How one person did it - insight on practice

Initial teacher training

The school had a long history of supporting students from a variety of colleges. We trained graduate teachers and created our own programme using an external agency to enhance our provision. Each student had a Home Mentor. The student spent the majority of their year apprenticed to this teacher. We had two highly experienced home mentors. Students had a teaching practice in each of the other years plus a teaching practice in a neighbouring Key Stage 1 School and visits to Key Stage 3.

Acting as mentor was seen as a defined strand of professional development for experienced teaching staff. We ran in-house training and during these sessions developed materials to support both students and mentors. We developed a group view of the level of professionalism expected of students at the school. 

Self -evaluation sheets provided the basis for discussion with the mentor. We also developed advice for mentors when observing lessons and a format for the recording of these observations.  Both students and mentors found these to be useful. 

We had a clear procedure for monitoring and evaluating student performance.  Students were encouraged to be reflective and involved in self-evaluation. Proformas were devised for this. Student and mentor met once a week to discuss these with the head or deputy. When I left headship there were eight experienced staff who acted as mentor and a further seven staff were in the process of being trained.

NQT induction

I instituted a structured induction programme for NQTs as soon as I took up my appointment as head in 1984. As a four form entry junior school I felt it was important to get to know each member of staff really well.  I acted as their mentor, and later my deputy and I shared the role.  When the government introduced the formal induction of NQTs, we were extremely well placed as our programme needed minimal tweaking. 

NQTs were seen every week, plans were gone through, issues including record keeping, report writing, marking, display etc. tackled. NQTs had the benefit of a training programme run by the local authority (LA). They attended LA courses fortnightly, in the alternate weeks they received curriculum development support in school from subject leaders. 

Lesson observations took place and a formal review was done termly.

There was a half-day of non-contact time each week, built into the budget by the LA. A formal programme of working with other teachers was devised based on identified areas for development.

A range of issues are covered including:

• lesson planning and delivery
• subject knowledge
• assessment
• record keeping
• marking
• discipline
• report writing
• teacher expectation
• dealing with parents.

The NQT Career Entry Profile fitted into our own Professional Profile which was created as part of the Senior and Middle Leadership training programme.

Next step – for teachers in their 2nd and 3rd years

Through our monitoring and evaluation process we discovered that while new staff were extremely well supported, there was a discernible difference in the skills, confidence and expectation demonstrated by those teachers emerging from their NQT year when compared with those teachers who had five or more years teaching experience. In order to address this issue we set up a two-year Programme. 

We met six times over the year. Teachers were able to be slotted in as they arrived in school as the programme was ongoing.

We covered various issues including:

• what makes a good lesson
• teacher expectation
• high expectation and standards
• comparison of work
• discipline
• the role of display
• the role of the Subject Leader
• monitoring and evaluation; and
• assessment. 

It is an indication of its success that everyone chose to take up the opportunity to join the group.

Our whole school-monitoring programme demonstrated clearly that teachers gained both confidence and competence.  This had a direct effect on the raising of standards.

The next generation – 4th year teachers

This was created out of the need to find a way of retaining staff who otherwise left at the end of their third year of teaching to gain promotion in other schools.  We have been unable to give financial incentives because of our poor budget allocation. Instead we offered the opportunity for professional development through the ‘Next Generation’ group. Needs were identified via self-review and discussions with the Head and the group.

The group met half termly. There was an emphasis on people skills. We employed a mixture of approaches including role-play and discussion. There was a great deal of laughter but much was learned about strategies to deal with potentially difficult situations.

Staff identified a need to work on presentation and public speaking skills. Many teachers found the thought of talking to a group of colleagues at a staff meeting or to parents at an information session daunting. We worked on a range of strategies, beginnings, endings, how to field difficult questions, remembering to breathe!

There was a marked improvement in performance and a much greater confidence shown by everyone. Opportunities were given for staff to try out their new found confidence when presenting at Parents Information sessions or staff meetings. 

The school had a zero tolerance of aggression. Specific training ensured that staff were well prepared when facing inappropriate behaviour from children or parents. The outcome was a greater confidence shown when talking to parents in other arenas and fewer complaints from parents about the way in which staff dealt with them.

One of the great spin-offs of this work can be illustrated in the following example. 

Part of the work we did on man management was to role play situations such as when a member of staff continuously fails to hand plans to the subject leader in on time.  Not only were subject leaders much better at calling colleagues to account in a constructive and professional way but the incidences of such behaviour was greatly reduced as we created a collective understanding of the negative impact such behaviour can have on others.

One IiP assessment saw the Next Step and Next Generation schemes as ’exemplary evidence of innovation and pragmatism in training.’

