Welcome to the LCLL Annual Lecture The next 5 years: challenges and opportunities for school leaders Robert Hill
Speaker Respondents
Chair
Robert Hill Sian Carr Russell Hobby Chris Husbands Dan Moynihan Toby Greany
Twitter hashtag #NXT5YEARS
Valley of the 10 peaks
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“This is the best place for those who like to do hiking�
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Challenge 1: Rise in pupil numbers • 650,000 more pupils in schools by 2020 • 500 new free schools
+ Extra places and hours for under 5s?
Source: DfE SFR 23/2014
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• All good schools (including grammars) allowed to expand
Challenge 1: Rise in pupil numbers
+ 600,000 extra places and doubling of forand three and for fourunder year 5s? olds + Extrahours places hours
Source: DfE SFR 23/2014
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Challenge 2: Teacher recruitment • Some areas – e.g. coastal areas – are particularly finding it hard to attract good teachers • A new core ITT framework on the way Source: New entrants to initial teacher training 2008-15, DfE as reported at http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-is-a-teacher-shortage-looming-34990
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Challenge 2: Teacher recruitment
An extra 17,500 maths and physics teachers to be trained over the Parliament
Source: New teacher entrants by subject compared to target (2014-15), DfE as reported at http://theconversation.com/hardevidence-is-a-teacher-shortage-looming-34990
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Challenge 3: Growing the leadership pipeline • Around 10,000 heads, deputies and assistant heads are aged 55 and over* • Filling primary headship vacancies is already a particular challenge • The threat of RI sanctions will further disincentivise applicants • Will the licensing model for leadership development continue? • DfE intervening directly – e.g. commissioning Talented Leaders
*Source: DfE SFR 11/2014 Table 8b
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Challenge 4: Funding constraints • Commitment to protect cash spending per pupil – including the extra pupils in the system • Implies a real-terms cuts to school spending per head of 7% between 2015/16 and 2019/20 • This rises to 9% when increases in National Insurance and pension contributions are factored in… • …and to 12% if the OBR’s assumption for likely growth in public sector earnings is included • Pupil Premium protected ‘at current rates’ but Early Years and 16-19 education not included in the ‘protection’
Source: IFS Briefing Note (BN 168) amended
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• Whither a single funding formula? • What happens if schools start running up huge deficits?
Challenge 5: Curriculum & assessment changes • Baseline assessment for 4 year olds • Resits for those not meeting Level 4 at KS2 • New SATs in 2016 • New curriculum and GCSEs in maths and English from September 2015 and in other subjects from September 2016 • Require all pupils to take Ebacc subjects (linked to compulsory setting?)
• New AS and A level syllabuses taught from September 2015 onwards • Big expansion of apprenticeships
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“Many of the teachers in our study were still developing their classroom enactment of the new curriculum at least 45 years after the introduction of the reform”
Source: Teachers’ experience of science reform, Ryder et al, School Science Review, March 2014
Challenge 6: Accountability measures • Commission on life beyond Levels • Revised Ofsted framework in September 2015 • Progress 8 reporting of GCSE results from 2016 • New GCSE grading structure from 2017 onwards • New performance metrics for 16-19 providers from 2016 • Reporting of multi-academy trust performance • SATs results published in scaled and ranked format • Higher floor standards and RI schools to be taken over
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Discontinuity will make comparisons over time difficult
Challenge 7: Improving attainment...
We are average – not world beaters
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Challenge 7: …including closing the gap
Absolute child poverty increased by 300,000 between 2010/11 and 2012/13…independent experts expect child poverty to increase significantly over the next few years
Source: DfE KS4 headline attainment gap – see https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-the-pupil-premium-narrowing-the-attainment-gap-39601
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Source: State of the Nation 2014: Social Mobility and Child Poverty in Great Britain
Challenge 8: Impact of technology Average digital confidence score
“We hit our peak confidence and understanding of digital communications and technology when we are in our mid-teens; this drops gradually up to our late 50s and then falls rapidly from 60 and beyond� Source: Ofcom, Communications Market Report, August 2014
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Challenge 9: Managing mission creep To do list 1. Improving progress and raising attainment 2. Keeping children safe and preventing sexual exploitation
3. Reducing obesity 4. Ensuring mental wellbeing 5. Promoting British values (and preventing extremism) 6. Developing skills as well as knowledge 7. Providing childcare
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Do we have a shared understanding of what education is for?
Challenge 10: Maturing the self-improving system Who is responsible and accountable for what and how does the interface work? Local authorities Schools Groups of schools (TSAs, MATs federations etc)
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Regional School Commissioner s Regional Teaching School Councils
Different roles being exercised by various players in different parts of the country – LAs still playing a key role (especially in relation to primaries) in many areas
Challenge 10: Maturing the self-improving system
Not that much difference in the distribution of LA and MAT performance but MATs could become the norm
Source: Chris Cook blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32038695
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It’s best to hike as a group
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So… School leaders could over the next five years exercise collaborative leadership to: • Remodel how we train teachers • Redefine professional development • Recast leadership of learning • Develop school-led improvement across the system
• Build a leadership pipeline • Use resources more productively
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…but Only if collaboration is organised to reflect the disciplines of effective partnership by: • Applying scale, structured collaboration, fit governance and hard accountability • Balancing hierarchy and networking • Ensuring all schools are part of an effective school improvement group • Resolving leadership of place, local oversight and orchestration of collaboration
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Remodel how we train teachers Deliver core content covering knowledge, classroom skills and research/learning impact skills over three years
Training year
NQT year
NQT+1 year
• Delivered by HEI/school consortia • School placements potentially to continue over the three years • Rationalisation of routes into teaching Robert Hill Consulting
Redefine professional development (this should be the agenda for a Royal College of Teaching) Directors of T&L or research help orchestrate the model within and across schools
What do we know? • • • • • • • •
Lit reviews Toolkits Reading groups Speakers Teach meets Seminars Training Master classes
What works in our context? • Lesson study • Action research • Pupil-led research • Peer coaching • Classroombased Masters • Online forums and observation
1. New knowledge 2. Improved experience and outcomes for pupils 3. Teachers supported to be learners and so better equipped to teach Evaluate impact, effect size, RCTs
* Adapted from an idea by Sarah Stafford - http://miss-stafford.com
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What’s the impact?
