29/11/2022 0 Comments SWIFT Autumn Leadership ForumLevelling Up the South West | Lee Elliot Major OBE “All the secrets are within our own system.” Thanks to the ease of online forums, we were delighted in early November to be joined by Lee Elliot Major OBE as keynote speaker at our Autumn Term Leadership Forum in transit home to the South West from a trip to Norway. As Britain's first Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, Lee spoke with practical passion on “Levelling Up the South West.” An essential issue that is adding traction to the North-South Westminster debate. Delegates were particularly privileged to be in the audience the day before a hot-off-the-press feature in Schools Week. Lee hardly needed to remind school leaders that the classic images of the South West’s beautiful coastlines and landscapes - and not forgetting, the time-honoured cream tea, can too often mask the level of disadvantage within our region. As his starting point, Lee explained his involvement in the pivotal “Social Mobility in the South West | Levelling up through Education” report. Supported by the Cobalt Trust, the report published in April 2022 highlighted the region’s poor social mobility and unique challenges, and offered practical and impactful recommendations. Very pleasingly, the report is proving to be a call to action, and has clearly “lit some fires;” successfully bringing people together who have been thinking about the same issues and are now working together to find realistic solutions. The report figures were stark. Educational outcomes for poorer children in the South West are very low. In 2019, disadvantaged pupils in the South West were furthest behind at the end of both the primary and secondary stages of their education. Fewer disadvantaged pupils attained basic English and Maths GCSE qualifications and fewer went on to university than in any other region nationally. Recommendations focus on the following:
Data is being published on the disadvantaged for MATs across the region and nationally, developing a “school scorecard” that is more than the binary free school meals. Lee’s energy and excitement about implementing the report’s recommendations was evident. Aptly, he is an advocate for more explicit policy on levelling up in order to understand disadvantage at a deeper level and to seek how to address some of the issues and “best bets” for improving progress. Lee is working beyond the South West and speaking to lead national providers, as well as presenting to the Labour Front Bench, and the current Government. In case you were wondering (like one of our audiences), what in Lee’s opinion is the single most important thing that schools can do to better support their disadvantaged pupils without any extra funding?
Parental engagement. Too often, it is a weak spot for schools in how they interact with parents. So…as starter advice from Professor of Social Mobility, Lee Elliot Major OBE. Develop a focused parental education strategy: re-think home visits, home school agreements, and parents’ evenings and offer dedicated advisory sessions. Consider neutral meeting venues for those parents who never come into school and communications with parents. Reassuringly, Lee reminded school leaders that excellent practice is already in existence in all schools. Be innovative. Not least as schools face straitened funding in the future. “All the secrets are within our own system.” We thank Lee Elliot Major for joining us at our Autumn Leadership Forum and for sharing his insights and positivity into levelling up the South West. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team
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Over 170 school leaders from across the Devon, Plymouth and Torbay area came together online on the first Wednesday in March for the Spring Leadership Forum with the shared focus of school improvement and teacher development. SWIFT Director, Martin Smith welcomed delegates and introduced the South West Institute for Teaching as Colyton and Kingsbridge Teaching School Hubs, two of the 87 Teaching School Hubs working together on the Department for Education’s national programme. SWIFT are leading on delivery of the Appropriate Body Service and Early Career Framework, the reformed NPQs; as well as offering a rich range of continuing professional development opportunities for schools. Based on a partnership of schools and Multi Academy Trusts, Kingsbridge Research School, Curriculum and Initial Teaching Training partners, SWIFT is proud of its unique partnership and is committed to working with schools and leaders across the area. Keynote speaker, Tom Sherrington opened the conference with his Introduction to Walkthrus and Tom will be working with schools on a SWIFT programme next academic year (for more information see here with a discount available for SWIFT members). Coaching is an increasingly acknowledged essential teaching and learning tool, and Walkthrus consider 50 key teaching techniques in five steps with “wrap around” ideas, providing guidance about what is needed to teach well. It is not enough to simply hope that teachers will improve. Professional development must be a key driver, rather than accountability; thereby moving away from top down observations to a ground up and organic professional dialogue in schools. Walkthrus overlap and dovetail with existing coaching programmes and is a powerful training tool to support schools to create their own tools and use materials common to their setting with a shared language that codifies training techniques. It is important to meet and discuss the teacher’s lesson with precise praise and then probe together as a supportive developmental process and to build trust. Walkthrus provide slides, videos, and trainer notes and cover curriculum planning, questioning and feedback. Questioning and feedback are key to the training, using a range of definable techniques. Teachers are encouraged to think about the learning process and how students process their working memory across a range of abilities and needs and how to challenge in the classroom. Tom inspired school leaders to invest in professional development at the heart of the school and to sustain this investment and ultimately unleash colleagues’ creativity. The next keynote speaker was HMI, Stephen Lee on the latest Ofsted briefing presenting key messages about curriculum, which was a central focus of the Education Inspection framework (operational for the past four years). Previously, Progress 8 data could have triggered an inspection; but this is Ofsted’s conscious attempt to refocus the conversation on the central purpose of schools. Since Ofsted’s Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman started in post in 2017, Ofsted has refocused on the curriculum and in particular the substance and knowledge that we want young people to acquire, so that they know more and remember more of what they learn. Learning needs to be broken down into components as sequencing to ensure that pupils are secure in their learning before they progress. Otherwise, there is the danger of missing knowledge and accumulating gaps as a “cumulative disfluency.” A good curriculum should be ambitious and coherent and seek to secure sequenced learning and build up over time complex schemata where knowledge is increasingly connected together. It is important to be clear about what the curriculum means and to consider intent (aims), and thinking about the curriculum, implementation and ultimately the impact. Subject experts have rich, detailed knowledge in their long-term memory by effective learning, which helps pupils to build up their knowledge. It is a misapprehension that skills can be developed separately from knowledge. School leaders need to consider whether their curriculum identifies the knowledge that pupils need to achieve their education goals and whether they have learned this knowledge. Looking at Early Years, this is an essential foundation for children’s learning and schools can decide how they discuss the curriculum with Ofsted as there is no preferred view of how schools design the Early Years Curriculum. When children learn and remember a new skill or knowledge, it can be said that they are making progress and Stephen assured those small* primary schools where a senior leader; for example, the Headteacher has several roles that Ofsted is committed to working with them on a deep dive. *Small = 150 or less pupils on roll. Following the keynotes, delegates had opportunity to attend the following phase-specific sessions:
Concluding this Spring Leadership Forum event, SWIFT Director Martin Smith thanked all the speakers for sharing their dynamic thinking and the session leaders for their leadership and to all the delegates for being part of the conversation. Event SponsorsSWIFT thanks sponsors, Computeam and Towergate Insurance for supporting this Spring Leadership Forum. Find more information about our sponsors and their services to support schools and staff here.
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