Governing Thoughts

I may be back!

2011-12-08T13:25:00.002+01:00

Well, after a bit of a break, I have been approached about the possibility of joining an IEB for a VERY local primary.

I have always been a fan of IEBs in principle - after all, if a school fails Ofsted then there is surely a prima facie case that the leadership has failed the pupils and should be removed. The same, of course, applying to the Head.

Looking forward to developments....

It's all over now - or perhaps 'for now'

2010-09-17T09:14:00.000+02:00

Well, last week I resigned both of my governorships. Sometimes, you just have to focus on other things and I would rather not do the role at all than simply turn up every few weeks for a meeting and then ****** off again - for me It's a full committment or nothing.
I did this with much regret, yet in the knowledge that both schools are now equipped with great leadership, great staff, great kids, great pupils and a great chance of even more success in the future.
I have really enjoyed my latest stints as governor both giving and learning (mostly about patience!) in a new environment.
So, no more entries for a while - be well and keep up the good work...

The role of students in recruitment

2010-08-20T10:57:00.000+02:00

The NASUWT recently published some data on teacher's responses to the use of 'Student Voice', so I thought I might write up my current views on the topic.

Students are the primary recipients of teachers' practice and wisdom, teachers need to be respected by those pupils (it's earned, not granted by right of position), need to be able to communicate effectively (the meaning of a communication is the response you get) and to be able to engage students when either or both are stressed.

Why should those recipients (we would call them customers in a different environment) not be involved? I used to involve my staff in decisions about their peers and theri bosses - they had to work with them so let them have a voice.

The challenge then becomes how to engage pupils most effectively in the process and how (much) to value their input in the final decision. That might be the topic for a separate blog, here I want to stick with the principle of pupil involvement.

Obviously a teacher liked by the students but who has no technical knowledge or teaching ability would be no use, equally a teacher with the best knowledge and teaching credentials would be no good if they could not actually enage the students. Would you employ a great teacher who could not communicate effectively with their peers (or 'subordinates' if they were seeking a management role)? I hope not. Likewise someone who comes across well to the interviewers but cannot connect with the kids is likely to be a weak link.

The students have their place in the process, as I said above, the challenge is to give them the right place and weight and to equip them with the right tools to be abel to contribute effectively (and what a useful skill that will be in theri futures).

Putting your head above the parapet

2010-07-29T11:53:00.000+02:00

I have had a couple of conversations in the last week about the benefits and dangers of putting your head above the parapet, so thought I might share my thoughts on the subject.
Sitting back and just letting things happen whilst we keep our thoughts, supportive or critical, does not come naturally to some of us - and just as well too because if all governors did this we would end up with passive nodding dog governing bodies. So some of us routinely speak out, sometimes being deliberately provocative in order to generate debate - we 'put out heads above the parapet'.
One consequence of this is that we become targets for others who disagree with what we are saying or the way we are saying it. My experiene is that I even get arrows fired at me when I am silent, as people make all sorts of wierd assumptions about what the silence means.
The constant barrage can be tiring and ways of dealing with that are useful:
1. Remember that it is not you that is being attacked - at worst it is your opinion and that is 'just' a mental construct, not any part of your core identity
2. Regard all comments as valuable feedback - they generally say as much about the other person as about you, so what can you learn from the interaction?
3. Remember that even the strongest warriors need a rest from time to time - take time out to listen or observe
Then get back in there and make a difference, nothing was ever changed by those who sit on their hands wishing for a quiet time!

Staff or stuff

2010-07-10T18:24:00.000+02:00

Let's imagine your, averagely performing, school has just got a windfall of £50k revenue - guaranteed for the future. How do you spend it?

I am wondering if there is any reliable research about the relationship between what I will call 'staff or stuff'?

We could spend the money on staff, teaching or non-teaching, or we could buy some kit for the school. Which i smost likely to have the consequence of improved outcomes for our pupils? Would the answer be different if it were a one-off (employment law aside)?

Thoughts on a postcard please....

Health and Safety

2010-06-29T18:32:00.001+02:00

For my sins, and recognising my 'previous' in the field, I am nominated H&S Governor for 'my' two schools. I have spend part of the day producing an aide memoire of topics that need to be picked up in my ongoing discussions with school staff in order that I can report to the FGB on how well the school is doing. If you want a copy then please email me.
I'm always cautious of H&S, one of my favourite jobs being that of "Elfin Terrorist" - those H&S people who try to use it as a frightener and want to stop you doing perfectly sensible things. They forget that risk in an implicit part of life and of managing H&S; it's about reducing risk to an acceptable level not eliminating it. (It seems that we are expected to produce a risk assessment for 'tripping over rocks on the beach' when we take our pupils to the seaside. Well, I have better things to do with my time, as do our staff. Next thing, we will have to think about the Hazard and Frequency for a seagull sh***iing on their heads - probably a greater hazard than rocks on the beach and it has certainly happened to me).
Anyway , the point of this rant is to encourage all concerned to get numerate about risk - whenever a hazard is identified you need to ask "How frequently does this hazard materialise?" and "What, specifically, will be the consequences when it does?" No more of this subjective High/Medium/Low, let's get numerate.

You cannot teach anyone anything!

2010-06-24T15:42:00.000+02:00

You might know that I make a living in the field of 'personal development' - that means helping individuals, teams and organisations 'do better' by helping the people find out what really turns them on and then to get on with it! This seems to me to be so much like what we ought to be doing in schools - let's help pupils become intersted in learning, let's help them find what gives them a buzz and then fit the learning opportunities around that.
This may sound like heresy, but I don't believe that anyone can be taught anything; the best we can do is find oppoortunities for them to learn, the 'teacher' role is one of finding and creating suitable learning opportunities for everyone and then facilitating their learning.

Anyway, what prompted this post was a recent reading of The Four Agreements (Don Miguel Ruiz). I have these on the wall in my 'office' (well that's what the taxman thinks my garden shed is!):

Be impeccable with your word - Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t take anything personally - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t make assumptions - Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always do your best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

In these changing and challenging times, these seem especially appropriate...