Next generation, the sequel: preparing for deputy headship

Two of the most experienced members of the Next Generation group requested that another group be set up to enable them to prepare for a future role of deputy.  We created a programme which looked at lots of ‘What If….’ situations and the group identified strategies to deal with them. Staff were encouraged to explore the consequences of different decisions with reference to the wider context of law, health and safety, governance and the LA. 

Several members of staff were successfully appointed to Deputy Headships after being part of this programme.

Role of the subject leader

The role of the subject Leader was well defined at the school. Ofsted found them to be highly effective in their role.  They had clear job descriptions and were fully involved in the planning, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of their subject. Training was given to support subject leaders in their role. 

Subject leaders regularly ran in-house training sessions for staff in their subject area. This helped to develop staff confidence and expertise which had the knock on effect that the trainer was also gaining a different expertise in working with adults.

Middle leadership

The middle leadership team felt left out! They requested further development and we were happy to oblige.

One of the underpinning principles of our CPD programme was to develop strategies and materials with more experienced teachers who would then use those materials and skills to mentor and support less experienced staff. 

Teaching others is a great way of deepening understanding and developing even greater awareness and confidence. A professional development portfolio and our leadership audit were both created in this way with the middle and senior leadership teams.

Senior leadership

Senior leaders were offered a range of professional development opportunities. 

Both the middle and senior leaders of the school were involved in the development of quantifiable criteria for leadership and management which show the progression from inexperienced to expert. It focused on aspects such as communication, making judgments, person management, planning and taking the initiative.

The senior managers created exemplar materials using the Teaching and development agency for Schools (TDA) criteria for subject leaders.  It was used with other staff and become an integral part of each individual professional portfolio.  They initially worked as ’coach’ with the middle leaders to ensure the materials worked well and then both groups worked with the rest of the staff using the materials as part of our performance management process.

It is an indication of our commitment to professional development that every member of the full-time teaching staff is involved in one or more of the above groups.  All take place in teachers’ own time, apart from some of the work of senior leadership TDA co-ordinators.

Professional reviews

All staff were involved in appraisal of colleagues. Training was given to all staff in giving and receiving verbal and written feedback. The process underpinned a whole school understanding of what ’excellent teaching‘ looked like and we developed shared high expectations.

Professional development through whole school monitoring and evaluation

The school had a clearly defined programme of monitoring and evaluation. All staff were clear about their responsibility to monitor their own role and that of their colleagues. 

The focus of all whole school monitoring was determined via the general leadership team. Criteria were determined well in advance and the process was carefully planned.  Expectations were made explicit at the start, and individual and whole school feed back was provided afterwards. Our ongoing CPD programme was planned around the needs identified through this process and progress was measured.  Our culture was based on ongoing development rather than blame.  The process was absolutely transparent.

The general leadership team – developing decision making in a collaborative setting

This was set up for a number of reasons. 

• I was concerned that there was not enough time available for planning and INSET. 
• I had become more and more aware that teachers generally were happy to give the responsibility for decision making to others and then quite happy to moan about them.
• I believe that future leaders need to develop decision making skills right from the start of their career if they are to be effective leaders of the future.  This was an effective way of involving them in the process.

Any decision made in the meeting had to stand. All decisions were reviewed over time an appropriate review date was set at the time of the decision.  Where there were concerns about any decision an earlier review date was set.

The GLT was the vehicle for making whole school policy decisions freeing up staff meeting time for professional development, planning, and monitoring and evaluation.

The GLT met only when there was a clearly defined purpose.  All members of staff were welcome to join so long as they were prepared to give up their time for the whole year. 

The vast majority of the teaching staff were members, which is an indication of how much it was valued.  The Chair of Governors was also a member of this team.

The parameters of decisions were clearly defined right from the start.  Those things which were non-negotiable were identified. Staff were encouraged to take an active part in the process.  I had to learn to ‘hold’ my tongue as many were reticent in the early days. 

Professional development of the deputy and head teacher

Both head and deputy were involved in continuous development.  I believe it is important to practice what you preach. 

Over the 22 years I spent as Head at the school I had four deputies.  All had a thorough Induction programme and maintained their ongoing development through a mixture of in-house and external training.

Both I and my deputy trained for external roles. The perspective gained by seeing other schools in a variety of contexts is incredibly useful. 

We developed a range of experience and skills by:

• keeping at the cutting edge of educational developments
• undertaking external roles working with the National College of School Leadership (NCSL), the London Institute, and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT); and
• visiting other schools and LAs.

These skills were in turn offered to staff through the professional development programme in the school and in our beacon work.

All money earned went into the school’s budget to support special needs and initiatives including electronic whiteboards in every class.