Building a culture of high staff performance - Learners …€™s next steps in relation to a culture of high staff performance and Jane’s strategic leadership role . ... (SENCO),

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Building a culture of high staff performance

National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) Case study: Bull Lane Primary School

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National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)

© National College for School Leadership Case study I Leading an effective school I LEVEL 3

Case study: Bull Lane Primary School 1

This case study centres on the work of Jane, a new headteacher, and explores her leadership in introducing, implementing and embedding a culture of high staff performance.

It focuses on:

− development and introduction of a strong, collaborative school vision

− development of a new staffing structure with a strong emphasis on teamwork

− effective appraisal systems to foster a committed and motivated team of staff with high expectations and levels of accountability

− a whole-school approach to continuing professional development (CPD)

The case study is written four sections:

− Background: information about the school and Jane’s headship

− Strategies: strategies used to establish a culture of high staff performance

− Outcomes: the impact of these developments on the quality of teaching and learning

− Key learning and next steps: what Jane sees as her main learning points, including establishing a culture of high staff performance and the key leadership skills and behaviours that contributed to her success, and the school’s next steps in relation to a culture of high staff performance and Jane’s strategic leadership role

Background

Bull Lane Primary, a large (650 pupils) suburban 3-11 primary school, is very successful: it is deemed by Ofsted to be outstanding. The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is 8 per cent and the percentage who speak English as an additional language (EAL) is 13 per cent, both below the local authority average. The percentage with statements of special needs at 2 per cent is above average. There are 33 teachers (29.5 full-time equivalent (FTE)), 37 teaching assistants (24.8 FTE) and 4 office and premises staff.

This is Jane’s first headship. She became headteacher six years ago, having been the deputy at the school for three years. This was a difficult period. The previous head had been in post for many years and although Ofsted had deemed the school very good (graded 2 on the seven-point scale in place at the time) three years before, it was clear that there were weaknesses in teaching, leading to underachievement of children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1 (KS1). There were also four newly qualified teachers (NQTs) to support and two experienced teachers on maternity leave. It was critical to improve staff performance to achieve the school improvement priorities but systems lacked rigour and accountability and this is what Jane and her headship team worked hard to develop. On appointment to the headship she introduced a revised whole-school approach to performance management, provided training for all staff and clarified accountabilities and responsibilities in all roles. Her headship team supported the implementation of the revised approach and monitored this across the school.

When Ofsted inspected the school 18 months after Jane became head, the school was judged to be only satisfactory. The inspectors did, however, comment on a number of strengths. The inspectors identified that the way in which individual pupils were developed was a strength of the school. Relationships in the school were good and pupils were happy, enjoyed school and contributed to the wider community. Teachers were enthusiastic, committed and had good subject knowledge. The report also stated that there was some good teaching but overall teaching was only satisfactory.



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The report, however, said:

Monitoring of [staff] performance is regular but is not contributing well enough to improvement because it is not always sufficiently focused.

Ofsted, 2008

The satisfactory judgement came as a blow to everyone but it galvanised staff into action. They wanted to make rapid progress.

Following the inspection, Jane and her team accepted that whilst the performance management policy was being implemented across the school, much more focus was needed on ensuring that objectives were agreed and set that would improve the quality of teaching.

The Ofsted report had highlighted the fact that Jane had established a climate in the school in which relationships were good. Good teamwork existed, with staff being deployed in a way that made good use of their skills. So Jane had some strengths to build on and firm foundations on which to change the way performance management operated in the school. Her priorities were to use performance management and professional development processes to:

− build on the good teaching to improve the quality of teaching across the school

− ensure judgements being made about the school’s work were accurate and not over-optimistic

− ensure pupils were sufficiently challenged and so made more progress

One key leadership task for Jane was to embed a vision across the school that reflected her ambition for the school to be ‘a thriving purposeful community of learners, with high-quality teaching and learning’. Her ambition was that all pupils should thrive and succeed academically, personally and socially. When they moved from the school her vision was that all pupils:

− should enjoy learning for its own sake

− would have responsible and disciplined attitudes to learning

− would have a positive self-image, with the motivation and will to succeed

− would have skills and competencies required to move happily and confidently to next stage of learning and become life-long learners

Jane approached the challenge of making the vision a reality across the school by working closely with her headship team so all individuals in the team modelled the school’s values and demonstrated the school’s ethos in their day-to-day work. Investing time with her team built the leadership capacity she needed to bring about the rapid changes. She was also conscious of her own important role in modelling the behaviours she wanted to see in all staff. For example, her communications with individual parents at the school gates were positive and focused on the progress their children were making, and conversations with pupils in class provided appropriate praise with an element of challenge. The agendas for staff meetings concentrated on pupil learning and progress.

