I love the phrase: environment is the third teacher.
What is your environment whispering to your children and staff team about your standards?
Let’s talk about display boards.
They can be a chore.
Especially if you have a lot of them.
You and your team are busy and working hard.
And these really might be something you don’t want to focus on right now, which is fine, because you decide your priorities.
But if you do, then what are your display boards saying?
When my team and I do environmental walk-arounds we see a range of displays from delight to despair.
Delight display boards: beautifully presented, high quality work, often they are coming out of the wall in some way. They speak volumes about the expectations of the school.
Despair display boards: children’s work is poorly backed, borders/backing paper are coming off, nothing to tell you what the work is about, who did it or why.
If you’re reading this and thinking your display boards are not as close to ‘delight’ as you’d like then I invite you to consider:
What is the real barrier?
- Time?
- The number of displays?
- Skills in the team?
- Is it in the whole school or in specific areas?
This might seem superficial. But here’s the thing…
What standards do you expect of your children in the work? I bet they are high.
Are you showing those same high standards in your display boards and around the school?
If these aren’t aligned, how can you make them?
Environment is the third teacher.
What is it whispering to your children and staff team about your standards?
Take 5 minutes to consider what is the root cause of display boards showing the standards you expect to have in your school.
Do you know where the forgotten display board is?
The one board that is often forgotten is the one outside the building. The one that almost everyone will walk past, and that parents see. So get away from your screen right now and go and have a look at it. And if you improve it, I would love to see a before and after photo 🙂
Do you want to know how I can judge a school in 30 seconds from its environment and how you can use this to improve the standards in your school? Come to:
Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good – 1 day workshop – rated 9.5/10 by school leaders 🙂
You’ll leave with 4 great leadership tools to help you improve your school by working smarter not harder.
Upcoming dates:
Thurs 27th Apr 09:30-15:30
Thurs 15th Jun 09:30-15:30
Weds 28th Jun 09:30-15:30
Tickets are £350+VAT for up to 6 of your SLT (additional people £50pp)
Complimentary copies of Journey to Outstanding for your team