Elm October 2016

EDUCATION LEADER AND MANAGER

Representing leaders and managers in education P O L I CY

PROFILE

W H I ST L E B L OW I N G

WHAT NEXT FOR PRIMARY ASSESSMENT? page 8

MEET THE PRESIDENT: JULIA NEAL page 12

THE TRUTH ABOUT SPEAKING OUT page 14

OCTOBER 2016 @ATL_AMiE

DELUGED BY DATA

HOW LEADERS CAN REDUCE THE BURDEN page 9

Apply now to mark GCSEs and A-levels There are lots of benefits to marking, from building your expertise and knowledge of the new specifications, through to inspiring your teaching.

It’s a great role for teachers and we hope you decide to join us, so you too can: • enhance your teaching skills and knowledge of assessment • strengthen your knowledge of reformed specifications • earn extra income ahead of the holiday period.

And you can work flexibly at home, during hours that suit you.

aqa.org.uk/apply

Apply now to mark GCSEs and A-levels

IFC_ATL_ELM_Oct_16.indd 1

04/10/2016 15:47

ELM / OCTOBER 2016

INSIDE 4

Education news, including post-16 reviews

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The view from Northern Ireland and Wales

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AMiE tackles the chaos of primary assessment

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Reducing the data burden

Meet AMiE’s new president

Advice on whistleblowing

How to recruit the best staff

Q&A: Dealing with a micromanaging chair of governors

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FE must gain its place in the single-education department ELM is the magazine from ATL, 7 Northumberland Street, London WC2N 5RD Tel 020 7930 6441 Fax 020 7930 1359 Email info@amie.org.uk Website www.amie.atl.org.uk Editor Sally Gillen ELM is produced and designed for ATL by Think, Capital House, 25 Chapel Street, London NW1 5DH Tel 020 3771 7200 Email info@thinkpublishing.co.uk

Sub-editor Laura Dean-Osgood Art editor George Walker Designer Alix Thomazi Advertising sales Michael Coulsey or Anthony Bennett 020 3771 7200 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 it will fulfil its 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: Daniel Špaček

MARK WRIGHT AMiE DIRECTOR

Welcome It has been two years since former education secretary Nicky Morgan launched the Workload Challenge, which revealed that data management, marking and lesson planning were the main drivers of excessive teacher workload, driven largely by near-constant reform and our heavy-handed inspection regime.

The three working groups set up to look at ways to reduce the burden in these areas published their reports in March. But the Government continues to skirt around the issue of what drives excessive workload and has failed to offer the kind of frank, open and collaborative leadership we need.

Our feature on page 9 looks at data management and how leaders can rethink their approach to gathering and using information. The culture of excessive data collection that has grown up around us has come at the expense of trust – trust between politicians and school leaders and between leaders and teachers. If we trusted teachers to do the job they are trained to do we wouldn’t need the constant reassurance of data.

Trust is at the heart of ethical leadership.

As we argue in AMiE’s new publication, Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice, it is critically important that moral purpose remains at the heart of how leaders operate, particularly in these challenging times. This applies to school and college leaders and governors, as much as it does to politicians.

Strong ethical leadership, characterised by trust and capacity-building, should be at the heart of our approach to tackling workload, and, of course, to much more besides.

An obsessive focus on data and numbers can lead to stagnation and a neglect of what should be every educator’s core concern: good teaching and learning. @MarkW_AMiE

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www.facebook.com/atlunion @atl_amie

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 3

NEED TO KNOW

NEWS IN BRIEF

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST EDUCATION SECTOR NEWS

Bousted has been elected president of the TUC. Dr Bousted has chaired the board of unionlearn – the TUC’s learning and skills organisation - since 2009.

“I will make education a key priority in my presidential year – across all sectors, and including adult skills development, which unionlearn has championed so successfully,” she said.

SCRAPPING QUALIFIED TEACHER status (QTS) and replacing it with local accreditation will place yet more work and responsibility on headteachers, new AMiE president Julia Neal has warned.

Proposing a motion at last month’s TUC Congress against Government plans to axe QTS, Neal warned that such a move would “open the door to teaching becoming a non-graduate profession”.

Proposals to hand headteachers responsibility for accrediting new entrants were included in the white paper Educational Excellence Everywhere, which was published in March.

Neal said: “No education system can exceed the quality of its teachers,” adding: “The threat of the Government’s proposals is real, it is present and it is dangerous.”

Heads have been warning of a recruitment and retention crisis, and vacancies and

temporary filled positions more than doubled between 2011–14, Neal told the audience.

The many different routes into teaching confuses applicants but, instead of making it easier, Government has decided to abolish QTS, which, she added, is “well recognised and highly portable”. Congress carried the motion.

See page 12 for our profile piece, and keep in touch with Julia @AMiEJuliaNeal.

PHOTOGRAPHY: DANNY FITZPATRICK

ATL GENERAL SECRETARY NAMED NEXT TUC PRESIDENT ATL general secretary Mary

NEW AMiE PRESIDENT AT TUC CONGRESS

APPRENTICESHIPS PROGRAMME RUSHED

TRANSPARENCY CONCERNS OVER POST!16 REVIEWS

THE GOVERNMENT’S NATIONAL apprenticeship programme has been implemented “far too quickly”, ATL has warned, following a report by the National Audit Office.

The report, released last month, warns that the Department for Education has not set out how it will influence the mix of apprenticeships in order to deliver the most value.

It also says one in five apprentices has warned they have not received any formal training at an external provider or in the workplace, and Ofsted suggests around a fifth of training providers need to improve the quality of their training and the results they achieve.

ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: “We are concerned about employers being responsible for setting the standards that apprentices are expected to meet.”

Apprenticeships need a recognised qualification to make them portable. “Currently, it is a free-forall allowing employers to develop apprenticeship standards, irrespective of whether there is a skills shortage in their sector or at the level at which the apprenticeship is developed.”

ATL vice president Niamh Sweeney has called on the Government to halt its “flawed, wasteful and futile” national review of post-16 provision.

Urging delegates to vote in support of a motion at the TUC’s Congress, Sweeney said the programme of area reviews, launched to create “fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers,” sounded plausible “on paper”.

However, she added: “In reality, it raises concerns about the practicalities of access, doesn’t take into account a student’s passion for learning or the needs of the local and wider economy.

“The needs of the students and young people do not appear to be a priority,” added Sweeney, who teaches health and social care at Long Road sixth form in Cambridge.

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The college will be part of an area review due to start next month.

Sweeney also raised concerns that college staff, who have a wealth of knowledge and experience, are not being engaged in the process, and that there has been a lack of transparency and openness.

ATL policy adviser Janet Clark has also highlighted the same issues. She told ELM that freedom of information requests she has submitted to obtain minutes from meetings held by the steering groups carrying out the reviews have yet to be properly answered.

“We are concerned that staff are not being consulted and I urge college leaders yet to go through the process to read the guidance on why staff input is so important,” said Clark.

Visit www.excellencegateway. org.uk/content/etf2382.

NEED TO KNOW

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS DO NOT RAISE STANDARDS Introducing more grammar schools will lower, rather than raise, standards for students, ATL general secretary Mary Bousted has warned.

Speaking at a fringe session organised

by ATL and the NUT at the Conservative party conference, ‘Education for all or an education free for all’ in Birmingham, Dr Bousted said a wealth of evidence showed grammar schools did not improve social mobility.

She added: “It is not the case that you can tell, aged 11, if someone is academically able or not,” later urging the Government to drop plans to reintroduce selection at 11.

In a wide-ranging speech, Dr Bousted also warned of the growing crisis in school places – 547,000 more secondary places will be needed by 2024. She argued that many parents find it

“incomprehensible” that local authorities are responsible for providing school places but have no powers to build schools.

“This is a bit like asking a police officer to enforce the law without giving them any power to arrest,” she added.

Also speaking at the event, chief executive of the National Governors Association Emma Knights said: “Recruiting excellent staff and leaders to teach in our classrooms is getting more and more pressing. We do not talk about this enough.”

