Steve started, by asking the audience if they could remember how teachers and head teachers made you feel as a child, how even then you could see that they influenced the ethos of the school. How you can look back now, knowing that they impacted on all the children - a whole generation . He told us that it is 'your turn now to set the tone for the future, in some cases into the 22nd Century.' He continued, saying that new heads had chosen to take on the mantle of leadership.He said, 'you are ultimately accountable but lead with grace and humility.'
The college was created to serve leaders 10 years ago next year. Leaders cannot act alone but must work with other leaders who must also be the best. Leadership is not about solving all of the problems but about alliances. He wanted to speak 'In praise of imperfect leadership', to know the strengths and the weakenesses of your team and to make it a complete and perfect team.
Toby began by asking if people could remember what they were doing ten years ago, that NQTs today were possibly listening to the Spice Girls or Back Street Boys back then.
He talked about how headteachers today will have to prepare a generation for a very different world, one where we face stark challenges, with an ageing workforce, a world in economic and environmental flux and most definitely with much smaller budgets.
Great leaders need great teams, the best people for the job. That means people who will regularly challenge you. Make the best use of other's skills. Consider the impact a school business manager can make. As heads are moving to retirement we cannot afford to have a poor supply of good experienced leaders. You must develop and nurture others to move up as soon as you can, do not lead alone!
Collaboration works,look beyond the boundaries of your own organisation, but always with clarity, consistancy, communication, as John Dunford says,'Good leadership is 10% action 90 % communication'. You are becoming heads at a pivotal time where there are great challenges and great opportunities and I believe that together we can make a difference.
Thursday 12 November 2009
Friday 12 June 2009
Images of Seizing Success
Enjoyed the Conference? Couldn't attend? You can watch video highlights and speeches on the College website. Or get a sense of the event from the slideshow below. You can also view the images in our conference Flickr set.
Twitter at the conference
This has been our first conference to use Twitter extensively and we're really pleased with how it's gone.
You can continue to follow news about NCSL at www.twitter.com/ncsl.
You can continue to follow news about NCSL at www.twitter.com/ncsl.
Closing address from Tim Brighouse
Tim Brighouse gave the closing address, summarising what he had seen and sharing eight key 'lessons' for successful school leadership
Tim echoed points raised by Ed Balls, David Bell and others - namely that we have made substantial progress over the last decade but that the biggest issue facing us is that too many children are failing to learn and learning to fail.
He argued that we need to have a broad national debate on how we manage transition from primary to secondary. He argued that the time spent outside school is much more powerful than the time spent inside school, both for the better off and the less well off, and that therefore the summer months are key. He cites research from the US which showed that in July and August the gap between those who achieve and those who do not widens. It is a gap that stays static in the months when children are in school. So therefore, he argued, let's get that transition right. He asks: why couldn't every secondary have a week in July when they take in their next intake from primary, for example?
He finished with his 'eight things that you need to know'.
1. Your job is to live and extend the vision
4. Look for for children at risk and lacking resilience
Systematically look out for children at risk of learning to fail or who lack real resilience and plan individual interventions for each of them.
5. Keep it simple and keep it safe
7. Think about additionality
Tim claimed that school leaders are absolutely crucial to transforming opportunities for children. He finished by saying that school leaders are the bedrock of social justice and political freedom, the bedrock of citizenship. "Hold on to your values," he said, because we have a difficult few years ahead and it's our vision and our values that will ensure continued success through those times.
Tim echoed points raised by Ed Balls, David Bell and others - namely that we have made substantial progress over the last decade but that the biggest issue facing us is that too many children are failing to learn and learning to fail.
He argued that we need to have a broad national debate on how we manage transition from primary to secondary. He argued that the time spent outside school is much more powerful than the time spent inside school, both for the better off and the less well off, and that therefore the summer months are key. He cites research from the US which showed that in July and August the gap between those who achieve and those who do not widens. It is a gap that stays static in the months when children are in school. So therefore, he argued, let's get that transition right. He asks: why couldn't every secondary have a week in July when they take in their next intake from primary, for example?
He finished with his 'eight things that you need to know'.
1. Your job is to live and extend the vision
- Tell stories and be a historian for the organisation, always reminding people where we have come from.
- Be a weather forecaster - have an eye to what's coming ahead of us.
- As a leader of learning ensure you practise listening, speaking, reading and writing.
- Use data to chart progress, but not get so obsessed with counting petals that you fail to count the roses.
- Think of how to make your place as visually appealing as possible.
- Invest as much as you can in ICT (and Brighouse recommends the resources from i-nfer).
- Collect as many examples as you can of high impact - low effort interventions.
- For example, why haven't we got a wall of achievements by past pupils in every primary and secondary school?
- Work to gain conssistency across the school.
- You must set a personal example - mark children's work, teach someone's class and then have conversations with the class teachers.
- Have your own annual learning plan.
- Create a culture where staff talk, observe, plan and learn about teaching and learning together.
4. Look for for children at risk and lacking resilience
Systematically look out for children at risk of learning to fail or who lack real resilience and plan individual interventions for each of them.
5. Keep it simple and keep it safe
- Don't mess around with existing structures too much.
- Make meetings different - make them about your practice and not admin.
- Try something innovative from within, take the blame if it fails but above all, have fun.
7. Think about additionality
- Focus on what you can do for children in addition to your daily teaching and learning.
- Try wherever you can to connect your classrooms to other classrooms internationally.
Tim claimed that school leaders are absolutely crucial to transforming opportunities for children. He finished by saying that school leaders are the bedrock of social justice and political freedom, the bedrock of citizenship. "Hold on to your values," he said, because we have a difficult few years ahead and it's our vision and our values that will ensure continued success through those times.
Ricardo Semlar - transforming schools
Ricardo Semlar of Lumiar asked the audience 'what are we running after?'.
