I have hesitated to write this blog for some considerable time, but  as we reach the usual  anxieties of this year’s exam results I am propelled just to say this. Especially as this is a year where even the exam boards, OFSTED and OFQUAL expect wide variations from expectations. So here’s my message!

“As a head teacher, do not allow the vagaries of this year’s results to define you. You will know how hard you and your team have worked. Fight off any ignorant analysis and believe in your long term strategies. Build a consensus around your analysis and don’t be apologetic. You are important for your school and we need more and more of you to continue wanting to do this job.We need to stand up for one another and with one another. Our leadership groups whether formal unions or collaborative groups like Heads’ Roundtable need to stand up for you”

Others like Tom Sherrington have much more articulately expressed the concern many people in the teaching profession have advanced over the last few years. https://teacherhead.com/.

CHANGE THE CLIMATE

Concerns about the climate that teachers and school leaders face day-in day-out frankly risk all the system improvements that have been achieved over the last couple of decades.
Let’s be very clear. Attainment in our schools is much better and has reached levels only dreamed about 20 years ago. I believe we have the most professional workforce we have ever had. The profession is armed with a  catalogue of researched ideas about learning and pedagogy. There is a rigorous debate about learning in most schools. The system is allowing more structural diversity.
Yet, we see school leaders and teachers leaving in unprecedented numbers. A quarter of teachers trained in 2011 have left. Working as I do, in many schools of different types across the country, I see first hand how head teachers are stretched to breaking point and often operate in a blaming bullying climate on the pretext of raising standards; judged on standards that are measured  by the latest statistical metric. It’s not surprising that people describe being a head as akin to football management. You are only as good as your last set of results. In fact it’s worse. It’s down to other people’s analysis and assessment of those results.
I have the opportunity to view this from the position of working in other countries. Without doubt it is hard to describe positively what is happening in the UK to my international colleagues. As one of them said to me last week, “It’s just crazy . How can you treat people that way and expect to raise standards and broaden opportunities for young people.”
It was interesting that recently the National School Commissioner commented how noticeable it was that the longer primary schools stayed with a Trust the better their results became. I noticed lots of ‘likes’ to his tweet, but wondered what people were liking. Mine was recognition that school improvement is not a one year journey, and is not an instant fix; it has to be sustained effort. My headships in the UK were blessed with time to change mindsets and practice.
I know what it is to build one of the best schools in the country. I’ve led that in two different countries. I know what it is to turn around schools that have consistently failed over years. However over the last decade I’ve seen those who lead the education system make fundamental mistakes that can make real sustainable school improvement almost impossible. But first let’s put some of my basic thoughts and prejudices down.

IS ANY SCHOOL TRULY OUTSTANDING?

I hate the word outstanding.  I dislike the way we strive for it. I prefer more humility in the system.  I don’t believe any school is truly outstanding. They will be good and will have many outstanding features. When you run a school,  just when you think you’ve fixed a problem something else rears its head. Better to recognise those outstanding features than to  describe a school  by an overall group term.

I hate the ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ labels. Certainly it’s better than satisfactory, but could it be ‘approaching good’and ‘not yet good.’ This  suggests there is a way forward and this is a journey. Even the OFSTED inspection report  structure – this is why this isn’t a good school on the front page- immediately  saps the school’s energy and overemphasises what is wrong as opposed to what might be being progressed.

If more of our schools are good and results are better, how come we still show little growth in our international rankings?

If our profession has access to more research about the efficacy of various practice, why is it that are school classrooms largely look the same as 75 years ago?

Why in virtually every lesson I watch do teachers at some point train students how to respond to an exam question? Why do year 6 teachers largely abandon the breadth of curriculum to focus on Maths and English for the SATS?

Why is mental health an increasing challenge for teachers and students?