At the Labour conference the week before, NUT general secretary Kevin Courtney pointed to the low percentage of children on free school meals in grammar schools, and evidence that high-performing children do not do as well at grammar schools.

CITY!WIDE WORKLOAD CHARTER LAUNCHED Headteachers in Nottingham are being urged to sign up to a Fair Workload Charter that includes five-minute lesson plans and a marking policy that says what will and will not be marked.

The charter was drawn up by Nottingham City Education Improvement Board (EIB) and unions including ATL to tackle the growing number of teachers being driven out of the profession by workload and long hours.

The EIB, which is made up of experts from schools, universities, colleges and Nottingham City Council, has also included in the document pledges to gives teachers “a fair and reasonable workload, attractive pay and rewards packages” and “high-quality training and professional development opportunities”.

MAJOR NEW BENEFIT LAUNCHED FOR MEMBERS

EIB member and head John Dyson said: “Workload affects recruitment and retention nationwide. This charter shows teachers how much we respect and value the work they do.”

AMiE director Mark Wright said: “While we do not underestimate the funding challenges heads face, these are sensible pledges and it would be fantastic if Nottingham could become a beacon for others to follow.”

AMiE member Ralph Surman described the project as a “bold move”.

“We want teachers focused on teaching, that is what will impact attainment,” he added.

“The charter is a big ask in the context of highstatus testing, league tables and Ofsted judgements but the idea at least acknowledges the issue and is desperately needed.”

OVER THE YEARS, too many AMiE members have faced financial hardship because they’ve lost their salaries as a result of illness or accident. That’s why last month we launched ATL Protect, an important new source of support which aims to help ATL members in such situations. This is the first plan of its kind for members of a major trade union in the UK.

AMiE member Richard Atkins, former principal of Exeter College, has been named FE commissioner by the Department for Education. Mr Atkins was president of the Association of Colleges in 2014/15.

DfE TO RETHINK NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS The Department for Education (DfE) has held talks in London and Nottingham as part of a long-overdue review of national professional qualifications for school leaders.

Director of AMiE Mark Wright participated in the discussions and is keen to continue to hear from members about their experiences of the DfE's professional development offering for leaders. He said: “I’ve picked up on the variable quality between some of the licensees who deliver the qualification on behalf of the Department, and the emphasis on some of the qualifications isn’t necessarily preparing people for the demands of the role. For example, more needs to be done on encouraging leaders to prioritise and create a space for their staff to teach rather than let workload build to the point where teachers are unable to perform their core duty effectively.” The new NPQ model is due to be launched in January with a planned roll-out in September 2017. If you have any feedback on your experience of the current model of NPQML, NPQSL or NPQH, contact mwright@amie.atl.org.uk.

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 5

COMMENT: WALES

Engaging with the new Assembly

AT A MEETING WITH THE NEW EDUCATION SECRETARY THIS SUMMER, WE PUT FORWARD THE KEY MESSAGES OF OUR ‘PUT EDUCATION FIRST’ CAMPAIGN

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elsh education secretary Kirsty Williams has only been in place for a couple of months now, so we were pleased to have a chance to meet her and the minister for lifelong learning and Welsh Language, Alun Davies AM, in the summer.

Members of our Cymru committee, president Bethan Jones, Maxine Bradshaw and David Healey joined myself and acting director Rachel Curley.

Williams did not hold the education brief for the Lib Dems during the last Assembly, but she showed a command of the issues and spoke passionately about some of the challenges facing the sector.

We were happy to meet with them so soon into the new Assembly, and push the asks from our ‘Put Education First’ campaign, based around: pupil deprivation grant (PDG), additional learning needs, FE and curriculum and qualifications. We also raised the issue of workload with civil servants.

Pupil deprivation grant The PDG is an important tool for providing extra support for those pupils who have free school meals (FSM). We asked that the PDG ensure consistent funding by using the Ever 6, which is used in England and means a parent only has to apply for FSM once in six years to make his or her child eligible to receive extra support.

Williams seemed open to hearing more about it, and we will be following it up. We also asked that it be extended to include those children who had previously been looked after.

Additional learning needs We have joined with NAHT, UCAC and UCU to push for additional learning needs (ALN) law.

The Welsh Government is likely to introduce legislation for ALN before Christmas, and while there are certainly some flaws to the existing arrangements, we believe some key changes are needed to the draft law (and code of practice) we saw last year.

Davies’s brief covers ALN, and we spoke to him about our concerns. We also invited him to a joint union event in September, which he attended. We all agreed it was hard to talk about what the problems with the new law could be

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when we will not see a draft for a couple of months.

But there seemed to be some reflection on the responses to the previous consultation. We will keep pushing the key issues when the bill is published, and the Welsh Government has asked that one of our reference group joins its work on ALN. Further education In terms of FE, the problems are clear – the sector is being asked to undertake more activity with shrinking budgets and fewer staff. We raised both these issues. Williams and Davies spoke about the challenges facing FE, especially in terms of European Union funding. We may see some big announcements about FE in response to the Diamond Review. We’ll be following up the discussions with our letter on FE, which outlines the seriousness of the challenges. We’ve also arranged a visit to Gower College for Davies in November and hope for more in-depth discussions then.

Curriculum and qualifications The section on the curriculum and qualifications included the barrage of new initiatives that the Welsh Government is undertaking in the name of curriculum and qualification reform – including the Capped 9 measure and the Welsh Baccalaureate. We spoke about the changes to the secondary school timetable, which have already happened as a result of changes to the accountability regime. Williams was keen to hear our concerns. The civil servants spoke about recognition of the challenges, especially facing the secondary sector.

Workload We made it clear we will be running our #make1change campaign for members – and asked “What will you be doing?” We have written to Williams about workload.

It will certainly be top of our agenda for the next meeting.

COLUMNIST MARY VAN DEN HEUVEL POLICY OFFICER, ATL CYMRU

COMMENT: NORTHERN IRELAND

Weighing up shared services BUDGET CUTS HAVE PROMPTED ORGANISATIONS TO SHARE SERVICES SUCH AS ICT. BUT ALONGSIDE SAVINGS, THERE MAY BE HIDDEN COSTS

COLUMNIST MARK LANGHAMMER DIRECTOR OF ATL NORTHERN IRELAND

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ow that further education is part of the Department for the Economy, it is likely that the six FE colleges will move towards sharing ‘back office’ services such as human resources, finance and ICT. Merging these services would involve delivering these functions from one location to the colleges, to reduce duplication and increase economies of scale.

Shared services, previously known as common services, are back in vogue following a period when the decentralisation agenda was denounced. Once again, they have been taken up enthusiastically by many local and national governments across the globe – particularly since the global financial crisis added new pressure to budgets.

The UK Government has been at the forefront of this reform trend, most recently with its Next Generation Shared Services programme.

However, research by Queen’s University in Belfast has shown that although merging services

can be more efficient, it can also carry hidden costs. The study identified five areas of concern.

Firstly, the restructuring involved often costs more than is planned. Secondly, time and money spent writing contracts or service-level agreements – including legal fees – and monitoring performance are rarely accounted. There is a risk of creating additional layers of management and coordination.

Thirdly, the quality of the service is often reduced, and decision-making can be slower.

Rules on standardisation can be prioritised over service quality. Often the service provider determines what the user can have: ‘the tail wags the dog’.

Fourthly, organisations that are using a shared service centre often end up setting up shadow teams that then check the work of the centre, which undermines efficiency gains. Organisations end up duplicating the work of the shared service centre.

Lastly, by spending energy and resources on shared services reforms, public bodies are not doing other things. Is this sacrifice worthwhile?

Does major restructuring of shared services divert attention away from redesigning front-line systems and processes?

Shared services can deliver efficiencies and economic savings, but greater awareness of the hidden costs and risks involved is necessary. The Queen’s University research suggests that shared services should be considered only as one of a range of options for improving administrative efficiency.

Sometimes they may be the best choice, but reforms to in-house provision may be preferable.

