Case studies
Getting Personal
Making learning the heart of professional development
WraPP EIC Action Zones
Jill Jordan
Jill Jordan is the Project Director for the two Excellence
in Cities Action Zones in Woolwich and Plumstead, Greenwich.
She has been a teacher, Deputy Headteacher and Headteacher
in Greenwich and has focused her leadership and management
skills on improving the assessment of learning. This has involved
whole school transformation through training, action research
in the classroom and ongoing evaluation and review. Her year
as a seconded Headteacher of a school in Special Measures
gave her the opportunity to introduce and develop these structures
to a tight timescale.
As a Principal Project Manager for the Education Initiatives
and Partnerships Section of the Greenwich Education Directorate
she also manages the Greenwich EIC Primary Pilot and leads
partnership work in teaching and learning, and leadership
and management.
This is an innovative, bottom-up approach to professional
development in schools. It is changing perceptions about how
people learn, developing understanding about how to lead and
manage change, encouraging teachers to see themselves as learners
and enabling adults to recognise the ways in which their behaviour
has an impact on student learning. By incorporating personal
capacity building into the planning and review process a new
exciting model for change is being developed.
The Woolwich Reach and Plumstead Pathfinder (WraPP) Action
Zones were created to bring resources and a new way of working
to schools in very challenging circumstances, where a significant
number of families experienced complex and multiple difficulties.
These EIC Action Zones were launched in April 2000 and comprise
17 schools in total: two Nurseries, 13 Primaries and two Secondaries
(one girls and one boys). The zones’ goals are: (i)
to raise achievement; (ii) extend educational opportunity;
and (iii) improve attendance and punctuality. To reach these
goals, activities have been channelled into three distinct
programme areas:
- Leadership and management;
- Teaching and learning;
- Parents and the community.
Staffing is a critical issue for a number of the schools
in WRaPP. Staffing problems include: high turnover of staff,
large numbers of agency staff, overseas teachers, inexperienced
teachers in middle management roles, poor agency cover teachers,
demoralised and tired staff. Thus the introduction of an effective
staff development strategy was identified at an early stage
as being a key element in the WRaPP approach and essential
to making things happen.
Staff development has traditionally focused on the implementation
of national strategies, or on the delivery of courses designed
to meet short term, one-off targets related to externally
imposed needs. Although such courses can be interesting or
even inspiring at the time, they do not normally include any
in-built monitoring or evaluation of the extent to which teachers
have changed their practice after attending them. Neither
do they attend to the learning styles, or the intrapersonal
needs of those experiencing the training. From its inception,
the goal of professional development in WRaPP has been to
create a professional learning community in which schools
share a common set of goals and a shared vision of what constitutes
a healthy, functioning school and group of schools.
Underpinning WRaPP and its key developments are some critical
issues about teaching and about learning. These are to do
with changing teachers’ perceptions about the many and
varied ways in which students learn; encouraging teachers
to see themselves as learners; and enabling them to recognise
the ways in which their behaviour has an impact on the learning
environment. Closely connected to this has been recognition
of the importance of creating a local learning community.
WRaPP has taken to heart the evidence from across a number
of countries and contexts that both pupils and teachers and
thrive in communities which support their learning, and that
teachers can be enthused to change their thinking and practice
by a reform process which inspires them to be creative (Riley
2001).
At an operational level WRaPP offers a range of practical
resources for schools, as well as integrated Continuing Professional
Development in areas like Accelerated Learning for ‘lead
learners’, and leadership and management for ‘change
leaders’. In developing the range of its activities,
the aim has been to make the programmes interdependent and
complementary; to keep learning at the top of the agenda;
to maximise the potential of working with other agencies and
initiatives; and to build sustainability through representation
in the LEA’s teaching and learning strategies.
As is illustrated in diagram 1, WraPP functions at three
interrelated levels, through:
- Targeted funding aimed at supporting schools in carrying
out core tasks (e.g. improving attendance; and developing
new learning opportunities for pupils (e.g. provision of
out of school hours activities);
- A development strategy aimed at influencing teachers’
thinking and practice (through working intensively with
‘lead learners” who act as catalysts for change);
- A change strategy for school leaders which develops their
personal, ‘intrapersonal’ and professional skills,
building and enhancing their capacity to develop an environment
that is conducive to professional learning.