Develop school-led improvement across the system
Performance
Stage 1 Isolation
Effective emerging innovation
Research
Best practice
Stage 2 Initiation
Effective emerging innovation
Effective emerging innovation
Research
Stage 3 Engagement
Best Research practice
Best practice
Schools
Schools School
Source: George Berwick and Challenge Partners
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Time
Stage 4 Integration Effective emerging innovation Research
Best practice
Slide adapted from an idea developed by Joanne Quinn, Three keys to maximising impact, 2015
Recast leadership of learning
• • •
• •
Participate as a learner Focus on precise areas for improvement Orchestrate the work of coaches Use collaborative groups and learning cycles Monitor impact
•
Leading learning within schools
Leading learning across the system
• • •
Share knowledge and learning openly Write up and publish learning from action research Participate in research networks Participate in RCTs
Leading learning between schools
•
• Work to clear priorities that reflect schools’ improvement needs Empower (and employ) middle leaders to move effective practice across schools • Champion and build trust to extend and deepen impact
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Build a leadership pipeline • Partnerships, and particularly MATs, provide the basis for leadership assignments and secondments • Development, standards and accreditation led by a sector led Education Leadership Foundation?
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Use resources more productively The potential for partnerships and MATs to be more efficient is considerable: • Shared posts and roles – particularly at leadership level and in specialist areas • Shared services – HR, EWO, ICT, etc
• Joint procurement • Integrated financial planning and business management • Centralised data analysis • Common performance management and more flexible deployment of staff
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The disciplines of effective partnership‌ Understanding scale 3-5 10-15 30-50 150
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The disciplines of effective partnership‌ Understanding scale 3-5 10-15 30-50 150
Structured collaboration Partnership or MAT
Executive principal
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Executive principal
Board – trustees/directors
The disciplines of effective partnership‌ Understanding scale 3-5 10-15 30-50 150
Structured collaboration Partnership or MAT
Layered and fit governance People of calibre Members
Executive principal
Executive principal
Board – trustees/directors Clear schemes of delegation Local governing bodies Training & development
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The disciplines of effective partnership‌ Understanding scale 3-5
Quality assurance and accountability of all schools in the group
10-15 30-50 150
Structured collaboration Partnership or MAT
Layered and fit governance People of calibre Members
Executive principal
Executive principal
Board – trustees/directors Clear schemes of delegation Local governing bodies Training & development
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‌balancing hierarchy and networking‌ Shared understanding of how to improve teaching and learning Fit governance
Joint practice development
Quality assurance systems
Clear vision and strategy
Integrated support services
Executive leadership
Talent management and leadership development Robert Hill Consulting
High social capital
…ensuring all schools are part of an effective school improvement group… • Expectation over the next five years that all schools have to be part of a local school improvement group • Schools able to choose partners but some steering of the overall process • School improvement groups supported to develop depth and impact • Accreditation of school groups – as per New York?
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…and resolving leadership of place, local oversight and orchestration of collaboration Aspirational and adaptive leadership
Shared moral purpose and trust
• • Pupils
Schools and groups of schools
• • • • •
Adapted from an idea by Aston et al, What works in enabling school improvement? The role of the middle tier, NfER
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Agreed vision & strategy School-to-school support system Deploying expertise Joining up Capacity building Challenge and accountability Intervention in extremis
Leaders with the right skills and behaviours
Middle tier
Relationship mediated though headteacher boards
Public
Need clarification of role and relationship of RSCs vis a vis local authorities
This scenario we should be moving to
Schools increasingly working in hard clusters led by executive leaders‌
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This scenario we should be moving to
Schools increasingly working in hard clusters led by executive leaders‌
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‌as part of a MAT, TSA and/or broader school network(s)that focus on improving teaching and learning
This scenario we should be moving to
Schools increasingly working in hard clusters led by executive leaders‌
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‌as part of a MAT, TSA or broader school network(s) that focus on improving teaching and learning
..as part of a sub region that coordinates supply of pupil places, recruitment and training of teachers, development and, in some cases, deployment of leaders and that oversees school progress
Collaboration could yield a rich harvest… • More even rates of improvement across the country • A sustainable model of school leadership and improvement • A better trained and developed workforce • Rebalancing of the inspection system • Schools leaders shaping the evolution of education policy
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..but will it happen? • Are schools leaders confident enough to drive this agenda? • Are school leaders sufficiently committed to working with each other to improve the system?
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• Or will school leaders wait to be told what to do? • Or will school leaders and MATs retreat into competing baronies?