Greater recognition of the trade-offs between production and transaction costs, and between inefficient and fail-safe redundancies will improve initial cost-benefit analysis. Finally, resistance to shared services is not simply a ‘people issue’ to be dealt with by appropriate change management.

It is also an opportunity to engage end-users in reform design and implementation.

Our colleges should tread warily.

“Does major restructuring of shared services divert attention away from redesigning front-line systems and processes?”

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 7

P O L I C Y M AT T E R S

ASSESSMENT

The chaos surrounding primary assessment in the past year has been unprecedented, and AMiE and ATL continue to push for major changes to next year’s tests WORDS SALLY GILLEN

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here’s a crisis in confidence among leaders when it comes to assessment,” says ATL policy adviser Anne Heavey.

“There has been so much change in the last year, with the new SATs and baseline assessment. Schools have been given no time to implement change and no solid support. All the Government has is snake-oil solutions.”

First came the controversy over baseline assessment, introduced in September 2015. Many primary school leaders argued testing four-year-olds’ reading and writing just weeks after they start school was unlikely to yield meaningful results.

The Government’s intention to compare baseline results with KS2 SATs, to show the effectiveness of a school’s teaching, understandably caused concern.

By lobbying against the baseline assessment, ATL and AMiE successfully exposed the test’s flaws. Research we commissioned from the Institute of Education at the London School of Economics and funded jointly with the NUT found just 6.7% of teachers who took part in the research believed the test was an effective way to assess children. The Department for Education’s (DfE’s) own evaluation concluded that it was impossible to

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compare schools’ results because they were using different testing systems.

In light of its evaluation, the DfE was forced to abandon plans to use test results as an accountability measure.

Thousands of primaries across England then opted out of the baseline test this September. ATL believes between 3,000 and 4,000 used the test again, compared with around 15,000 last year.

Heavey says if the Government had made clear its position on whether schools could continue to use the early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) earlier, more leaders may have dropped baseline this September.

“Members really like the EYFSP because it gives a nuanced assessment of children. We have been asking since April for some clarification on whether the profile could still be used. But it wasn’t until midway through August – right in the middle of the summer holidays – that the DfE said schools must continue to use the profile.”

Heavey, who was at the heart of the campaign against the baseline test, urges schools not to use it. “There is no point in doing it, especially as it won’t be used to hold schools to account. We have shown this is a flawed policy and the results are not useful.”

Heavey also says schools that do use the baseline test are hit with significant

costs. While the DfE allocated around £10 million to fund the baseline for three years, many hidden costs are not met, with schools, for example, paying for extra supply to cover teachers carrying out the assessments.

With the victory over baseline, ATL and AMiE are now pushing for significant reform of KS2 SATs, following this year’s shambles. In May, we were contacted by many members who were appalled by the reading test, which was so hard it left many children in tears.

Concerns among leaders are summed up by a letter we received from an assistant headteacher expressing “deepest concerns” about the “ridiculously difficult” KS2 reading test: “I had one very able boy in tears for 20 minutes, kicking a chair, and inconsolable. I had one very able girl unable to move on and let go of a question because she hates to leave things unanswered. I had support staff and teachers looking at me to reassure them that it was ok for them to sit back and watch able children giving up and less able children believing wrongly that they are failures.”

Taking members’ concerns to the top has been a key strand of the campaign to see SATs testing radically overhauled to prevent a repeat of this year’s mess. Ten letters from members were shared with ministers and civil servants in the DfE. “This reading test was much too hard and was really designed to test speed rather than comprehension,” explains Heavey.

For a Government obsessed with statistics, the 47% failure rate must be alarming. At a meeting secured with education secretary Justine Greening just days after she took up her post, ATL general secretary Mary Bousted warned her that primary assessment needs to be tackled urgently.

Heavey says: “The fact they got this test so wrong really calls into question the capacity of the DfE to design suitable assessments,” adding: “The knock-on effect for leaders is significant, with some teachers unwilling to teach Year 6.”

ATL is now pressing the Standards and Testing Agency to make significant changes to next year’s SATs. With the NUT and other unions, we are working to gauge what, if any, action members may want us to take.

Options may include a boycott, but talks are still ongoing.

F E AT U R E

n o i t a m r o f Inoverload: Reducing the burden

Data management is one of the main causes of the unnecessary workload that is driving teachers out of the profession. What can leaders do to reduce the burden on staff?

WORDS PAUL STANISTREET ILLUSTRATION DANIEL ŠPAČEK

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hile some data entry and analysis is essential to effective teaching and learning, in far too many cases the information collected does not lead to better teaching or to improved outcomes for learners.

Instead, it has become a major driver of unnecessary workload. So significant is its impact on leaders’ and teachers’ time, that former education secretary Nicky Morgan set up a data-management review group to look at ways to better manage information.

The group – one of three, with the others on lesson planning and marking – concluded in its report published in March: “The collection of data becomes an end in itself, divorced from the core purpose of improving outcomes for pupils, often just to ‘be ready’ in case data is needed, what we have called ‘gold plating’.”

ATL’s assistant general secretary for policy Nansi Ellis agrees: “Schools, and the education system generally, are drowning in data. National data takes precedence, and schools spend a lot of their time mapping their school data against the national data. But this misses a key point: data should be used by teachers and school leaders to continually improve teaching, by understanding

what has an impact on pupils’ learning.

Data shouldn’t be used as an automatic verdict on schools or on teaching, but should be used to stimulate questions about the learning that takes place.”

The group’s report found that all parts of the education system had “been culpable in allowing the development of a culture of excessive data collection” and argued that “all have a role to play in redressing the balance” and reducing “unnecessary burdens of data management by ensuring that every data collection has a clear purpose, and that the process is as efficient as possible”.

Government, school leaders and teachers, the report said, “should challenge themselves on what data will be useful and for what purpose, and then collect the minimum amount of data required to help them evaluate how they are doing.

Decisions about the identification,

“Schools and the education system generally are drowning in data ... data shouldn’t be used as an automatic verdict on schools or teaching.”

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 9

F E AT U R E

collection and management of data should be grounded in educational principles. In this way, schools can have greater freedom to balance professional autonomy and agency against the demands of the accountability system”.

In particular, it said, staff should not be asked to duplicate data collection that takes place elsewhere and school leaders should conduct regular audits of in-school data-management procedures to ensure they are manageable for staff.

Making data manageable The report made some practical suggestions as to how data collection can be made more manageable, including the effective use of whole-school datamanagement system/registers, the use of software for tracking pupil progress, the use of tablets for assessments, effective use of support staff (for example, through removing administrative tasks from pupil-facing roles and sharing data managers with partner schools), teacherled CPD with a focus on improving practice rather than disseminating information, and the use of online tools for administrative processes. The report also suggested that Government consider including data-management skills in national qualifications for school leaders. In addition, the Ofsted clarification document indicates that: “Ofsted will take a range of evidence into account when making judgements, including published performance data, the school’s in-year performance information and work in pupils’ books and folders, including that held in electronic form.”

“Government has an important role to play in reducing the burden it places on teachers and leaders.”

Ofsted does not expect performance and pupil-tracking information to be presented in a particular format. Such information should be provided to inspectors in the format that the school would ordinarily use to monitor the progress of pupils in that school.

There is much to welcome here. As Ellis notes, the three reports imply two key messages: “that we are all agents of change, and that there are things we can do now to make changes; and Government has an important role to play in reducing the burdens it places on teachers and leaders.” The Government’s commitment to streamlining data-entry points and processes should reduce the amount of duplication of data collection.

