ELM February 2015

EDUCATION LEADER AND MANAGER

Representing leaders and managers in education P O L I CY

PROFILE

BIG BUDGET CUT DECISIONS MADE AFTER ELECTION page 6

GOVERNORHEADTEACHER RELATIONSHIPS page 14

INSPECTIONS

FINDING YOUR OWN CURRICULUM page 18

FEBRUARY 2015 @ATL_AMiE

F E AT U R E

THE ART OF GOOD LEADERSHIP

HOW CAN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE MANAGERS ‘DO THE RIGHT THING’ WHEN FACED WITH EXTERNAL DEMANDS? page 10

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Exciting Opportunities for teachers to Improve Specification knowledge Gain Insight of National Standards Inspire fresh teaching ideas Develop CPD Pearson is recruiting A Level and GCSE Examiners and Moderators across various subjects. See a full list of our vacancies and apply online: www.edexcel.com/aa-recruitment

If you need any further information please contact us at: aaresourcing@pearson.com

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ELM / FEBRUARY 2015

INSIDE 4

Education news including Ofsted and NEETs

6

Policy matters: postelection budget cuts

8

The view from Northern Ireland and Wales

10

Doing the right thing: the art of good leadership

14

A balance: headteachers and chairs of governors

17 18 20 22

The latest from AMiE

Finding your curriculum

Q&A: unfair dismissal

Headteacher standards

ELM is the magazine from ATL, 7 Northumberland Street, London WC2N 5RD Tel 020 7930 6441 Fax 020 7930 1359 Email report@atl.org.uk or membership@atl.org.uk Website www.atl.org.uk Editor Paul Stanistreet ELM is produced and designed for ATL by Think Publishing, The Pall Mall Deposit, 124-128 Barlby Road, London W10 6BL Tel 020 8962 3020 Email info@thinkpublishing.co.uk

Sub-editors Sarah Evans, Rachel Kurzfield Art director Darren Endicott Designer Alix Thomazi Advertising sales Michael Coulsey, 020 8962 3020 Account manager Kieran Paul Managing director Polly Arnold ATL accepts no liability for any insert, display or classified advertisement included in this publication. While every reasonable care is taken to ensure that all advertisers are reliable and reputable, ATL can give no assurance that they will

fulfil their obligation under all circumstances.

The views expressed in articles in ELM are the contributors’ own and do not necessarily reflect ATL policy.

Official policy statements issued on behalf of ATL are indicated as such. All rights reserved. Material contained in this publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior permission of ATL. Cover: Marek Haiduk

PETER PENDLE AMiE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Welcome The education secretary unveiled a new set of national standards of excellence for headteachers last month, which represent an aspirational benchmark for good leadership. On the whole, the standards are welcome – particularly their emphasis on moral purpose. But it is important to take account of the context in which they appear; one in which school leaders are pressed ever harder to meet targets and comply with an overbearing system of inspection – demands they must struggle not to hand down to already overloaded teaching staff. At the same time, many leaders are likely to face belt-tightening in the coming parliament, with expectations unlikely to decline in line with resources.

The level of scrutiny under which leaders must work will only increase. As Nicky Morgan said recently, while league tables and Ofsted are a permanent part of the accountability landscape, the injection of more choice and competition into the system will only increase the demand for more, and different, kinds of information by which schools can be held to account.

Good leadership is critical in such an environment. As headteacher Robin Bevan states in our cover feature, a secure value base, agreed by the school community, is an essential anchor amid “unrelenting demands”. Cherry Orchard Primary School in Worcester, the focus of this issue’s Masterclass, is an outstanding example of a school that has looked not to government, but to its own pupils, parents, staff and governors in creating curriculum aims in which everyone is invested. Collaboration has been key in developing a culture characterised by trust, creativity and dialogue. It must be at the heart of our moral purpose as educators. Those leaders who retain that sense of moral purpose will be the best equipped to resist pressures of funding and inspection, and keep their minds on the core business of education: teaching and learning.

GET IN TOUCH

www.facebook.com/atlunion @atl_amie @DavidG_amie

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NEED TO KNOW

NEWS IN BRIEF

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST EDUCATION SECTOR NEWS AND ISSUES

IMPACT OF NEET SCHEMES IS ‘POORLY UNDERSTOOD’ THE DEPARTMENT for Education (DfE) has ‘little understanding’ of the impact of schemes intended to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), according to a Public Accounts Committee report.

The cross-party committee said that although the number of 16- to 19-year-old NEETs was falling, many could still be ‘off the radar’ and the UK compared poorly to other developed countries when it came to reducing NEET numbers.

New rules requiring young people to stay in education and training until the age of 18 was the main reason for the fall in numbers, but it was difficult to ascertain whether other interventions, such as careers advice, had been effective, the report said.

Government spending on 16- to 18-year-olds has fallen by eight per cent in real terms since 2010-11, and in September 2014 ministers reduced the basic rate of annual funding for

18-year-olds from £4,000 to £3,300 per person.

‘With scare resources it is vital to understand whether and which initiatives are most effective and why,’ the report said. ‘Yet, the DfE has little understanding of the impact of existing initiatives and programmes.’

The committee also raised concerns about ‘patchy’ careers advice in schools, a lack of local authority support for travel costs for young people, and the ‘disappointing’ fall in the number of apprentices aged between 16 and 18.

The report urges the government to evaluate the ‘relative effectiveness’ of its programmes and to use the results to shape future decisions about how to engage hard-to-reach young people.

It also calls on the DfE to set out how it will help young people once the Youth Contract scheme, which targets just this group of young people, ends in 2016.

NEW STANDARDS FOR SCHOOL LEADERS EDUCATION SECRETARY Nicky Morgan has unveiled new ‘aspirational standards of excellence’ for headteachers in England.

The revised professional standards are designed ‘to empower heads, drive aspiration, promote excellence and reflect the greater decision-making powers heads now enjoy’. School governors are encouraged to use them to inform headteachers’ appraisals.

The standards set out the skills, knowledge and behaviour headteachers should aspire to, including ‘raising the bar for all pupils, overcoming disadvantage and instilling a sense of accountability in staff for the impact of their work on pupils’ success’.

Headteachers should also aspire to boost teacher quality ‘through high-level training and sustained professional development’.

3 MORE INFO The revised standards are available in full here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ national-standards-of-excellence-for-headteachers

OFSTED TO EXAMINE ACADEMY CHAINS Ofsted will be allowed to examine the work of groups running chains of academies but there will be no formal extension of its inspection powers, according to a letter sent by education secretary Nicky Morgan to chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw.

In the letter, the education

secretary said Ofsted would be able to publish information about the performance of multi-academy trusts (MATs) but that it could not give an overall ‘binary judgement’ as to whether a trust is effective.

Ms Morgan said that Ofsted should continue conducting ‘batch’ inspections of

academies that are run by the same MAT. The starting point should be the inspection of individual academies, the letter says, with the focus on a MAT flowing from this, considering ‘the outcomes being achieved by their academies and the views of the academies on the

quality of support from the MAT’. Ofsted would be expected to meet staff from the MAT following these inspections to discuss the evidence gathered and consider further evidence.

While the focus must remain on the academies, Ms Morgan said, the dialogue ‘should

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NEED TO KNOW

‘DISQUALIFICATION BY ASSOCIATION’ CONTINUES

TO CONFUSE

DEPARTMENT FOR Education (DfE) guidance on ‘disqualification by association’ continues to cause confusion.

The DfE guidance on the law – which can be used to disqualify school staff who live with someone convicted of a violent or sexual crime – was described as ‘unclear’ when it was published in October last year.

Since the guidance was published, many schools and local authorities have been approaching teachers and

other school staff to seek information about whether people living in their households have previous convictions or cautions.

Ofsted has admitted that more than half of workers who applied for a waiver to ‘disqualification by association’ rules are still waiting to hear the outcome of the results.

In early February, 147 of the 259 applications from school staff were still under consideration. So far just 17 have been approved.

SECTOR EXPERTS TO DEVELOP ITT FRAMEWORK THE GOVERNMENT has backed calls in a review of teacher training in England for future training to be designed by an independent body.

The review, led by Sir Andrew Carter, was commissioned to examine initial teacher training (ITT), define effective practice and make recommendations for improving current systems. Its first recommendation calls on the Department for Education to commission a ‘sector body’ to create a framework describing what trainee teachers will be taught on future courses.

In response, education secretary Nicky Morgan has agreed to commission an independent working group, made up of ‘expert representatives’ from the sector.