An Inspector calls

2010-06-18T11:59:00.000+02:00

Well, we had Ofsted in at one of 'my' schools this week.
Our lead Inspector was a 'fully signed up' HMI with considerable experience of Special Schools and it really made a difference - we didn't have to explain the challenges of running a special school catering for, inter alia, medically dependant PMLD pupils!
We have been advised that 'our self-assessment was accurate' - code for "Good with some Outstanding features" - so BIG congratulations to everyone involved and a relaxing weekend while we wait for the written report.
The current framework is more rigorous in examination of how well Governors understand our statutory responsibilities, especially regarding safeguarding and community cohesion. In our case they were also very interested to explore our approaches to parental engagement, especially for hard-to-reach parents.
We thought the school was Outstanding for Safeguarding, but they downgraded us to Good - then when we asked for specifics on what needed to be in place to achieve Outstanding we didn't really get much help, the Inspector found it hard to articulate the gap! Being told that 'we rarely award Oustanding for safeguarding' was something of a consolation although the cynic in me wonders if this is a rear-orifice covering stance just in case anything goes wrong subsequently (vide Haringey!)

Anyway, a good week and one that has thrown up some positive and welcome suggestions for improvement - the relentless drive for improvment continues.

A positive approach

2010-06-11T09:06:00.002+02:00

My friend Chris Edwards is known for his relentless pursuit of brilliance. In a recent blog he says:

I recognise of course that some colleagues feel that they are on the barricades; feeling beleaguered, disillusioned and worn down by the relentless and uncompromising pressure that never goes away. I also know some colleagues are sick of, and turned off by, our optimism, positivity and constant search for the outstanding, the exceptional and the brilliant. But, so much of what we do here in Leeds is world class: so what can't we achieve together if we aspire to excellence in everything we do; and build on, and learn from, what is working really well.

I too recognise all of this - and remember that us governors do it all for free. Not that money actually helps resolve the feelings but those who are very well paid to handle all the change would do well to occasionally remember that there is an army of volounters out here who handle all this change in our spare time with little organisational support.

To those who feel that there is too much optimism around, I ask "What would you rather have - downtrodden pessimism?" It is well kknown in psychological circles that optimism, even in the face of potentially overwhelming odds, is more empowering than pessimism and that the most valuable outlook is one described as 'pessimistic optimism' - fundamental optimism whilst recognising that the world does not always deliver what we want and so we need to do some contingency planning.

I remain optimistic that our schools and children have great futures. Our task is to help release the brilliance - "watch where you walk, for you tread on my dreams"

So much going on!

2010-06-10T15:33:00.000+02:00

Well I guess we should have expected the new government to have a few different ideas; what we may not have expected was the rush of both ideas and implementation.

I find myself wondering how to deal with the various changes that are due to happen soon. Does it matter to us that the GTC is to go, that the primary curriculum is going, that there is to be yet another review of SEN, that there is to be another route to academy status...all this while our school is in the midst of a major relocation of part of our provision.

Ot's all about priorities - we can only do so much at once, and for me 'the move' has priority as it affects our current pupils and is time-critical. Nonetheless our GB does need to be thinking about the various other issues so we will need a discussion fairly soon. Do we discuss actively or do we 'acknowledge and park'?

Personally I just LOVE this sort of environment - uncertainty, change, lots ahppening arre all features of where and when I work best. I need to remember to keep all governors informed/involved...there will be too much for one person to handle so this is a great time to find out what turns people on and let them loose.

Academies!

2010-06-07T09:37:00.000+02:00

Am I the only governor who is slightly peeved by Micheal Gove's decision to write to headteachers about his plans for academies?

Any decision to apply for academy status is VERY strategic and hence the clear responsibiity of the Governors - so it would have been polite to write to Chairs, or at least copy us in on the correspondence. Let's hope this is an oversight and not an early indication of the new government's respect, or lack of it, for governors.

As for the content, it would be good to be able to get an unbiased appraisal of the pros and cons of the latest opportunity- just about everything I read has its' own agenda.

Developing your skills as a governor

2010-05-18T09:07:00.001+02:00

I was recently asked the following question by somoene from SGOSS:

"Which of your existing management skills have you found most valuable in carrying out your school governorship... ...and which have your developed or added?”

I don’t think I have added any (after a 30-odd year working career at the most senior levels that might not be surprising) but all of the following come immediately to mind as having been used and hence developed:

Change leadership, coaching, stakeholder relationships, policy formation, influencing, negotiation, facilitation (of meetings mostly), leadership, Vision/Ethos/Values co-creation, financial strategy, meetings management, delegation, giving and receiving feedback, performance management, Emotional intelligence, patience, teambuilding, motivation, risk management, communicating in writing and verbally, presentations, workload (time) management, diplomacy...

WOW!

Should we pay teachers delayed because of the volcano?

2010-04-23T10:18:00.000+02:00

OK so I have followed this debate having been caught up in it myself. Before getting to the question of whether or not to pay I recall that, of the several people I knew who were stuck in the South of France, some of us got our rear ends into gear and made our own arrangements whereas others resigned themselves to an extended holiday while 'the powers that be' sorted something out. I decided that I wanted to be back for starting the first day's work with a new client who is paying me (and would not have done so had I not turned up, no matter how understanding and sympathetic they were) - I wonder if the others were in the same predicament of 'no work, no eat'?

Individuals make their own choices about where and how to spend their holidays and, as in the rest of their lives, must accept the consequences (both positive and negative) of those choices.

I have expressed the view elsewhere that I would like to see some guidance (not instruction) from the LEA. Given how little discretion we have over pay matters it seems odd that in this delicate situation we are faced with the prospect of teachers on the same site (co-located schools) or even in the same classroom (partnership working) being treated differently.