But, as the report also indicates, much of the responsibility for reducing the data-management burden on staff will fall on leaders, who often feel pressured to collect data to show progress and satisfy inspectors’ hunger for evidence. “School leaders, who make time to think about what data will be useful for their own school, can then begin to identify the minimum amount of data to collect, which will help them to judge how the school is doing,” Ellis says. “The governing board needs to be involved in these conversations, too.” Particularly helpful,

she argues, would be a timetable for data collection, with explicit reasons given for each collection. “Then everyone is clear what is being collected and analysed, when and why. School leaders will also be able to see whether there are particular pressure points for teachers around carrying out assessment and providing data.” Teachers, she says, need “an understanding of what the data says about pupils’ learning, and how to use that information to improve teaching: where schools can employ someone to enter data, or at least cut down on the amount and frequency of data collection, teachers can spend more time using the data to make a greater impact on pupils’ learning.”

Establishing a purpose The 2015 Commission on Assessment without Levels report urged leaders to ask a fundamental question: What purposes are the data intended to support? In the book she has edited, Managing Teacher Workload, Ellis says: “It is hard to know what data to collect, how frequently, or how to analyse and report it. Once you have agreed the purposes, then these answers become more obvious”.

A school that manages data well will have a strong understanding of how to use it to identify individuals who need support. Its assessment policy will set out when it is useful to record data, and when it is not. It will also explain how the data will be analysed and what decisions and actions can be taken based on the data.

Where data is used judgementally or punitively, whether by the school leadership team or because of inspection

10 THINGS LEADERS CAN DO TO REDUCE THE DATA-MANAGEMENT BURDEN • Have a vision – and ensure data collection is tailored to support it.

• Only collect the data you need to improve teaching and learning outcomes – don’t collect data just because you can or because you think Ofsted wants it.

• Choose a system and stick with it – the system needs to be stable, as changes to the way it functions can mean spending time relearning how to use software.

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• Give advance warning of change – teachers need ample notice of changes in assessment and reporting policies, with guidance available well ahead of those changes.

• Give teachers the CPD support they need – and focus on improving practice rather than disseminating information.

• Consider your own CPD needs – think about what training you need in order to understand how best to use the data to

support your practice, and how best to collect data that answers the questions you want to raise.

• Don’t duplicate – ensure relevant data entries are made only once.

• Engage staff – make sure teachers are involved in choosing or developing an appropriate system.

• Think about time – consider how much time it takes to enter

data so you can make informed decisions, for example, about the costeffectiveness of hiring a data manager.

• Consider making a member of staff responsible for leading data analysis – NFER suggests that “useful discussions of data among staff tended to occur in schools where one person took a proactive role in using data to move learning forward”.

F E AT U R E

ABOUT MANAGING TEACHER WORKLOAD

judgements, it is much more difficult to be open about your data and to learn from it.”

Dr Robin Bevan, headteacher at Southend High School for Boys, says: “All staff should feel comfortable in asking questions about how information is collected, how often it is needed, what it is then used for and whether there might be an alternative approach.” One useful approach, he says, is to pre-populate data sheets whenever possible, since making a limited number of amendments can be quicker than entering all the values. The key, however, is to ensure data collection supports improved learning outcomes.

“There is no doubt that, in many schools, the pressure around pupil monitoring actually encourages staff to enter what their line managers want to see rather than the reality of pupil progress,” Dr Bevan says. “Data that is collected too often, or with an implicit expectation that it will always show gains, will generate an unreliable picture. Senior staff will only know that if the communication within the organisation is open and trusting.

Indeed, a high proportion of the excessive workload related to data is associated with a lack of confidence in the professionalism of teachers.”

Training is important too, says AMiE director Mark Wright, and can help prevent staff viewing data as a threat.

“Good practice needs to be supported by collaborative CPD, looking at how to use the data constructively, reflecting on the questions that teachers want to ask about their own practice and how to use data to answer those questions, rather than just the current focus on how to use the systems, how to interpret national data and what school data tells you about the progress your pupils made this term.”

An imbalanced focus Building confidence and trust should be the goal for leaders, Wright adds.

“Growing those around you and building their capacity can help you let go enough not to need constant reassurance from data. What might be a comfort blanket for leaders can be the source of strangulation for an overworked teacher already perhaps struggling with curriculum change and having to also constantly supply data on top of all this. An imbalanced focus on data is myopic and, ultimately, poor management, no matter how ‘improvement focused’ the process looks on the surface. Leaders must have vision, which includes a holistic view of what’s happening now.

If there is simply too much going on then the leader’s job is to keenly prioritise for good teaching and learning in a way that is sustainable.”

Managing Teacher Workload, published in August, was edited by ATL assistant general secretary for policy Nansi Ellis.

It covers a wide range of topics and includes contributions from AMiE council member Robin Bevan, headteacher of Southend School for Boys, and Lee Card, deputy head of Cherry Orchard primary school in Worcester. Tips on how to think about and manage data are included in the book, and some key questions and discussion points from the book are below: Questions to discuss with colleagues/ senior leadership ÚWhat purposes are our data intended to support? ÚWho will use and interpret the data, and how will they use it? ÚWhat decisions or actions do we want to be able to take, based on the data? ÚAre the assessments we use reliable and valid? (There’s no point collecting data from poor assessments) ÚDoes your data help you to improve pupil learning? ÚDoes your data help you to reflect on your teaching? In particular to track whether a particular intervention has made a difference and to which pupils?

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 11

PROFILE

W

hen she took to the stage to deliver her address as ATL president at Annual Conference back in 2008, Julia Neal painted a vision of the future. In it, more and more teachers were leaving the profession, “frustrated by the lack of trust, the lack of freedom and the need to concentrate on rigid testing”.

Eight years on, her words appear to have a more than prophetic ring.

The Department for Education (DfE) continues to pile on the pressure with its relentless desire to test, test, test, and education leaders are finding themselves struggling, amid a national teacher shortage, to recruit from a shrinking pool of talent. On top of this is the year-on-year funding squeeze that demands leaders deliver more, but with less money.

Now AMiE president – she took up the role officially last month – Neal is keenly aware that the problems she identified so many years ago are now placing education leaders under huge strain. And as deputy head of Torquay Girls’ Grammar School sixth form, she has first-hand experience of many of them. “The issues I was raising then have got 50 times worse,” she tells ELM. A case in point is her 2008 prediction that schools would become mere “exam factories”, a theme and phrase she returned to this year when she spoke in support of a motion at Conference.

Her concern - then and now - is shared by many senior leaders in primary schools, who expressed, for instance, real worry about the baseline testing of four-year-olds introduced in September 2015. ATL/AMiE successfully campaigned against the test, using findings from research it commissioned with the NUT that showed just 6.7% of teachers believed it was a good way to assess how primary schools perform. The DfE later dropped its plan to use the test results as an accountability measure.

Meet the president WITH DECADES OF UNION AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE, JULIA NEAL UNDERSTANDS THE NEEDS OF TEACHERS AND EDUCATION LEADERS WORDS SALLY GILLEN

12 ELM | OCTOBER 2016

“The worst thing to hit since 2008 is the Government fragmenting education, and the increased pace of academisation and free schools, and the waste of money on these initiatives,” says Neal. “The austerity agenda is very difficult for leaders.

Funding cuts are hitting schools and colleges, there are problems with the amalgamation of post-16 provision through the area reviews, and pay and conditions are being eroded.”

Post-Brexit, funding for public services is also likely to take another hit, although it is not yet known what the financial fallout will mean for education, she adds.

“Running alongside that is the whole issue of recruitment and retention. Managers are struggling to recruit enough people to deliver the curriculum in the way they want to.”

Multiple stresses on leaders - the unrealistic expectation they can do more with less – makes the job of leading harder than ever. In this climate, more support and help is needed when it comes to making decisions, says Neal, adding that AMiE has a new booklet (see page 14) looking at applying the principles of ethical practice.

But of all the issues affecting education, tackling the stress caused by excessive workload is top of Neal’s list. “If I was going to select one issue for the secretary of state to look at, I’d pick that. It has a

PROFILE

huge knock-on effect on recruitment and retention, and staff welfare.

“Government keeps getting it wrong.

Information is given to schools late, we have had guidance on assessment qualifications given late – nothing has been done to improve that. There are issues too in primary around SATs. Staff are working silly hours to manage frequent change that isn’t always thought through properly.