3 MORE INFO Download the review here: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/396391/Carter_Review_16012015.pdf

include consideration of achievement and other relevant data for all of the MAT’s academies’.

Prior to publication, the MAT ‘should be provided with the opportunity to comment on the conclusions arising from the inspections’, with their response reflected in the

published letter. The letter follows discussion between the Department for Education and Ofsted over whether the inspectorate should be given extra rights to inspect academy chains. Ofsted welcomed the letter, saying the plans would ‘ensure trusts are held accountable’.

AMIE COUNCIL ELECTIONS 2015 From April, AMiE will begin the process of seeking nominations from members to join its council.

AMiE’s council is the essential forum that ensures members’ views and concerns are communicated to its professional staff.

Through discussion and debate at council, members’ views inform strategy, policy decisions and direction, as well as responses to government plans and consultations.

The council is also an excellent means of sharing the insights, good practice and challenges experienced by colleagues in other schools and colleges. The opportunity to share ideas with fellow professionals and to debate strategic thinking and solutions at AMiE council meetings is highly valued by the council members.

Nominations for council must be sent to the returning officer by 1 May 2015. Voting papers are then circulated to members, with the ballot closing on 12 June.

Successful candidates will take up office on 1 September 2015.

Nomination forms will be circulated with the next edition of ELM.

3 MORE INFO To find out more about AMiE’s council, contact Julia Pearson, AMiE’s administration manager, on 01858 411542 or by email at jpearson@amie.atl.org.uk.

POLITICAL PRESSURE ‘DAMAGING SCHOOLS’ SHORT-TERM interference and political ‘firefighting’ are damaging efforts to improve England’s education system, according to former Ofsted chief inspector of schools Sir David Bell.

Sir David, who is vicechancellor of Reading University, used a speech to the Association of Science Education’s annual conference to warn that constant “top-down tinkering and intervention” in the schools sector was a significant barrier to raising standards. He called for an independent body to be set up to direct long-term strategy for schools and to drive national curriculum and testing policy.

It was, he said, a “ridiculous situation” for schools policy to be based on “ministerial whims” and shaped by the electoral cycle. The new body could create a qualifications system that supported the changing needs of the economy, and this, he suggested, would include replacing A-levels with a “broader and deeper” baccalaureate-style exam system – an idea proposed by another former chief inspector, Sir Mike Tomlinson, a decade ago and rejected by Tony Blair’s Labour government.

Sir David also called on the government to give schools greater local autonomy and to trust frontline teachers, enabling rather than directing them. He argued that “monolithic” Whitehall departments are too remote from schools to be costeffective or efficient in managing the system.

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POLICY MATTERS

HARD TIMES With austerity set to deepen, the big decisions about what to cut will be left until after the election WORDS PAUL STANISTREET

A

s the main parties polish up their manifesto promises ahead of the General Election, one thing is clear: whichever party holds the balance of power come May, austerity will continue, with spending reductions biting ever deeper into an already beleaguered education sector.

All the main parties support ‘cutting the deficit’ and ‘balancing the books’ – they differ only on timescale. There is little challenge to this consensus, despite the damage austerity politics has caused in parts of the public sector.

In the library sector, for example, 324 libraries have closed, with many more under threat due to a 40% cut in local government funding since 2010, while part-time HE has seen a 46% decline in students after the coalition’s HE reforms.

FE has also seen devastating cuts, particularly to adult skills – with Professor Ewart Keep projecting a total 43% reduction in funding between 2010 and 2018. The schools sector, while enjoying relative stability up till now, is also facing a budgetary black hole, with pupil numbers set to rise and public spending more likely to fall than to rise (bit.ly/schools-budget-cuts).

The chancellor’s autumn statement did little to offset the prevailing sense

of gloom and uncertainty in the schools and FE sectors. Some of the measures announced will have caught the attention of people working in education – the plan to remove employers’ National Insurance (NI) for apprentices under the age of 25 and the £20m investment in improving careers advice, in particular.

But the announcements were, to a large extent, overshadowed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) stark warnings of the need for ‘colossal’ cuts following the General Election (www.bbc.co.uk/ news/business-30327717). Although £35bn of cuts have been made thus far, £55bn more are still to come, the IFS warned. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, public spending as a percentage of GDP will fall to 35.2% by 2019–20, its lowest level since the 1930s, with a further one million public sector jobs set to go as a result.

Education cuts The government’s February 2014 skills funding statement included a 19% cut to the adult skills budget by 2015-16, meaning an overall fall in adult skills funding from £2.8bn in 2010-11 to £2bn in 2015-16. At the same time, the Department for Education (DfE) has reduced spending on 16- to 18-year-olds from £7.7bn in 2009-10 to £7bn in

2013–14, with a drastic 17.5% cut to the funding rate for 18-year-olds from last September. While funding stability for 16- to 18-year-olds is expected in 2015, further cuts are expected in adult skills.

Perversely, as Vince Cable said last year, these outcomes represent something of a ‘result’ for the sector.

In 2010, he blocked a move to withdraw all state funding from FE – a step, civil servants told him, ‘nobody will really notice’ (www.bbc.co.uk/news/ukpolitics-29496475).

Schools funding for four to 16-yearolds has so far been ringfenced, in line with undertakings made by George Osborne in 2010, but, perhaps inevitably, given the scale of the cuts to come – the Treasury has scheduled an average 17% real-terms reduction in spending across government departments between 2015 and 2019 – the autumn statement contained no assurances to protect DfE funding after the election, and, as the Prime Minister has since confirmed, the government is prepared to protect it only in cash terms.

Even if the ringfence remains in some form, the increase in pupil numbers and the rising cost of pension and NI contributions mean that schools will face tough decisions. The Association of Colleges estimates the DfE will face a

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POLICY MATTERS

budget shortfall after 2015 – from £600m in 2015–16 to £4.6bn by 2018–19 – due to the rising school-age population.

If the worst fears of school leaders are realised and school budgets are not protected, the challenge will become acute. Schools, which have enjoyed relative stability up to now, will occupy the unprotected world familiar to college leaders who have struggled to maintain their organisations under the current administration.

Difficult decisions There is no doubt that school and college leaders will have to make difficult decisions about what to prioritise and how. College leaders have already had to make stark choices as to which areas of provision to retain and which to let go.

In schools, leaders and managers are likely to have to look at reducing staffing and making shrinking resources stretch further, while coping with continuing public-sector pay restraint, which looks set to continue at least until Treasury books are balanced. These factors, combined with an overbearing accountability regime and ever-increasing political expectations of education and its role

continuing drive to improve efficiency and raise standards.

The chancellor’s autumn statement pledged support for apprenticeships and a renewed focus on careers advice for adults and young people. Attracting ‘top graduates’ to teaching, and raising standards, particularly in childhood literacy and numeracy, will remain priorities, but significant improvements will be difficult given Tory plans to cut taxes. Labour’s draft education manifesto, adopted at its conference in September, pledged to raise the standards of all schools – not just free schools – to make sure every permanent teacher is qualified, and to introduce ‘robust local oversight’. It is also committed to focusing on vocational education, in schools and colleges, with a new ‘gold standard’ technical baccalaureate for 16- to 19-year-olds, technical degrees and apprenticeships.

The Liberal Democrats have promised to protect the education budget in the next parliament, ‘from cradle to college’, and to ensure every child is taught a core curriculum by a qualified teacher.

Whether the Liberal Democrats will be in a position to influence the next government’s policy remains to be seen.

ILLUSTRATION: IMAGESOURCE

“IF THE WORST FEARS OF SCHOOL LEADERS ARE REALISED AND SCHOOL BUDGETS ARE NOT PROTECTED, THE CHALLENGE WILL BECOME ACUTE.” in promoting social mobility and economic renewal, are likely to affect not only the morale of leaders and teachers, but recruitment too, inevitably impacting on the quality of teaching and learning.

In such a challenging environment it can be difficult for leaders to keep the core business of educators at the forefront, and to see beyond the short-term pressures associated with funding and inspection. The job is further complicated by a political climate in which long-term clarity is hard to come by. Few elections have been harder to call and the main parties are unlikely to talk with much candour about which bit of the education system they plan to cut. Expect more reform, including continuing reform to qualifications, particularly at the start of the new parliament, and heightened financial pressure, combined with a

Much of this is encouraging and positive, but manifesto pledges are not to be taken too literally, and delivery will depend, in part, on whether the election delivers a majority administration, a coalition or a minority government.