Jane also promoted the school’s vision through an ethos statement made available through all school literature such as the prospectus and in all classrooms so that it became familiar to staff, pupils and parents. The statement says that the school is:

A thriving, purposeful community of learners where adults and children work together in an environment planned for high-quality teaching and learning and where all those involved in the successful development of children work closely together for school improvement.

School prospectus



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It is clear that this is now not just words on paper but very much the reality of the school in practice. The core values are also ingrained in the work of all staff. These values are:

− high-quality relationships

− individuality and inclusion

− independence

− creativity

− teamwork

− development of the whole child

− achievement right across the curriculum

− the classroom as a learning community

− enquiry-based learning

For example, all staff regard high-quality relationships as a key element of their working day; relationships with each other, with pupils and with parents. Staff relationships are based on mutual trust and respect and develop through their shared commitment to pupils’ learning and progress.

Jane has promoted a policy for home–school partnership in which parents are encouraged to get involved with their child’s learning by helping with their reading, spelling and handwriting. For example, the school suggests to parents that they encourage their children to use dictionaries and spellcheckers and to write to relatives with their news.

Contexts for learning has been introduced to the curriculum and this is designed to develop independent and creative learners. Three contextual themes are covered each year by pupils in each year group. For example, the theme of inspiration and innovation draws on a Victorian theme including historical content and mechanical toys in design and technology (D&T). The theme world of contrast, on the other hand, includes content from science, D&T, geography, history and religious education (RE).

The school ethos is fundamental to staff development. There’s an open-door policy, and as a teaching assistant said:

Anybody can go and talk to someone senior at any time. No one feels worried about talking about anything.

Teaching assistant

Strategies

Several strategies were used to achieve a culture of high staff performance. Jane’s view was that a staffing structure is critical to delivering vision and values, and she wanted a structure that would build on the good teamwork identified in the inspection report. She also believes that engaging staff as actively as possible in the life of the school enhances staff performance and so recommended a less hierarchical structure to the governing body. Appraisal and staff development have also been key to achieving a high-performance culture. Following the inspection, Jane said it was critical that she and other leaders in the school implemented the appraisal system in a more rigorous and challenging way, and in a manner that supported all staff so they could perform at their best. An effective staff development system, Jane maintains, is an essential ingredient to a performance management system and also to achieving a culture of high performance. Through her positive, optimistic and influential leadership, Jane persuaded the staff that these three strategies would deliver the improvement they all wanted.



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4 Staffing structure

The staffing structure (Exhibit 1) is fundamental to fulfilling the school’s vision and values. It is flatter and less hierarchical than before and based on working in teams. The headship team is made up of the headteacher and two deputies. The senior leadership team (SLT) comprises the advanced skills teachers (ASTs), one of whom is also the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO), the senior higher level teaching assistant (HLTA), the curriculum resources (school business) manager, the chair of governors and the headship team. The team-based approach contributes to sustaining high expectations and high performance as it provides an environment in which all staff are supported in their day-to-day work and also challenged to continue to improve.

Exhibit 1: Staffing structure

M

o

s

Leadership Group

Advanced skills teachers SENCO x 6

Headship

Curriculum development teams

− English

− Maths

− Science

− Arts

− Global dimension

− PE/heathly schools

− Global dimension

ASTAs TAs L1/L2

HLTA learning support/TA CPD

Curriculum resources manager

team x 3

Governing body

Healthy schools

− Languages

− SEN

− Foundation Stage

Admin & organisation team

Site manager/ Assistant caretaker

Extended schools x-curricular

y Accrediting excellence

One of the school’s aims is to develop teachers to high standards so that they are good enough to gain AST status. The head has promoted a culture of learning across the school so all staff are committed to professional development and take personal responsibility for engaging in appropriate activities. Through the performance management process, all staff have professional development objectives that relate to both the school’s improvement priorities and their own professional careers. A wide range of such opportunities are available, including school-based workshops, peer observations and coaching, and access to external programmes.

The headteacher is passionate about the concept of ASTs: people who are proven to be excellent teachers, with a good level of knowledge and skills that lead to outstanding pupil learning and who have a talent for helping other staff develop. In our school, she says:

ASTs are the guardians of the curriculum. Headteacher



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Ten teachers have passed the rigorous external assessment over the years, three of whom have gone on to become headteachers. The staffing structure includes six ASTs. As there will shortly be two vacancies there are also plans for three more teachers to go through the assessment process.

