June 2004

This month’s newsletter takes the theme of planning. We start with a cage full of monkeys. We then describe how one business guru goes from good to great, provide a case study from a large secondary school and introduce a new planning tool which could help your school.

Planning: That's not how we do it around here

What's your approach to change? Love it, live with it or leave it?

There were five monkeys who had lived together for some time in a large cage in a municipal zoo. One day their keeper changed.

The new keeper decided to try and dissuade the monkeys from eating their food at the end of the cage furthest from the general public. So when some of the monkeys tried to do this he hosed all of the monkeys with cold water. Quickly the monkeys realised that taking the food to the far end of the cage led to an uncomfortable soaking so they avoided doing so. Any monkey who attempted to take their food there was quickly and violently apprehended by the others.

Gradually the monkey population aged and changed. Some died, others were moved, a few were brought in from outside. Eventually there were none of the original monkeys left. One day the newest arrival grabbed his food and made for the far end of the cage. The others seeing what was happening, pounced on him, shrieking and biting and dragged him away.

The new monkey badly shaken by the ordeal, eventually recovered himself and asked why he had been stopped from eating where he wanted. He was told 'that's the way we've always done things around here…'

Planning: Pause for Thought

Q. which habits - perhaps habits of mind - do you or your organisation have which are most cherished?

Q. How helpful/unhelpful are these habits?

Q. which of these are you willing to give up in order to achieve what you want?

Planning: going from Good to Great

'Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?' That's the question that business guru Jim Collins and his team of 21 researchers spent five years attempting to answer.

Collins argues that good is the 'enemy' of great and that any organization, including a school or college, can improve its stature and performance through conscientiously applying his framework. Within the framework he describes two key concepts: build-up followed by break through.

Within build up his findings are:

o level 5 leadership
Good to great leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are not big personalities and charismatic and their ambition is for their organization not themselves.

o first who…then what
Good to great leaders first spend their time getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, then the right people in the right seats - and then work out where to drive it.

o confront the brutal facts (but never lose faith)
Confront the facts of your current reality whatever they might be but remain positive about prevailing in the end

Within breakthrough his findings are:

o Transcend the curse of competence
Just because you've been doing something for years and you are good at it, doesn't mean that you can be great at it. Find out what you can be great at and stick to it.

o A culture of discipline
When you have disciplined people you don't need hierarchy, when you have disciplined thought you don't need bureaucracy, when you have disciplined action, you don't need excessive controls

o Think differently about the role of technology
Technology itself does not precipitate change: carefully selected technologies do.

Dramatic change programmes, revolutions, and re-structurings all fail to make the leap from good to great! Successful transition is like pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction until enough momentum secures a breakthrough.

Good to Great by Jim Collins is published by Random House, 2001

Planning for a Climate of Change

In this excerpt from a case study to be presented at the Alite 2004 Conference, Teresa Tunnadine, Headteacher at The Compton School describes how she has helped create a Climate for Change.

For change in schools to be effective and lasting, rather than superficial and ephemeral, the right climate needs to be achieved. The atmosphere should be such that everybody at every stage feels that their contribution is valued; an air of trust and responsibility without blame warms conditions; and consistency throughout the school is key to a sustainable environment. Applying these principles, we continue to move forward as we focus on a single issue - that of developing a learning school through helping our students to learn better.

The school
Opening in 1992, on the site of a previously failing school which had closed the previous year, The Compton School was set up as a mixed comprehensive in The London Borough of Barnet. In a relatively short time we have become successful and hugely oversubscribed with 580 applications this year for 180 places.

Each cohort has tested broadly at or below national average on entry and 18% of our students take up free school meals, 38% of our students are on the register for special educational needs with 5% being statemented. 40% of our students have English as an additional language.

Our successes
We became a beacon school in 1999, a Technology College in 2001 and currently await the results of our Leading Edge application. We were included in the HMCI list of outstanding schools in 1998 and again in 2003 having received the top Ofsted grade during both inspections.

We are very proud of our achievements but are never complacent and are always looking for ways to improve.

Moving from Good to Great: Establishing an Optimum Climate for Change
In 2001 our school self-review raised the following key issue:

• How to continue to raise achievement and improve examination results (our target at this time was 60% of the students gaining 5+ A*-C. It is now 70%)

We decided on a single focus which was to improve the quality of teaching across the entire school. We wanted to do this using the following principles we had used since our inception:

• The importance of consultation with staff, students and parents on every major issue
• The importance of thinking creatively and being willing to take calculated risks
• The importance of working together consistently as a whole staff
• The importance of regular, systematic review to identify successes and highlight further areas for development
• The commitment to share and celebrate successes on an individual and collective level
• The importance of a school climate where there is 'no blame' but high levels of personal accountability and responsibility.

Decision making - having everyone on board
At The Compton, school self-review has always operated at

level. This means that teams across the school review successes, and areas for improvement are then agreed by consensus. This democratic approach to decision making has many benefits:

• all staff have a voice and know their individual views will be listened to
• there is an openness to change, as staff feel involved in the process and morale is high
• a range of ideas and suggestions are explored
• there are no hidden agendas
• there is a willingness to take calculated risks which is exciting and motivating
• change is determined by the reality of the current situation.