The unpredictability of contemporary politics makes the outcome of the election and the make-up of the next parliament difficult to call. The one certainty is that the hard times will continue, with deficit reduction remaining at the heart of political debate. The big decisions about cuts will wait until after the election.

It is not too late to impress upon your MP ahead of the election the need for continued investment in education to help reinvigorate the country’s economy. We believe that further cuts to education would not only blight the life prospects of learners, but will also be detrimental to the nation as a whole.

WHAT THE THREE MAIN PARTIES WILL PROMISE Conservatives The Conservatives will pledge to: • continue its support for apprenticeships, with three million new apprenticeships for young people promised by the end of the next parliament; • boost careers advice with a £20m investment announced in the autumn statement; • strengthen English, maths and science, with a focus on improving childhood literacy and numeracy; and • reduce the burden on teachers, particularly workload, so they can spend more time in the classroom.

Expect a continuing focus on choice, with more academies and free schools – viewed as the key to improving standards – with some perhaps run for profit and greater links with maintained schools.

Labour Labour has pledged to: • raise the standards of all schools, and not just free schools, ensuring every permanent teacher is qualified and introducing ‘robust local oversight’; • support teachers’ CPD, with action on excessive workload and an ‘intelligent’ inspection regime; • introduce a new ‘gold standard’ technical baccalaureate for 16- to 19-year-olds, as part of a more rigorous and supportive approach to vocational qualifications; • develop new technical degrees as ‘the pinnacle of the new vocational route; and • increase the number of apprenticeships.

Expect vocational education to play a major part in Labour thinking, with a big push to appeal to the ‘50% of young people who don’t go to university’ and their parents.

Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats’ pre-election manifesto promises to: • protect the full education budget in the next parliament, ‘from cradle to college’, including early years, apprenticeships, and sixth form and FE colleges; • ensure every child is taught a core curriculum by a properly qualified teacher; • revolutionise early years education with a qualified teacher in every nursery; and • provide bus discounts for under-21s who find the cost of travel to college or work prohibitive.

Expect a strongly education-friendly election campaign, with a big emphasis on the party’s commitment to protecting the education budget and on the role of education in creating a fair society.

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COMMENT: NORTHERN IRELAND

Building skills for the future CODING CLUBS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

COLUMNIST MARK LANGHAMMER DIRECTOR OF ATL NORTHERN IRELAND

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3 MORE INFORMATION If you would like to set up a Dojo in your school, college or university visit: https://coderdojo.com/ organise-a-dojo/ or for more information about the project go to https:// coderdojo.com or email info@coderdojo.com.

echnology surrounds us and touches almost everything we do. It is changing the way we live and perceive the world, at a pace we have never experienced before. Britain has been at the forefront of many of these innovations, developing much of the key technology behind the computing and internet revolutions. Yet, somewhere along the road, we seem to have lost our way. Too much of our computing education has focused on computer literacy – how to use Word documents or spreadsheets – rather than computer science, ie how to code and create computer programs.

This has begun to change, with a range of formal and informal programmes being offered in schools and colleges, teaching young people the skills employers in the technology industry say they need. Belfast Metropolitan College is one of 16 Northern Ireland-based outlets of CoderDojo, a global community of free, not-for-profit, volunteerled coding clubs for young people. CoderDojo Belfast was founded by Belfast Met in April 2012, in association with Momentum, the membership body representing Northern Ireland’s digital sector.

Northern Ireland is not unique. Clubs (or ‘dojos’) run weekly in countries around the world, giving young people between the ages of seven and 17 the opportunity to learn to develop computer code,

websites, applications, programs and games, and to explore technology. In addition, participants benefit from being involved in a highly social community and a fun, collaborative, high-energy learning environment. They also develop life skills such as creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, teamwork and leadership.

Dojos come in all different shapes and sizes, and can be based in schools, colleges, universities, community centres, libraries or business offices.

Whatever the setting, their aim is to be inclusive and to give every child in their area a chance to learn to code. Each dojo is led by a dedicated and passionate ‘champion’. A CoderDojo champion is a volunteer organiser who takes charge of setting up, running and maintaining a dojo and who, following the CoderDojo ethos, supports young people to learn computer programming for free.

Champions do not necessarily have to be able to program, but they should possess the skills required to bring together technical mentors and supporters and to arrange a venue to run the dojo.

Dr Jonathan Heggarty, champion of the Belfast Metropolitan College dojo, describes CoderDojo as “a fun and skills-intensive workshop for young people that follows Belfast Met’s ethos of lifelong, holistic learning where skills are taught at a young age, holding them in good stead in the future technology job market. The classes are fun, practical and create a greater understanding of computers, games and devices”.

Global and borderless, CoderDojo supports the community in sharing learning experiences, resources and knowledge, and gives attendees, mentors and parents a sense of community. The vision is for every young person to have the opportunity to build technology skills, learn to code and be creative in a safe, social environment.

There are now more than 500 dojos in 50 countries around the world, ranging from the UK and Ireland to Nigeria, Japan and the US. Supporting a network of over 500 dojos is impressive enough, but CoderDojo aims to rapidly grow its global open-source volunteer network of affiliated coding clubs, while sustaining the existing ones. Ultimately, the goal is to give every young person in the world the opportunities young people at Belfast Met are enjoying.

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COMMENT: WALES

Standing up for fairness FORCING A PAY DECISION RETHINK IN WALES

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ollegesWales’ reversal of its decision not to recommend a pay increase for the 2014-15 academic year is a victory for common sense and a vindication of AMiE and ATL members’ willingness to speak up.

These are difficult times for further education colleges, for leaders and for teachers. Most FE staff have suffered significant real-terms cuts to their pay over the past five or six years. It’s tough at the chalkface and it is a big part of a union’s role to ensure its members’ skills and hard work are not overlooked when it comes to pay.

Unions take a lot of stick in the media, but their role in negotiating members’ pay is critical. In Wales, with FE facing budget cuts across the board, pay negotiations have been particularly tough.

Annual negotiations on FE pay in Wales are conducted at a national level between AMiE/ATL and other unions (all of the recognised unions in the sector are jointly represented) and the national employers’ body CollegesWales. Every year the unions submit a joint pay claim covering all staff in FE. The claim for 2014-15 was for an increase of three per cent, or £1,000, whichever was greater.

We have become used to these claims not being met in full. However, despite this, FE teacher pay has kept pace with that of teachers in maintained schools – thanks mainly to a Welsh government rule which means that if colleges fail to maintain this parity then the education minister can choose to claw back funding.

With school teachers in Wales set to be awarded a one per cent pay rise for the year we were dismayed when CollegesWales responded that it ‘was unable to recommend an additional general increase in pay for staff in 2014-15 due to financial pressures’.

Although details of the budget settlement for the 2015-16 year had not been released, it was widely expected that there would be significant cuts for the sector, affecting every college in Wales.

Nevertheless, the decision was a surprise. The union group had already committed to working jointly with CollegesWales to lobby the Welsh government for an improved budget settlement for

COLUMNIST ROBERT GODDARD IS AN ATL CYMRU ORGANISER the FE sector, and a one per cent pay increase for 2014-15 had already been budgeted for by all colleges. We felt CollegesWales’ reasons for not recommending a pay increase simply did not stack up – a feeling that became stronger when two colleges announced that they would offer a one per cent pay increase to all staff.

Taking a ballot on strike action is never an easy decision. The unions held extensive consultations with their members and discussed the matter in depth before deciding, at the end of 2014, to ballot all members working in FE colleges in Wales.

The majority of AMiE/ATL members who voted were in favour of taking strike action. Shortly after, the unions received formal confirmation that the CollegesWales board was now recommending a pay rise of one per cent. Members of AMiE/ATL have since had the opportunity to vote on whether to accept the offer. The majority – 95.52% – voted in favour.

While FE staff pay is still too low, the principle of pay parity with schools has been observed. It also shows the important role unions can play in such negotiations and what we can achieve when members speak up with a united voice and show they are willing to fight for fairness. It is highly unlikely that CollegesWales would have reversed its initial recommendation had it not been for the threat of strike action and a combination of hard negotiations and political pressure.

To get more involved in your union, speak to your workplace rep or go to: www.amie.atl.org.uk.

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FEATURE

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FEATURE

Multiple and sometimes conflicting external demands make it increasingly difficult for school and college leaders and managers to ‘do the right thing’.

What does good leadership look like in challenging times?

