Case studies

Climate for Change
Teresa Tunnadine

Teresa has been Headteacher at The Compton School for nearly five years. Previously she taught at the school as deputy from 1992, appointed as one of three staff to help set up a new school on the site of one that had recently closed. Before this, Teresa worked in schools in Enfield teaching Geography, as a head of year and then as a senior manager in an amalgamated school of 1600 students.

Teresa has undertaken the NPQH and the Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers, nrt training as a member of Barnet's remodelling team and has been part of the first cohort on the ï Working Together For Success' programme, which is a new national training programme for Senior Leadership Teams. Within Barnet she is chair of the Barnet Headteacher Conference ¿ an important cross phase organisation ¿ and Vice Chair of the Secondary Heads' Forum. Particularly interested in the use of Emotional Intelligence with staff, students and parents, Teresa has encouraged and enabled the development of this within her own school this year.

Teresa has recently completed the NCSL Consultant Headteacher Programme and is currently working as part of the London Challenge Team of Consultant Headteachers supporting work of other London Schools.

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 ïno 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 a whole school 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 ïno 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.

ñA whole school commitment to continued professional development means students meet adults who are learning every day at The Comptonî

Massy Tabib-Zadeh Noori (Senior Teacher Assistant)

ñ.. 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.î

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.  

ñThe 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.î  

Ofsted, 2002

A whole school commitment to effective teaching and learning

To support improvement in the quality of teaching and learning staff agreed an extensive process of classroom observations being introduced.   The Head observes every member of staff teach at least one lesson through the year, senior and middle leaders observe all the staff they link with and their departments.  The observation focus changes half termly and allows the opportunity for formal, structured and constructive feedback. This involved up to 20 lessons of observation a week across the school.

ñI learned more in feedback from lesson observations in my first year then anything else. The feedback was always constructive, forward thinking and rigorous.   I felt supported but was always keen to do as well as possible.   It was very positive for students in my classes to see my HOD, HOY and senior staff taking an interest in their work and in mine.î  

Fabienne Pulizzi Brown (Head of Year 7)

Addressing equality of opportunity in the classroom

A whole staff INSET launched the rationale for seating plans, and provided staff with the confidence to use them in every lesson.   The focus on proximal learning and how this could raise achievement and improve the working climate was also made explicit.

ñUsing seating plans consistently and focusing on positive teacher talk in class resulted in improved teacher student relationships and minimised conflict ¿ this had a significant impact upon our working climate"

Jon Comyn (Head of Modern Foreign Languages)

Seating plans ensured that every student worked with every other student in the class.   This broke down many of the dynamics that were not conducive to an effective learning environment. Unproductive friendship groupings could not dominate a lesson, ïin-groups' could not flourish and the ïfear of person X' did not make students feel uncomfortable.   There is less conflict as students learn to interact positively with everyone in their class.  

ñThe process goes beyond seating plans being used as a behaviour management tool, where stereotypically girls could be used to tame less focused boys.   Seating plans are a tool for positive learning ¿ it is wonderful to see such positive working partnerships.î  

Terry Lockley (Deputy Headteacher)

To discuss an idea before writing means things are more likely to be understood and remembered.   This is particularly the case for boys.   It is more fun to work with someone else and easier to have two people working on one task.   The students really enjoy it.   Student consultation allows us to regularly review our practice. One reported back that:

ñI hated seating plans to start with, it was easier to work with mates and it was much easier to blag it and do nothing.   Now I really like it. I've got to work with practically everyone in my year group, there are no ïit' groups and you can't get away with doing nothing.   We have seating plans in every class ¿ everyone gets on a lot better and we learn more ¿ simple!î

Year 9 student

The initial implementation of seating plans was supported with middle and senior staff supporting colleagues in putting seating plans into action and within three days, the system was embedded into student expectations of the school.   

The outcome of this strategy has significantly impacted upon learning and the working climate in school ¿ this reflects a genuine and progressive commitment to equal opportunities.

ñPupils show an excellent awareness of, and respect for, the feelings, values and beliefs of others...the vast majority respond enthusiastically to being drawn actively into lessons through strategies such as paired work ...î  

Ofsted, 2002

Switching on the switched off students

In addition to the work on teaching and learning and developing the learning climate, staff agreed a process to identify individual students who were underachieving.   This process of identification would take place throughout key stage four and involved:

• Analysing prior and current attainment data
• Monitoring through the reporting and assessment cycle

These students were identified under three categories:

1. 1.  The more able underachievers ¿ those identified by Yellis predictions as capable of achieving 5 or more A*- C grades at GCSE but whose subject profile indicated that they were performing below this
2. 2.  The target concerns group ¿ those identified by the interim and subject reports as underachieving or not focused on learning in three or more subjects
3. 3.   The C/D borderline group ¿ those students whose predicted grades indicated that they were currently achieving 4 or 5 C or D grades and with an extra push may be able to achieve 5 C grades (or above) at GCSE

Initially we found that boys dominated the first two groups.   Now that we have expanded this monitoring across the school, we have found that more boys dominate the more able underachieving groups, but that the target concerns and the C/D borderline group have equal numbers of girls and boys.   We have therefore found that targeting individual students switches on the switched off boys and girls and we have kept anti-learning numbers to an absolute minimum.

And the results speak for themselves:

• Our 2003 cohort ¿ also our most challenging year group to date ¿ achieved 62% 5+ A*-C grades; our best exam results yet! Our new target is now 70% of students gaining 5+ A*-C
• 89% of the more able underachieving group achieved at least 5 A*-C grades at GCSE.   The year 10 exam results indicated that 46% would achieve this.
• 82% of the C/D borderline group achieved 5 or more A-C grades at GCSE. The year 11 mock exam results indicated that 37% would achieve this.

Conclusion

To focus on teaching and learning allows us to continue to improve our working climate, to raise achievement and improve examination results.  

This year we are moving from developing excellent teaching to developing excellent learning, and accelerated learning is a focus for us. We are equipping students to take responsibility for their own learning; we are committed to developing the ïstudent voice', including listening to what helps students learn best. In this way we can strive to do our best for all the students in our care ¿ which is, after all, what it's really all about.