Yesterday, I started the day early at Hillcrest Primary School...

I had breakfast with some of the children and talked to some great colleagues before Dave Shipley, the headteacher, took me around his school... this is an amazing school in a incredible building doing brilliant things.

What makes Hillcrest Primary School such a brilliant school?

• a rich, talented and diverse learning team;
• clear, shared vision, values and beliefs driving the work of the school;
• inspiring teaching within a wonderful learning environment;
• strong, positive and dynamic relationships;
• high expectations of every child and the whole learning team; and
• some talented, brilliant, gorgeous and wonderful young people!

Dave and his learning team are doing a brilliant job and making a real difference. They have created a fantastic learning environment for the children in a really great school.

Chris

I started the day with a breakfast meeting with the Inner South Leeds headteachers...

The only problem was that the primary headteachers had somehow been told that the meeting was at the St George's Centre while Colin Bell, Colin Richardson and I were waiting at South Leeds Stadium. We did all manage to connect eventually and the thing that aways hits you when you spend time with this group of headteachers is their energy, enthusiasm, passion and commitment. They work in one of the toughest parts of Leeds and they are simply the best!

These colleagues have a fundamental and unshakeable belief in what can be achieved with their children and their communities. We talked long and hard about what we still need to do to achieve the sort of outcomes we all want to see for little learners in South Leeds... it's the same three elements again and again...

• inspirational teaching;
• a brilliant curriculum offer;
• nurture, care, guidance and support.

We need to think carefully about three distinct and important pieces of the learning journey for our children...

• 0 - 7 years; the foundation years...
• 7 - 14 years; the middle years...
• 14 - 19 years; the pathway years.

Then we simply need to rethink our structures and our cultures and make it happen.

Chris

I missed one of the volunteers course celebrations at the end of last week but my wonderful colleague Jane Haswell didn't let me down...

"Hello Chris, Sorry that you could not make it to the celebration at Stanningley to hand out certificates to the volunteers. It was a great turnout and we had strawberries and sticky buns afterwards! The Stanningley group was made up of parents from Bramley Primary, Bramley St Peter's. Whitecote and of course Stanningley - the first cluster delivery. Everything went well and attached is a photo for your blog."

Keep up the good work Jane.

Chris

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been so caring and supportive over the last week when to be honest my heart or my head hasn't really been in Leeds...

I have been overwhelmed by the cards, letters, notes and e-mails from people who understand what I am going through and who care about me.

THANK YOU ALL

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible... promise.
Chris

I managed to visit Grimes Dyke Primary School at long last...


Our dear friends at OfSTED placed Grimes Dyke Primary School in Special Measures in October last year but some colleagues believe that was a mistake and after my visit to the school I am certain that OfSTED got it wrong. This is not a failing school and Diana Mann and her team are very obviously doing a lot of things right.

I toured the school with Diana and Natalie, Joseph, Ryan and Natasha who are all in Year 6 and looking forward to moving on to secondary school in September. The children were confident, articulate and polite, and brilliant advocates for their school. We talked about their plans for a fantastic pond in their amazing grounds, their impressive programme of events and visits, their 'Worry Boxes', their new Children's Centre opening in September, plans for an satellite Pupil Development Centre linked to Woodlands Primary School, their Spanish and French lessons, the impact of 'Success for All' and we took part in a fantastic 'Wake Up and Shake Up' session led by a brilliant young colleague and some more of Diana's young people. Diana and her deputy also talked incredibly positively about the school's involvement in the Intensifying Support Programme and the real impact it was having.

Schools are complex beasts and it isn't easy to pick up the real school in a brief visit or a couple of days if you are an OfSTED team! However, I know what makes Grimes Dyke Primary School a special place...

• strong and passionate leadership;
• positive and dynamic relationships;
• some great teaching and learning;
• clear, shared values driving all aspects of the work of the school;
• high expectations of every child and the whole learning team; and
• some fantastic young people!

Chris

I went on to Children's Services Scrutiny Board with Cllr Brett, Cllr Harker and Rosemary Archer...