WORDS PAUL STANISTREET ILLUSTRATION MAREK HAIDUK

These are challenging times for education. School and college leaders are caught up in a vortex of rapid and complex change and seemingly unending policy reform. At the same time, they are under pressure to meet stretching targets for exam results and over-burdened by a disproportionate and demanding system of inspection. No matter what context school and college leaders work in, says Dr Robin Bevan, headteacher at Southend High School for Boys, they face “an unrelenting, rolling wave of demands and pressures, interruptions and expectations.”

All of this is, of course, intensified by the continuing climate of financial constraint. FE, which does not enjoy the protection so far afforded to the schools sector, has been the scene of massive and often destabilising cuts, projected, by Professor Ewart Keep, to total 43% overall by 2018. Increasing pupil numbers and pension costs will continue to stretch the schools budget, even if the ringfence remains after the election. If it does not, school leaders will be challenged to do still more with diminishing resources.

Unsurprisingly, the leadership of education is under scrutiny, particularly in the light of the avalanche of teacher responses – representing some 10% of the profession – to the Department for Education’s workload inquiry. In some

institutions, external pressures have led to a distortion in values and the emergence of a command-and-control culture with leaders and managers spending their time monitoring teacher performance rather than striving to create a culture in which effective teaching and learning can thrive. Some leaders and managers interpret ‘doing the right thing’ to mean doing only the things they need to do in order to meet exam targets and satisfy the inspection system.

“The status given to inspection outcomes and the accountability framework has distorted the priorities of many schools and colleges,” Bevan acknowledges. “Strong academic results and Ofsted-compliant systems are a good thing but they are not everything.

Many schools and colleges now conduct self-evaluation with reference only to these factors. At my school, we assess our outcomes and our processes against Stephen Covey’s dimensions of trust, Robert Marzano’s nine characteristics of a high-performing school and our own internal vision statement, and leave it to others to decide whether or not we fulfil their ever-changing criteria. There is a risk that we will shortly have a generation of school and college leaders who know no different than a form of education with an imposed curriculum,

outcomes measured only by exam grades and school culture framed solely with reference to the latest Ofsted diktats.”

The nature of the challenge facing education leaders was highlighted by the response elicited by a letter sent by Rachel Tomlinson, headteacher at Barrowford Primary School in Nelson, Lancashire, with the school’s Year 6 pupils’ exam results. The letter told pupils to enjoy their results, but noted that ‘there are many ways of being smart’ besides performing well in exams. The pupils were told that their school was proud of them and the commitment they had demonstrated, and were reminded that “tests do not always assess all of what it is that makes each of you special and unique”. Those who set the tests, it said, do not know “you can be trustworthy, kind or thoughtful, and that you try, every day, to be your very best”.

Ethical dimensions The letter did not, however, attract universal praise as a fine example of good and thoughtful leadership – putting the needs of learners first and treating children as rounded, complex human beings whose capabilities can be measured in a variety of ways. Instead, it drew astonishing levels of vitriol from certain quarters. The Campaign for Real FEBRUARY 2015 | ELM 11

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F E AT U R E

Education attacked the school for using the letter as a ‘political platform’ to undermine national curriculum tests; while a Daily Mail columnist in a TV interview called the letter ‘irresponsible’ in suggesting that broader activities were of equal importance to academic success.

The school ought instead to have stressed the pivotal importance of exam results.

The furore caused by the letter highlights the pressures leaders are under and the external friction that can be created when they try to ‘do the right thing’. There was support for the broader view taken by the school from Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, who argued that there was more to education than “jostling for position in a league table” and that too great a focus on exam results could eclipse an all-round education and fail to prepare learners for the modern workplace. Many leaders, in all parts of the school and further education sectors, will recognise and support these sentiments. Others, perhaps, will shake their heads at the range of competing pressures they encounter when it comes to doing the right thing as leaders. Leaders face a dilemma. How can they behave ethically in a context which is not ethically attuned and stresses grades and performance measures above a more rounded approach to education, and how can they create a culture of trust and collaboration when external pressure can seem, at times, overwhelming?

Communicating well with staff and involving them in decision-making are critical factors in creating a culture in which effective teaching and learning can flourish. This is particularly true during periods of externally imposed change, as Jill Westerman, principal of Northern College, explains. “There

MORAL PERFORMANCE The education sector is not alone in struggling through the moral maze.

Research by the Chartered Management Institute, published as The MoralDNA of Performance, found that: • Around a third of managers rate their organisations as mediocre or worse in ethical behaviour.

• Junior managers rate the ethical standards of their organisations as significantly lower than their senior managers.

• Managers in growing organisations score higher in ethical behaviour than their peers in declining ones.

is a balance between making sure staff are kept well informed of the challenges and the possible negative impacts, while also keeping alive a sense of agency: there are solutions and everyone can play a part in ensuring that the college moves forward positively. Leaders need to support staff to face a disequilibrium and uncertainty while remaining positive about the future – not an easy balance.

“Principals need to listen and engage in dialogue with staff and, crucially, give people the space to experiment. There isn’t one right path or vision and in difficult times it becomes important to follow a number of different paths simultaneously, being aware that some will be dead ends. People want a leader to present a clear vision and path to the future: resisting this call isn’t easy but I think it’s important – acknowledging uncertainty in volatile times is vital. At the same time, it is also important to acknowledge the affective part of change – people will feel a range of strong emotions that may be unacknowledged.

Surfacing and acknowledging these is also a vital factor.”

Sustainable success As OECD research suggests, long-term success in education requires a distributed model of leadership where trust is built, responsibility is shared appropriately across the organisation, and staff are encouraged and supported in taking new responsibilities and developing their professional practice.

This is well recognised by Jill Aisher, headteacher at St Michael’s Prep School in Kent. “My firm belief is that everyone in the school needs to love learning and want to grow professionally,” she says.

“I try to empower senior and middle leaders to make decisions and think strategically. We very much want more than academic results and our broad, ambitious, wide-ranging, healthy, creative and active curriculum enables children to look forward with excitement to school each day.”

There is a challenge for leaders, Aisher says, in ensuring the “constant regulatory whirlwind” does not “stir up a storm among staff”. “It’s hard not to become part of the whirlwind in delivering on compliance. Heads need to follow a better model of delivering change and development from the one they are subjected to from outside. The process of change and curriculum development within government follows a very old-fashioned model of

instruction: ‘Sit down and do as you are told’. Gone are the consultations – unless you count the ones they send in July for completion by September – unions are distrusted rather than engaged with and much of the time teachers seem to be perceived as naughty children. No school leader would attempt to do things in their school the way the government does things to teachers and leaders.”

Her responsibility as a leader, Aisher says, “is to create an attractive, happy, supportive environment, to praise and encourage innovation and development, reflection and review among staff, and to ensure every child is happy, successful and achieves at their full potential”, as well as involving parents and the wider community in the life and mission of the school. Pupils are encouraged to take a global perspective to their learning and are enabled to participate in decisionmaking at the school. “It’s not rocket science but it’s a great model,” she says.

“Involve everyone, and think big.”

Mark Ravenhall, chief executive of the Further Education Trust for Leadership, echoes the point in the context of FE. “The key to developing an ethical model of education leadership, for me, is a greater focus on the customer – the learners, employers, the community – and what they demand of an ethical learning provider. I suspect this would involve greater transparency over how decisions are made and how customers can hold organisations to account.”

This is just as true in the schools sector, where involving parents and thinking

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about the impact a school has on the wider community are critical in developing values that work for pupils.

According to Bevan, having a secure values base, shared and agreed within the community, is one of three main ways in which to cope with the challenges of leadership, alongside expertise in interpreting and responding to external demands and the development of “rigorous, dependable systems so that anything routine or predictable is dealt with efficiently and effectively”. “That [agreed set of values] makes it very easy to undertake a rapid litmus test of any management decision,” he says. “The biggest risk to ethical leadership occurs when convenience, efficiency and outcomes suppress quality, care and character. The more that the values of an organisation are explicit in its culture, policies and development plans, the easier it becomes for all colleagues to act in an ethically consistent manner.”

A strong set of values acts not only as a steadying influence amid the challenges of the ever-evolving education system but is a way of cultivating a more rounded approach to pupils’ and students’ education. “Students learn far more from how we teach them than what we teach them,” says Bevan. “It is not, as they say, what we do, but the way that we do it that matters. Students learn democratic values, the values of participation, the importance of community, ideas of compassionate leadership. School leaders must remind

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR Dexter Dunphy, Emeritus Professor in the School of Management at the University of Technology Sydney, identifies various levels of leadership and management behaviour, from unethical to highly ethical, which can be a useful discussion tool. These are defined as: • Level 1: Rejection. Exploiting, using and abusing others for your own gain, without any regard for consequence.

