Self Improving Schools The Journey To Excellence

* Can a school-led system truly become self-improving? * What is the difference between good and great schools? * Who should inspect and regulate? * How should local authorities change? * Is the landscape ahead one of all schools in partnerships? The English schools' system is at a crossroads. This landmark collection of essays brings together some of the country's leading education thinkers and practitioners. Their polemic is intended to help teachers, school leaders, governors, researchers and policy makers think deeply about future directions. 'As a Minister, I would ask which organisation was responsible for resolving a particular problem in education, only to be told: 'Don't worry, Minister - it's no longer the DFE. That is now a responsibility of the School-Led System. They will be delivering it.' Often, when you probed a little deeper, you discovered that the school-led system was nowhere near as well formed and ever present as some Ministers and senior civil servants liked to think.' David Laws 'This is a time of great possibility. Teachers are attempting to do extraordinary things. If we had more courage to shape our schools around what we believe to be a good education, then we could make life so much better not just for teachers but for the students we serve.' Peter Hyman 'For a self-improving system to be truly successful and to have a significant impact, it requires the highest performing schools to be outward reaching and to establish deep partnerships.' Rachel Macfarlane 'A self-improving school system must not become a self-regarding or, worse, a self-protecting school system. The role of external challenge is key to this.' Russell Hobby

John Dunford was general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders from 1998 to 2010. Prior to that, he was a member of the leadership team of three secondary schools in the north-east of England from 1974 to 1998, including 16 years as head of Durham Johnston Comprehensive School, an 11-18 school with 1500 pupils. In this outstanding book, John reveals all that he has learned about teaching and leadership over a stellar 40-year career, interweaved with a series of enlightening stories about government education policy over the last 20 years and the way in which successful schools have navigated the changing policy landscape.

As the once-in-a-lifetime stimulus of a pandemic creates the opportunity for change, this ground-breaking and timely edited text is a must-have springboard for the re-imagination of education system leadership. How can education stakeholders act in collaboration to lead us into a new and different age?

We all have opinions on education, but how far do we understand the powerful forces that shape the learning experiences of our children and young people? Eric Macfarlane takes a critical look at the traditions, government policies and individual ideologies that currently determine priorities in our schools, colleges and universities. His disturbing conclusion is that we are fast losing sight of the basic principles that underpin effective learning and teaching. Who Cares About Education? is a call for concerted action from all who share an interest in young people and the way in which we prepare them for adulthood. 'This wise book will speak to a wide range of audiences and prove an important resource for a generation of teachers, parents and young people who sense that something has gone very wrong in today's system.' Melissa Benn. 'Eric Macfarlane has a real gut feeling for what education should be about. At a time when discussion is mainly about exam results and giving schools new titles, he provides a forceful reminder of what really matters in educating our young people.' Chris Green, MBE. 'Education remains political dynamite, with teaching professionalism and autonomy constantly undermined, and school leaders flung aside like football managers in a bad season. That's why we need books like Eric Macfarlane's - restoring perspective, channelling rage, providing historical context, and voicing solutions. It's a book for all who care about real education.' Geoff Barton. 'Eric Macfarlane shares his passion for a broad and balanced curriculum and emphasises the enormous benefits of the arts as a serious part of every child's education and well-being. His book will empower us to ensure accessibility to the arts for future generations.' Dame Evelyn Glennie. Eric Macfarlane has taught in, and been head of, both secondary modern and grammar schools. He was the founding principal of Queen Mary's College, one of Hampshire's pioneering 16+ comprehensive colleges, and has been an LEA adviser, examiner and assessor of several different initiatives to improve the learning and teaching processes in both schools and universities. Whilst Principal of Queen Mary's College, he was seconded to Keble College for a year to assist with the Oxford Department of Education's introduction of a school-based teacher-training course. He worked at the University of Surrey and Birkbeck College promoting the Enterprise in Higher Education initiative, before becoming academic staff adviser in University College, London. Eric has had a long association with out-of-school learning initiatives and was chair of the Governing Council of the Active Training and Education Trust. He received the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 1988.

What makes a school great? Studies into good schools are numerous, but there has been much less written about great schools. The former are more common, but with success comes complacency; good is the enemy of great. In 2009 the London Leadership Strategy established the Going for Great programme, creating a forum for leaders of schools rated `outstanding' by Ofsted. This collaboration sought to identify and share best practice; based on their case studies, school-to-school visits, the research literature and through seminar, debates and discussions, a model of great schooling has emerged.This publication seeks to explore in depth the Nine Pillars of Greatness written by the course leaders of the Going for Great programme. It considers the range of characteristics that define great schooling, from a school's values and ethos, leadership and teaching to its curriculum, approach to professional development, learning community and ongoing self-evaluation.Supported by a wealth of academic pedagogical texts and written by three authors who have spent their lives in education, The Nine Pillars of Great Schools examines the commonalities between the most successful institutions and demonstrates how to transform a good school into a great school.

Drawing on 38 years of experience, Brian Lightman's perceptive and thoughtful book is a reflective account of his career, looking at the development of the education system both from his perspective as a teacher and school leader and, more recently, as one involved in national policy. Major themes include the disruptive impact of the electoral cycle that has consistently led to a failure for developments to be properly embedded, and a visceral criticism of what the author sees as a highly polarised and divided education service in the Michael Gove era. The final section makes the case for a radical change to the culture that pervades our education service.

This book looks at the sensible and meaningful role of self-review in creating sustainable improvement in all areas across secondary schools. It outlines a self-review approach focussed on key principles which ensure this approach is transparent, purposeful, does not negatively impact on workload, that does not use the same approach for all teams and that does actually result in clear ideas for school improvement. It discusses claims of effective self-review including that it challenges thinking, leads to improvement, incorporates a range of stakeholders, skills people up, and helps build professional communities. The book is full of examples and case studies so that the reader can transfer some of these ideas to their context, discuss them at meetings and help generate new ideas. It challenges the 'deep dive' approach as something that should be left to Ofsted and instead suggests that leaders should know daily what is happening in their schools, and instead work with staff to design self-review activities that are bespoke and fit for purpose. The main theme is around 'improve not prove', where stakeholders feel involved, valued and empowered to be change-makers at a range of scales. It examines how effective self-review can reduce workload and support improvements in wellbeing.

Roy Blatchford is one of the UK's most respected educationists. 'Success is a Journey' is a beautifully written collection of his recent essays about the education landscape, reflecting Roy's very high regard for teaching and schools. Over the past thirty years, Roy has written widely on school and college inspection, curriculum innovation, global education, policy and politics. His love of classrooms and enjoyment in watching children succeed are always present. His conversations with students, teachers and leaders have informed the content of many of the essays in this collection. Roy Blatchford's influence in establishing national standards in England's schools is evident in the contents of Part Two of the book. He was lead author of the the DfE Teachers' Standards, Master Teacher Standard and National Standards of Excellence for Headteachers. Part Three explains and exemplifies the practice of Blinks, a distinctive approach to reviewing and reporting on education settings which he has, with colleagues, established over the past fifteen years in the UK and internationally.