All of the training, support, coaching and meetings within
WRaPP have been designed to promote a culture of knowing what
is required to be a ‘successful learner’, being
aware of the learning needs of others and an understanding
of how to communicate effectively. Professional development
has been re-conceptualised to include:
- Personal capacity building;
- Interdependent and continuing school based support;
- External facilitation;
- Coaching and mentoring
- An understanding of leading and managing the change process.
Over two years, a model for Continuing Professional Development
linked to a School Improvement approach based on self-evaluation
has been developed which is proving successful in creating
a strategy for change and improvement. The key elements and
stages of that model are shown in Diagram II. Its shaded boxes
identify where the intervention from a skilled enabler is
necessary.
Another crucial factor in the WRaPP approach has been the
appointment of facilitators external to the schools but part
of the vision. The integral facilitator, whose role is to
be part of the process alongside the Heads, Deputies, teachers
and pupils, can be a member of an LEA, employed as part of
a CPD project or employed by a group of schools. The role
of this facilitator is to ensure that each part of the process
meets the needs of the different partners, and that each element
is successful before embarking on the next step. A significant
element of the success of the CPD provided in the WRaPP schools
has been the understanding that it is coherent, related to
other training and that someone is guiding the process in
partnership with the schools. Working with a manageable group
of schools ensures that individual needs and school requirements
can be catered for more easily.
External facilitation is also necessary to ensure consistent
and meaningful evaluation of the CPD provided, as well as
structured research into the impact in the classrooms. The
feedback from both is an important component of the process.
Also vital to this model are trainers and consultants working
with the Heads, Deputies, teachers and pupils who are skilled
enablers, coaches and mentors and who can train the ‘professional
learning community’ to support their own learning and
successfully lead their schools, and themselves, through the
change process closer to their desired goals.
A second annual evaluation was carried out this year. The
following comments indicate the feedback from participation
in some of the professional development programmes.
- Executive coaching:
Seen as alleviating Headteachers’ sense of isolation;
enabling them to understand their own leadership styles;
and as being particularly supportive when heads were dealing
with extreme situations (such as ‘special measures’).
- ‘Change Leaders’ Programme:
There’s never been anything here before in Greenwich
about my development. One of the continuing benefits is
the network. This was lacking for Deputies.
It was unlike anything I’ve ever been on.
It provided me with the skills for listening and communicating,
putting things into context. People can’t learn or
change when they’re emotionally flooded…I can
now identify stages where people are at in the change process…I
recognize the patterns in myself…It helps me understand
why some people struggle to change.
I found some parts helpful, but some were too reflective.
It’s probably because of my learning style! …But
I think the focus on emotional intelligence has given me
a new perspective…I can see why some pupils are emotionally
blocked from learning...
It has changed the way we work as a senior management team.
It leaves you leave feeling inspired. It’s not the
usual INSET experience!
- Action Learning Set :
It enables me to deal with a range of challenges in
school – parents in your face who are very needy.
- ‘Lead Learners’ Programme (Accelerated Learning):
It highlighted some important things about the right
and left brain. I realised I was a very different learner
from the trainer. I’m a very structured learner. I
need a timescale… To begin with it drove me crazy
and then I realised that there were lots of children in
my class who were different from me.
Knowing how we learn and exploring ‘good learning’
for the past three years has created a foundation on which
to build the strongest commitment to personal and professional
development for everyone in schools. The opportunity to spend
more time and resources on learning and communicating has
been the key factor in making things happen. Using skilled
facilitators and enablers has opened up a type of personal
development that has been available in the private and business
sector but not integrated very much into the professional
development of teachers. We have come through the establishment
and early implementation stages and are eagerly looking forward
to the embedding and development of those practices that encourage
positive working relationships and a thirst for personal growth.
Reference
Riley (2001) Reforming Classrooms from the Bottom-Up
Paper to the British Educatonal Research Association, Exeter,
September 2002
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