• Level 2: Non-responsiveness. Operating from a position that measures success only in terms of one’s own gain; exploiting others where there is a power or monetary gain to be had, and having little real concern for the law of regulation.

• Level 3: Compliance. Doing the minimum required by the relevant authorities, and continuing to exploit others, but minimising consequential risk.

• Level 4: Efficiency. Regarding yourself as a good citizen (individually or corporately),

primarily on teaching and learning and making sure that the whole organisation is focused on student success and on meeting students’ needs then inspection will take care of itself. I try always to keep a space when making difficult decisions where I pause and ask myself, ‘What’s the right thing to do here?’, based on my personal values and those of the college and its mission. Taking time to get this perspective hopefully means that authenticity and ethical considerations aren’t lost in the pragmatic muddles of the day-to-day.” That authenticity, says

“STUDENTS LEARN FAR MORE FROM HOW WE TEACH THEM THAN WHAT WE TEACH THEM… IT IS NOT WHAT WE DO, BUT THE WAY THAT WE DO IT THAT MATTERS.” themselves that they are shaping the circumstances in which the next generation of leaders in their country will learn their habits and attitudes. Our responsibility as school leaders cannot be reduced to exam factory functionaries. If we simply ask, ‘What is it that we would want our young people to be doing in 15 years’ time in their work and in their leisure time, in their relationships and in their communities?’, then we will find ourselves securing a school or college experience that prioritises values.”

Staff must not be focused overwhelmingly on inspection and accountability, agrees Westerman. “In my experience if a leader focuses

Ravenhall, is built through honest relationships with staff and the wider community. Being “authentic” also involves “recognising that leadership happens at all levels, and that leaders need to represent and act as role models for staff and customers”, he adds.

Sustainable success A leader has a duty of care for their staff to help them develop and maintain their capacity to do their jobs effectively.

Sustaining success in leading teaching and learning requires leaders to take their colleagues with them, to show respect and empathy, and to involve them in the decisions that affect their work.

and acting in a manner that respects and upholds the morals, values, regulations, customs and styles of wider society; acting in a holistic, integrated way across all areas of activity.

• Level 5: Proactivity. Being a proactive agent for values-led leadership in the context of wider society in all areas of activity, recognising this as a point of personal or corporate distinction.

• Level 6: Sustaining. Recognising one’s place in the grander scheme of things, and the inter-connectedness of everyone as well as everything, and acting as a co-evolutionary element to foster greater effectiveness for the whole.

What level is your school or college operating at? What might it take to move to the next level? And how about yourself personally?

What level would you place yourself at and how might you move to the next level?

In too many schools and colleges, leaders and managers act almost as internal inspectors, monitoring teacher performance rather than creating a culture in which effective teaching and learning can flourish. The culture of compliance that has emerged under the pressure of the current accountability system is not only bad for the morale and professionalism of teachers, it impedes development of the kind of collaborative, dialogue-based approach which, the OECD suggests, we must foster to succeed internationally – and which research shows raises student results significantly.

Change is inevitable and much of it will not be welcome. But while change may bring with it the need for tough decisions, it is also an opportunity for leaders to think about how their organisations work.

A good leader can make a huge difference, developing a supportive culture while building organisation capacity. They are open, transparent and available. They understand their communities, relate honestly to them and bring clarity of vision, value and rationale to their organisations. They adopt what Will Ryan terms an ‘insideout leadership’ perspective, driven by the values of an institution, rather than an ‘outside-in’ perspective, driven by external forces. And they would not be afraid to write a letter congratulating their students while acknowledging the self-evident truth that a good education encompasses more than just academic results.

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A question of balance THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HEADTEACHER AND THE CHAIR OF GOVERNORS IS AT THE HEART OF GOOD SCHOOL LEADERSHIP, SAYS EMMA KNIGHTS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNORS’ ASSOCIATION WORDS PAUL STANISTREET

CV Emma Knights became chief executive of the NGA in January 2010. Before that, she was chief executive of the Daycare Trust, a policy and information charity working on earlyyears education and out-of-school activities for school-age children. She previously held a number of roles in the third sector, including at the Child Poverty Action Group, where she ran a project looking at ways schools could reduce educational inequality, and Citizen’s Advice.

She is vice-chair of governors at her children’s secondary school in Warwickshire.

E

mma Knights became chief executive of the National Governors’ Association (NGA) in 2010, at the start of a period of far-reaching change in the schools sector. It has also been a time of change for the NGA, the representative body for governors and trustees from maintained schools and academies in England, and for governors themselves who have seen a growing appreciation of the importance of their role result in higher expectations and increased scrutiny. All of this at a time when belts are tightening and schools have to do more with less.

There are challenges, Knights acknowledges, but there are also opportunities. Governors have more autonomy, but there is also more risk

attached to the role. More than ever, governors need to understand their role and its limits, and they need to work well with school leaders, offering challenge but giving them space to do their jobs. A good relationship between a headteacher and the chair of governors can make a big impact on teaching and learning, Knights says.

This was acknowledged in Ofsted’s recent annual report, which highlighted the importance of ‘strong governing bodies that provide effective challenge and support to headteachers’ and found that schools ‘are less likely to succeed if their governance is poor’. The governing bodies of almost all the schools found to have declined ‘had failed to provide strategic leadership or hold the headteacher to account’. Knights recognises that the quality of governance can vary – some is “not fit for purpose”, she admits – and that even schools with a strong leadership team will not succeed in the long term without robust and skilled governors.

“Just because you can make it in the short term, doesn’t mean it is sustainable,” she says. “In order to have a strong organisation you have to have strong governance. It’s incredibly important people realise that.”

There are three main functions of governance, Knights argues. “The first is setting the vision, the ethos and strategic direction; the second is holding the headteacher to account for the outcomes and conduct of the school; and the third is financial oversight and statutory responsibility. It’s that first one that governors say they are not confident about. If you look at school strategies, they are not as good as they should be.

That’s been a big part of our work over the past year, to get governing boards

GETTING GOVERNANCE RIGHT AMiE appreciates the role the NGA plays and its honest appraisal of the quality of governance. This demonstrates a refreshing maturity, which is a prerequisite of really making a difference. It would be all too easy

to make the governors’ world sound rosy, but we know that it has its challenges.

While there are some exemplary governing bodies, there are also some that are ‘not fit for purpose’.

These can take school leaders to

breaking point at times. The power vested in governors, particularly the chair, is significant, and a poorperforming chair can deflate a school. It begs the question whether there ought to be a regulatory system

for when this occurs. Fortunately this is not the norm and we recognise the NGA’s work in encouraging good governance.

Emma is right to be concerned about governor training.

Further cutbacks could curtail governor CPD just

P R O F I L E C O M M E N TA RY

WORDS MARK WRIGHT, AMiE

at the point when the system is most in need of effective governance. The test of leadership comes when you respond to a crisis and, given the economic reality, there has never been a more important time to get governance

‘right’. Governors will be tasked with taking some very difficult decisions in the coming years. They will need commitment and emotional intelligence if the eight elements of effective governance are to be realised.

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working well with leaders in thinking about their vision, where they want their school to be in three to five years time. It’s important they work together because this is a joint enterprise.”

The relationship between the chair of governors and the headteacher is “at the heart of good governance”, Knights believes. “It’s important to keep that relationship trusting and respectful without it getting too cosy. It’s got to remain professional on both sides. The chair must get that balance between ensuring that the headteacher is doing a good job and, at the same time, giving leaders the space they need to lead.

There are tensions there – one moment you are equal partners in setting the strategy and the vision, the next you might be undertaking that person’s appraisal. It’s a complex relationship, but it can be made to work and, when it does, it can make a huge difference.”

The relationship should be “supportive and strengthening”, but it should also incorporate a strong element of challenge. “Headteachers need to accept that challenge is a good thing, intellectually, even if it does not always feel comfortable,” Knights says.

THE NGA’S EIGHT ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE 1. The right people around the table 2. Understanding role and responsibilities 3. Good chairing 4. Professional clerking 5. Good relationships based on trust 6. Knowing the school – the data, the staff, the parents, the children and the community 7. Committed to asking challenging questions 8. Confident to have courageous conversations in the interests of the children and young people

is to talk to other local schools with a view to forming a federation, Knights argues. That would increase the pool of resources available to them and create greater flexibility in terms of staffing.