He talked about the importance of asking questions, especially 'why'. He had some important messages about learning....
Schools have changed very little in 100 years in both structure or content. Elements such as class size and lesson length have remained largely unchanged. Similarly, the curriculum was created by subject experts who developed curriculum in silos unrelated to each other. This resulted in a retention rate in the American curriculum of just 7% after 10 years.
Ricardo said children are 'factory built' to learn and yet what we put in front of them is heavily contrived.
Their attention span - often said to be diminishing - can vary between minutes and hours depending on the activity. Hours spent on blogs and Facebook help children to develop social skills, empathy and emotional intelligence, the very things that we are struggling to put back into work and office situations in real life.
Ricardo said that all our attempts to innovate have failed as we keep trying to make marginal changes that never work like staff training and staff deployment - they are too little too late.
Lumiar created two new roles - the tutor who guides children through emotional, social and personal aspects of learning and the master, an expert voice.
They then developed a set of competencies that represent what children need to learn and the tutor regularly meets with both parent and child. The children are encouraged to join projects and to use the internet and social tools to support self study. This provides the pupils with scope to learn where their energy lies, be that Star Wars, modern art, fashion. The children are motivated to learn and each follows a unique path. Children themselves negotiate their own learning and this has reduced issues around discipline and attendance.
Looking to the future, as e-learning itself goes through a revolution and the world has better connectivity, there are more opportunities for children to lead their own learning. Old learning in old formats must go if we are to improve the life chances of children and young people.
He talked about the importance of asking questions, especially 'why'. He had some important messages about learning....
Schools have changed very little in 100 years in both structure or content. Elements such as class size and lesson length have remained largely unchanged. Similarly, the curriculum was created by subject experts who developed curriculum in silos unrelated to each other. This resulted in a retention rate in the American curriculum of just 7% after 10 years.
Ricardo said children are 'factory built' to learn and yet what we put in front of them is heavily contrived.
Their attention span - often said to be diminishing - can vary between minutes and hours depending on the activity. Hours spent on blogs and Facebook help children to develop social skills, empathy and emotional intelligence, the very things that we are struggling to put back into work and office situations in real life.
Ricardo said that all our attempts to innovate have failed as we keep trying to make marginal changes that never work like staff training and staff deployment - they are too little too late.
Lumiar created two new roles - the tutor who guides children through emotional, social and personal aspects of learning and the master, an expert voice.
They then developed a set of competencies that represent what children need to learn and the tutor regularly meets with both parent and child. The children are encouraged to join projects and to use the internet and social tools to support self study. This provides the pupils with scope to learn where their energy lies, be that Star Wars, modern art, fashion. The children are motivated to learn and each follows a unique path. Children themselves negotiate their own learning and this has reduced issues around discipline and attendance.
Looking to the future, as e-learning itself goes through a revolution and the world has better connectivity, there are more opportunities for children to lead their own learning. Old learning in old formats must go if we are to improve the life chances of children and young people.
Friday lunch
While delegates network, eat their lunch, and browse the stands and exhibitions for the last time, Tim Brighouse works with the backstage technical crew on his PowerPoint presentation slides.
David Bell in conversation
David Bell, Permanent Secretary at the DCSF, participated in a 'mini plenary', sharing some very personal stories of his own leadership journey and of life at the very top of government.
David Bell said he wanted to become a teacher 'because of the inspiration of the teachers who taught me'. When he first started teaching Primary 4 in Glasgow, David says, 'I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven... What could be better? What could be scarier?'.
He shared his reflections on how he, as a leader, has grown in confidence on account of experience. That body of experiences provide templates and connections that you can bring to bear when new challenges arise. He said that as a leader, and in particular as a new leader, you have to accept that you'll not get everything right. So leadership is always work in progress. 'Don't ever think you've made it as a leader.'
When questioned about how he sustains himself, he said that resilience is key and offered some reflections:
David shared some reflections about what happened in parts of the banking sector. He told the story of Lehman Brothers, where the chief executive had a permanent member of staff who advised on flower arrangments. He asked how organisations can let that level of megalomania happen. His advice was:
He finished by telling delegates that there is no job more RESPONSIBLE than than the job they are doing as school leaders.
David Bell said he wanted to become a teacher 'because of the inspiration of the teachers who taught me'. When he first started teaching Primary 4 in Glasgow, David says, 'I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven... What could be better? What could be scarier?'.
He shared his reflections on how he, as a leader, has grown in confidence on account of experience. That body of experiences provide templates and connections that you can bring to bear when new challenges arise. He said that as a leader, and in particular as a new leader, you have to accept that you'll not get everything right. So leadership is always work in progress. 'Don't ever think you've made it as a leader.'
When questioned about how he sustains himself, he said that resilience is key and offered some reflections:
- Resilient people tend to be adaptable. They adapt on the basis of experience.
- Resilient people have a deep inner core of values and beliefs. If you don't have it you are more likely to be buffeted from pillar to post in times if change.
- Resilient people tend to be very empathetic. If you're aware of your own frailties you are more likely to be able to undestand others.
David shared some reflections about what happened in parts of the banking sector. He told the story of Lehman Brothers, where the chief executive had a permanent member of staff who advised on flower arrangments. He asked how organisations can let that level of megalomania happen. His advice was:
- Don't surround yourself with people that always agree with you or who are like you.
- You always need to be able to laugh at yourself.
- You need someone who can tell you that you are going a bit bonkers... and if you don't have that your organisation can crash and burn.
He finished by telling delegates that there is no job more RESPONSIBLE than than the job they are doing as school leaders.
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The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) helps make a positive difference to children’s lives through the development of world-class leaders. NCSL's remit now includes leaders of schools, children's centres and children's services.