ELN 2015

Reflecting on the journey during 2015 with the Eastern Learning Network with the focus on teachers as inquirers.

As a cluster of schools there has been a big focus on how to engage effectively with teaching as inquiry- from a teacher perspective and as a leadership. Through the year there has been facilitators from AUT supporting and guiding thinking, along with Maggie Ogram.
towards the end of term 3 a survey was constructed, with the input from leaders and teachers from the participating schools. This survey was then created and put out to the teachers and leaders from the schools in order to gather data around MLP and the development of this and also teaching as inquiry.

In term 4 the facilitators from AUT collated and analysed the data to give feedback to our schools that help us to see where we are and what gaps we have. This has given us the information we need as a cluster and as individual schools in order to align our resourcing and PLD in order to build these areas on into 2016.

Of all the areas of data there are some that are not surprising, for example -time- an ongoing battle for all schools to provide their teachers with enough time to engage in pld that impacts positively with their practice.

And some that are areas that either fall above or below the predicted levels given our school's journey and where we are on that journey. For example, the extent to which the collaborative inquiry has enhanced collaboration and capacity to reflect is high and the happiness with their appraisal process is lower than is being espoused within the school grounds.

Weaving evidence, inquiry and standards to build better schools

Professional reading focus for our SLT this term.

Having left the UK specifically because of my 7 year old having to sit standards tests and the trauma this caused him, I am wary of the implementation of standards in NZ.  I'm hoping that reflecting on the contents of this book, specifically with a lens on our particular schools' context, will enable me to find positives in the integration of the standards.

Chapter 1 reflection

On page 9, Timperley and Parr state that the approach most likely to have the highest impact on student learning has 3 strands:

• use a range of evidence to inquire into the effectiveness of current practices
• decide what should stay because it is working
• decide what needs to change, and how it needs to change

Thankfully they then go on to state that  'the processes involved are not as simple as this description makes them appear'. At this point in my leadership practice and also within the context of our teachers practice and our school situation, this statement is very true. I know both evidentially and also from that 'hunch' we have as teachers that the 3 strands to raising achievement are a solid base from which to evince change. However I am also very conscious of the range of complexities hidden within attempting change. 

For these strands to all pull together in order to make the changes required, we need certain states to be in situ. Such as:

• Strong relationships within and across our school
• Collegiality and collaboration based on shared understanding of our purpose for change
• Trust- exactly the same trust that we strive for in our classes. That empowers people to open themselves up to risk of failure, knowing that it is ok to fail, that we never achieve success until we are aware of what we need to do, personally to change and raise our practice
• An agreed direction, aligned with differentiated levels of supportive PLD to facilitate pedagogical growth

page 11 sees Timperley and Parr addressing the very issues I have with standards in our wonderful NZ curriculum 

"Part of our motivation for putting this book together is to try to avert the kinds of negative consequences experienced in many other countries and to optimise the chances that standards will be used to promote the kinds of learning that are valued in the curriculum through using the rich descriptions that accompany the standards as a source of information for advancing teaching and learning."

The rich layers of resources that surround our standards have huge potential to support and advance learning, to create ownership of learning between teachers and learners, through the development of deep understanding of what success looks like at any given point in a child's education. However to create the optimum learning environment for this integration of standards, curriculum and teacher inquiry, we again come back to the states we need in situ before this can happen. As Timperley and Parr put it " This will only happen, however, if professional and community learning- rather than punitive accountability- remain to the fore."

Within our context, reaching this point is our biggest challenge on the road ahead....

PLG group and the multiplier effect

Last term I joined a professional learning group facilitated by Maggie Ogram from Osprey Consulting.
The reasons for this are two fold:
First I knew that as I am relatively new to educational leadership and for that matter also to education itself- I have only been qualified as a teacher for 4 years!- that I need to ensure that I am double checking myself continually. Luckily I am an over achieving autodidact, who thrives on learning new things and I always research a concept or finding to ensure that what I am doing is pedagogically sound, and also proven to be effective. However I am keenly aware of what I don't know and so this PLG gives me an opportunity to collaborate in areas about which I may be unsure.
Secondly I knew that as my fellow DP was leaving, I would be loosing a very important professional relationship- the person whom I can bounce ideas off, have heated discussions with about practice and research ( not quite arguments as we have total respect for each other! but definitely good sound constructive conversations that lead to shared understandings) and who generally acted as a coach and mentor in one. So I knew that within the current structure of our school, I wouldn't be able to find that relationship for a while ( however approachable I ensure I am with other staff, it does seem that once one hits management level that people won't argue with you! and I need people to have a good argument/conversation with!) so the PLG has given me a forum with which to share ideas, bounce good conversations around and generally given me a group of coaches of which we are all equal and can all contribute valid points.
This last term we have looked at Certain readings in order to stimulate conversations in areas we all agreed we needed to work.
The first reading was around the kind of leader we are:



This is an excellent from a very interesting and thought provoking book

The ideas in this give a great reference point from which to set a series of leadership goals and I am finding that having these pinned to my wall above my lonely little desk in the dungeon office are helping to keep me connected with what is important to focus on