If I were issuing that advice, it would be more or less along the lines of - these were extraordinary circumstances initially outside the control of the individual; we recognise that different individuals faced different challenges in getting home and that making your own way home from the south of France is less challenging that from Mexico; we also recognise that some individuals will have incurred considerable expense to get home and that this may or may not be covered by insurance - this cannot be a matter that schools can get involved in as individuals made their own decisions regarding the type and extent, if any, of their insurance cover. Any staff member being absent leaves a hole that needs to be filled and schools may have incurred considerable unplanned additional expense in providing cover (Question - to what extent is this covered by the school's own insurance?)
In these extraordinary circumstances we propose that paid leave of absence be granted for up to five days and that unpaid leave be granted for any period beyond that during which staff members are unable to return to work because they are stranded abroad.
As always, any individual cases suggesting different treatment will be considered on their individual merits.

What do you think?

Making a difference

2010-03-31T20:10:00.000+02:00

Isn't it nice when you come away from a meeting having made a difference.

Like, I suspect, many of you, I spend a lot of time in meetings where I represent either my school(s) or governors in general. Sometimes I sit there wondering "just how is this discussion helping our children?" and am not averse to asking the question very specifically (and sometimes pointedly!). I have too little time to spend jaw-jawing for the benefit of bureaucrats when I could be sunning myself on a beach somewhere, or something rather more useful than that.

So how nice to come home last night having spent two hours seemingly making a difference, being listened to (because that's what makes the difference) and feeling enthused. Here in Leeds we have a difficult year ahead with the demise of Education Leeds and the creation of an integrated Children's Services Directorate. We must not waste time in meetings that could be better spent improving the chances of the pupils we serve; we must give no quarter to self-serving bureaucrats; we must challenge everything and everyone to do better for less; we must not give in to procastination or indecision. After all our kids have only one chance and their future cannot wait for yet another round of internal politicking before life-changing decisions are made.

Do you spend too much time discussing and too little acting? If so, change it now - thoughts never changed anything, only action can do that.

Keeping meetings on track

2010-03-27T12:53:00.000+01:00

OK, here we go with Part 2 - tips for keeping your meetings on track.

Start on time - if the meeting is not quorate then deal with items that do not require a decision. People will soon learn that your meetings start on time and will be there.
Indicate when the meeting will finish - and stick to it!
(I have been known to write a copy of the agenda on a flipchart so that each item can be crossed off as it is completed - a very good visual reminder of how much has been done/is still to be dealt with).
Separate approval of the minutes from any Matters Arising (not on the agenda - remember my earlier tip).
Use language that moves you to where you want to be "Are we agreed that these are a correct record?" or "Does anybody wish to challenge these mimnutes as a corrct record?"
Positively lead Matters Arising - draw attention to what you have already put on the agenda, if someone who was absent from the last meeting asks for an explanation of an item then volunteer to do so after the meeting.
Remind governors how the time is going - especially if things start to drift - remind them that there are another 'n' items, some of which are more important than discussing 3 month old minutes...
Do not let anyone read out their reports, we are assuming that people have read them, ask them for a brief summary of key points (of course you briefed them in advance about this) and if anyone asks for details on delegated matters then encourage the relevant Chair to brief them afterwards.
One of my favourite phrases is "Does anyone else feel that we are now going round in circles?"
Go out of your way to 'invite in' the quieter members of the team - create space for them to have their say.
Give very clear signals when it it time to move on - "OK, so that's dealt with Item 4 let's move on to Jenny and Item 5 on School Uniform; our challenge here is to decide what to do based on the report that you will all have read"
Before you finish review all of the actions to which various people have committed (if you are really organised you could have a flip on the wall for "Next Steps" - who has agreed to do what by when...)
Thank everyone for their patience and understanding - it's often the only thanks us governors get!
Finish on time - if for no other reason than out of respect for individuals' other committments - and remind people of future meetings.

No rocket science then, and it's worth thinking about how the meeting will work as well as what will be discussed. There is a lot more I could say but this is just a short blog, not a thesis on meetings management!

Keeping your meetings focussed

2010-03-24T15:55:00.000+01:00

How often have you attended GB meetings that went on for hours, lost track of what they were supposed to be talking about, got stalled while people read the papers...?

Well, here are a few tips that have worked for me in keeping meetings focussed (and not just governor meetings, I use these tips in my 'professional' arena as well:

It all starts with planning (Remember the 6Ps - "Proper Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance").
Well in advance of the meeting, go through the previous minutes and follow up any actions - is a report-back needed? If so put it on the Agenda. Try to avoid Matters Arising by having any follow-ups as specific agenda items.
Establish what other Reports (Committees, Working Parties...) are needed and brief the reporter to provide a short written report to which they can speak at the meeting (I do not like verbal reports, althought they are inevitable sometimes).
Circulate all FGB members a very rough draft agenda asking for additions/amendments
Omit "Any other Business" - if it's not important enough to raise beforehand then it's not important.
Finalise the Agenda by deciding how long each item might take, who will lead it and what the point (Discuss, Decide, Information) of the item is; write a sentence or so about each item explaining what it's there for - so now people have more of an idea what will be expected of them.
Put at the top of every Agenda "To speed progress and improve the discussion, we will expect all papers to have been read in advance of the meeting" and do not give time in the meeting for those who have not done so!
Put at the bottom of every Agenda "How have we helped improve the chances for our pupils during this meeting" - and discuss it; this will help focus people on what really matters (and it's generally not the trivia that too many meetings get bogged down with!)
You might want to do the Clerk's job for them by getting all the papers together - it's a good way of finding out how organised everyone is (HT included - they are the professional who knows well in advance when the meeting is and ought to be well prepared!). No paper for circulation 7 days in advance = not on Agenda.

Try these tips, it's a bit of a hassle at first but the message soon gets through and your meetings will go more smoothly.

Look out for the next post on the meeting itself...

A successful governing body meeting

2010-03-18T23:28:00.000+01:00

Well, I have just come back from a great FGB - we covered all the business and finished early. Now those two points are not the real indicators to me, they real indicators are that the Committees are working - dealing with the day to day business of the school (OK, month-to-month, we are strategists after all) and they have all the delegated powers we can legally give them so decisions can be made where they need to be made.

