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An example of “Leading School Turnaround”The setting:Suburban area with high levels of social and economic disadvantagePupils eligible for free school meals is twice
national average, an indicator of significant disadvantage
Half pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds High turnover of students
“Special measures”
2004 – reached national average but then a downturn -by 2006 in “special measures” a category used in England to signal that the school is failing and needs improvement
“Highly variable” academic performanceTeaching was inadequateSchool was adding little valuePrincipal resigned
Rowlatts Hill PS
Other examples of “failing”High staff absenteeism – constant flow of
subsNeither children nor staff felt safe, physical
attacks on staff “were part of life”Ineffective leadership/poor moraleAggressive parents“Children used to hit the previous principal”School “in crisis and free fall”
A real leader…
The change process has universal application.
If a school in Victoria was in a similar predicament, could a “real leader” turn the school around?
A 3-Stage Process1. Recognition/acknowledgement of a problem
2. Commitment (personal and collective) to do something about the problem
3. Action
Stopping the decline & creating conditions for early improvement“Some staff viewed socio-economic factors, not
the school itself, as the main problem.”Low staff morale – resented “special measures”
New principalFirst step: regular communicationImproved environmentIntroduced a uniform“Zero tolerance for (bad) behaviour”New climate of “trust, openness and honesty”Parents’ eveningsStaff-student committees, etc
Ensuring survival and realizing early performance improvements
High standards for teachingEffective leadership was about
capacity buildingPD encouraged (new learning
strategies)Creating learning
opportunities for staff and students
What changed?High achievement was a “shared expectation”Focus on improving teaching & learningFocus on developing and maintaining relationships
Achieving satisfactory performance and aspiring to much morePrincipal emphasised the importance of
school leaders connecting with the community
93% of parents attended Parents’ EveningMain driver was principalEmphasised developing positive relationships
Our questions to you...The case study presented in Chapter 3 draws our attention to the
involvement the principal had in leading the school’s turnaround. It shows that principals are expected to act as leader/managers of a multi-layered system.
How do we identify “underperformance” in a school? What sort of strategies can a Principal use to get the staff
involved in the process of “school turnaround”? If accountability for “school turnaround” is placed purely on
the Principal, will it work successfully?