video chat

Digital tools for connected schools

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As schools cluster together to help raise achievement for all students, considerations for how this will work becomes a priority. Schools are being encouraged to share their expertise and ‘learn from each other about how best to raise the quality of teaching and learning.’ (Communities of Schools; Making a difference – IES) Blended ways of working (face-to-face and online) could well be one of the best solutions for all.

Connecting together

Q: How will key stakeholders come together to build trusting relationships and address common goals – and are there digital tools that can help us do that?

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self-evaluation tool

Internal Evaluation: How can boards of trustees review their effectiveness?

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To succeed in a world characterised by rapid change and increased complexity, it is vital that schools can grow, develop and adapt creatively to change and take charge of change so that they can create their own preferable future.

– Stoll, Fink & Earl, 2003

The Board of Trustees is the Crown entity responsible for the governance and the management of the school. It is entrusted to work on behalf of all stakeholders, and is accountable for the school’s performance with the key focus of improving student progress and achievement.

The board’s role is to ensure that every student at the school is able to attain his or her highest possible standard in educational achievement. Therefore, it is also the board’s role to design, in consultation with the school community, the ‘preferable’ future that will best meet the needs of all learners. In this regard, the board emphasises strategic leadership, sets the vision for the school, and ensures the school complies with legal and policy requirements (policies are at governance level, and outline clear expectations to the principal). In doing this, it is important for the board to have an ongoing process of review — to critically reflect on their performance and the current reality, and to use this information to guide and determine sustainable school improvement.

How does the board do this? What evidence does, or can, the board gather to monitor and review their performance? How can the board know how it is performing in regard to its functions?

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snake oil

Avoiding the snake oil

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snake oil

I have written previous posts about how we collaborate, prioritise and ‘make and break’ decisions about school and organisational change. The decision-making process and how we seek different influences to inform it continue to fascinate me. There is no one answer or simple prescription that can be followed in these areas, and, consequently, one thing many schools struggle with is how to allocate the very scarce resources that they have. Each school has only a limited amount of ‘discretionary spend’ in financial terms or in the focus, time and attention of the staff. There are a lot of competing things we could focus on for our professional learning or spend our curriculum, property or staffing budgets on. The question is, how do we make sure we are getting the most positive outcomes possible?

When I was a principal, for example, much of the mail that came across my desk was offering deals on this product or that programme, and contained sometimes quite extravagant claims about the results that could be expected for our staff and students. You have to have a well-attuned filter at times. There are plenty of snake oil salesmen out there who will push hard for you to spend sometimes significant amounts of that discretionary spend on their products or services, when they may not align well with your articulated beliefs. So, how do we make the decision about which things are, in fact, the most important and influential levers for positive change in the outcomes for our students?

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