Blog: School leadership Tips
I love the phrase: environment is the third teacher.
What is your environment whispering to your children and staff team about your standards?
I look at school Ofsted history all the time.
I know, I know; you don’t do what you do for Ofsted.
But I find the majority of Ofsted judgements are accurate. Controversial, I know, and there are exceptions.
So if we say 80% of judgements are right then what do we see in a school’s inspection history?
And how can that help you?
There are five common conversations we see pop up all the time. In fact only 4% of schools have told me that they don’t have any of these conversations in their schools.
What are they?
'The way I think things are –
nothing is significantly wrong but so much more could be right… '
Do you feel this way?
What could be ‘more right’?
And what are you going to do about it?
Herding cats?
Sticking jelly to the wall?
Same stuff, different day?
Whatever phrase you like to use, my guess is the idea is a familiar one – the quest for plans and policies to be followed with consistency.
I see this all the time. Plans are made, results aren’t as good as expected, so plans are changed.
Plans keep changing, but people don’t. (Although the great ones move on too quickly!).
What I find in schools is that your plans are fine. The problem is everyone isn’t doing them for some reason or other.
I’ve heard many an Ofsted inspection story, some heartwarming and just how you would want an inspection to be (regardless of the judgement) because they are developmental and supportive, whilst giving an honest summary of the school.
And the horror stories that make you sink!
I’ve met a lot of Outstanding Heads and walked into a lot of Outstanding schools.
And I hear a lot of ‘myths’ about what it is to be Outstanding.
Here are seven I come across regularly:
There are 5 difficult conversations I come across ALL the time in schools. They are relatively simple to resolve. But most have been going on for a long time: Lateness. Not marking books to the minimum standard. Caretakers not doing everything they need to, as quickly as they need to. Unwelcoming receptionist. The teacher who […]