The jigsaw of a successful school

Ever since an almost forgotten HMI publication "Ten Good Schools" in 1977, attempts to define what makes a school outstandingly successful have dominated the 'school effectiveness' and 'school improvement' debate.

With the advent of parental choice, the publication of results and the regular tough and public inspection of schools by OFSTED, the urgency of the debate has increased. Despite this, until now there has never been the publication of any 'reliable formula' which, if followed, is guaranteed to produce the results. I think it's about time we tried.

Whenever I've visited a school which has recovered its sense of direction and pride after falling on hard times I ask the question of the (usually new) head teacher: "Well what did you do?"

The reply, almost inevitably, contains the phrase, "Well it's not rocket science. We just concentrated on getting a few essential things right".

In the early 1980s, the American researcher Judith Little, may have come close to a formula. 'Schools are successful,' she claimed 'when the following four things happen':

• teachers talk about teaching
• teachers observe each other teach
• teachers plan, organise, monitor and evaluate their teaching together
• teachers teach each other

I suspect the reason why these statements are so persuasive is that you can immediately see how practically each of them can be made more likely to happen.

This article is a precursor to a booklet I'm currently writing. It will be distributed to schools either at or following RM's strategic conferences in March. This article and the book are intended to start a debate about the fifteen or so essential requirements which if followed will surely bring a school success. "Well" I hear you say "It can't be that simple". And no, it's not. Because everything also depends on context. That's why many school leaders, whether heads of school or department, have succeeded in one situation only to fail in another.

So: having set the limits on my claims, let's get on with the fifteen steps - but only after using one more set of imagery as a final caveat. The fifteen steps are not sequential, nor are they simultaneous - though ultimately they all interrelate and depend one upon another to keep a school developing. They are more like pieces of an interlocking jigsaw. Completing the jigsaw takes some people more time than it does others. The picture begins to emerge as a coherent whole. It's how quickly you can recognise the shape and the whole that helps solve jigsaw puzzles more quickly. And so it is with schools.

It's trite (but true) to say that successful schools have a high degree of explicitly 'shared values'. They might include aiming for (and expecting) all to succeed; subscribing to a view of intelligence that is multifaceted with each intelligence infinitely capable of extension; a commitment to be inclusive rather than exclusive; practising 'formative and ipsative' rather than normative assessment; and ensuring that all within the school community live out the belief and example that learning is a lifelong rather than a once and for all activity.

These values - or ones like them - are often contained in a mission statement which sets out what "our school stands for". These are reinforced at assemblies, awards and parents meetings, in tutorials and staff meetings when the skilful leader revisits the vision statement of the school - a description (constantly adjusted and expanded) of where the community will be in five or ten years time. The whole is reinforced by story telling - an essential core feature of successful teachers and leaders down the years.

Language can make or break a school. Careless talk can drain a school's energy. Using "we" rather than "I" and "you" is important. It's here than the current buzz word that matter at all?) is the modern equivalent to stamping 'remedial' on the inside cover of a book. Using 'learning' instead of 'work' is also a plus rather than a minus. (It's amazing what a difference it makes to refer to youngsters getting on with their learning rather than work makes.)

This is not simply display - important though that is, provided it has purpose and reinforces the values of the school. It's the pupils' lavatories. Some schools have solved that problem. It's no excuse to say these are places nobody visits and it "was the same in my day". That's no longer true. The answers - like solving the conundrum of the lunch hour - are relatively straightforward. So too with the school playground and the 'noise' impact on school. There is a set of specific measures readily capable of being implemented given the shared determination to do something about it and some organisational competence to implement the tasks involved.

"I take my stand on detail" If identifying the right things to do required leadership, doing things right is the job of the manager. That won't be achieved without a staff handbook which includes in loose-leafed form all the school's policies and practices - a simple sheet for each. There will be a brief statement of policy and the implications for practice with the name of the member of staff responsible both for leading the next review of policy and for ensuring all goes well with existing practice plus the names of others involved. When these are changed the sheets are ceremoniously replaced at staff briefings and in the fifteen or so copies used by all for reference when in doubt. They are located not with individual members of staff- they lose them-but in generally available places such as the staff room, library, faculty rooms and school office - as well of course as being electronically available through the school e-learning platform.

The staff handbook is the school bible. Job descriptions are worded in 'lead and 'support' responsibility terms rather than comprising a long list of duties with the dispiriting catch-all 'and such other duties as may from time to time be determined'.

Staff Induction is a real programme constantly available for all staff - closely linked to faculty as well as whole school requirements and sensitive to outcomes at whatever time of the year they arrive. There are other key ingredients which I shall cover in the booklet.