A 'no blame' culture
Within this context an ethos of 'no blame' prevails and the truth is heard and reality confronted. Issues are raised openly and solutions sought together. Success is shared and celebrated at all levels in the school and any failure is also shared and solutions worked through. This supports staff willingness to take calculated risks.

Coupled with this is the school's belief that we should constantly review and challenge the way we do things. These factors lead to staff striving for professional development - towards the common goal of improving practice within the school. Complacency is not a feature of the school and the commitment to addressing issues remains high on our agenda.

Having the right people in post and building capacity from within
The democratic process of decision-making and the day to day running of an effective school relies heavily on the quality of its staff. The appointment procedures, induction process and staff development arrangements were noted by Ofsted as providing commonality of purpose

As a school we do everything we can to keep hold of good staff - especially in light of the recruitment crisis faced by many schools nationally. A Deputy Headteacher secondment to the DfES has provided nine internal promotions across the school. This provides excellent continued professional development opportunities for existing staff and, as importantly, recognises and celebrates good quality teachers. These teachers realise their potential and can flourish in a supportive environment - they feel valued and well regarded and are provided with, and provide others with, a range of learning opportunities.

"A whole school commitment to continued professional development means students meet adults who are learning every day at The Compton"
Massy Tabib-Zadeh Noori (Senior Teacher Assistant)

and

".. if someone is not as good as you thought they were going to be, it is probably because they are the right person but in the wrong job. We move them into a different post so that they can be good again."
Denise Beardshaw (Deputy Headteacher)

Addressing the issues
We set out to raise achievement and improve examination results. To do this we:

• Reviewed findings from the Boys and Underachievement Working Party
• Explored current educational theory
• Explored good practice in other schools
• Opened the discussion to all staff

Using this information we decided to:

• Use seating plans across the entire school that changed half termly
• Use proximal (paired) learning as a highly structured framework for student talk in all lessons across all subjects
• Focus on positive ratios of rewards to sanctions (10 to 1 or better)
• Ensure pace in lessons, with tight planning and timing, setting a series of short tasks and using a range of activities and learning styles

In the academic year 2001/2 we agreed as a whole staff to have a single-focus school improvement plan. This meant deferring other time consuming activities and initiatives until a later date. The focus on teaching and learning allowed us to prioritise our goal of maximising the achievement of all our students.

"The content and process of the construction of the school improvement plan illustrates many positive features of management (for example)...the bold decision to have just one objective focused on teaching and learning."
Ofsted, 2002

Next month Teresa describes how her school focused on learning and teaching.

Teresa 's is one of the 16 case studies featured at this year's conference, Alite 2004, Meeting the Challenge, at the Café Royal, London on 25th June. In addition to the inspiring case studies, the keynote speakers include Alistair Smith, Bear Grylls and Lady Marie Stubbs.

To register for the conference, please email events@alite.co.uk or visit the website at www.alite.co.uk

Planning: Finding the right tool

Lesson planning remains for many schools, a matter of hit or miss. Hundreds of hours of effort go into the design of learning experiences. The outcomes are never gathered into one place. One hundred teachers in a school means one hundred PCs at home each with hundreds of separate files and resources relating to lessons! And if anyone asks about this what is said? 'That's the way we've always done things around here…'

As Jim Collins says, 'Technology itself does not precipitate change: carefully selected technologies do.' PlanEasy2 is a new planning tool from Alite which gives you a structure to organise lesson plans, schemes of work (learning), gather all the electronic resources and track students' progress.

PlanEasy2 will then convert all of this into a fully linked website with the click of a button
Phil Spoors, Secondary ICT specialist, will be demonstrating how he uses PlanEasy2 at the Alite 2004 Conference. Phil says it has revolutionised his planning, and estimates that it is going to save him hundreds of hours of preparation

PlanEasy2 will:

o make lesson planning consistent across a school or network
o provide a shared source of electronic resources for colleagues to access
o convert all materials into a student website for 24 hour access at the click of a button
o automatically track for assessment for learning, thinking skills and learning styles
o customise to your needs

See a demo lesson

Where do we go now?

Having started out on their Accelerated Learning journey, and having completed the one-day ALiC INSET programme (AL in the Classroom), schools often ask us where they should go next. There are several routes you could travel, depending on the specific needs of your school or cluster.

Ideas to consider include:

• a 3 day follow-on INSET programme providing dynamic, practical training to enable you to embed Accelerated Learning principles in your school. These programmes are run most effectively as 3 separate INSET days throughout the year, with opportunities for action research in between
• training in a specific area, such as Alite for Numeracy which offers a wealth of ideas for improving numeracy using AL or How to Reach the Hard to Teach which provides you with strategies for ensuring good learning takes place in spite of challenging behaviour
• participation in a range of public conferences and courses, where you will have the opportunity to find out how leading practitioners are making a real difference using AL approaches

We can also provide consultancy and coaching specifically for your school or cluster.
For more details regarding any of these opportunities, please speak to Hilary Thomas on 01628 810700