… is, for school leaders, and no doubt others, an ever-present brain teaser. What makes school improvement hard is that there are so many variables that can affect a school’s performance, and so many good things one could do, none of which guarantees improvement.
It’s also a truism that different schools take entirely different steps to improve. I recall one Headteacher years ago explaining to me that the move to ‘Vertical Tutoring’ (VT) in his school had been the single most important thing the school had done to improve – nationally, only a small percentage of schools have VT models. Another Head was convinced that being super-strict about students’ behaviour was the key. And for another it was mostly about the warm relationships between students and staff at the school and the ethos of care – these were three very different schools, but all high-performing and – certainly based on the key performance indicators that Ofsted uses – very successful. But they focused on different things – there is no one-size-fits-all approach to school improvement.
The Ofsted handbook includes an ‘Evaluation Schedule’ that describes Ofsted’s view of what Good and Outstanding practice look like, but not how to get there. On two key things – Behaviour and Attitudes and the Quality of Education – for example, Ofsted say that these must be ‘exceptional’ for a school to be judged Outstanding, but they do not describe what they mean by ‘Exceptional’. I find that a bit surprising and unhelpful to schools.
One thing that is probably true for every school is that school improvement can only happen in the context of that school. For me, context means both where the school is now in terms of its improvement journey (ie is it already designated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted and trying to get better? Or it it designated ‘Inadequate’ etc) and in terms of its unique school characteristics – a school serving an area of high deprivation will differ significantly from a State-funded Grammar School. You have to start from where the school is, and this is of course a key reason why one size doesn’t fit all.
Some things about school improvement are likely to hold true for all schools:
1. Being clear about what improvement looks like for our school – having a concise plan for improvement for our school, that focuses on a vital few things, is surely essential – you can’t improve a hundred things at the same time
2. Improving students’ behaviour for learning – by which I mean both their conduct (following the rules, doing the right thing etc) and how they approach their work – how hard they work, how well they revise, how they revise, and so on
3. Improving the quality of teaching across the school so that whatever classroom a student is in, they are getting a good deal; ie reducing within-school variation in the quality of teaching
4. Improving students’ outcomes in every subject. Outcomes are another one of those variables where a hundred factors can help or hinder, but students who behave well, try really hard, learn and revise in the best ways, and are really well taught are far more likely to achieve well. Outcomes are not the only thing that matter, but they matter.