Former education secretary Nicky Morgan’s attempts to address workload through her Workload Challenge - which resulted in three reports on how to reduce time spent on marking, data management and lesson planning – misses the point.

Nothing put forward by Morgan helped individuals combat workload,” says Neal.

“It is down to individual schools to manage systems and procedures as best they can, but they are still being overburdened by central Government.

There isn’t much point having workload reports if the system itself is in disarray.”

And there are no signs of let up. The Education for All Bill, which is due to start its parliamentary journey in autumn, could contain measures that may boost the number of academies. A Government axe also hovers over national pay and terms and conditions, which could leave time-pressed headteachers with the unenviable task of having to devise a pay structure for their own school, and heads could also be given responsibility for accrediting trainee teachers if plans to scrap QTS are followed through.

Fending off today’s challenges, plus those looming tomorrow, will require a robust strategy. That is before the political uncertainty is added into the mix. For this reason, Neal, who has been involved with ATL and AMiE for as long as she has been a teacher, firmly backs the potential for a new union formed by ATL and the NUT. “Unity is strength,” she says. “A new, bigger union will have so much more to offer its members in terms of support, advice, CPD and campaigning clout. The potential for our leadership members is very exciting. By AMiE coming together with the NUT’s leadership members, we can really put pressure on the Government to listen to the profession.”

But what of concerns among some members that ATL and the NUT have

“IN THIS CLIMATE, LEADERS NEED MORE SUPPORT AND HELP WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING DECISIONS.” conflicting cultures, especially around industrial action?

“There is much more that unites us than divides us, particularly in policy areas such as funding, testing and forced academisation. I have worked with many NUT members in my career, locally and nationally, and I almost always found that we agreed.

“Although ATL adopts a debate not demand, pragmatic approach, it is a mistake to portray ATL and AMiE as a non-strike union. When it matters most, when it counts, when we can’t find another solution, we will use our strike option.”

As a long-time union member, who has been a member of Executive Committee and held the highest position – ATL president – Neal says: “My involvement with ATL has been long, the roles I have had have been varied, and a move towards a new union, I would see as an ultimate ambition.”

On a personal level, Neal says her involvement with the union has offered exposure to a wide range of people working in different parts of the sector that she would not otherwise have had.

Most of her career has been spent at the same school, but Neal believes her outlook and knowledge has been expanded by being active in a union and local politics.

“I’ve developed my trade union career alongside my own career and I had a headteacher who was very sympathetic to trade union work and prepared to let me have time to do it,” she explains. “I have always seen it as very beneficial to learn all about different parts of education and meet colleagues from different types of schools and parts of the country. It gives you a better all-round holistic view. I don’t see myself as being just in one school and very inward looking.

“By being active in the union and going to meetings you get to understand what the issues are across the education sector and you can follow the student journey,” she adds. “You can get bestpractice ideas from each other and it makes you a better professional.”

Her involvement with ATL has included four years on the equalities committee and one of her goals for the coming year as AMiE president is to devise a strategy to boost diversity among education leaders – a perennial problem. Neal acknowledges that there is something of a catch-22 when it comes to addressing the lack of black and minority ethnic (BME) leaders: in order to boost the number of BME candidates for top positions, role models are needed to inspire confidence and belief among people from such backgrounds. But how do you get those people in the first place, ie the people who will become the first role model at their school or college?

“There’s no denying it is difficult, but having more BME leaders brings all-round benefits. For students from minority groups, seeing diverse leaders sends a powerful message that they should be confident about aspiring to top jobs.”

Getting more members to become active will be one of Neal’s goals.

“Becoming more active brings so many benefits in terms of developing skills to become a better manager.”

Perhaps, too, the support from peers within the workplace and beyond has never been more highly prized, especially with so many challenges ahead. The popularity of social media among senior leaders alone is a sign of the value placed on the advice of colleagues elsewhere.

“Somebody can send out a question about something they are concerned about and get a whole wealth of expertise back within an hour or less,” Neal points out. With a busy Twitter account herself, Neal is keen to share ideas with members, as well as spread the word about what she is doing to lobby Government on their behalf and raise awareness more widely about the challenges facing education.

“Please do get in touch,” she says.

3 MORE INFO For a full list of Council members and details, visit http://amie.atl.org.uk/about-amie/your-union/amiecouncil.asp. And follow @AMiEJuliaNeal for regular updates over the next year.

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 13

F E AT U R E

The only way is ethics Uncovering wrongdoing in the workplace can leave you in a compromised and vulnerable position. AMiE’s new booklet on ethical leadership includes advice on how to blow the whistle WORDS SALLY GILLEN

D

iscovering a practice at work that is ethically questionable should propel you into swift and straightforward action. That’s the theory, at least. In practice, it’s not always so simple – even if it should be. Speaking up about wrongdoing is likely to force you into conflict with colleagues, your manager or governors.

Or, depending on the nature of what you are exposing, all three. You are likely to be challenged, even face hostility, if you question unethical practices that are well-established and accepted as “the way things are done”.

In the increasingly pressured climate that many leaders are working in – with the expectation they can deliver more with less – there may be a temptation to cut corners.

Challenges to ethical leadership are covered in AMiE’s new booklet, Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice.

Booklet co-author and director of AMiE Mark Wright says: “Unethical behaviours around financial irregularities in particular are increasingly in the media spotlight. This is money that doesn’t make it to front-line teaching and 14 ELM | OCTOBER 2016

learning. Leadership can come from any level of the organisation when someone becomes aware of such practices and is prepared to challenge them, with the support of their union.”

Remember, if you find you need to raise concerns, whistleblowers are protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, which covers events such as a criminal offence,

breach of a legal obligation and danger to the health and safety of an individual.

A disclosure should first be made to the employers, or if you feel unable to use the organisation’s procedure, to a prescribed person, so that employment rights are protected.

AMiE regularly supports leaders to raise concerns. Our legal experts can advise you every step of the way.

F E AT U R E

DOING THE RIGHT THING: A CASE STUDY In this extract from Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice, Jennifer (not her real name) describes how she was working at an FE college when she discovered fraud was taking place “It's been a year since I deployed the whistleblowing policy at my college. I had been a member of the senior leadership team for a number of years, and had been recently appointed to a new and challenging role and given the task of transforming a new area of responsibility that had a long track record of disappointing student success rates. There was a recent history of several leaders who had been unsuccessful in this task and a climate of negativity among the staff. I had a reputation for possessing high professional standards, doing the right thing and a track record of outstanding performance.

The incident, which began to concern me more and more, was a false claim for a large number of student certificates to an examination awarding body. Having been told by my line manager not to notify the awarding body, I was left in a highly compromised position: if I failed to report this then I was complicit in the malpractice; if I reported it then I would be going against a direct line-management instruction.

I endeavoured for many months to get my voice heard, using normal communication channels and giving the college the opportunity of doing the right thing, but eventually I resorted to going to the top of the organisation, ie the chair of governors and the audit committee, to get the issue addressed. It was only following blowing the whistle that the awarding body was informed, the falsely claimed certificates were retracted, suspension was placed on the college by the awarding body for claiming further student certificates, the funding falsely received by the college returned to the SFA and the issues laid bare for all who needed to see.

Some lessons learned from blowing the whistle 1. Join a union – I have been a member of ATL for almost 20 years, but before blowing the whistle I never had any reason to make contact with it. However, when I realised my concerns were being ignored by the college, and I had exhausted all channels, I approached ATL for advice. It guided me each step of the way, supported me to get evidence in place, attended hearings with me and negotiated an exit strategy on my behalf.

2. If you’re planning to blow the whistle, get your facts in order – create a comprehensive timeline of events which led up to the issues and back up each event with hard facts, evidenced wherever possible in writing.

Keep a diary of significant events from the

time you blow the whistle, especially if you are being mistreated or victimised.

3. Be clear about your motivation for raising your concerns. Check yourself that you are not doing it to get your own back on some real or perceived injustice and that the situation has serious consequences if not addressed. This will give you the basis that your motivation is ethical and help you to satisfy any panel question in this regard.