Although it is not a nationally recognised status or externally assessed, the school also denotes six teaching assistants as advanced skills teaching assistants (ASTAs) in recognition of their contribution. There are high levels of teaching assistant expertise and experience, and most of them have worked at the school for more than seven years. The school business manager (SBM), herself a teaching assistant in the school for 10 years before moving into the office, said:

Visitors find it hard to know which adult is the teacher and which the teaching assistant. SBM

Six people have undertaken training and gained HLTA status.

The staff in each year group (approximately 90 children) make up a team of 3 teachers with different levels of experience, and teaching assistants. A great deal of thought is put into planning the year-group teams. The deputy head says that putting the right people in the right places enhances everyone’s development.

To sustain motivation and develop the intellectual capacity of the school, the membership of each team changes from year to year:

Teachers will normally work with a year group on a two-year cycle and will usually then move either within key stages or across them. This gives maximum opportunity for the development of expertise as a teacher across the primary age range.

Staffing policy

This approach enables staff to learn from each other and for best practice to be shared systematically across the school. The collaborative working approach is particularly valuable for team of teachers who are predominantly women in their 30s:

We’ve experienced lots of maternity leave amongst the headship and leadership group so teamwork has been crucial to developing sustainable leadership during times when people are absent for maternity leave or working part time.

Headteacher

Both the deputies have young families and work part-time contracts of four days a week. The school’s strong learning culture and its approach to collaboration allows this flexible structure to work effectively.

Incentives

The school is unusual in not having any teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) allowances. ASTs and individuals who are paid on the upper pay scale are expected to lead curriculum and year-group teams for no extra financial reward. The headteacher does not believe in giving staff financial incentives except that which comes from moving up the pay spine. In the same way pupils are not given stickers for behaving as they know they should. This approach is successful at this school, and under Jane’s leadership pupil behaviour is judged to be outstanding. In the recent Ofsted report inspectors said:

Behaviour is mostly outstanding in lessons, around the school and at lunchtimes... pupils know that play fighting leads to real fighting.

Ofsted, 2008



6 Recruitment

Recruitment is not a problem, with low staff turnover and plenty of applications to select from when jobs are advertised. The school has a stable staff. One NQT currently covers for someone on maternity leave. In any year about 10 trainee teachers from high-status university PGCE courses undertake teaching practice at the school. The most successful are given contracts if there are vacancies, which is what happened to Jon:

I did a teaching practice at the school and got my first job there too. I took over the leadership of the ICT team in my second year, overlapping with the previous leader who was going on maternity leave. After four years I gained AST status.

AST

The headship team is keen to recruit a certain sort of person: someone who is a life-long learner and who is passionate about child-centred learning. Jane and the team see this as critical to achieving and sustaining a culture of high performance. Recruitment materials make clear that the school employs about six ASTs at any one time. NQTs therefore understand that it is a clear career route and indeed an expectation to which people should aspire. Shortlisted candidates are not asked to teach a lesson: their conversations during the interview and informally are all-important. A key question that the headteacher asks is, ’Why do you think this is the place for you?’. Governors say that the answer to this has an important bearing on the final decision. Having people who want to be part of a learning community is vital, as the website indicates:

Developing a learning community in our school where everyone involved is a learner who can learn alongside and from each other is important for both adults and children. Children learn through a variety of approaches but at the heart of this is collaboration – the same for adults too. Children learn independently, in pairs or groups with a wide range of peers developing real collaboration skills. This is also modelled by staff that work in class, year-group and subject teams to foster and develop a collaborative learning community. We are all learners.

School website

NQT staff are well supported and the teamwork approach across the school enables all new staff to become familiar with the school’s structures and processes quickly and to understand the vision and values of the school.

Appraisal

The headship team is keen to maintain a working environment which fosters well-motivated and committed staff. The school’s high expectation of them is matched by a commitment from the leadership group to ensure that conditions exist for job satisfaction, personal challenge and opportunities for ongoing professional and career development. The performance management policy plays a key role in contributing to an ethos of high expectations and achieving high performance. It sets out the framework for a clear and consistent assessment of the overall performance of teachers, support staff (they have recently been placed within the local council competency framework) and the headteacher. It also supports them within the context of the school’s improvement plan and their own professional needs.

