognise the learners as its core participants and encourage their active engagement. • Founded on the social nature of learning that actively encourages group work and well-organised co-operative

learning.• Be acutely sensitive to the individual differences among all learners, including their prior knowledge (Personalised

Learning)• Devise programmes that demand hard work and challenge from all without excessive overload, non-accepting of work

that is below standard• Operate with clarity of expectations and deploy assessment strategies consistent with these expectations; there should

be strong emphasis on formative feedback to support learning• Sensitise learners to the process of learning: teach students how to understand their own activity as learners, how to

be successful learners and how to be responsible learners. (Independent Learners)• Strongly promote “horizontal connectedness” across areas of knowledge and subjects as well as to the community and

the wider world. • Meet key information 3 or 4 times in 3 or 4 different ways – practice and rehearsal

• Develop students’ skills in literacy and numeracy in order to equip them for life-long learning in a global community

From Innovative Learning Environments © OECD 2013

Professionalising Teaching

• Team of Learning Coaches• Directed time for PLCs• Coaching Clinic• Behaviour Clinic• Teaching and Learning Group• Bespoke training for NQTs and

Developing Teachers• Learning Bulletin

Your PLC group; Your T&L focus• Developing challenge with more able students in Y9 PE

• Explore impact of assessment and feedback on KS5 students

• Create strategies to develop students’ ability to respond to feedback so they improve and progress

• Develop oracy skills with 10y5 so that oral and written responses become extended and demonstrate a deeper learning

• Embed literacy skills into PBL with Y7 and Y8

• Consider range of questioning strategies with KS3 to develop a culture of challenge in the classroom

Structural Change

• Lengthening of lessons• Wednesday afternoon PD 2.15-4.15pm• Quality Assurance Team• CPD focusing on Teaching and Learning, for example:

• August training for new staff – T&L the Lord Lawson way.• Pupil Premium Conference • Professional Learning Communities day• Challenge in the Classroom

Getting the Culture right - Developing Independent Learner Habits

• Focus was on behaviour • Passivity in students• Teachers working harder

than students

• LLoB 7 – minimum expectations of student learning behaviours in the classroom

• 5Rs + 1 – learning habits that students need to develop: Resilience, Resourceful, Reasoning, Reflective, Responsible

• A2L – Attitude to Learning, reported on 4 times a year

• Reinforces the A2L policy & 5Rs +1

• Places emphasis upon student

• Cultural shift• High expectation• Parental support• Know your

student

Getting the students involved…Flipped RAD Concept and 1:1 tutor interviews

Developing Independent Learner Habits Rewards

• Commendations• Celebrate Success• LLoB Awards evening• Mad Awards• Sports Awards• Blue Badges

Establishing Learner “behaviours” as key to changing student culture


• Influenced and driven by SLT• CPD that is Responsive and Supports Academy priorities• Part of what we do – not an extra or a ‘bolt-on’(allocated time)• Coaching clinics, T&L group, NQT and Developing Teachers

training that focuses on Effective Teacher Behaviours and developing learner habits

• Involves ALL staff e.g. teaching and learning audit• Involve the students• Passion, enthusiasm and resilience

What’s the code of your building?

www.chiswickschool.org

Chiswick School Whole Education Conference

Thursday 12th November 2015


School context and journey

• 11-19 Academy (As comprehensive as one could ask for in every sense) • Vastly improved over the past 8 years• A clear vision for where we want to be and

what we believe is possible• ‘Full International status• A dynamic curriculum and Extra Curricular

offer• A clear objective to be one of the best

schools in the UK


Long term vision, short term planning

The school has moved from ‘short -termism’ to a more strategic process of school improvement.

Our 3-Year strategic plan is available for all to see on our website. We believe that this provides the structure around which we are building a truly exceptional school.

From this document we have produced and agreed a detailed operational plan with Key Performance Indicators to be achieved by the end of each year.


What is different about our approach at Chiswick??

• Whilst many schools are perhaps understandably obsessed with student outcomes (exams). We obsess about the processes and experiences received each day by our students and staff

• We employ outstanding staff members• We train our staff to allow them to

grow and develop• Students are at the very centre of

everything that we do, every decision that we make…..this is their school

• We are concentrating on the ‘bigger picture’ preparing our students for life


What sort of school are we looking to create for our students?

“To build a truly exceptional school that empowers all students to achieve their very best through an emphasis on quality and equity in everything that we do”.


So what are the components that make a truly exceptional school?

Learning• Teachers given the freedom to be

creative with lesson planning• Learning should be an enjoyable

experience• Students at the very centre and fully

involved in their learning (their opinions count)!

• Students experience a range of different learning styles

• Reward the positives• Give students responsibility for managing

their own progress• Learning must link to the world outside

the 4 walls of the classroom



TeachingEffective teaching is the biggest factor in influencing the school’s outcomes, with research from Professor John Hattie showing it to account for around 30 per cent of the variance in school effectiveness

What makes a good teacher?

• Knowledgeable• Passionate about their subject and teaching generally• Build good relationships with students• Plan carefully and delivers exciting lessons• Good classroom control• Good use of assessment and feedback to assist further

progress



Leadership

• Set the vision and direction of the school• Ensure quality and consistency• Set an appropriate curriculum model• ‘Building a team’ ensuring staff cohesion

and whole school development

• Distributed leadership to Middle Management level

• Providing opportunities for staff newer to the profession to take on early responsibilities

• At classroom level



People Management and Development• Getting staffing structures right and

reviewing this regularly• Effective recruitment and

deployment of staff• Building a shared vision so that

everyone can see how they can contribute

• Targeted professional development improving every teacher and contributing to the overall school vision

• Retaining key members of staff through finding new challenges and opportunities


School context and journey

Business Management

Whether we like it or not the school is a business and must be run as such.

In order to allow school leaders to focus on the school’s core business of learning and teaching, a school business manager supervises administration, analyses performance and identifies areas for further improvement



Not forgetting……

• Student Well-Being / Mental Health

• CEIAG• IT• Full International School

status• Emphasis on Sports / PE • Focus on The Arts /

Performance• Extra-Curricular• A strong emphasis on the

environment


In summary

We are proud over the progress made over the last 8 years, but we are far from complacent.

We know where we want to be. The journey is a difficult one but the destination is one worth reaching!