THE BONHOMIE OF A GAME SHOW HOST
‘If you can’t measure it then you can’t improve it’
Dr Eric Tope.
This article is a based on my Action Research Project I completed for my Masters in Education Management, so some of the journals and references I used will reflect that. Looking back on it now feels like a meditative piece, I have edited it to remove specific names. What is most striking about this case study is when I look back the vaticinal nature of the study, with the acadimisation programme that was soon to begin how this Action Research Project would become my modus operandi in this new fast changing landscape as my career unfolded.
In the application process for my PhD, I had to revisit my Masters which I completed in 2012. I have never considered myself a writer however, even though I am dyslexic I really enjoy writing. Re-reading my old work reminded me of the wonderful bizarre language that academics deliberately use when writing papers. This style of writing is compulsory when writing for an academic audience, I suppose to distance oneself for non-academics.
Why Leadership Style Matters
My teaching career began in South London in an all-boy Catholic School. The Headmaster was a formidable figure a truly Instructional Leader. There a many ways to define leadership style but when you look at Viviane Robinson’s meta analysis it becomes clear very quickly which style is the most effective. You can lead schools around a shared vision, re-writing the ‘schools values’ trying your best to get everyone on the same page with ‘bonhomie of a game show host’. Or you can focus your attention on the impact that the teachers are having on the pupils in the school. At this school in the heart of South London the Headmaster focused all of his energy on creating discussions and having professional development sessions that asked staff to question how they know is their impact was good enough ( ‘know thy impact’ ). He was a stalwart who Staff and Pupils respected, revered in equal measure. His leadership style was defined by his depth of knowledge, unwavering dedication to raising attainment among some of the hardest to reach boys in this country that nationally consistentley fail to achieve their full potential at GCSE . He was a scholar not a ‘game show host’ solely interested in his own ego, he truly valued the life changing opportunities that education provided for children from the precarious inner-city streets. Statistically this school is one of only 9 all Boys’ Comprehensive Schools in the whole of England than manages to consistently achieve a positive Progress 8 score.
Progress 8 is the governments measure that a school is adding value to a child’s educational. A score +0.5 or higher is the government’s benchmark that all schools aim to achieve. A Progress 8 score of 0 means that on average pupils make the same amount of progress as other pupils in England with similar results at KS2, or the overall quality of the secondary education pupils receive adds no additional value. Although there is criticism of Progress 8 – based on the veracity of KS2 results – it is a far better way of comparing the overall effectiveness of schools, it aims to compare pupils with similar backgrounds or starting points. In mixed schools the performance of girls can significantly mask the underperformance of boys giving the school’s Progress 8 score a more positive spin.
If you measure schools’ performance on attainment only you get a very distorted picture, you cannot accurately compare the results of a selective school against a non-selective school, or state schools with public schools. It is like comparing apples with oranges. By virtue of the fact Grammar School’s select intake from the top 25% nationally they are always going to have an advantage in achieving the higher percentage of the top grades. Progress 8 goes some way to redress the balance and acknowledge where schools are making better than ‘expected progress’. I will come back to the importance of this at the end of this article when I discuss Why Teaching and Learning Matters.
In education we have a moral responsibility to the pupils we teach to provide them with the highest standards of education possible as their life chances depend on this, it is far too big a responsibility to accept suboptimal inadequate leadership. One crucial aspect when raising attainment is the quality of leadership. In Ofsted’s Twelve outstanding secondary schools Excelling against the odds, they credit that Outstanding Schools ‘Building leadership capacity’, I do not believe that there is anyone who would argue that a key factor in the school’s success is its outstanding leadership and management. There are high expectations for all students and the staff, the ethos of the school is centred on achievement and the quality of students’ learning experiences.
Style of Leadership is something that I had never given a lot of thought before I became a teacher, however it is interdependently integral to the success of an organisation. The leadership style that will produce the best results is one that can motivate all staff to identify with the leader’s vision for the benefit of the organization as a whole. One of the first exercises that you undertake as part of the National Qualification for Senior Leaders (NPQSL) is analyse your own Leadership Style, because of how important leadership as a concept is. It can be a very difficult exercise to analyse one’s own leadership style, but it is an extremely valuable process, to have a level of self-awareness on the impact you are making is key. I especially found it illuminating when I invited others around me to carry out a 360* appraisal of my leadership.