Policy

The performance management cycle runs from October to September for teachers, from December to November for the headteacher and from October to April for support staff. For teachers, individual performance management meetings are held in October to review the previous year and set new objectives. One objective focuses on pupil progress and relates to the school improvement plan, another is about their wider role in the school, and a third on professional development.



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In addition to continuous informal monitoring and support, every teacher and teaching assistant has one formal classroom observation during the spring term each year. Interim review meetings take place during the first half of the summer term. Staff complete the form (Exhibit 2) and discuss it at the meeting. At the end of the summer term, teachers are given data for the class they will be teaching the following term. This information about their new class will inform the setting of pupil progress objectives for the following academic year.

Formal review meetings take place in the first half of the autumn term to consider whether objectives have been met. New objectives are agreed and set and professional development needs identified. A personal professional development plan is kept and updated by the individual during the year to chart progress made.

Exhibit 2: Structure of staff review and development meetings

Staff review and development meetings are intended to give opportunities to both look back on the past academic year and forward to the next. With this in mind please complete and bring this form with you, together with your updated individual professional development plan for this year, to guide our discussions and review progress against objectives.

Review

− What things have been going well for you this year:

• individually

• in your year group

• in your area of responsibility?

− What has not been going so well? Any thoughts as to why?

− Progress against objectives:

• Pupil progress

• School development/leadership responsibility

• Professional development Development

We cannot know for certain until the end of May what our teaching team for September will be. Assuming that you are here in September please give thought to the following:

− Would you prefer to stay in your present year group next year or move into another?

− How flexible could you be next year if a move was necessary for the school staffing plan?

− Which age range do you consider would be best for:

• your professional development

• the school as an organisation?

− Which aspects of your leadership team role do you consider need developing next year?

• What would you see yourself doing professionally in three years’ time? Objectives

All staff, including the headteacher, have at least three objectives and some have up to four. There are clear links between the key objectives in the school improvement plan and the teacher’s own professional needs, including meeting specific teacher standards. The example below shows how part of the school improvement plan to reduce the gap between boys’ and girls’ attainment in writing (as shown in Exhibit 3) is strongly linked to staff objectives.



8 Exhibit 3: School improvement plan

Action 1: To reduce the gap between boys’ and girls’ attainment in writing

Actions/tasks Timescale Resource and who

Cost

Review, using local authority data pack and RAISEonline, EYFS, KS1 and KS2 data focusing on gender

Gender analysis of class and year-group data and progress data shared with staff

Staff to use this data to inform performance management targets for a year group

Two members of staff to attend Raising Achievement in Writing (RAW) course, one member of staff to focus on EAL learners through Leading for Learning Middle Leaders Programme (L4L)

Examine current data for each cohort to identify current gaps between boys’ and girls’ performance in writing (note: more able achievers as well as less able)

Decide focus group of pupils who will be targeted

Identify possible resources and support with costing

With staff, agree strategies to support boys’ writing

With staff, identify a range of writing activities for boys and opportunities to write: specific initiatives to develop boys’ writing, eg use of writing frames, working in pairs to plan, compose and revise each other’s writing, motivating children to see themselves as authors through the production of their own books. Ensure feedback identifies next steps for development

Staff meeting to raise awareness of boys as writers: barriers, strategies, research, sharing good practice, attitudes to learning, sharing writing samples

Learning walk focused on writing (boys writers)

Peer observations of teaching to raise awareness of teaching styles and classroom interactions and to develop strategies to improve the quality of work of lower achieving boys

Monitor progress regularly throughout the year

Autumn term

Autumn term

Spring term

Spring term

Spring term

Spring/ summer term

Ongoing

Headship team/ leadership group

Headship team/ class teachers

Class teachers/ staff meeting

English team/ Headship team

Staff meeting English team

Staff team

RAW course fees 2 x £1,011 plus supply cover 2 x 6 days = £2,028

L4L course fees £550 plus 4 days’ supply cover and x 3 coaching sessions x half-day supply cover £1,352

Cover learning walk, peer observation, deputy head x 2 sessions a week; AST 1 session a week



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Action 1: To reduce the gap between boys’ and girls’ attainment in writing

Actions/tasks Timescale Resource and who

Cost

Success criteria:

− The gap between boys’ writing and girls’ at Level 4 and Level 5 at the end of KS2 is in line with the local authority average.

− The gap between boys’ writing and girls’ at Level 3 and the end of KS1 is in line with the local authority average.