The NGA is also calling for three-year indicative budgets to support schools in longer-term planning. “Government wants us to be planning strategically – and we should be – but it is difficult if you don’t know what is going to be happening to your resources in a couple of years. I’m not saying you can cope with everything if you are aware of it

“IT IS A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BUT IT CAN BE MADE TO WORK AND, WHEN IT DOES, IT CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE.” Governors, on the other hand, must recognise that their role has limits. “Our common message to governing boards is that you must know your role, you have to know your responsibilities before you start, and they are strategic, not operational. You must leave school leaders to do the job you’ve employed them to do. Yes, you monitor them and work with them in setting strategic direction, but you don’t do their job for them. Our perception, anecdotally, is that sometimes, in small schools, in particular, governors find it hard to stay strategic because staffing is limited.

They feel there is not enough capacity to carry out management tasks so they carry out some of those tasks for them.

That might work for a while but, actually, it’s not good governance. They should instead be asking why they haven’t got a staffing structure in place that gives managers enough time to do what is expected of them.”

One option for small schools struggling with management capacity

but it certainly helps a lot if you can plan for a longer period.” The Association supports the Campaign for Fairer Funding in Education, which is urging change in the way the government allocates funding to local authorities and schools. The current funding formula, Knights says, discriminates against lower-funded authorities and should be reformed.

“There are parts of the country where schools are in a much tighter situation than others,” she says. “There are some governing bodies crossing their fingers hoping their boilers don’t break down – and in terms of financial planning that is not a good scenario.”

One consequence of fiscal belttightening is that governors are reluctant to invest in their own training, preferring limited resources to go to frontline teaching. “That is so prevalent,” Knights says. “We have to make the case that by investing in governance, you invest in the pupils in the medium term. But it is a hard case to

make.” The NGA has worked with the National College for Teaching and Leadership to develop a leadership programme, aimed at chairs of governors. While feedback from participants has been positive, many governing bodies felt they could not afford the fees. Government subsidy has allowed them to offer scholarships for small schools and half-price deals for others, but there is no guarantee that funding will continue after March. Its withdrawal would be “a backwards move”, Knights says, and send a negative message about CPD to governing bodies.

One of the main challenges to developing consistently good governance – which was also highlighted in Ofsted’s annual report – concerns access to information.

“That is probably the biggest ongoing challenge that governing boards have,” Knights says. Governors need to be able to understand data, internal and external, and not rely on an interpretation from the headteacher.

It’s useful to have a third-party view, she argues, and to keep channels of communication open with parents, staff and pupils. Their views should be used to inform the broader picture, as well as develop a more detailed sense of mission and value. That, Knights appreciates, can be difficult when external pressures are as great as they currently are.

“Ofsted and performance indicators are the two main levers of accountability and they are producing not just stress but fear among school leaders and staff.

It is part of the governing body’s role to point out there are other types of accountability and one is to the governing board, which should be helping and supporting senior leaders to look more broadly than just Ofsted and indicators. The other is to stakeholders.

We oversee whether or not schools are spending government money well.

That is not just about the staff or leaders at the school, there is also that wider democratic responsibility. It’s important there is dialogue with the community and parents, and that this is reflected in the way we decide on our vision and priorities. That’s a lot easier to say than to do, when you have the worry of an Ofsted visit or the imminent exam results. Some governors do come to feel the same pressures school leaders are feeling. Instead, we need to say, ‘hang on, we need to pull ourselves out of this and really consider what will make the difference to pupils’.”

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R E S OUR CE S/C ON TA C T S

IMPROVING TEACHING AND LEARNING Leading to Outstanding Teaching and Learning

W

e are currently developing our plans for the new member publications for 2015. As an AMiE member you have a range of publications to support your professional development, highlight good practice, shape your HR policies and guide you through employment relations issues. All of these publications and guides are available on the AMiE website (http://amie.atl.org. uk/help-and-advice/resources/ overview.asp). In addition to the publications, you will have seen the

“WE WOULD BE INTERESTED IN YOUR VIEWS ON ELM AND IN THE TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS THAT YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN US DEVELOPING”

changes in ELM over the past three issues. We would be interested in your views on ELM and in the types of publications that you would be interested in us developing in the coming months. Please send your comments and suggestions to Mark Wright at mwright@amie.atl.org.uk.

CPD COURSES AMiE is offering members four leadership CPD programmes, aimed primarily at middle leaders and those aspiring to this level. They focus on: • creating a high-performing team • getting the next five per cent performance improvement • leading others • managing performance through critical conversations.

The programmes have been designed in conjunction with Pivotal Training and Development – a top provider in the field of leadership training – and will help middle leaders boost their capacity, supporting them in understanding the key features of high-quality leadership that make a difference.

FURTHER DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE AT AMIE.ATL.ORG.UK/CPD.ASP

LEADERSHIP COURSES AMiE has a UK-wide network of elected representatives and members of staff who can help you with your queries.

For more information on your regional contact and their contact details, please see amie.atl.org.uk/aboutamie/your-union/contact-us.asp.

Here is a selection of course names and dates: MANAGING PERFORMANCE THROUGH CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS

York 5 March 2015

Birmingham 10 March 2015

Bristol 3 July 2015

GETTING THE NEXT FIVE PER CENT

LEADING OTHERS Manchester 1 July 2015 York 20 May 2015

CREATING A HIGHPERFORMANCE TEAM Manchester 7 May 2015 Birmingham 25 June 2015

Bristol 9 June 2015

For more information on these courses and to book, please see amie.atl.org.uk/join-in/cpd/overview.asp

ABOUT AMiE We are the only union to represent managers and leaders across the entire education sector, providing: • help, advice and support: a confidential helpline, online guidance and a network of professional and experienced regional officers to support you in your role as both an employee, and as a manager or leader • excellent personal and professional development: accredited training and development opportunities for you in your role as a manager or leader • a voice in the education debate: an opportunity to influence policy and get involved in issues that affect you • publications and resources: a range of free publications focused on contemporary leadership issues • more for your membership: discounts and rewards for you and your family on a range of products and services.

And with 50% off your first year’s membership*, there’s never been a better time to join AMiE. Join online at www.amie.atl.org.uk/join or call 0845 057 7000 (local call).

Let AMiE take you further.

WHO CAN JOIN? Colleges: AMiE welcomes managers at all levels in FE colleges, sixth form colleges and adult education providers.

Schools: We warmly invite school headteachers (including those in academies), deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers, acting headteachers, bursars and business managers to join AMiE. We also have many members in national organisations, training organisations and other areas of the education sector, including HE.

CONTACTING AMiE AMiE 35 The Point, Market Harborough Leicestershire. LE16 7QU Tel: 01858 461110 Fax: 01858 461366 www.amie.atl.org.uk National helpline Tel: 01858 464171 Email: helpline@amie.atl.org.uk David Green Director of AMiE (employment services) Tel: 01858 411540 Mobile: 07711 929043 Email: dgreen@amie.atl.org.uk Mark Wright Assistant director of AMiE (leadership and management) Tel: 020 7782 1530 Mobile: 07436 805330 Email: mwright@amie.atl.org.uk For membership queries, please contact the membership department on 020 7782 1602 or email: membership@atl.org.uk. *TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY, VISIT WWW.AMIE.ATL.ORG.UK FOR FULL SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS, MEMBERSHIP ELIGIBILITY AND FURTHER INFORMATION.

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MASTERCLASS

2012, though staff had already been innovating for a number of years – curriculum change could be said to go back 10 years, Card says. Focus groups were held in which pupils had a chance to discuss learning opportunities with the headteacher. The overriding message from pupils was: ‘Can you make my learning meaningful and suited to my needs, while presenting it in a way that makes me want to learn more?’ The head conducted a series of ‘learning studies’ throughout the school. Instead of coming into lessons and grading them according to Ofsted criteria, he spent time working alongside teachers in planning, collaborating in the classroom, and looking at what engaged the children.

The main finding was that excellent engagement was possible through practical activities, real learning experiences and content relevant to the children’s lives. Features such as independence, taking responsibility, choosing an approach to a task, collaboration, different working styles and a real audience were also important.

Lee Card, deputy headteacher at Cherry Orchard Primary School in Worcester

The three Rs

FINDING YOUR CURRICULUM

WORDS PAUL STANISTREET

When it came to devising a new curriculum, Cherry Orchard Primary School looked not to national government but to its own pupils, parents, staff and governors, creating a set of curriculum aims in which everyone has a stake

“T

he main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Lee Card, deputy headteacher at Cherry Orchard Primary School in Worcester, is fond of this Stephen Covey quote, which seems particularly meaningful in light of the multiple pressures facing school leaders today. “If you don’t know what the main thing is then so many other things will get in the way,” he says. Schools need a clear set of values and a common language with which to express them, Card argues. And those aims and values

outsourced to national government – it’s up to individual schools to ‘find their curriculum’, giving a voice to pupils, parents, staff and governors. That’s how Cherry Orchard has approached curriculum change, creating a culture of collaboration, trust and engagement which is transforming practice at the school in all sorts of creative and innovative ways. The aim, Card says, is to create a curriculum “for our school and for our community”, capable of underpinning all that the school does.