The problem is that the natural  response to this culture is that we must all meet the arbitrary standards that lead to these judgements . Who said calculating progress 8 in the way we do gives us a measure of how our students  are attaining and getting the best education. But often a school’s or teacher’s own existence is governed by meeting these external metrics so inevitably schools and teachers make curriculum and learning plans to meet these, not what a great broad education should be.

CHANGE COMES FROM COMMITMENT AND EFFORT FROM WITHIN

One thing I learned whilst  turning round a school, was that we achieved it by detailed action and attention from within the school. For years, all sorts of support had been parachuted in and usually failed or only led to isolated  short term improvement. Real improvement, especially in schools in our most challenging environments,  requires a moral commitment to the staff and the students from within the school that shows we have clear ideas, believe in them and will be sticking around. We were with them on a journey at a human level.

So rather than creating a climate of external challenge with new MATs brought in with their proven records, with support foisted on school that find themselves challenged, we should see new leaders being coached. We should invest in the front end, not in the response.They need a critical ear and capacity to work alongside them.  If we took all the money from OFSTED,(£168 million), from Regional Commissioners Offices, from cadres of DFE advisors and truly invested that in supporting leadership and providing schools with additional capacity when they faced problems, how much better might that be. We would make these decisions with the school leaders respecting their detailed knowledge of what might best work. What a different climate this would be.

A common management mistake in large organisations is to make small operational decisions centrally and not within the smaller business units. Not only does this risk missing the local context it is often slow and poorly timed, simply because of the size and range of decisions you’d need to take at the centre.

In other international settings this is what I see. This is what I’ve been able to do elsewhere. But don’t get me wrong. There are times when it’s time to stop watering the rocks and make a harder decision. There are people in the DFE or as HMIs that genuinely try to do this, and act as critical friends. But the overall system is not like that. I could show you numerous letters from the different agencies; I could recount several examples of meetings where the tone is bullying and one of persistent harassment. What is worse is that this climate can give license to those who run MATs or individual schools to mirror the approach with their own staff. They are fighting for their own reputations after all.

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

I have seven grandchildren going through this. They go to schools where inspirational teachers and brave head teachers try to make the experiences at school meaningful, broad and exciting. I visit different schools every week where schools take risks to try new things that make a difference to the life chances of children. Geography trips to Iceland, exchanges with schools across the world, amazing art work and school productions. These will be what children remember. These will be things that build those strong personal skills.

But the fact is that one of these grandchildren had to take time off school because he at 11 was so stressed over his SATs he became ill. The fact that to play safe, teachers in another school in their mock exam, downgraded all predictions in English GCSE  affecting one of my other grandchildren’s self belief. Teachers  had no idea of the new benchmarks. We all know how important it is for students to believe in their own potential.  These are just two examples from close to home of the strains in schools and the damage to the mental health of students.

But most of you teachers, school leaders and parents know all this. So I’ll rant no more. But what surprises me is how we all just go along with it. It’s learned helplessness. You should read Martin Seligman’s books. Even I worry a little as I write all this, that you will be assigning me that that liberal blob that Gove once described the profession. But what 45 years in the profession tells me is that where we are is so so wrong. It risks the collapse of standards by persistently undermining the profession and the mental well-being and personal development of a generation. Yes that bad!

This is not a rant. It’s a plea. STOP! REFLECT! LISTEN!
I’ve explained the need to turn much of inspect and blame into support and capacity building. Will it happen? Well yes where there are brave inspirational heads and CEOs who create that climate and have the ability to stand up for their teams. Well no, not unless we have political leadership with different values. It is sad that political debate around education is more about finance, funding and teacher pay caps. Most of us do this because of a sense of passion and vocation. We want a climate where we are supported to do a great job, can be creative and innovative and enable young people to thirst for knowledge, be curious, and follow their dreams in myriad ways.

So here we go again with this year’s results cycle. Let’s stand up for one another and what we know to be right. You have made a fantastic commitment to young people and they need you to carry on! Fewer and fewer people have the courage to do what you do!