− The gap between boys’ writing and girls’ achieving 6+ points at the end of EYFS is in line with the local authority average.

− Identified groups of boys will make better than expected progress in writing.

Monitoring:

− Staff meetings, English team, learning walks

− SDCC meetings

− Governing body meetings

− Headship team reports

− English team action plan/EYFS action plan

Evaluation and evidence for assessing impact:

− Samples of boys’ writing showing development

− Samples of feedback for improvement

− Samples of writing targets/tracking progress

− EYFS profile 2012/KS2 results/KS2 SATs

− Pupil questionnaires

The headteacher’s objectives and success criteria included:

− improve boys’ reading and writing so that it is at a level similar to that of girls for higher attaining pupils at KS1

− the gap between boys’ reading and girls’ reading at Level 3 at the end of KS1 is reduced to 6 per cent whilst maintaining girls’ attainment

− the gap between boys’ writing and girls’ writing at Level 3 at the end of KS1 is reduced to 8 per cent whilst maintaining girls’ attainment

A teaching assistant’s objectives included:

− increase staff awareness of writing issues related to pupils with dyslexia

This required the teaching assistant to study further in this field and develop her leadership skills which in turn enabled her to demonstrate professional standards.



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A Year 6 teacher, who has a strong track record of both boys and girls attaining, had the following objective:

− raise the achievement of high attainers in writing (Exhibit 4)

A Year 3 teacher’s objectives included:

− raise the achievement of low-attaining boys in writing (Exhibit 5)

There are also examples of two teachers’ objectives for their professional development related to an interest in autism in one case and leadership in another (see Exhbit 6).

Where performance is identified as below expectations, objectives such as ‘to improve standards in writing by ensuring writers who were Level 2c at the end of Year 2 progress to Level 2a by the end of Year 3 are broken down and monitored very regularly’. There are both pressure and support including peer observation, watching an AST model lessons, moderation and pupil tracking.

Exhibit 4: Year 6 teacher’s objective, relating to the school improvement plan

Objective:

to maintain the standards of Level 5 writers at the end of KS2 by ensuring the majority of Level 4b writers develop the skills and confidence needed to reach at least a Level 5c by June.

Success criteria:

− Regular writing sessions held for targeted group of children.

− Specifically focused teaching develops the skills required to become a Level 5 writer.

− Teaching assistants, teachers and children will have a clear understanding of the areas of focus and why.

− Children will have developed the confidence in their skills as writers to use these skills to achieve writing consistently assessed as Level 5.

− Writing samples will indicate writing at Level 5.

− Targeted children will meet or exceed the Fisher Family Trust (FFT) data. Exhibit 5: A Year 3 teacher’s objective, relating to the school improvement plan

Objective:

to develop the independence and writing skills in a target group of Level 2b boy writers, to ensure they make at least two sub-levels’ progress.

Success criteria:

− All children in the target group will make at least two sub-levels’ progress.

− These children will show greater confidence and independence in writing, evidenced through targeted learning conversations and writing samples.

− Children will be able to edit their writing independently.

− Children will improve their sentence structure, use punctuation and spell more accurately and consistently, evidenced through writing samples.

− Targets will have been used consistently and monitored regularly.



11 Exhibit 6: Example of two objectives, relating to professional development

Cathy’s objective:

to develop knowledge and understanding of the needs of children on the autistic spectrum and develop a range of strategies to support them.

Success criteria:

− I will have sought advice and had professional conversations with colleagues with expertise in autism, eg SENCO, learning zone teaching assistants.

− I will have sought out and attended a course on autism to develop my understanding and expertise.

− I will have read relevant books and articles on supporting children on the autistic spectrum.

− I will have successfully implemented these strategies in class with X and Y to support their learning in class.

Sue’s objective:

to explore opportunities to develop capacity and leadership skills

Success criteria:

I will have researched a range of opportunities to foster increased awareness of leadership issues and promote personal leadership development, eg refreshing my understanding of leadership styles, relevant opportunities

for CPD, exploring routes to leadership and developing strategies for managing challenging situations. Observation

A key strategy for development a culture of high performance has been the use of lesson observation. Jane thinks that, among other things, observation fosters and encourages open collaboration between teachers, promotes peer coaching and allows good and outstanding practice to spread throughout the school.