The FGB can thus concentrate on the key strategic issues - for us at present they are responding to a Good Ofsted judgement and dealing with the forced move of one of our sites. It was so good that the CEO of Education Leeds took time out to speak with the FGB - whatever he said the committment was evident from the moment he accepted our invitation.

A good evening.

Governance across different institutions

2010-03-15T18:12:00.000+01:00

As well as a school governor, I am also a Trustee/Director of a smallish creative arts charity/company in Bradford (Artworks) and the relationship between governing a school and a charity has been exercising my grey matter recently.

Both roles are fundamentally strategic yet both offer the potential for (or should I really say 'risk of'?) dipping deeper into management and detail. The challenge that we talked about in Artworks is how to find out enough detail to be able to make meaningful strategic decisions yet not interfere with the operations of the organisation; isn't this exactly one of the challenges that we school governors face?

In schools this might be by visiting the school, spending time with pupils and staff ina structured way - no visits 'just to see what is going on' but always with an agenda to find out about something specific. In Artworks we are exploring attaching each Trustee/Director to one or more areas of work or projects (link governors!)

In Artworks we have just created a 15 (?) item balanced scorecard that lets us see the key performance indicators on one sheet of A4 - what is the education equivalent of this?

I have been looking at The Carver Model, a way of using policy to both empower and constrain 'the executive' (HT) and I wonder how these principles might apply to school governance.

It seems to me that far too often school governance is seen as amateurish. The recent DCSF proposals for compulsory trainig for Chairs is a good move IMHO, and with more Academies (whatever we might think of the concept), Foundations/Trusts, etc., it seems that we really need to be making governance much more 'professional' with the disciuplines and rigours that would be second nature in a £multi-million business. If I ran a £multi-million business I woudo not be happy with a bunch of enthusiastic but unntrained amateurs running it, why is this OK for schools?

Governance models

2010-03-09T17:29:00.000+01:00

Just come back from a really interesting discussion about possible models of governance for special schools in our LEA. We were very clear which is the cart and which the horse - physical provision first, then figure out how to govern that provision most effectively.

We covered federations, Joint Collaborative Committees, trusts and foundations, whether we will end up with one school on several sites or several schools, how we formalise the relationships between a school and other (mainstream) schools whose sites we share on a partnership basis.

Then we looked at a list of factors to take into account when evaluating the possible options - this is an incomplete list, so any additions wil be very welcome, they are not in any order of ‘importance’!

a. To what extent is the proposed model already understood and operating?
b. Budgets – would the overall budget go up or down, how would they be managed across multiple sites...?
c. Management complexity – how would the model impact on leading and managing across multiple sites with a wider or smaller geographic spread?
d. How complex would the process of transition be and would the end-result be worth the pain of transition? Factors such as creating and embedding a shared ethos, integration of ICT and other systems, curriculum, teaching and learning would need consideration.
e. What would be the implications for employment practices, such as place of employment, mobility of staff between sites, the possibility of creating a shared 'Supply Pool'?
f. Are any of the models more or less supportive of outreach potential from the SILC?
g. Do any facilitate or hinder Best Practice sharing?
h. What are the implications for relations with Wedges/AIBs or whatever?
i. How do the models impact on community cohesion/connection?
j. What about transfer of existing and application of future school Funds?
k. Will the models hinder or help parental engagement?
l. Will the model impact on the size of GB needed and, if so, how?
m. Do any of the models impact on the potential to manage one or more EduLeeds contracts – HHTS, EOTAS, etc...?
n. What are the implications for support services, be those from within EduLeeds or externals such as the PCT?
o. What will the public perception be of any change and how ‘sellable’ would a change be?
p. Would there be any differences regarding relationships with host schools for Partnership?
q. What about the opportunity to formally collaborate amongst the GBs (of either multiple Special Schools and/or mainstreams) and form joint committees?
r. Would the governance role be different for different physical models? Some might suggest more strategic, some a more tactical approach
s. What else???? I am sure I have missed somethings...

The end of Education Leeds

2010-03-07T16:19:00.000+01:00

So, the LA have decided (well, technically they will vote on it next week but we all know what the answer will be!) that children in Leeds can be better served by an integrated Children's Services Directorate within the council and that, as a consequence, the highly successful Education Leeds will cease to be.

Some will say that is a good thing, others will disagree. Whatever, the decision is clear and our efforts will be best spent making the new Directorate into a greater success than we have already had. Let's look forward with both hope and expectation that whatever is formed will be flexible and responsive to the strategic needs facing the city, avoiding getting bogged down in the bureaucracy that so often becalms local authorities. Those of us with the privilge of being both connected and independent have a valuable role to play in reminding councillors and senior officers what it is really all about - "the children, stupid" to paraphrase Bill Clinton. Whatever happens, they must be uppermost in our thoughts and plans - not politicking or Politicking or empire-building or change-fearing.

Let those of us in schools just get on with our jobs, the powers that be will be making things happen that will affect not only our own but especially our pupils' futures - we need to keep part of an eye on that but most of our attention on the day to day work of giving our kids the best education we possibly can.

Made a difference today...:-)

2010-02-25T21:26:00.000+01:00

A whole day of governance - reflections?

I spent most of the morning in a workshop about reshaping 'behaviour provision' - how do we best support the wide range of pupils with a broad spread of inappropriate behaviours? General concensus that it needs to be much more child-focussed with 'total care' including family support; what will really make the difference is early whole-family intereventions that call on a range of professionals from several agencies. The challenges are several - to get the various agencies truly working in partnership, to get some acute support while the chronic services available via CAF get into gear, to to decide how to commission and deliver local support so that the pupils can stay in their local community while being helped, how much (if any) provsion to make centrally for the most difficult cases...
We saw some good practice from our own authority and from others, not least Sheffield. What we need to do is get quicker at making change for the better - as I said this morning, we are working in a messy arena that changes all the time so we are unlikely ever to find the 'one perfect solution' so we need to make change and learn as we go.