A question of judgement. The most intangible and elusive issue is recognising where to insist on 'singing from the same song sheet'. Get it wrong in one direction and be over-prescriptive and you drive out ideas and creativity as energy saps. Get it wrong in the other and let anything go and people retreat to their individual classrooms and determine to leave the sinking ship. 'Singing from the same song sheet' affects every aspect of school life covered in the staff handbook and in each area where the line is drawn is critical. The most important areas however concern:

• lessons - a shared approach
• corridors - speaking to youngsters
• behaviour codes - rewards and punishments
• marking - a consistency of approach that reinforces for 'assessment for learning'

Unless the interests and skills of all staff are constantly supported you will have more 'energy consumers' - people who are half empty and live in clouds - than 'energy creators' - people who are half full and see silver linings. It's a battle between the 'Why we cant's' and the 'How we coulds'. The list of what we do here is long and includes:

• A 'school improvement group' (SIG) which allows all aspects of school life to be reviewed with an eye to the future. The group must include representatives from all levels and ensure that all who want to make a contribution can.
• Use of e-learning professional development programmes e.g. teach and learn.net
• School based weekly professional development sessions for all staff.
• Use of residentials for staff.
• Changes in job descriptions as a regular thing after a specified period.
• Best use of the five inset/development days.
• 'Bursaries' for newer members of staff to attend subject association conferences.
• The adoption of annual learning plans and the example set by the senior team.
• 'Just in time' coaching to extend practical use of the information and communication technologies.

Of course it can be argued that the introductory reference to Judith Little's research (i.e. teachers talk about teaching etc) says it all and that the staff handbook will contain this item. Both are true. But it needs to be emphasised that unless a school is engaged in a really vigorous attempt to discover what it means to move from really good to outstanding practice they are lost. So analysis - and ever-widening understanding of 'questioning technique'; 'story telling'; 'accelerated learning'; 'new and best uses of the learning technologies'; 'group work'; 'marking practices'; 'study skills' - will all be part of the school's repertoire.

It is frequently said that we live in a 'data rich, information poor' society. There's no doubt that the availability of data has never been better. It's how we use it that's important. Schools are awash with data, much of it comparative. Comparative data is particularly useful for schools seeking to visit other schools - in comparable circumstances of pupil intake of course - to learn how they do things. Internally this data is much more useful as a result of the work of the Fischer Family Trust: indeed it's fair to say that no teacher or department should be ignorant of the way some youngsters with similar potential aren't learning in some areas but are in others. At the individual level too, such data has the potential of enabling pupils 'at risk' to be pinpointed at the end of each year. It can help identify ways to increase those youngsters' competence, confidence and resilience next term. Unless data used in the leadership team of the school is directly related to the classroom, the school will remain information poor. Some pupils will fail who need not. That will happen only when job descriptions and habits of review are so framed that the data is used as a matter of course.

Unless all the staff - but especially the leadership team - share some common understandings of change the school will stall and decline. This is because the rate of change is increasing. So we need to know about the phases of change - initiation, implementation and consolidation. Michael Fullan, the well-known Canadian educator who has written extensively and accessibly on this subject, is a sure and reliable guide here.

Knowing the sequence...

Vision + Skills + Resources + Motivation + Action Plan = Successful Change is crucial.

So too is knowing the consequence of any one of these being absent - leading to any one of frustration, annoyance, despair, a feeling of being on a treadmill or all of these. Review of all policies, practices and especially initiatives recently introduced is very important to avoid people becoming cynical and resistant to change. Most will need adjusting at the margins rather than total transformation, at least in successful and developing schools.

How teachers and head teachers spend their time - what tasks they perform and how they are seen to perform- is crucial. The larger the sphere of responsibility, and the greater the number of stakeholders, the more tricky it becomes. For example, in a large school giving the right amount of time - some regular, some irregular - to the following tasks is key for a head teacher:-

• Being present at the start of every day to be seen by all members of the community and providing the right subliminal messages of hope and welcome.
• Covering the local community in lunch hours and before and after school.
• Supporting by personal presence at school events, sports, music etc.
• The unexpected and private note of thanks to staff and others.
• The wider local community of governors, business and local authority.
• Teaching and learning. There are many others.

Well there you have it. But two more points need to be made. The first is obvious - namely that I've included ten rather than fifteen. Why? Well the other five are so obvious you'll know them already! Seriously though: there will be others which you think are crucial and which in your circumstances you know to be vital. Clearly I am leaving some out so you may read the booklet when it comes out in the spring. It will be longer than this article, but, I hope, reasonably short and accessible.

In the meantime, please use this piece to promote a debate about what I've missed and, for that matter, what's wrong with the list I've provided.

Tim Brighouse