Staff are committed to the belief that lesson observation is developmental, supportive and plays a key role in sustaining the culture of high expectations and high performance. The policy clarifies that those involved in the process will:

− carry out the role with professionalism, integrity and courtesy

− evaluate objectively

− report accurately and fairly

− respect the confidentiality of the information gained

Observations for performance management are carried out in pairs during the spring term. Teachers are normally observed by an AST and someone from the headship team. Teaching assistants are observed for 20 minutes when they teach classes as part of their cover for teachers’ planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time. Level 3 teaching assistants are observed by someone from the headship team and the class teacher. Level 2 and Level 1 teaching assistants are observed by the lead HLTAs and class teacher. The form for recording observations can be seen in Exhibit 7. Although people find being observed stressful, they also find it useful. As an HLTA said:

It’s a great opportunity to say ‘well done’ officially. HLTA



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Individuals are encouraged to take a risk when observed in order to get the most benefit from observations. For instance, an HLTA wants to be observed teaching a dance lesson because this is new for her. The Year 6 teacher wanted to demonstrate his progress towards his objective in raising the attainment of his most able writers and so chose to teach a lesson where six high attainers taught groups how to play a written version of Monopoly. He said that the feedback was detailed, positive and helpful:

The school ethos really is for children and adults to be creative. I feel appreciated, supported and challenged.

Teacher

He feels that the headship group really walks the walk. Exhibit 7: Lesson observation form

Teacher:

Class:

Learning objective:

Subject:

Evidence to look for: Comments:

How well teaching promotes learning:

There are high expectations of all children.

Time is used effectively (pace and rigour).

Teacher subject knowledge is good.

Range of teaching styles meets the needs of children.

Rich and exciting learning opportunities are planned from a broad and balanced curriculum.

Planed, purposeful learning has meaning for children and links to other areas of learning and real-world contexts.

Children are involved in planning.

There are opportunities for enquiry-based learning and investigation.

There is effective use of adults to provide targeted support for learners.

Use of resources and technology maximises learning.

Classroom management and lesson structure maximise learning and best meet individual/group needs.



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Enjoyment of learning and attitudes to learning:

Children are on task and actively engaged.

Children are motivated to learn.

Children are well behaved.

Children show independence and make their own choices.

Children find ways to extend their learning and follow their own lines of enquiry.

Children continue their learning at home and outside school.

Children are keen to talk about their learning and share it with others.

Children remember exciting learning experiences and talk about previous learning.

Children learn collaboratively and support each other to solve problems and improve.

Children have high expectations of themselves.

Children are willing to take risks with their learning and learn from their mistakes..

How well teaching promotes progress:

Planned learning is flexible and builds on previous learning.

Success criteria are formulated, shared and used by children to aid progress.

Children make progress within a session and across a series of sessions and are aware of the progress they have made and how to progress further.

Children’s progress is evident from the classroom environment and learning outcomes on display.

Children apply their knowledge and skills from previous learning to new situations.

Adults give children detailed feedback, and support children to improve their learning.

Teachers ask children to think about how they learn, explain how they solve problems and how they could become better learners.



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Assessment:

Assessment is used to inform planning.

There is effective communication between adults about learners’ needs and progress.

Effective differentiation with challenge is deployed.

There is effective questioning throughout to check children’s understanding and address misconceptions.

There is dialogue with children and between children about learning.

Children are involved in assessing their own learning and reflecting on how to improve.

Children know how well they are doing and their next steps for improvement.

The progress of individuals and groups is tracked and strategies are employed where progress is behind expectations.

Overall: Observer:



15 Staff development

The headteacher and the headship group place a high value on developing all staff:

Staff development lies at the heart of our commitment to ongoing school improvement centred on the quality of teaching and learning in our classrooms. Performance management lies at the centre of this process in a culture of self-evaluation and reflection.

Staff development policy Policy

There is a staff development policy that applies to everyone who works in the school and ensures consistency. Its aims are to develop the:

− individual, giving increased job satisfaction, and professional development and guidance for career development

− school, through planned curriculum development prioritised by the school improvement plan

Jon, one of the teachers, confirmed:

This is a school that is constantly looking to move forward. There is a relentless pursuit for improvement that rubs off on all staff. We’re inspired, not pressurised, to develop.

AST

Each member of staff has a professional development planning statement (see Exhibit 8), linked to the school improvement plan and the performance management policy. The needs of individuals, teams and the whole staff are considered and planned for by the headship team, having taken into account the school improvement plan and any available funding from local or national initiatives.