Then on to a meeting of the Traded Services Forum, where I represent governors amongst a meeting of officers looking at how to get better at contracting for and delivering services to schools. The bit that interested me the most was about safeguarding for contracted staff. The contracts specify that relevant staff will be ISA registered and CRB checked, but it seemed that there was no audit of the quality of the assessments of the Disclosures; it seemed that, in theory at least and who knows about practice, a particular disclosure mioght be treated inn different ways by different contractors - so us schools have no idea whether or not a contractor has 'passed' someone inappropriate. I hope that we persuaded the powers that be of two things 1) the need to give contractors guidance on their 'filtering criteria' 2) the need to explicitly audit compliance.

All in all, a good day, working with people whose hearts are clearly in the right place.

Governance matters

2010-02-23T18:26:00.000+01:00

I have just been reading a really interesting publication about governance in the Arts.

What struck me was the effort and serious thought that had been put into developing models of governance, understanding the relationship between governors and CEOs (Head Teachers), trustee/director training, the role of the Trustees/Directors and a host of other topics that rarely, if ever, get aired in my governing bodies.

How long do you spend discussing these strategic issues about the role and processes of governance?

To act or to act?

2010-02-13T21:25:00.000+01:00

Do you sometimes find yourself on the edge of creating a real humdinger of a fuss about how you feel you are being treated, whilst at the same time knowing that to do so would risk alienating the very people who could help you out?

I am there now - 49% wanting to get the media and everyone else involved, yet 51% still winning the internal battle. What really bothers me is the risk that the legitimate feelings (for feelings are always legitimate, even if the actual objectives events are different to what you think) of being ignored, the dismal history of how this particular incident has been handled and the grossly inadequate processes for finding a solution get overlooked when, and I sincerely hope it is when not if, a solution to our current challenge is found.

It is far too easy to say "it's all OK now, there is no point in raking over old ashes"; well that's just putting your head in the sand - the value of post-mortems should not be to find and blame/punish the guilty, but to disccover how to do things better in the future. I would never want another school to go through what we are and hope that I can find a way to stimulate an appropriate review when this is all over.

On moving from one site to another.

2010-01-25T11:18:00.000+01:00

I have blogged before about the challenge of moving off one of our sites becasue of building work at our host school. Things develop...

We are into the statutory consultation and the proposed new host school objects - not that they do not want us but they have other plans for the land we hoped to use and/or their objection is a negotiating tactic to get some 'sweetener' out of the LEA.

So where do we go now? Will the LEA just ignore the objections? Can they find some sweetener - although to sweeten the proposed host but not us would be annoying at least! Is there a Plan B?

The cynic in me, and some of our staff, would argue that this is a conspiracy by the LEA to have the move fail and thus force a less palatable alternative onto our school. My view tends to support cock-up rather than conspiracy theories and in that context the belated action on this has got in the way of a thorough and creative appraisal of options.

Where we go now is currently baffling me - any thoughts very welcome!

Snow days...

2010-01-08T09:24:00.000+01:00

Right, I am going to be short and controversially provocative here...

Some schools of which I am aware have had all week off, which of course means that (by and large) the staff have spent all day at home being paid.

Just how unreasonable is it to ask how we recover that paid for time? One might expect that much of a teacher's PPA will now be up to date, for example.

Our pupils have lost 5 days' of education, how do we catch up? By extending the school day - using the time that teachers no longer need for PPA? By extending the term by a week?

Any ideas welcome.

Wishes for 2010

2010-01-01T13:43:00.000+01:00

Here's to a wondeful 2010 during which Ofsted become more supportive, The Lamb Enquiry recommendations are effectively implemented, funding for schools remains adequate, our school move goes without a hitch, behaviour management finally gets sorted out, thed future of the individual SILCs becomes clear, pigs fly...

...and all governors are valued by all stakeholders for their unique contribution.

Remember that we can and do make a difference by challenging and supporting, by constantly seeking improvement, by knowing what we know and what we do not know, by getting trained up on the latter, by thinking beyond the current boundaries, by caring and loving, by keeping the faith, by being creative, by having a vision for our school - and in lots of other ways.

Happy New Year to everyone...

Babysitting or education?

2009-12-31T11:59:00.002+01:00

A post in another forum where I am active raised the very delicate subject of the role of school/education for those very few pupils who are multiply disabled - PMLD/physical/sensory in the same individual.

Examination of the extremes sometimes throws light on the less extreme and so my challemge is to discover the most useful role for schools for this small number of pupils. These people will never be able to participate in society in anything like the same way as the rest of us; they may end up spending the rest of their (often all too short) lives in residential care with 24 hour support.

So do we just babysit, and if not how can schools make the most effective contribution to these people's futures?

Working for the Local Authority - or not?

2009-12-18T18:36:00.000+01:00

We have the chance to bid for a significant chunk of work (6 figures) being offered for tender by our LA. It's right up our street as it involves training an external workforce in much the same ways as we train our own staff. So far, so good.

But the topic rasies some interesting govrnance topics that I continue to explore.

The work is similar to but not delivered to school staff and so probably outside the scope of a School Company. We cannot sensibly enter a legal contract with the LA as we are formally part of the same legal entity and so will need to persuade them to handle it a different way.
How do we ringfence the risks associated with the contract so that it does not jeopardies school finances?
As the work is strongly related to what we do but not directed at school pupils, can we legally do the work as a school anyway?
What governance arrangements woudl need to be in place?

Lots of interesting questions - especially when you consider that the work could be considered as of our community cohesion or extended services offering.

Were we a 'private' school we would not even be havng to ask these questions. Perhaps there need to be better/easier arrangements to let community schools operate in the way we would like.

The roller coaster of change

2009-12-11T18:53:00.000+01:00

If you have been following this blog you will know that one of my schools is going to have to move one of its buildings a couple of miles away from its current location. Those few of us that have been involved so far have been up and down the change curve, in depression and delight, in fear and fancifulness - all natural, and almost inevitable, responses to imposed change. Now I know that it is important to 'take control' as much as possible and avoid a feeling of 'being done to'. We had managed to get to this point.