The process of refreshing the school’s curriculum began in earnest in autumn

In the summer term 2013 teachers discussed the learning studies and pulled out key elements which led to the ‘three Rs’ – the values which would underpin the school curriculum: reality, relevance and rigour. The school then asked governors what specific skills they wanted children at Cherry Orchard to leave with. The same question was put to school staff and the responses were compared. There were some surprises – such as an unexpected emphasis on financial awareness and responsibility – and a lot of skills and attributes that most teachers and parents would expect and want to see, such as effective communication skills and the ability to use ICT effectively. There was also a large amount of common ground, which guided the school in drawing up its aims and placing them under four main headings: learning, self, situations and relationships. Life skills such as ‘a sense of morality’ and being able to deal with failure were seen as just as important as academic skills such as being a ‘competent written and verbal communicator’. Children are encouraged to use the language of the school aims. It’s important to find ways of conveying the meaning of the school aims in terms the children can understand, says Card.

“So, for using your initiative, we have ‘be proactive, think for yourself’, for

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resilience, ‘keep trying, keep calm’. That’s given us a framework to use with the children day in and day out.”

Having agreed the aims and values, the school turned its attention to curriculum planning, taking inspiration from the Wyche School in Malvern, in particular.

This encouraged the school to focus on the ‘micro level’ of the school curriculum rather than look to the national curriculum. “The Wyche School had a big influence on our initial discussions,” Card explains. “What they did that we then embraced was to make the school curriculum intrinsic to what they were doing. The curriculum should encompass both national curriculum and school curriculum, covering the statutory elements of the national curriculum, but also making sure the school curriculum is personalised to your community, to the pupils, to the staff, to the governors. That led to the idea of a set of school aims and that is what we wanted to drive our

CHERRY ORCHARD KEY FACTS • With more than 630 pupils and 60 staff, Cherry Orchard in Worcester is the largest primary school in the county.

• Pupils speak 14 different home languages at the ethnically diverse, multifaith school, whose catchment comprises social housing and more affluent areas.

• In 2013, 80% of pupils achieved Level 4 or more in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2.

• 11% of pupils have special educational needs or are on School Action Plus, and 10% receive free school meals.

• The school prides itself on cultural awareness and respect, and strives to spread that message into the wider community.

point in the teachers and the governors giving us their proposals if we say, ‘Well, that’s what they think, here’s what should really happen’. It’s about listening to individuals, taking on board everything the community says and feels, and using that. It’s not just about academic results. It’s about what the pupil is at the end of their experience here, what memories they’ve got, what experiences they can draw upon to help them in later life.” The school is already seeing the positive impact the changes have made on pupils, with children starting to take more ownership of their learning, and asking to do more things that matter to their community.

Increasing relevance is critical in engaging the hardest-to-reach pupils – and their parents, Card argues. The next stage in the school’s journey is to develop an assessment system that matches what it has already achieved with its curriculum. The school is starting in the

“THE RIGOUR IS THERE BUT IT IS DONE WITHIN A CLIMATE OF THE SCHOOL AIMS AND A CLIMATE OF TRUST… IF WE WANT THIS TO WORK WE HAVE TO TRUST EACH OTHER.” school curriculum, and therefore everything we do, not just the curriculum but behaviour, management systems, assemblies, governors’ meetings.”

Medium-term planning at the school is done using ‘pitches’ – outline plans for a term’s teaching that staff in a particular year (the school is three-form entry) have worked on together, using a pro forma that starts with the school aims. These are then presented to the senior management team and the headteacher. This approach meant that teachers started their planning not with the national curriculum but with aims that they had helped shape and that had been agreed within the school. This way, Card says, they had a genuine school curriculum and could make the national curriculum work for the school rather than vice versa. “That’s the crucial thing – we now have a school curriculum.

We’ve got something that’s not doneunto, it’s done by us and that’s a big difference. And we have teachers who are passionate about ensuring these aims are hit. Everyone is invested in it. As our new headmaster says, the school aims are our mantra.”

Planning together Collaboration is crucial in making it work. Not only are teachers in each year

group encouraged to work together in developing their term plans, they are given time to plan one-off lessons together. While one of them teaches a part of the lesson, the other two observe it to see if the children are engaged, helping them to build up a picture of what techniques and learning opportunities work best with the pupils. “It’s enabled staff to press the refresh button on their planning,” Card says. “It’s a much more collaborative process now. The team comes together and, starting with the school aims, they piece together a unit of work, with a real audience at the end of it, a genuine purpose that the children are working towards. The biggest change I’ve seen in teachers is that enthusiasm again for planning. It’s because they are planning opportunities that have the aims at their heart, and that have this exciting real audience idea incorporated into them. And the key thing for leaders is you have to facilitate that.”

While rigour and accountability are still a part of the school’s approach, the underpinning ethos is that if the core moral purpose is right, the results will take care of themselves. “The rigour is there but it is done within a climate of the school aims and a climate of trust,” Card says. “If we want this to work we have to trust each other. There will have been no

same way, consulting staff, parents, pupils, governors, to develop principles of assessment which work for the school that reflect the school aims.

The key to it all, Card says, is to look further than the national curriculum in developing your school curriculum. “You have to find your school curriculum. It’s already in school. It’s living and breathing in every child. Every child brings a curriculum with them into school, and every teacher and teaching assistant and every cleaner and dinner lady does. We sought counsel and we collaborated.

Schools will do it in different ways but, ultimately, you have to get people’s voices heard because only then will you get something that is representative of your community and that they are invested in – that’s what we are reaping the benefits of now. A lot of intelligent people came together to create the national curriculum, but you often hear it said that one size can’t fit all and that has to apply to the national curriculum too. It should only ever be a part of your curriculum. You must find your own school curriculum.”

3 MORE INFORMATION A curriculum that counts, ATL’s new resource on curriculum change, features in-depth video case studies from Cherry Orchard and other schools.

Go to: http://acurriculumthatcounts.org.uk

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ADVICE

‘Protected conversations’ allow employers to start talking about dismissal without risking a tribunal claim. They let employers set out the options, but they do not give them the right to pressure employees into taking one option rather than another WORDS DAVID GREEN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF AMiE (EMPLOYMENT SERVICES)

I was asked to meet with my headteacher yesterday. When I arrived there was an officer from the HR team present who said this was going to be a ‘protected conversation’. The head then told me he had received a serious complaint about me from a parent, and that, with the end of term approaching, I could either take a deal to leave, or face a disciplinary procedure, which could result in my dismissal. They have given me two weeks to consider my position and then respond. Can they do this to me?

Wouldn’t it be unfair dismissal?

A protected conversation is a relatively new legal concept, designed to help employers initiate discussions about dismissal without risking a tribunal claim. Unlike the similar ‘without prejudice’ conversation, the law allows such conversations to be started without warning. In theory, an employer is not allowed to bully or threaten an employee in such a situation, or put them under undue pressure. However, pointing out the options, explaining the consequences of each, would be acceptable so long as they didn’t try to push you towards a particular decision.

You should also be given a reasonable amount of time to consider your options.

The Acas Code of Practice says this should be at least 10 calendar days.

From what you have described, it sounds that, so far, your employer is acting lawfully. Your next question concerns the fairness of the options. By

a ‘deal’ your employer almost certainly means a settlement agreement. This is a legal contract that, in your case, would set out the terms for your employment ending. Usually, you would expect to receive some element of compensation, and, in return, to waive all your rights to take your employer to a tribunal in order to claim unfair dismissal. Given the serious nature of a settlement agreement, it is a legal requirement that you only enter into one after being advised by a suitably certified trade union officer or a solicitor. An AMiE regional officer would be able to help negotiate the terms and provide the necessary legal advice to you.

You also ask if your dismissal would be unfair. The complaint by a parent suggests that the issue is one of conduct or capability. Both are potentially fair reasons for a dismissal.