16 Exhibit 8: Individual professional development planning statement

Name:

Leadership responsibility:

Team membership:

Main responsibilities:

Objectives discussed and agreed include pupil progress, school development, area of leadership responsibility and CPD

Success criteria:

1. Objective

2. Objective

3. Objective

4. Objective

Signed ..................................................................................... Reviewee ..................................................................................... Reviewer

Plan for achieving objectives (resource implications, CPD, school-based and other training opportunities for development of classroom practice, subject knowledge, extent, pattern and focus of planned classroom observation)

Autumn

Spring

Summer



17 Range of activities

The budget of £14,000 for staff development pays for external courses. All other needs are met within school or through free opportunities such as Level 3 NVQs for support staff and the local authority’s AST training. Staff have a wide range of opportunities through which to develop:

− Weekly staff meetings: year-group, subject team or whole-staff meetings are held weekly and the focus varies according to the school improvement plan. One of the teachers says, “Staff meetings are really good. There’s always something new to think about.”

− Training days: Building Learning Power by Guy Claxton was shared with two other schools. The SBM says, “We try to be cost-effective by inviting people from other schools to sessions led by top-quality speakers.”

− Local or national short courses, exhibitions and conferences: one AST was full of praise for the local AST training he’d attended on working with difficult people. One teaching assistant said, “We share training: if someone goes on a course they share the information and ideas with others.”

− Accredited courses: All the teaching assistants have taken NVQs at Level 2 or 3 in supporting teaching and learning in schools. One said, “It really gave you a buzz. The courses fill in the gaps. There’s a lot of misun- derstanding between teachers and teaching assistants because the teaching assistants don’t understand educational theory and why things are done in a certain way.” The lead HLTA described how the NVQs and other training have helped to “professionalise the teaching assistants – they’re not just mums.”

− Peer observation: there is well-established culture of watching each other teach.

− Working alongside one of the ASTs

− Collaborative working: all teachers are members of one year-group team and two curriculum teams to con- tinually move the school forward.

− Outreach: some of the ASTs work in other schools. Two members of support staff are NVQ assessors and also run training for other schools.

− Hosting visitors: the school’s child-centred curriculum and practice attract many visitors so the people involved in hosting develop by discussing their own practice and learning about practice in other places.

− Staff library: books and documents are available for browsing and borrowing in the staffroom.

− Taking new responsibilities: all three members of the headship group would like to go the National College for School Leadership’s annual conference which means being away from school for three days. Several staff have opted to take over during this time and have had a term to prepare for it, including attending courses on preparation for deputy headship.

The impact of staff development activities is gathered through conversations, performance management inter- views, CPD evaluations and records, lesson observations, team action plans, headship team reports, feedback from parent workshops, and feedback from outreach. The most recent inspection report concluded:

It has established an excellent professional development programme for staff. This helps to maintain high standards in teaching.

Ofsted, 2010



18 Outcomes

Jane set herself the task of making rapid progress with the key actions identified in the 2008 inspection. The hard work and commitment of Jane, the SLT and all the staff was acknowledged two years later in a subsequent Ofsted inspection when the school was judged outstanding. The inspection team acknowledged a range of strengths, including:

The headteacher provides strong leadership for a well-motivated and enthusiastic staff. Together, they demonstrate a sense of responsibility, ambition and a commitment to continuing to improve provision for pupils.

Ofsted, 2010

The report highlighted the fact that the school provides an outstanding education, with excellent achievement on the part of pupils. The headteacher’s leadership, along with the support she had had from a ‘dedicated, passionate senior management team and governors’ have been major factors in achieving this success. The inspectors acknowledged that the school knew its strengths and weaknesses well and that:

teachers’ enthusiasm and skills in challenging pupils at different levels of ability contribute to outstanding progress. Lessons are tightly focused and pupils are always made aware of their purpose and criteria for success. Strong relationships and respect between pupils and adults are a significant feature in all classes and these help to create a busy learning environment.

Ofsted, 2010

The report also commented that:

the headteacher provides strong leadership for a well-motivated and enthusiastic staff. Together they demonstrate a sense of responsibility, ambition and a commitment to continuing to improve provision for pupils. The results of this are clearly evident in the improvements in outcomes since the last inspection.

Ofsted, 2010

The headteacher and staff were delighted with the outcome of the inspection.

Through school self-evaluation processes the head continues to review data collected by a range of means to identify strengths and areas for development. A staff survey was used to show the impact of the school’s leadership in relation to wellbeing. All staff recently completed an organisational self-review survey. Every statement is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 3 being neutral, and anything above 3.5 being a strength. As can be seen in Exhibit 9, the average scores of all staff show that the school scored highly in all areas.