Now the game changes - the proposal is in the public arena for examination by parents, other staff, other governors, etc - each of which is startinjg where we did 3 months ago; each of which has to go through their own process of denial, despair, resistance, depression before starting to see a way forward. Each individual moves at their own pace and our role as leaders is to help the progress along its' way, to be supportive, to acknowledge the pain that people will be going through and to help them move forward constructively.

Too often it is easy to forget the journey that we pathfinders made and to expect everyone else to be up to speed instantly; this is where we can lose people if we do not recognise the need for time to heal the pain of loss before taking a newe direction It is also too easy, especially for those of us brought up in the rational world (engineers, chemists, etc) to fail to recognise the affective issues that come into play. Whilst moving from Site A to Site B might seem like a perfectly sensible and practical thing to do, for many of the people involved if affects them much more deeply than our left-brain thinking might suggest. We need to work with the heart as well as the head and that takes time...

Performance Management - thoughts on targets

2009-12-09T12:41:00.000+01:00

If you have not already done it, then the pressure is on to complete your Head's performance management before the end of term. Setting targets is a challenging task for both the reviewers and the Head - for what do we set targets, how tough should they be?

For me this also raises the interesting territory of 'Lead' and 'Lag' indicators - improving teaching and learning (if we can find a way to measure it!) being a Lead indicator that leads to improved outcomes/attainment, a Lag indicator.

Early in ther implementation of targeting sytems we often end up with lag indicators (cohort performance, staff attendance, etc) whereas as they become more sophisticated we can move to the Lead indicators that we believe will eventually produce improved performance. This might be regarded as a shift from management to leadership.

...and how tough? My guidance, and I have facilitated the implementation of PM systems all over the place, has tended to be "deliverable, but only just". They need to be challenging enough for yor Head to have to think differently but not so challenging that they don't even try because they are obviously undeliverable. So improving pupil attendance from 80% to 95% in 1 year is likely to be undelliverable, whereas to 85% could be a real challenge yet achievablke with a following wind.
This in turn leads to consideration of success criteria. If everyone's targets are all delivered, then they were not tough enough. I accept that soemtimes a target might not be delivered; the trick here is to satisfy myself that a serious effort has been made and that unexpected factors intervened to inhibit delivery.

What do you thinnk?

What a result!

2009-12-04T22:13:00.000+01:00

This week we have had the (very) nice ladies from Ofsted digging and delving, observing and commenting and all the rest of the stuff they do.
Whilst there has been some understandable stress and not a little digging out and representation of data, it has all been worth it. Despite Ofsted raising the bar since we got a Satisfactory last time, we got a GOOD.

Congratulations to everyone at the school - although the leadership team have worked thier whatsits off over the last couple of days, it is the consistent hard work of everyone in the scchool over the last couple of years that have really made the difference. Well done everyone.

As Chair, I had about 45 minutes with them on day 2. They were especially interested to establish how well we knew our statutory obligations regarding Safeguarding and also Community Cohesion. So now we all know!

Inspired by Sir Ken...

2009-11-26T09:00:00.000+01:00

I went to see Sir Ken Robinson speak last night, courtesy of Education Leeds.

Inspirational, funny and with some content as well – truly a rare combination for any ‘motivational speaker’.

Whilst finding much of what he said valuable, I wrote down one quote that struck me as especially significant “Our assumptions influence our perceptions before they drive our conceptions”. In my work, both in and out of schools, I have found this principle hugely helpful when dealing with ‘stuck’ situations – the challenge is the one that Einstein highlighted, namely that the level of thinking that created a problem cannot solve it. In unearthing these assumptions, there is a key role for independent process facilitation by individuals who have no significant investment in the outcome of the challenge they make to their clients. Who is providing this challenge/facilitation as we move education into the 21st Century?

The jobs our children will do are still to be created, the technology they will use will be beyond our current comprehension (how many of us 50-odd year olds could have imagined an i-phone when we were 10 years old?!), the skills they will need an dhow they will use them remain to be understood. We need a 21st Century system that equips pupils for the technological/knowledge-based future not the industrial revolution.

Head or heart?

2009-11-17T21:19:00.000+01:00

Our move of site is moving forward - slowly and with some discomfort. As a change management/leadership professional this is an interesting experience to be part of, so I thought I might offer a few observations on how everything is happening rather than what is going on.

Only to be expected for such a significant change as there are (at least) two processes going on in parallel. Firstly the building of a team who will decide on a proposal and then deliver it; secondly the personal transitions from As-Is to To-Be. Let's explore what is likely to be happening...

The team development 'route' is well known (Tuckman, if you really want the source) - Form, Storm, Norm, Perform, Unform. At a meeting last night there was a lot of frustration expressed, people needing to have their say, to understand how the overall process would work... Classic 'storming' behaviour and necessary if the team is to really start to get to grips with the task they face. It's important that everyone involved recognises this and works through it, only then can we start to sort out how to make the team work effectively (norming) and ultimately get on with stuff. As a process observer, the big challenge here is to get participants to realise that these processes happen and take time so that the team needs forming early enough to enable a health process to take place before real decisions have to be made.

The change journey model that I find most helpful is based on the work of Elisabeth Ross-Kubler and has been summarised into six stages - Shock, Denial, Anger/Depression, Resignation, Acceptance, Future Focus.

Shock - WHAT! Nobody has paid attention to our needs!
Denial - SURELY NOT! It can't be as bad as that!
Anger/Depression - GRRRRR!!!! "They" really don't care/understand!
Resignation - OH WELL If that's what they want there is not much I can do about it.
Acceptance - OK If that's how it is going to be, what's the best way forward for me?
Future Focus - Right, so this is what I am going to do now.

So there we were blaming others, wondering what next, trying to find out what 'they' wanted, who would be making the 'real' decisions - classic 'victim' behaviour in the Anger/Depression position. We could continue as Victims or we could start to take positive action to address our concerns (which was what happened and is still happening) thus moving ourselves through the powerless Anger and Depression.

