Just don't tell me that their are groups of young people who can't learn and who can't be successful because I don't believe it...

Recent brain research shows that the ability to learn is universal and is similar in people from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. However, what is learned is the distinguishing feature of success in any school. The failure of any student to achieve is a product of there being a mismatch between what is being taught and what is being learned rather than there being some students who “cannot learn.”

We know that the keys to learning are the student’s ability to learn, the way in which the classroom is organized and managed and the relationships between student, teacher and parent.Therefore there are three major issues we need to address...

• putting in place an appropriate, stimulating and challenging curriculum,
• engaging every student in the curriculum as without engagement, little is learned,
• enabling the student to build a positive relationship to learning, and the people who are
  involved in their learning, so that they can become a lifelong learner.

I believe that building a positive relationship to learning is the key to unlocking the potential of all our learners. The problem is that under the current system of accountability, with a highly structured curriculum based on specific standards and the continuous testing of student knowledge, building a positive relationship to learning is the thing we spend the least time on.

Chris

“leadership is a key, vision is a driver, relationships are the glue that binds teams of
people together and learning enables them to work innovatively and interdependently.”
Steve Marshall

I have been reading the ''International Handbook of School Effectiveness and Improvement'. The last chapter on 'School Effectiveness and Improvement in the Twenty-first Century: Reframing for the Future' captures the challenges we face and the choices we need to make to ensure that every young person becomes a passionate and committed learner.It identifies the following characteristics in order of their importance to student learning:
(1) Classroom management
(2) Metacognitive processes
(3) Cognitive processes
(4) Home environment/parental support
(5) Student/teacher interactions
(6) Social/behavioural attributes
(7) Motivational/affective attributes
(8) Peer group
(9) Quantity of instruction
(10) School culture
(11) Classroom climate
(12) Classroom instruction
(13) Curriculum design
(14) Academic interactions
(15) Classroom assessment
(16) Community influences
(17) Psychomotor skills
(18) Teacher/administrator decision making
(19) Parent involvement policy
(20) Classroom implementation and support
(21) Student demographics
(22) Out of class time
(23) Program demographics
(24) School demographics
(25) Authority policies
(26) School policies
(27) Authority demographics

If we look at the top five elements that contribute to student learning, it becomes
obvious that it is what happens in the classroom and the home that is critical to an individual
student reaching their potential. What happens at the school, authority or national
level has minimal impact.
Chris

Another week gone and I simply don't know where the time goes...

I am sitting here at Merrion House reflecting on what I have achieved this week and the difference we are making to outcomes for children and young people across Leeds... I know that the further away you get from the classroom the longer it takes to see the impact but it is important that we constantly stand in our colleagues shoes and ask those questions. In a week where the latest secondary performance tables state that we are now sixth from the bottom in terms of the value we add from the end of the primary years to the end of the secondary years, which is a marked improvement on last year when we were second from the bottom, we must all reflect and consider whether our efforts are making a real difference to children, young people and their families and what else we need to do to achieve a step change in outcomes.

What I do know is that although we are making good progress on so many fronts, what we are currently doing isn't enough. We must continue to challenge everyone to do better and build brilliant provision consistently across all our schools... whatever it takes!
Chris

I went on to a meeting with colleagues from the Outer East Family of Schools...

The group of talented headteachers represent the Garforth and Brigshaw clusters and they are an inspiring bunch doing some real cutting-edge work around extended services, staff training and development, teenage pregnancy, Trusts and so much more.
Chris

I started the day early at Wetherby High School...


We want all our schools to be brilliant learning places where every learner is happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes! This raises a number of challenges for schools across Leeds:

• How do you build and model strong and efffective learning-centred leadership?
• How do you build consistently brilliant and highly effective teaching and learning ?
• How do you create an offer that engages, inspires and stimulates your students and your learning team?
• How do you coach the learning team to develop and improve their practice?
• How do you coach the students to take ownership for their learning?
• How do you create passionate engagement consistently across the learning community?

Andrea Barnes, Acting Headteacher, had asked me to come to meet with her Leadership Team. I also met with Damian Murray, Chair of Governors, who wanted to talk to me about governance, leadership, buildings and post-16. Wetherby High School is a satisfactory school according to our friends from OFSTED... a school with some great leaders doing some really effective work. Andrea, Damian and the Leadership Team are wrestling with the things all schools are searching for... how do you make it outstanding; spread the excellence, share the best practice and develop consistently great provision.

I don't get into enough secondary schools and it was a stimulating and refreshing start to the day. It would be interesting to hear how you think we can build brilliant!
Chris

My colleague David Bateson sent me this...

"Hi Chris, another 21 participants started on the National Programme for Specialist Leaders of Behaviour and Attendance on the 14th of Jan and hopefully will complete the programme in December 2008. They are a really interesting group of people some; from High Schools, some from AIS; some from PDCs and one from the Eastmoor Secure Estate. It's great to know that we will be improving outcomes for children and young people and building capacity in our provision. Cheers David"

The work going on around behaviour and attendance management is really impressive especially when you can remember the real challenges we have faced with this over the last six years. David and his colleagues have really made a difference and we are developing a reputation for real excellence in these areas.
Chris

I am sitting on a train flying back to Leeds and thinking about how we up the pace and raise the bar and move things forward...

Interestingly we have Bluewave SWIFT as a self-improvement toolkit for schools but we don't have the equivalent toolkit for us as a learning organisation. How do we know if a team is a great team, an average team or a problem? It seems to me that pieces of the existing Bluewave SWIFT framework would be helpful alongside the Chartermark stuff. Is this something we need to explore?
Chris

Flying Higher in Leeds

I don't know if you have seen the Education Leeds 'Flying Higher in Leeds'. It builds on our reputation for innovation, creativity and can-do and it's brilliant...

The toolkit is aimed at supporting and developing brilliant teams of highly performing individuals to enhance and develop our capacity to:

• get things done;
• solve problems;
• learn from each other;
• exercise creativity;
• innovate;
• coach each other;
• feel happy and fulfilled at work.

If you haven't seen it it's on InfoBase.
Chris

I know it's a bit late but I received my termly letter from my colleague John Gibson who I bumped into just before Christmas when I visited Sharp Lane Primary School...

John let me know his top twelve schools...

• Crossley Street Primary School;
• Farsley Farfield Primary School;
• Sharp Lane Primary School;
• St Edwards CE Primary School;
• Ash Tree Primary School;
• Bankside primary School;
• Whingate Primary School;
• Hillcrest Primary School;
• Hovingham Primary School;
• Cross Flatts Park Primary School;
• Upper Armley Christ Church CE Primary School;
• Chapel Allerton Primary School.

It's always great to hear about successful schools from different perspectives and I would welcome hearing your top ten schools in Leeds so that we can add to the celebration of what colleagues across Leeds do day-in day-out working with the most important and valuable resource this city has... it's children and young people.
Chris

Of the many people I spend time with, Mick Waters is like a breath of fresh air...

Whenever I spend time with Mick I realise that we are both trying in our own ways to build brilliant and to find ways of trusting, empowering and engaging talented practitioners to release their magic in classrooms with young people.

It's sad that so much of the national infrastructure conspires against this and prevents our colleagues from doing this. We must nurture the creative mavericks; those who are prepared to do things differently, to challenge the status-quo, to take risks, push the boundaries and break the rules. Our headteachers need to be encouraged and given permission to continue to be simply brilliant.
Chris