If you signed a settlement agreement then, in your particular case, there would be no dismissal as you would leave by mutual consent. However,

if you decided to go through the disciplinary process, then the question of fairness would depend on how the employer responded in the circumstances. For example, did the employer investigate the matter properly? Were you given an opportunity to explain yourself? Also, the case against you would not need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, only on the balance of probabilities.

So, as you can see, there is a lot to consider in deciding whether or not an employer has acted unfairly.

Ultimately, assuming you have the required two years continuous service with your current employer, it would be for a tribunal to decide (and then only after an attempt by you at compulsory early conciliation). In reaching its decision, a tribunal will not assess the injustice or otherwise to you, the employee, or what it would have done had it been the employer.

Instead, a tribunal will apply what is known as the ‘band of reasonable responses’ test. In other words, it will look at your employer’s reasons for the dismissal, taking account of the circumstances, and then decide whether the employer’s response – ie to dismiss – falls within a band of responses that a reasonable employer might have adopted.

Right now, I doubt either option is wanted. However, my advice is that you speak to an AMiE regional officer and read our leaflets on disciplinary matters (ER6), dismissal (ER9A) and settlement agreements (ER27). All of these are available from www.atl.org.uk.

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UNION MATTERS

PERFORMANCE-RELATED PAY: IS IT FAIR? Evidence suggests that PRP could lead to discrimination against women and black and minority ethnic teachers WORDS PAUL STANISTREET

S

ince September 2013, school managers and leaders have been able to link teachers’ pay to their performance in the classroom. Every school has had to revise its appraisal policies, with each given flexibility to decide how best to implement the new arrangements. The first performancerelated pay (PRP) increases were made from September 2014.

Everyone agrees that improving the quality of teaching is essential to raising standards in schools. But it is far from clear that PRP is the best way to achieve this. OECD research on the impact of PRP on teaching found that ‘the overall picture reveals no relationship between average student performance in a country and the use of performance-related pay schemes’.

Teaching unions have warned that measuring the performance of individual teachers is an impossible task and expressed concern that PRP treats teaching as an exact science rather than a professional skill. As the Department for Education’s guidance makes clear, it is important that schools consider evidence from a range of sources in assessing teacher performance. That must mean taking into account every part of a teacher’s job and not just those parts that are easy to measure in quantifiable terms.

If the measures are to work and not lead to low morale, it is important they are fair and transparent. The Equality and Human Rights Commission argues that ‘there is an unavoidable element of discretion and subjectivity in assessing performance and, therefore, a higher risk of bias’ in performance pay systems, compared to systems in which progression is automatic. Research by the commission found that women earn around 80% less than men in PRP

in some finance companies. But discrimination is not confined to the private sector.

“PRP causes particular problems for women,” says Pauline Rodmell, AMiE’s Regional Officer for the North. “If the scheme is robust enough to take account of childcare responsibilities, pregnancy and maternity leave, all is well. Sadly, though, they don’t all have this built in. The ideal PRP scheme should make you accountable for your performance while in work, so that taking time out for pregnancy-related appointments, illness or caring responsibilities is not an issue.”

It can be difficult to convince an employer that this is a common-sense

performance pay in the civil service, forcing managers to identify 10% of staff as the lowest performers, black and minority ethnic (BME), disabled and older staff were significantly more likely to be singled out. Thirty per cent of disabled staff in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, for example, received the lowest performance rating compared to 17% of non-disabled staff. And in the Department for Communities and Local Government, 12% of staff aged over 50 received the lowest rating compared to seven per cent of their younger colleagues.

There is a real danger that PRP can lead to discriminatory outcomes. It’s

“MEMBERS DO SOMETIMES FEEL THAT THEY SHOULD NOT GET PRP BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN ON MATERNITY LEAVE. THAT IS NONSENSE.” approach, Rodmell says. “We have a real battle on our hands, as a union, to combat this. Members should involve the union at the earliest point possible if they know that they may not be present for the whole year. It’s best to ask for a meeting to discuss the potential problem and meet the issue head on. I had an instance where targets were not met because a member had been on maternity leave. When I put this to her principal, his response was, ‘It’s not my fault she is a woman’.

“Although that response is not typical, members do sometimes feel that they should not get PRP because they have been on maternity leave.

That is nonsense. Any attempt to withhold PRP on these grounds should be challenged.”

The issue is not only related to women. The union Prospect found that when the government introduced

important that school leaders follow the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s advice and look carefully at the amount paid in PRP to men and women, to people from different ethnic minority groups, to people with disabilities and people without, to full-time workers and part-time workers. There is also a significant challenge in maintaining staff morale and ensuring school culture remains focused on teaching and learning, not on competition or internal politics – factors that can undermine the sort of collaborative approach among staff that is essential in meeting the learning needs of pupils.

3 MORE INFO AMiE is here to help. Members can contact us if they want to talk through the impact PRP is having on their staff – or if they feel they are being denied PRP on grounds which are unfair.

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FINAL WORD

T

he new headteacher standards set aspirational goals for school leaders.

The importance of the role is recognised in the preamble, which states headteachers are lead professionals and role models within the communities they serve.

The values and ambitions of headteachers, it says, determine the achievements of schools, and, as such, they are accountable for the education of current and future generations.

The standards cover four domains.

The first concerns the qualities that headteachers must embody and the knowledge they need to exercise their role effectively. They should hold and articulate clear values and moral purpose. They must demonstrate positive relationships with pupils and staff, and lead by example, with integrity, creativity, resilience and clarity – drawing on their own expertise and knowledge of education and school systems ‘locally, nationally and globally’. Their continuous professional development and strategic leadership should empower all staff and pupils to excel.

The second domain is that of pupils and staff. Headteachers must demand ambitious standards for pupils and instil in staff a sense of accountability for the impact of their work.

Understanding how pupils learn and what makes for successful classroom practice, headteachers should ensure that they provide rich curriculum opportunities and secure pupil wellbeing. Through their example and leadership they should make their schools places where staff are motivated and supported to develop their skills and subject knowledge.

The third domain is school systems and processes. These should be efficient and fit for purpose, providing a safe, calm and well-ordered environment for pupils and staff.

Headteachers must establish fair, rigorous and transparent systems for managing staff performance and exercise financial planning to ensure the equitable deployment of resources.

The final domain is the self-improving school system. Headteachers must

create outward-facing schools and develop effective relationships with professionals in other public services.

They must model entrepreneurial and innovative approaches to school improvement and governance, confident of the vital contribution of internal and external accountability.

It is clear that the standards are highly aspirational. When these statements are combined with the injunction that headteachers must minimise unnecessary workload (a requirement made essential after the overwhelming teacher response to the workload challenge), the complexity and weight of the professional demands made on headteachers becomes even more apparent.

As these standards are to be used for headteacher appraisal, they must be taken seriously. Following the furore over the Public Accounts Committee’s remarks on headteacher pay, school leaders’ performance will be even more closely scrutinised. School governors are charged, in the preamble, to use these standards to ‘inform the appraisal of headteachers’, and while they are not mandatory and

HEADTEACHER STANDARDS M A RY B O U ST E D, AT L G E N E R A L S E C R E TA RY

should not be used as a check or a baseline, the standards can be used to inform objective-setting ‘for the next stage of the school’s continuous improvement journey, as well as to identify areas of development where the headteacher requires support or improvement’. They can also be used to provide a framework for training and developing middle and senior leaders aspiring to headship.

I have few problems with the new standards. I do, however, have a problem with the context in which they are expected to be met, where headteachers’ jobs can depend on their last Ofsted inspection – or, perhaps more crucially, on the quality of the Ofsted team that turns up at their door.

Ofsted has, finally, admitted that it does not know whether or not its inspection judgements are reliable – that is, whether two teams, inspecting the same school, on the same day, would come to the same judgement of its quality. As Dominic Cragoe, headteacher of Sheringham Community Primary school in Norfolk, wrote: ‘Ofsted has much to answer for.’

Indeed it does. Not only for its unreliable judgements, but also for the endless bureaucracy that has engulfed school leaders, and been cascaded down to teachers and other staff.

Fear of Ofsted de-professionalises headteachers and militates against the conditions in which effective school leadership can become rooted in our school system.

Nor will the standards become widely adopted in schools without widespread support, training and development for headteachers. The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) has failed to support the development of its much lauded self-sustaining, self-improving school system. Many headteachers feel isolated and overwhelmed by the scale and pace of curriculum and qualification reform. Too many leave the profession exhausted.

The government must decide: either it is serious about headteacher standards, in which case the need for fundamental reform of Ofsted and the NCTL is overwhelming, or the standards will remain aspirational – unachievable in the context in which school leaders currently work.

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