This afternoon, our whole staff CPD session was taken in its entirety by
Sir John Rowling. He spoke for an hour with no notes other than the prompts on his slides.
I am going to attempt to give a flavour of some of the points he made which resonated with me - I won't try to reproduce either his humour or his style - both of which were (in my view) brilliant. Sir John, if you read this, I hope I've got your points down correctly - please forgive me if I've put too much of my own twist on them. For other readers please remember this is my take on the talk and not a transcript.
He started by saying that he hoped everyone would get at least one idea from his talk. I am going to ask those staff who can to contribute the one idea they got and which they will work on or develop.
He had done his homework and congratulated us on our results last year. Whilst not denigrating percentage scores or value added calculations, Sir John pointed out that what we had actually done was to make a difference to individual young people and to their life chances. He commented that it is hard to measure how happy children are or how well prepared they are for life but that you cannot overrate these aspects of education, all the same. Sir John touched on the personal pride that it is possible to get from teaching - we don't want to be average teachers, we want to be good teachers, even excellent teachers, if we can. He reminded us of Emlyn Hughes, the footballer, who said he was not the best footballer of his generation but that he was perhaps one of the hardest working, the most dedicated.
One comment that Sir John made which struck home with me was this: we are not after pleasing people, we are after making a difference.
He congratulated our staff on our determination and our togetherness - and I would like to add how delighted I was that so many non-teaching staff were there - emphasising that comment, I feel.
He pointed out that young people know if teachers don't like them. Why do teachers not like some students - because they are challenging, don't do as they are told, mess around. What can we do about that - it's a good question isn't it?
He congratulated us on beating 75 other schools to win an award last year and commented on how great we must have felt on results day last August and on the first day back in September. It made me think about the fact that my husband asked me this year why, after over 30 years, do I still get strung out before a results day? Because I want to have done well, I want my students to have done me proud - I want to have done right by them.
He pointed out that young people (the vast majority) cannot achieve high standards without good teachers and also the responsibility we have if they do not achieve what they should. Sir John is not afraid to call a spade a spade.
He quoted a story about a salesman who was not meeting targets. When questioned by the boss, the man said, well you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. The boss replied it was not his job to make them drink, it was his job to make them thirsty. I though about the book Blink by Malcom Galdwell with a story of a car salesman who always exceeded everyone else's sales. When asked how he managed it, he replied he had only three rules: take care of the customer, take care of the customer, take care of the customer. As Sir John said, we are not there to make the students work, we are there to make them want to.
How do we know if we are still on the up, maintaining the status quo, or declining? It will not be easy to maintain our good results this year. We have to focus on asking ourselves the right questions. Referring to Collins' book Good to Great, Sir John said that sustaining high performance is about understanding how greatness can be lost. In our case in schools, it is about teaching, leadership and excellent standards. What we need, he said, are:
- good data - make sure the data you give in is accurate, predictions should be within plus/minus 10%
- focused leadership
- Head of Department empowerment and accountability
- strategic intervention
- student engagement
How pleased I was to note that my senior colleague collects and uses excellent data, that we are running an ongoing CPD programme for middle leaders and ongoing CPD for effective learning strategies, with an Innovations Group run by five highly committed teachers who are sharing their ideas.
Sir John says that was is needed is specific diagnostic and therapeutic teaching, checked regularly by testing. You need personalised/focused strategies, especially for revision sessions. Test to make sure they've learned what you wanted them to learn. Do you agree with this?
We are successful because we understand why we do the specific things we do and under what conditions they would no longer work - says Sir John. He says we need specialists in postiveness, faith and desire for greatness.
Sir John asked have we got all the right people in the right places? Wrong people see themselves as having jobs, right people see themselves as having responsibilities. How important are job descriptions? What is important is focus, dedication, a sense of responsibility. It's not about league tables. It is about children, their families and celebration.
In response to some questions, Sir John made a couple of very tangible suggestions - don't offer blanket revision classes, offer tailor made sessions for just a few invited students. Don't try to target every student every lesson, try a few at a time. Consider special lessons from 5-6pm or 6-7pm with only 4 students in each. Pay them £1 a session if they come to all eight on offer.
My colleague then thanked Sir John and said that the magic of Sir John's ideas is that they are tried and tested and based on sharing good practice.
I would welcome comments from colleagues in my school and elsewhere. Have you tried any of Sir John's ideas - did they work? Do you agree that by improving results we improve young people's life chances?
Oh, and my one idea? Well two actually: remind the students that I like them and try tailor made revision sessions for small groups this year.