Before presenting your case to a panel, rehearse it and ensure you come across as professional, ethical and raising concerns for the right reasons. This can be challenging as you are likely to be made to feel that you are a troublemaker.

4. Only use the whistleblowing policy as a last resort. It is not an easy option and should only be considered if you have attempted to get your voice heard using your organisation’s normal communication channels and failed.

I tried for months to get my voice heard using these channels and I gave the college many opportunities to do the right thing. It was important to me that I had tried everything before taking my concerns higher.

5. You can't blow the whistle alone – ensure you have the full support of not only your union, but also the emotional support of family and friends and maybe just one or two work colleagues or peers. I had a hugely supportive partner who also challenged me to keep doing the right thing at each stage. I also made use of the support from the AMiE regional official, someone who would listen and reflect to keep me on track, when it was wearing a bit thin at home.

6. Look after yourself – this is so important.

I took a course of meditation as a form of relaxation, got away from familiar surroundings when I could, went for walks and made sure I did not overwork. I was signed off work for several weeks with work-related stress and suspect that this was a relief for the college. I dedicated specific time to the work required for drawing together evidence for the hearings, got to bed early to ensure I had sufficient sleep and accepted spontaneous opportunities to have fun.

7. When presenting your case, stick to the facts and avoid any personal criticism. I created a timeline over a six-month period of each key event with some form of documentation to support each event. This proved my case beyond doubt and gave me confidence in my lowest moments.

8. Be prepared to be scapegoated and victimised by those you are calling to account. I was cold-shouldered, snubbed at meetings and criticised. Be prepared sometimes to feel like giving up and being silenced, but understand that this is just part of the process and these feelings will pass.

9. Trust your instincts and beware the ‘independent’ investigation. Check out the person chosen to conduct an investigation is not a friend or known ally of the accused. If so then get your union to challenge the use of that person. In my case, while the investigation confirmed all the facts of my complaint, it paradoxically still failed to uphold the whistle blow. It was a whitewash! Although not all investigations may fail to reach the appropriate conclusions it is essential to prepare for the worst. I appealed successfully.

10. Know when to declare victory and be prepared to move on – you can only take it so far. I took my concerns to the people who needed to know, I used my college’s systems to the fullest extent culminating in an appeal against the whitewash investigation. However, even in the case of victory there needs to be the recognition that relationships are likely to have been irretrievably broken.

Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice Every day, education managers and leaders are faced with making decisions that have ethical implications. And in a high-stakes climate, where one set of poor results can end a career early, it can be tempting to take shortcuts.

Can you be sure that your recruitment processes are fair?

How do you investigate allegations against staff? What about how you communicate with staff? All of these issues are addressed in this new booklet published by AMiE. A mix of theory and practice, the booklet describes different types of ethical leadership, which leaders can model their approach on and then covers a range of scenarios, many of them real-life examples, where your ethics may be tested. It provides advice and tips on keeping ethics at the heart of your everyday practice.

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 15

STRUGGLING TO FIND HIGH QUALITY TEACHERS? The answer is right in front of you.

Upskill your existing school staff and take control of your workforce with Straight to Teaching.

Our online and in-school programme is a personalised, low cost alternative to initial teacher training that leads to QTS. Best of all, your staff can qualify without leaving your school.

As the largest Assessment Only provider in England, you can trust our experienced team.

Over 450 schools already have. You could be next.

ourse runs: Redcar – 10 October 2016

BBC micro:bit workshop for teachers, parents and pupils

tes.com/institute/ELM | 020 3194 3200

ourse runs: Lincoln – 1 October 2016

Putting D&T into STEM

ourse runs: Rugby – 22 November 2016 Liverpool – 29 November & 12 December 2016

Electronics and programming for KS3 and GCSE Building systems and simple control at KS3 and GCSE

ates coming soon.

CPD Autumn 2016 – Deliver the new D&T GCSEs with confidence Ensure your schools’ training programme is in place, preparing you to teach the new D&T GCSE from September 2017.

Book places on our exciting programme of CPD for Autumn 2016 and into 2017.

Becoming an excellent secondary D&T subject leader

BBC micro:bit workshop for teachers,

Course runs: Birmingham, London, Sunderland

Course runs: Nottinghamshire

Planning to teach the new GCSE in design and technology

Putting D&T into STEM

Course runs: Haverhill, Sunderland, Liverpool, Essex, Nottingham, Bristol.

London & Birmingham sold out

Relevant textiles content for KS3 and GCSE product design Course runs: London, Liverpool, Birmingham

Product design for KS3 and GCSE Course runs: Suffolk, West Midlands

What’s happening

parents and pupils

Course runs: Rugby, Liverpool, London

Electronics and programming for KS3 and GCSE Warwickshire

£195 (members) and £250 (non members) If you can’t find your required course at a venue near you, please contact us. Hosting a course at your school may be an option.

For more information or to book your place go to www.data.org.uk, call us on 01789 470007 or email on events@data.org.uk Secondary CPD Schedule October D&T_ELM_OCT_16.indd 1 2016inal.indd 1

016_ATL_ELM_Oct_16.indd 16

04/10/2016 13:51:08 04/10/2016 14:46

04/10/2016 14:49

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

ABOUT AMiE

MEMBER OFFER FOR NEW WORKLOAD BOOK EDITED BY ATL Managing Teacher Workload, edited by ATL assistant general secretary for policy Nansi Ellis, was published in August.

Contributors include AMiE council member Robin Bevan and AMiE member Lee Card, deputy head at a primary school in Worcester.

The book contains a broad range of expert tools, strategies and advice to help education professionals tackle excessive workload.

Ellis said: “Too often school cultures are more about compliance than about collaboration or creativity,” adding: “I hope people will use this book as a practical resource to reflect on their own practice, to support and challenge others and to cut the unnecessary work that wears them down ... It is full of interesting stories from teachers and leaders about how they have made changes.”

Members can buy a copy for £8.00 (a 33% discount) using code ATL8 at the checkout. Visit www.johncattbookshop. com/managing-teacher-workload.

See page 9 for our feature on data management.

We want all of you to join our campaign, watch our video www.atl.org.uk/abouttimevideo and share it on social media with #make1change.

You can also find out more about ATL’s work-life campaign on our website, www.atl.org.uk/abouttime Leadership seminar Boosting morale, maintaining effective working relationships and retaining staff are the themes of a leadership seminar on 11 November in Manchester.

The 50 places for the seminar are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. AMiE will reimburse reasonable travel expenses for delegates.

For more information, email Kat Griffin at kgriffin@atl.org.uk, call 020 7782 1524 or go to http://amie. atl.org.uk/seminars2016.

Got a problem? Get advice ATL and AMiE advise members on a wide range of key employment concerns including pay, workload, contracts, bullying and maternity and paternity rights. We recognise that it may be difficult to reach us during core work hours, which is why, last month, we extended the service so we can now be contacted from 5pm–7pm, Monday– Friday, term time and during the holiday periods. Call 020 7930 6441.

Between 9am–5pm, AMiE members can call the national helpline on 01858 464 171.

LEADERSHIP COURSES FOR MEMBERS 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/ about-amie/your-union/contact-us.asp. Here is a selection of course names and dates.

LEADING OUTSTANDING TEACHING AND LEARNING – ENSURING THE BEST FOR ALL STUDENTS London

ETHICAL AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP: HOW TO FIND YOUR VOICE AS A LEADER

ETHICAL AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP: DOING THE RIGHT THING

London

London

Manchester

20 January 2017

2 December

25 January 2017

23 November

LEADING CHANGE SUCCESSFULLY IN TURBULENT TIMES

18 November

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 Mark Wright Director of AMiE 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.

