We are pleased to report back on the Autumn Leadership Forum on Thursday 21 November 2024. Leadership Forums bring together colleagues and welcome speakers presenting on topics that we hope will be of current interest and relevance. For our Autumn Forum, Ofsted Assistant Regional Director, Sarah McGinnis was the first speaker with an update on feedback to the Big Listen to help build a better Ofsted. “We will be a learning organisation that operates transparently, listens to challenge and takes action to change.” Education can feel like a cyclical routine with certain known quantities playing their role as moving parts; notably, leaders, teachers, staff and children and young people. But we also know that things change. New leadership can lead to a new ethos, curriculum reviews impact on timetables, new thinking in response to a variety of events and circumstances - artfully articulated in school improvement plans. So, when change is afoot, it feels right to sit up straight and listen, which is exactly what Ofsted have been doing in response to their Big Listen. Instigated by the Chief Inspector (HMCI), Sir Martyn Oliver wanted to hear from the sector and children about their experiences during his first year of office, and Ofsted has engaged extensively. A public consultation with over 20,000 responses - of which 4,300 were from children and young people; independent research undertaken by five research organisations; events; an independent learning review by former Head of Ofsted, Dame Christine Gilbert and internal engagement with over 1,000 Ofsted staff (including Ofsted inspectors). Change with goodwill and good intentions and the mantra to build a better Ofsted based on the feedback results is focusing on the following three R’s to: 1. Reset 2. Refine 3. Rebuild During Sarah’s presentation, there was there was a palpable can-do-ness, a willingness to listen, to foster a positive and professional dialogue, Open honest conversations, combined with transparency and consistency and support for school leadership - and the Ofsted teams as well. The various Big Listen feedback results was an important exercise to underpin the changes and were thoughtfully condensed into seven core messages – the Seven C’s:
Sarah also explained in more detail about ungraded inspections further to extensive piloting and listening with an emerging greater flexibility, no shifting the goal posts and opportunity for dialogue between school leaders and the inspection team to work together to plan the inspection and to demonstrate impact. Another C = collaboration. Looking to the future, the Big Listen certainly feels like a significant opportunity for positive and hopeful change. The consultation continues in January. We were also listening attentively to our second speaker, Professor (Dr) Tanya Ovenden-Hope, Dean of Place and Social Purpose and Professor of Education, Plymouth Marjon University. Tanya has been instrumental in shaping thinking around what educational isolation looks like and how it plays out in the South West from her extensive research around the South West, and also the UK and into the United States, Norway, Australia and other areas. Tanya’s own geography started in Kent where she grew up in rural, coastal socio-economically deprived, Romney Marsh before moving to Cornwall where she has lived for the past 30 years that has both benefits and economic deprivation, geographical remoteness and cultural isolation. Educational isolation is when a school is in a place that experiences high levels of socio-economic deprivation, cultural isolation, and geographical remoteness. Most educationally isolated schools in the UK are in rural, coastal or ex-industrial areas away from the large urban conurbations. The concept evolved from schools identifying these three factors as the key challenges they faced as a consequence of place. One fifth of the South West is rural/coastal. In 2020, in England, 19% of all primary schools and 16% of secondary schools were in a rural area (DfE). The South West is impacted more significantly because of the type of schools and places they are serving compared to other places in the country. Educational isolation is not a deficit model of schools. It seeks to identify and conceptualise the place-based challenges for schools and once these are understood, strategies can be put in place to mitigate them. The effects of educational isolation can limit a school's access to resources needed for school improvement; including and very significantly, recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce and notably Early Career Teachers, a lack of churn with middle career teachers and more unqualified teachers in schools; limited access to professional development and learning; limited access to school-to-school support and externally funded interventions. All of which can ultimately limit outcomes for pupils. Although in her paper, “Getting a Fair Deal,” Tanya showed how school leaders in coastal schools did everything they could to ensure their children and young people had opportunities of cultural diversity, and trips and visits as they wanted their children and young people to have a full and balanced curriculum. This is why educational isolation offers an important model that Government can use to identify the ways in which it needs to target resources. In some cases, however, educational isolation can add other benefits and richness that can be utilised by the schools in different ways, including outdoor learning for a rural school. Of significant concern, research shows that persistently disadvantaged pupils in educationally isolated schools do less well and have poorer outcomes than similarly disadvantaged pupils in urban schools. The definition however needed clarity. For example, in defining geographical remoteness. In the busy summer season, even a short distance in Cornwall can be doubled when the tourists arrive. Hence, Tanya uses the complex software, Track Data, to look at the exact time taken at different points in the day, and different points in the year to get from one