Anyway - what a change to be able to observe this stuff in action and to write about it.

One final thought - what did I use the title "Head or Heart"? Well because any change inevitably involves both head and heart. The (relatively) easy stuff is the cognitive/intellectual reasoning and redesign - 'head work'. The hard bit is to move from intellectual acceptance to affective/emotional understanding - 'heart work'. This latter is often underestimated, especially by those who due to the nature of their work routinely redesign schools and provision and may not understand the emotional issues being faced by those actually working in and with the school. The 'head' people may find moving through the change curve easy and quick, the 'hearts' risk getting trapped in the early stages - and communication between the two camps gets harder and more frustrating. Each party needs to clearly express their current needs and persist in getting them met before it is possible to move forward.

Head or Heart then? Well, both actually.

Communicate, communicate, communicate...

2009-11-09T09:27:00.000+01:00

Communicate, communicate, communicate...is the mantra of all effective change leaders. We know, and have recently experienced, that in the absence of any communication rumours start and circulate. Those rumours may or may not be based on 'truth' and certainly get transmogrified as the Chinese Whisper process affects them.

The message to us governors, as strategic leaders in our schools, is that we need to be proactive about communicating. This matters especially during any period of uncertainty or change. The need goes so far as to issue bulletins (or whatever) explaining that 'nothing has happened or changed'. This latter is counter-intuitive as our tendency is to only communicate when we have something to say.

Finally, when the rumours DO start - avoid scapegoating and witch-hunts. It's almost inevitable that legitimate and often informal discussions 'leak' into the public domain and get turned into rumours. Seeking out and punishing 'the guilty' will just close down communications channels and lead to disaffection in those who we most need to be open.

I have long had a set of principles for communicating during change:

• Those most affected will be the first to hear
• Our people will hear things first from their managers
• We will use multiple channels to communicate with our people
• “One hymn, one hymn sheet”
• We will be as quick to give any bad news as the good
• We will be as open as possible
• Face-to-face will be our preferred route for all major communications
• Wherever possible we will avoid jargon, where not possible we will explain it
• Individuals making decisions will have personal accountability for ensuring that those affected by the decision are communicated with effectively
• We will ensure that there is an unfiltered feedback route from our people to the top team
• There will be regular updates on progress
• We recognise the existence of The Grapevine and will try to be sure that it deals in facts not fiction

An eventful week...

2009-10-26T11:08:00.000+01:00

So, we have to move from one of our current sites - and we have to have a new site ready to occupy from the beginning of the next academic year! Quite a challenge, given that we do not yet have a clear and agreed option.

Have spent the last 2 weeks (or so!) in detailed discussions with out LEA and Leadership Team exploring about 20 odd possibilities; briefing staff and governors; writing to parents, letting pupils know (interesting challenge as we are a Special School with a range of relatively low-functioning pupils) and finally waiting for the storm to break, I am very pleased at the lack of response.

For me, the message from all of this is the value and success of letting people know as soon as possible about a situation that will affect them. In this situation the message had to be "We have to move but we don't know where to. We will keep you in touch, listen to and address your concerns." Now that might seem like a non-message but it has been very well received and my faith in people to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity has been reaffirmed. Some will need more support that others through this journey and we have put/are putting in place support mechanisms.

As a change leadership professional (I have to earn a living somehow!) I am often asked about the critical actions during change - my answer always includes "Communicate, communicate, communicate". Even when there is nothing to say, you have to say that there is nothing to say, in order to quell the rumour machine.

So far, so good.

Safeguarding

2009-10-24T15:50:00.000+02:00

I spent 90 minutes yesterday with school colleagues being updated on the latest stuff re safeguarding.Very useful although I have offered feedback about the dire 'lesson plan' - if one of our teachers had delivered the lesson they would have done well to get "Unsatisfactory"!

Still I did learn a bit and it was particularly relevant in the light of my recent participation in a Disciplinary hearing in respect of a (now ex-) staff member who had failed to co-operate in the CRB process.To cut a long story short, it has taken an VERY excessive length of time to dismiss an employee who was offered a conditional contract (conditional on satisfactory CRB check). The circumstances were that, for a while, they worked during the processing of their check (always supervised, etc so minimal risk)

BIG question...once ISA gets up and running we will break the law if we employ anyone without ISA Registration, but they still need a CRB so dare we let anyone actually start work with ISA but not CRB? Personally, I woudl not do so but the delays in the CRB process are such that to make such a conditional offer might seriously disrupt staffing arrangements.

We need assurances that applications will be processed much faster in the future than at present, and we need processes that rapidly 'get rid of' actual or potential staff who do not co-operate in new or revised checks. HR are concerned about the employment law implications of being so harsh, I am concerned about safeguarding and would hope that any Tribunal would weigh the risks and find that safeguarding 'trumped' the other issues.

People who plan the battle, rarely battle the plan

2009-10-18T14:26:00.000+02:00

We face a challenging year or more with significant change for pupils, staff, parents and all stakeholders.The challenge in change is not to 'design a solution' or to 'manage the processes', it is to keep the people on board.

I recall making myself slightly(?!) unpopular with a new Managing Director once when they guy spent half an hour expounding what he was going to do to the company and I asked "Well, that all sounds interesting Mr XXX, but I do wonder if you understand that you will get what the 4500 people who work here want and that may not be what you say will happen".

Well sometimes as leaders we have to make difficult decisions (whoever said leadership would be easy had not been there!) and we should not shirk from them. However implementation needs all of our people on board and that is truly what leadership is about - helping the people get to somewhere they might not have thought of going themselves.

There is no room for "mushroom management"; exhortations just tire out the voice; instruction leads, at best, to compliance. Only genuine involvement in the processes of designing (if possible) the end-point and figuring out how to get there leads to commitment.

Schools, and Education Authorities, can sometimes be very bureaucratic organisations, often led by formalities around statutory processes. But just because we have a formal process to go through does not mean that we cannot treat our stakeholders as human individuals with current needs for information, clarity and support. Those of us involved in change and leadership know full well that it is the 'dark' side of organisations that gets things done - the informal networks through which things can be made to happen, or not. We must feed and work this informal side of the organisation well - their power is such that we need them with us not against us.