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

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 17

MASTERCLASS

Rules for recruiting

PAUL HUNT, SENIOR BUSINESS MANAGER AT HAYS EDUCATION, OFFERS ADVICE ON HOW TO RECRUIT THE BEST TEACHERS

I

2 1

f you’re struggling to recruit, every step of the process needs to play its part in attracting the best candidates and persuading them to join your school. In the current market, you can’t afford to waste time. From the first job advert to the interview itself, the way you go about recruiting your staff will have a bearing on how successful you are at negotiating the teacher shortage and finding the teachers you need.

Cast a wide net

If you’re in a remote location or recruiting for a shortage subject, you’ll need to be proactive and creative in your approach to finding candidates.

Think about the job titles used in your advertising, and whether teachers could teach multiple subjects. For example, if you are recruiting for a history teacher, but are open to considering a geographer with history as a second subject, you could advertise for a teacher of humanities. Job titles such as ‘director of maths’ or ‘assistant headteacher with responsibility for maths’ could attract more candidates than ‘head of maths’, if the staffing structure allows.

If your usual local press advertising is not working, think about where your applications come from and how you can target these groups.

18 ELM | OCTOBER 2016

Your advertising should highlight the unique benefits of your school.

Emphasising the training you offer will help attract teachers wanting CPD, and show current and potential employees that working for your school is exciting and offers lots of support and opportunities, particularly for NQTs. If the cost of living in your area is a barrier to recruitment, think about what else you can offer to incentivise staff to join you, such as a relocation allowance or subsidised travel costs and childcare vouchers.

You should encourage community awareness of careers in your school by engaging with pupils and parents to showcase opportunities in the school, and encourage students to return to the school if they go on to become teachers themselves. Developing relationships within the community by supporting local events and good causes is a good way to improve interaction with teachers in the area and spread good word of mouth about the school.

Some schools have success recruiting by establishing programmes for teachers to change phases. Phase change is quite common, and a lot of teachers aren’t sure where to turn when they want to move from primary to secondary or vice versa.

Be there for them and you could have the pick of talent across education, not just your phase.

Don’t wait for the best teachers to come to you. Work with a recruiter to contact potential employees to discuss opportunities at the school.

At the very least they may refer you to other potential candidates.

References

References from a teacher’s current and former school or, for NQTs, mentors or tutors, are useful after shortlisting rather than after interview. For teachers, we require a headteacher as a referee, for safeguarding purposes.

In the reference, we ask headeachers to grade aspects of performance from poor to outstanding. The benefit of this is that headteachers can identify potential issues before the interview and be prepared to ask questions and find out more. Headteachers who are recruiting

“DON’T BE AFRAID TO REALLY PROMOTE YOUR SCHOOL AND THE STUDENTS ...

IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET, YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BE MODEST.”

MASTERCLASS

3

will identify an agreed reference if these haven’t been answered.

The interview

Make sure you let candidates know in good time that they have been chosen for interview and be clear about what preparation they need to do for the interview and observed lesson.

Make sure all your questions serve a purpose – don’t ask questions that won’t make it easier for you to make a decision. Good questions elicit useful information from interviewees, providing them with the opportunity to expand on the points they made in their application form and to show off their skills and experience. Through your questioning you want to be able to form an idea of who the interviewees are, their subject knowledge and their teaching experience.

The majority of teaching interviews now use the competency-based interview technique. Competencybased interview questions are the most objective way to assess how someone will perform in the future, based on how they have demonstrated key competencies in the past.

One of the most common interview techniques used to test for competencies is called the STAR technique. This technique asks candidates to describe a situation they were in, for example, teaching a difficult class or new subject, then describe the task in question, such as improving exam results.

Next, candidates should describe the action they took – what exactly did they do to improve attainment?

Finally, they should focus on the results and try to quantify this as much as possible. For example, 20% more A-C grades than the previous year. You should aim to ask questions that allow candidates to answer in this way.

Bad questions, on the other hand, are vague and unstructured, and do not allow a candidate to provide these kind of examples of their behaviour and approach to the job. You should avoid questions that don’t allow you to measure candidates against each other, and keep the format of all your interviews consistent. Make sure you really listen to their answers and don’t talk so much that the candidate doesn’t get a chance to shine.

The interview is also your chance to sell the job to candidates. Don’t be afraid to really promote your school and the students, talk about your vision for the school, your successes, and the training and career development opportunities available. In a highly competitive market you can’t afford to be modest.

size, and if it’s a revision class or the beginning of a new topic.

During the lesson, look for how much passion and enthusiasm candidates have for teaching and the subject matter – their level of subject knowledge, how they approach the subject and structure, the lesson and the relationship they develop with the students. To recruit the best teachers it is important that you take note of the students’ opinion of the lessons and candidates. That way you can get a sense of how well a candidate will fit into the school environment. To see how candidates might fit with the school’s environment, see how they interact with the other teachers.

You could have them sit in on a staff meeting and ask for their feedback and suggestions they may have about certain items raised. Some schools use student panels to get their students’ input into the recruitment process, and students may pick up on things that even the most experienced teacher may miss when interviewing.

5 4

The observed lesson

An observed lesson can be a really valuable way to gain a full impression of what candidates will be like in a teaching position. Give the candidates plenty of time to prepare, and all the information they may need: what subject they’re teaching, the year group, class

Securing the best candidate

Finally, once you’ve found a strong candidate, don’t delay. If you wait a long time between closing applications, shortlisting and interviews, you may lose candidates to other schools if they interview more quickly. In the case of shortage subjects you just can’t afford to waste time and lose out on the best people.

OCTOBER 2016 | ELM 19

ADVICE

Difficult working relationships

What can you do when your chair of governors turns into a micromanager?

I’m headteacher at a primary school with a small leadership team.

I get along well with my leadership team, but not with the chair of governors.

Increasingly he micromanages me; and recently called me to a meeting at which he criticised my performance over the last half term. I fear matters will only get worse unless I leave or he does.

There are things you can do to try and improve your relationship before more formal options are considered.

Ask yourself: Is there anything in his or your behaviour that is undermining or souring your working relationship?

What is the underlying issue causing concern? How does his management style compare to your own? Are you confident that the chair understands his role? You should also look for issues and actions that overlap. What is the common ground? It is also a good idea to seek the views of your leadership team.

It may also help to speak to us. AMiE director Mark Wright can talk through your leadership, governance and professional concerns and offer advice where appropriate.

Of course, some of your reflections may only be a best guess as to why the chair is micromanaging.

Once you’ve had time to reflect, you then need to prepare a way forward.

20 ELM | OCTOBER 2016

Based on what you see as the problem, pull together any information that will help you. For example, recent appraisal reports, parental feedback, data, any internal reports you have produced.

Look for things that are likely to help address the chair’s concerns; and in particular, those that overlap or that you share with the chair. Examples of what has worked, achievements and changes taken on board are particularly useful.

A meeting, perhaps in an informal setting, should be arranged.

Beforehand, work out what you want to achieve. Have some goals and practical solutions, or steps of how you might arrive at them. For example, you may want to arrange an awayday with the chair, some other governors and your leadership team to showcase your achievements and/or share understanding of roles and responsibilities. Or you might simply update him on progress around the issues of concern, and agree new boundaries for future work.

There is always a danger the chair will try to dominate the meeting. It will therefore help to break down the issues into some sort of order; and use this as an informal agenda. Taking each issue in turn, outline what you see as the problem and then offer the solution as a sensible way forward. Where you

“OUTLINE WHAT YOU SEE AS THE PROBLEM AND THEN OFFER THE SOLUTION AS A SENSIBLE WAY FORWARD.”

want input or opinions, ask open questions, and listen carefully for points on which you agree and/or can respond to positively.

Remember that you are trying to reach your goals. Concentrate on what you know will work. Explain that some of what he is doing (without calling it micromanagement) is not necessary. For example, point out that you are leading a successful team, and have their well-being to consider.

Describe what will work best for you and say that he will see this through your results and those of your team.

Avoid direct criticism as this may make him defensive and negative.

Once the conversation is winding down, review what has been agreed, and what areas, if any, need further discussion. Afterwards, make some bullet points and send them in a friendly email to the chair.