Scrutiny Board were looking at their work programme for the next year and the performance of Children's Services here in Leeds. I reminded members of Scrutiny Board that we were doing brilliant things in so many areas and that our outcomes are significantly better than the were two years ago. I also outlined some of the challenges we are facing:

Around standards:

• secondary schools;
• boys;
• working -class boys;
• looked after children;
• some ethnic minority groups;
• young people not in education, employment or training (the NEET group).

Around health and well-being:

• sexual health;
• mental health;
• obesity.

Around sustainability:

• green schools;
• recycling;
• energy use;
• walking to school.
  

I also talked about our work to develop more coherent approaches to parenting, coaching, personalisation, choice and the use of ICT.The agenda as we all know is about standards and outcomes for children and young people and I am certain that Scrutiny Board will continue to challenge us all to do better!

Chris

I started my day early at Beechwood Primary School...

The school was inspected by OfSTED in January this year and they said that it was good school with outstanding leadership. Actually, this is a great school where John Beckett and his team are doing wonderful things. I had breakfast with some of John's young people, met some of his colleagues and had a brief look around the school. I simply must go back...

John and his colleagues are certainly doing something very special at Beechwood Primary School.

Chris

I started my day at Five Lanes Primary School...

Jo Fiddes and her team have achieved great things over the last year... Jo asked me to go a year ago and this was the follow up visit. It was great to see what has been achieved; they have also just had an OfSTED inspection which recognises the brilliant progress they have made and celebrates the outstanding leadership Jo and her Deputy have shown.

Walking around the school you understand the challenges our primary schools face but what is really wonderful is the teamwork, the quality of the teaching, the pace and purpose of the learning, the quality of the learning environment and the children!

OfSTED will say that it is a satisfactory school with good features but actually it's a great school... and Jo and her colleagues are not complacent in any way, there is always more to do. What makes Five Lanes Primary School such a great school?

• a talented and committed learning team;
• strong and passionate leadership;
• strong, positive and dynamic relationships;
• clear, shared vision and values driving all aspects of the work of the school;
• great teaching within a wonderful learning environment;
• high expectations of every child and the whole learning team; and
• some fantastic young people!

I for one want to celebrate what Jo and her colleagues have achieved!
Chris

“Leaders don’t simply emerge. If you want to create leadership at every level, we have to create the systems and the culture that allows this to happen. Authoritarian leadership is dead along with leaders who want predictability and to control the uncontrollable. The new leaders realise that they are part of the team, part of the overall agenda, not the master of it.”

It’s not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, nor the nastiest… it’s the one most adaptable to change. We need to develop intelligent learning communities within Education Leeds and across our schools. That means teams of colleagues who share information, insights, experience and toolkits about common interests and the things that we are passionate about. Virtual networks, working groups, clusters and teams building on the informal, non-documented and personal networks that exist across Education Leeds and the schools we serve.

Why an intelligent community? We need to be a dynamic organisation that can quickly adapt to change… can shrink and expand to meet identified needs. We have to develop some kind of structure within our organisation to make it intelligent.. to make it easy to join, to share and to connect. We know that building an intelligent community is always going to be a balancing act… too much structure and you lose creativity, imagination and innovation… too much creativity and you lose focus. The only way it works is if the systems are part of your culture, your day to day practice and your day to day work.

The facts are still the facts.. be true to yourself, your beliefs and values. Pretending to be someone else will make life at work far more complicated than it should be and you will never be effective as a leader. We must also connect our results with our people so that they can all see how what they do makes a real difference.

We must tell our colleagues and those we work with to come and join us… to come and join us if they are inspired, engaged and passionate.. to come and share their magic!
Chris

Chris

Rules for Stifling Initiative and Creating Mediocre

1. Regard any new idea with suspicion;
2. Insist that colleagues obtain your approval to act;
3. Ask individuals to challenge and criticise each others’ ideas and proposals
4. Express your criticism freely and withhold your praise;
5. Treat problems as a sign of failure;
6. Control everything carefully and count everything that can be counted;
7. Make decisions in secret or spring them on people unexpectedly;
8. Make sure that any request for information is fully justified and that information isn’t distributed too freely;
9. Above all, never forget that you know everything important.

The Change Masters
Rosabeth Moss Kanter