19 Exhibit 9: Organisational survey results

Section Average rating

Culture

3.8

3.8

Demands

Control

3.5

Relationships

4.1

4.1

4.0

Change management

Role

Support

3.7

Personal wellbeing

3.8

The statements that were most strongly agreed with in the survey were:

− We are achieving things we can be proud of. (4.5)

− Staff support and value one another. (4.4)

− We all help and encourage one another to do a good job. (4.4)

− There are things about working here that make me want to stay. (4.4)

− It is rare for me to feel that my job is dull or boring. (4.3)

− We believe in our organisation. (4.3)

− I feel that I contribute to the success of the organisation. (4.3)

− I am able to work in this organisation without experiencing unfair discrimination. (4.3)

− We all help to create a friendly, caring atmosphere. (4.3) Impact

One teaching assistant said:

I’ve developed massively. The roles that I’ve had over the years: I can’t think of any other school where I would have been given such support and opportunities.

Teaching assistant



20

Key learning and next steps

This case study has shown how one school has built a culture of high staff performance through a focus on performance management and professional development. It also demonstrates how such a culture makes a strong contribution to the outstanding achievement and wellbeing of pupils.

In relation to the next steps, action points from the Ofsted report focused on reducing the gap between boys’ and girls’ achievements in reading and writing and ensuring that when pupils are working independently they make as much progress as possible. Jane and her team are confident these actions can be addressed well and her main challenge now is to sustain the outstanding teaching and learning across the school.

However, the headship team is committed to work on solutions to improve areas that were less well evaluated. The school is clearly succeeding in being a learning community. To conclude, Jane summarised what she considers most important for a headteacher in building a culture of high staff performance:

It’s about being very clear about expectations and bringing everything back to the bottom line: children making progress. It’s about knowing your people well, those strong professional relationships, and acknowledging their effort, the importance of what Tim Brighouse calls ‘the daily acts of recognition and kindness’ [Davies & Brighouse, 2010].

Suggested leadership activities

Leadership activity 1

Jane was clearly determined that the school should improve rapidly from the satisfactory Ofsted judgement and had a very clear vision of having a high-performing culture in the school. Review the evidence from this case study regarding building a culture of high performance and link it to key messages you have learned from research studies.

− What can you learn from this about the effectiveness of your school’s approach to achieving a culture of high performance?

− What evidence can you draw from research to enhance your learning?

− What are the implications for you when you become a headteacher?

− What will your vision be about and how will you communicate it?


Jane has a strong focus on teams and collaborative working.

− How as a new headteacher will you encourage teamwork and collaboration within your school to improve outcomes?

− Look at the teams that exist in your current school and find out what teamwork and teams look like in other schools. What rationale do schools have for developing certain structures?

− Compare what you have learned with the research evidence on teamwork and high-performing teams.


− Jane uses a number of leadership behaviours and skills in developing a culture of high staff performance.

− Reflect on the extent to which these skills and behaviours are a strength for you or an area for improvement.

− What competencies in the NPQH framework relate to building a performance culture? Reflect on these in relation to your headship ambitions.



21

Reflection

Having read this account, reflect on what you can learn from the issues it raises.

− What leadership qualities and skills does the head demonstrate?

− What do you think of the school’s ethos statement: ‘A thriving purposeful community of learners where adults and children work together in an environment planned for high-quality teaching and learning and where all those involved in the successful development of children work closely together for school improvement’? How does it compare with your present school’s vision, in writing and in practice?

− One of the teachers says, “We’re inspired, not pressurised, to develop.” How does this compare with your experience?

− One of the teachers says, “Staff meetings are really good. There’s always something new to think about.” How does this compare with your experience?

− Consider the range of staff development activities. How cost-effective do you consider this range to be?

− How does this school link appraisal, staff development and the school improvement plan? What lessons can be learned?

− Teachers and teaching assistants are encouraged to take risks when they are observed. What are the pros and cons of this?

− How does your school measure staff wellbeing? References

Davies, B, & Brighouse, T, 2010, Passionate leadership, Management in Education (BELMAS), 24(1), 1-3

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3/C

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3

The National College exists to develop and support great leaders of schools and children’s centres – whatever their context or phase.

• Enabling leaders to work together to lead improvement

• Helping to identify and develop the next generation of leaders

• Improving the quality of leadership so that every child has the best opportunity to succeed

Membership of the National College gives access to unrivalled development and networking opportunities, professional support and leadership resources.

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