If the meeting becomes difficult, cut it short and perhaps reschedule if you think it may be worthwhile.

If the chair becomes hostile or aggressive, remain polite, but point out that such an approach is unhelpful, and then leave. At this stage a call to our employment relations helpline is advisable. We will then discuss with you more formal responses such as a grievance or mediation.

Hopefully, however, the strategy outlined above will prove helpful, and you can look forward to a more constructive working relationship.

3 MORE INFO Our guide Holding Difficult Conversations can be found on the AMiE website resource bank at www.amie.atl.org.uk. You can contact the AMiE helpline on 01858 464171 or Mark Wright on 020 7782 1530.

U N I O N M AT T E R S

GAINING A STRONGER VOICE On 5 November, special conference delegates will take another step towards deciding on a new union, combining the strengths of ATL and the NUT WORDS MARK WRIGHT, DIRECTOR OF AMiE

T

alks around forming a new union with the NUT, which would offer leaders and managers greater access to support, advice and CPD, and a stronger voice in the education debate, have moved on. In July, ATL and the NUT discussed the potential for a new union at their Executive Committees and both Executives agreed to hold separate special conferences on 5 November.

If special conference delegates decide it is in the best interests of members to form a new union, there will be a ballot of, you, the membership to decide your future, probably in spring 2017.

The creation of a new union provides opportunities for leaders to exert greater influence in the setting of national policies. By combining their resources, the new union will also build on the strengths of both ATL and the NUT to offer excellent CPD, representation and advice to leaders and managers in schools, colleges and other workplaces.

At a time when education across the sectors is facing multiple challenges, creating a new union with a stronger voice presents a greater opportunity to argue for fairer funding, changes to assessment and a means of tackling the

“THE CREATION OF A NEW UNION PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEADERS TO EXERT GREATER INFLUENCE.”

recruitment and retention crisis, as well as to develop well-evidenced alternatives to current education policies.

Together, ATL and the NUT have already achieved successes around preventing detrimental changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, highlighting the flaws in baseline assessment and campaigning against plans to force all schools to academise. Both unions are

also united in their drive to ensure professionals work in an environment that allows them to deliver a first-class education to their students.

3 MORE INFO For further information, especially around the details of the special conference and any decision to ballot the membership on your choice for your future, go to www.atl.org.uk/newunion.

WHAT IS THE VISION FOR THE NEW UNION? Given the current challenges in education, a new union with combined resources aims to give its members: excellent advice, support and representation; learning and development opportunities; and a stronger voice in local and national negotiations and campaigns. A new union will not replicate what already exists. It is a chance for ATL and the NUT to work as equal partners to build on what works well within ATL and the NUT and within other unions.

Who will join the new union?

ATL and the NUT support the same types of members in England and Wales, including leaders and managers, and independent and sixth-form sectors.

ATL also supports lecturers and leaders in FE and HE, as well as support staff across every sector. ATL also organises in Scotland and Northern Ireland. A new union will offer membership and a democratic voice to every existing membership category.

How will ATL and the NUT reconcile their different approaches?

The NUT and ATL have similar policies and already work closely together in talks with the Government. We both believe that dialogue and debate is crucial, with industrial action as a last resort. The NUT’s industrial strategy has, in recent years, included action short of strike action backed by occasional regional and national strikes. ATL members have actively pursued strategies to defend members’ pay

and conditions, including taking industrial action on a local and regional basis. A new union will research the wishes of the wider membership on how to make their voices heard, which does not rule out national ballots for action, but does mean ballots for action are not the first line of defence.

What happens if ATL and/or NUT members decide they don’t want a new union?

We have been working closely with members at every level to understand what they expect and need from a new union. ATL and NUT members will be balloted separately but concurrently about moving into a new union. If either or both memberships say no, then the new union does not continue.

Who will be the general secretary of a new union?

After a transitional period, the new union will have joint general secretaries for five years.

FEBRUARY OCTOBER 2016 2015 | ELM 21

FINAL WORD

o, after nearly 10 years of separation, they are all back together again – schools, FE colleges and universities are united in the happy family of the Department for Education (DfE).

The rationale for a single education department is clear: to enable ministers to take a more holistic, joined-up approach to education policy, something that has not been a feature of the DfE (schools)/Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (FE/HE) split.

The opportunities for joined-up dialogue and thinking between ministers is to be welcomed. For too long, DfE ministers have pursued one agenda for schools – a rigorous academic curriculum and timed, linear exams. FE has been left to pick up the pieces when so many young people find their school experience to be uncongenial. The huge numbers of resits of English and maths GCSEs, and the excessive demands this policy has placed on the resources of FE colleges, is a key example of the disjointed approach ministers in the DfE have taken to education provision across the age range and across institutions.

It was John Cridland, former Director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who said that he wanted to break down the picket fence between schools and FE colleges, and to have individualised pathways that combine a mixture of academic and vocational courses. DfE ministers, under the previous secretary of state, Nicky Morgan, did not welcome this

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intervention. Nor does the Sainsbury review of vocational education answer Cridland’s exhortation that vocational and academic education are two sides of the same coin, advocating, as it does, a clear divergence post-16 between academic and vocational training.

The appointment of Robert Halfon as minister of state for apprenticeships and skills is also a new departure.

His responsibilities bridge pre- and post-compulsory education, and include careers education and guidance in schools, apprenticeships (including arrangements for the introduction of the apprenticeships levy), funding for post-16 provision, FE and sixth-form colleges and local patterns of provision (including area reviews and city deals).

That’s quite a list, particularly in a sector where there is huge turbulence and where key aspects of Government policy are coming under sustained attack. The CBI has never been a fan of the apprenticeship levy, and employers are resisting the imposition by describing the levy as a ‘tax on jobs’ which can, they argue, be ill afforded post-Brexit.

GETTING BACK TOGETHER 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

“IF FE IS TO GAIN ITS PLACE IN THE DfE SUN, IT NEEDS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF ... EDUCATION MINISTERS MUST RECOGNISE AND VALUE THE ROLE OF FE IN UPSKILLING THE WORKFORCE.” I do not accept this argument.

Successive Governments have exhorted, persuaded and pleaded with employers to step up to the plate and to train their workforce. Employers have proved to be highly resistant to ministerial exhortations and the result is clear.

Last year, 42% of employers offered their workforce no training or development.

Only 12% of employers have high-skills workplaces. Something had to be done to change this lamentable state of affairs, and the levy is a bold attempt to break from past failures and to force employers to take their fair share of the responsibility to train the highly skilled workforce they continuously complain is unavailable to them.

But if FE is to gain its place in the DfE sun it needs to be taken care of.

It is a sector that has struggled on through constant upheaval and lack of funding. Education ministers must recognise and value the role of FE in upskilling the workforce and must create more stable, long-term funding guarantees that will enable college managers to be able to plan for the medium to long term – something which is a faint hope at present.

As Sir David Bell, now vice chancellor of Reading University, and a former permanent secretary at the DfE, has written: “It is hard to think of a Government department that doesn’t have an interest in skills. From transport to defence, health to communities; business to justice – they all need the DfE to be a re-energised champion for FE if we are to thrive as a nation.”

GOLDSMITHS’ GRANTS FOR TEACHERS

2017 GRANTS FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TEACHERS Take Time Out from the Classroom!

The Goldsmiths’ Grant for Teachers provides an opportunity for teachers and head teachers to undertake a project of their choice, in UK or abroad, aimed at enhancing their personal and professional development.

The Grant forms part of the long-term commitment of the Goldsmiths’ Company to support teachers and head teachers in the United Kingdom.

Grants will cover travel, accommodation, material costs, etc, up to a maximum of £3,000.

In addition the GoldSmiths’ Company will pay a maximum of £2,000 supply cover to your school.

For guidelines and further detail visit our website: www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/charity/education/grants-teachers Or apply to: The deputy Clerk, The Goldsmiths’ Company Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, London EC2V 6BN

DON’T DELAY – APPLICATIONS MUST BE IN BY 1 DECEMBER 2016

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