place to another. School-to-school support has changed since the pandemic with opportunity to access high-quality professional learning online. Although it can still be more difficult for educationally isolated schools to get to places where high quality professional development and learning because of travel time and costs and time out of school. Compared to the urban situation, Tanya’s work with colleagues in London local authorities shows that disadvantaged children are doing very well. Partly perhaps from the investment of the London Challenge. But advantageous collaborative working practices with London schools were already established, working closely in terms of resource-sharing and opportunities for school improvement and enhancement. Significantly, London schools benefited from close proximity geographically and could share staff, ideas and professional learning - all of which supports school improvement and school enhancement. Urban and rural areas clearly present different infrastructural challenges. It is less disruptive in London and other densely populated urban areas for school leaders who wish to progress and move on in their career. There are more likely to be close-by schools to move to and therefore less need to move house, plus the other practical implications of children moving schools and spouses finding work. Rural and coastal areas present other infrastructural challenges for young staff. Housing is costly. There is also the prospect of winter. Teachers might be attracted by the memory of a happy summer holiday, but then have to work through a winter here; which is very different. Rental properties available in the winter are not always available in the summer because they are used for Airbnb, pushing up the rental prices. Buying a house in the South West depends on the location. But a more affordable area might not be supported with the same resources. Other push and pull factors of moving to and staying in rural schools include limited public transport and travel time, few non-seasonal employment opportunities for spouses, fewer leisure or cultural opportunities, variable WIFI – all of which can impact on a sustainable and stable high-quality teaching workforce. For those staff who have been in the same school for a long time, internal promotion opportunities can be low. Although this is changing with the progression of Multi Academy Trusts who are using promotional opportunities within the Trust as a way of maintaining and sustaining their retention of teachers. When speaking at an educational conference in Blackpool earlier this year Tanya reported that none of the 200+ leaders in attendance recognised any positive impact from the Opportunity Area Funding. Blackpool suffers from extreme child poverty that cascades through into school and places additional demands onto teachers in terms of additional support for child welfare and well-being; which is similarly experienced in the South West. It is worth noting that data can be skewed because of multiple indices. The South West has affluence and poverty juxtaposed which nullifies the data. Hence, the educational isolation concept is helpful because it can target down to the granular level of the school where support is needed and identify place-based challenges that school faces. As a positive example, Tanya cited a South West Multi Academy Trust she worked with who wanted to create a structure to support their educationally isolated schools and to give them access to resources. For example, small schools who do not have a minibus, to get their children to the swimming pool for swimming lessons. In her “Locality Matters Report,” Tanya showed how the MAT successfully circumvented some of the place-based challenges, transport and even housing issues for teachers coming into schools by creating a Hub model. Their 20 schools were geographically co-located into groups of four, two fives and six with a Hub Lead who was an existing Headteacher for one of those schools and supported their Hub schools by creating a network for the school leaders to work and collaborate together. One of the unexpected findings of the research were the relationships that developed between the school leaders who became very caring of each other and the opportunities to develop their schools within the Hubs. This led to collaboration and sharing resources, including minibuses, Ofsted materials, as well as teachers and administration staff. The Hub became their own community of practice; and fed out to parents and carers in the wider community, running events outside school as a Hub and created an ethos and presence in their locality. It was supported by the MAT’s communication strategy to support the Hubs through concentric circles of communication. The Executive Leadership Team were aware of the Hub issues through the Hub Leads and then through the schools to the teachers via the Headteachers. Named the “Locality Matters Report,” Tanya showed how the MAT successfully circumvented some of the place-based challenges, transport and even housing issues for teachers coming into schools within their Hubs. We thank Tanya for sharing her research and wisdom on this important topic that resonates for many schools here in the South West. You can also read more about the recent research of the National Institute of Teaching into how to support educationally isolated schools and particularly those in coastal and rural areas and how to support their Early Career Teachers here More Leadership Forums Watch out more details about the Spring Leadership Forum details and save the date for the 2025 Summer Conference on Thursday 19 June 2025 at the Future Skills Centre in Exeter. Reports by Jude Baylis, SWIFT Executive Assistant ![]() We thank our sponsors ONVU Learning for supporting this event and you can see the presentation by Vice President, Matt Tiplin below:
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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 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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