Honesty and integrity are fundamental in this process. If you are serious about becoming a better leader, you must be prepared to take on other people’s opinions and act upon them not just ‘listen’ to them. To quote John Hattie ‘know thy impact’, everything we do in education has an impact on pupil progress (both positive and negative), to know what we ‘think’ or ‘believe’ that works is not sufficient, we need to know using evidence what has the greatest impact. We have all faced the iniquity of working with poor leaders that do not listen and believe they are always right, poor leadership leads to low engagement of staff, decreased productivity, increased turnover, increased stress, causes major health issues, and even death.
Why Management Matters
What defined The Headmaster’s Management was his teamwork, he built a formidable team around him of competent, highly skilled professionals that had a clear shared vision. The 2 key individuals were the Associate Vice Principle (AVP), The Director of the Training School (DTS). Together these three people were the holy trinity, their word was the Gospel. Working in a truly challenging environment, these 3 people were inspirational, they managed to create an oasis inside the high-rise monoliths of South London where gang culture ruled the streets. The Headmaster, AVP and DTS created a culture in which boys from a deprived area in who nationally were significant underachieving and inspired these boys to achieve outstanding exam results and buck national trends. The strong teamwork among the staff and parents meant the momentum of improvement continued apace year on year.
Enacting change management literature emphasizes the importance of the leader in organizations.
Key characteristics of successful schools in raising achievement including:
Strong leadership,
High expectations,
Effective teaching and learning,
An ethos of respect
Parental involvement
An effective school will seek to develop all these characteristics underpinned by the practical use of data to monitor the achievement of particular groups of pupils to pinpoint and tackle underperformance.
The evidence from the international literature demonstrates that effective leaders exercise an indirect and powerful influence on the effectiveness of the school and on the achievement of students in most countries. The Initiations comes from the Headmaster in a clear and structured way that involved all parties who hold a vested interest in the School. The culture created in a school is the hidden curriculum, as humans we form hegemonic beliefs together, there is an acquiescence that bonds us inextricably together. It manifests in how people treat each other and behave towards one and other. The Headmaster’s influence and values were evident everywhere you looked in the school, from how pupils held open doors for visitors or the way the whole school went into assemblies in complete silence, the values were shared by everyone.
Why data matters
It was through the analogous story telling Stephen Covey introduced the concept of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which are essential if you are going to bring about change and improvement in any environment. To quote The Headmaster ‘if it can’t be measured then it can’t be improved’. The Headmaster Leadership ensured the schools focus was on teaching and learning. Analysis of data by the Senior Leadership Team meant that areas of underachievement were picked quickly and became a priority for targeted intervention. The key to this was being as proactive team and act as early as possible. The validity and reliability of the data is also important so that you are ensuring the best use of your limited time and resources.
The Headmaster fully understood that it was important having the confidence to use the data at all levels. He knew that there was a limit to how much information data you can convey to staff, it was treated like a score board in a tennis match, it should take you about 3 seconds to understand who is in the lead. The key point he would stress is it not about the actual data but about how you use it for improvement. Teachers were empowered to use data for teaching and learning, as a school at every level we identified underachieving groups to target interventions. The school put together its own package of support and effective training on the use of data. The school understood that data needed available in a simple format for their use and was published to staff, parents and pupils on a monthly basis at KS4.
As a Head of Year at the time attendance was a high priority as part of my role, I fully understood the impact poor attendance has on pupil progress. it is an often-overlooked aspect of pupil progress but is a very accurate predictor of pupil’s chances of success. Attendance data should be extensively used at all levels to support teaching and learning.
Raising achievement in schools requires, at the very least, an understanding of the factors influencing performance in schools. The art of teaching is to know what to measure in order to what needs to be improved. Or in other words when to intervene and how. Rudd and Davies in 2002 made the observation that The English education system now has a tremendously rich set of data on each pupil. For example
CAT tests
How do we compare with similar schools.
What does the attainment data tell me about the performance of the school compared to national and LA averages.
What are the overall strengths and areas of development.
Tracking pupils’ performance and progress
Do we have any underperforming groups of pupils
Exactly who is underperforming.
Where are the patterns that we need to identify.
What is our value-added data.
How are we supporting our subgroups.
Using data to support allocation of staffing and resources, making sure that your timetable puts the best people in-front of the right classes
Challenging the aspirations of staff, pupils and parents
Supporting school self‐evaluation.
Narrowing the achievement gap.
What can be done to improve.