Principles of Effective Communications

2009-10-17T13:38:00.000+02:00

We have a big change facing us (our pupils and staff to be more accurate) and I have been thinking about what principles need to lay behind our communications. I came up with these, based on some work I did a few years ago when I was facilitating a major organisational change. What do you think? Should we add/subtract anything?

• Those most affected will be the first to hear
• Our people will hear things first from their managers
• We will use multiple channels to communicate with our people
• “One hymn, one hymn sheet”
• We will be as quick to give any bad news as the good
• We will be as open as possible
• Face-to-face will be our preferred route for all major communications
• Wherever possible we will avoid jargon, where not possible we will explain it
• Individuals making decisions will have personal accountability for ensuring that those affected by the decision are communicated with effectively
• We will ensure that there is an unfiltered feedback route from our people to the top team
• There will be regular updates on progress
• We recognise the existence of The Grapevine and will try to be sure that it deals in facts not fiction

I wish we were not here...

2009-10-14T13:09:00.000+02:00

How often have you found yourself somewhere you would rather not be? Not in a geographic sense (although I would generally rather be in the South of France then here!) but in the sense that 'stuff' has happened, or not happened, that leaves your GB in a situation that you think could be better - could have been better - had there been more forethought and/or strategic thinking as the 'stuff' went on without your involvement. Well, that's where we find ourselves at the moment. I won't go into the detail, because I don't think it will help to air the specific detail, but what concenrs me is how we handle the situation from here on in.

We are in a situation where it seems to me that there has been a serious lack of joined-up-thinking, lack of future planning, lack of full consideration of the consequences of a decision that has big effects on us and we are left making the best of a pretty bad situation in a ridiculously short timescale.

Option 1 - create a mega-fuss about lack of involvement etc.
Option 2 - accept that we are where we are and seek the best solution now available
Option 3 - take option 2 and subsequently have a pst-mortem with the intent of learning how to avoid the same thing happening to others.

Creating a mega-fuss (and it could be very mega) would be the first response of many, yet it would only divert attention from the very real urgent need to solve our problem.

Acceptance is necessary yet to simply accept misses the point about learning (and we are operating in a learning environment aren't we?)

So Option 3 seems like the way forward. It causes all sorts of emotional hassle because as others find out what a mess we are in their emotional response kicks in and needs handling, and that itself diverts attention. We need to find ways of handling the emotional response in such a way that it energises our search for a solution rather than creates barriers - we need to recognise that as individuals we have different degrees of tolerance for cock-ups and differently strong reactions; those who react strongly need especial help to deal with their response so that they can move on. Classic Elisabeth Kubler-Ross territory.

How often, I wonder, have I (or you) failed to deal with, or harness, the emotional issues arising from change in a constructive way - they are inevitable, we cannot and should not deny them, yet how many of our organisations are equipped to cater for this eventuality?

Reducing time on admin at meetings

2009-10-07T19:05:00.000+02:00

First meeting of the year coming up - admin, admin, admin...

We have some very significant issues on our agenda yet we still have to do all the stuff about appointing committees, Code of Conduct etc. Think I am going to establish whether or not we need to do all this every year or if we can just do it once and change when necessary.

SEN Provision

2009-09-29T13:26:00.000+02:00

The recent action from Brain Lamb and the DCSF prompted me to think about the proposition that most parents would like their child educated in their local school provided that the school really could/did provide for their 'whole person needs'.

For me, the touchstone is :

"Every child having their needs met through their local high performing school"

Several challenges there, so it's an aspirational statement that cannot be universally delivered at the moment (maybe even never, but that should not stop us striving for it). So let's dissassemble the statement:

"Every child" - OK, there will always be a small number of children whose needs are so 'large' that a mainstream school could not reasonably be expected to provide. However the onus should be on the school to demonstrate that the individual pupil themselves or the rest of the pupils will be totally unreasonably disadvantaged by having our challenging pupil on roll - and this is not primarily about ££ as the resources available for such pupils are huge and the cost of alternative provision or hospital provision could be released to facilitate adaptation of facilities and staff capabilities.

"...having their needs met..." - the five outcomes of ECM, not just academic! If meeting those needs involves adaptations then let's make sure we make them. Those schools who think that their role in life is to prepare pupils for passing exams need a big wake-up call. We need rigorous accountability frameworks to make sure that all of the needs of our children are delivered with equal effectiveness. Let's face it, some of our brightest pupils are equally disadvantaged by their lack of social skills as our less-able ones are by their lack of academic skills! I personally came through a highly academic route, going to university a year early only to find myself totally unprepared for the new environment.

"through their local ... school" - not necessarily 'at' their local school but where possible that local school should have the pupil on roll and either bring in or send the pupil out to appropriate providers where the local school cannot (N.B. not 'will not' - which is a separate debate) meet them. This could be third party provision, on-site 'resourced provision', whatever...

"Local high performing school" - yes, we should aim for every school to be Outstanding in all respects. This is about personalisation, not ramming kids through a sausage machine - a vocational route suits little Johnny, an academic route Suzy, Henry 'simply' needs to be helped interact with the world...

"Local ... school" - The idea that we bus pupils, some of the already most disadvantaged pupils, for an hour or more at each end of the day is ridiculous in this day and age. not only that, but the cost is horrendous - something like £7m pa in my authority! I suspect that we could do much better with that money than spend it on buses, taxis etc.

And now the 'undiscussable' - the can't do/won't do debate. As we ask around the system it becomes very clear that the focus on academic results has led some schools to a 'won't do' approach. Capabilities/Skills can be trained, but if the ethos of the school is not truly inclusive then children who are less/disabled in any way will be discriminated against. This is not about schools, it is about staff. A school is an abstract entity that does not discriminate, it is the staff who work in/for the school, led by the Head, who discriminate - perhaps unwittingly. Let's aim for every school to have some form of 'Inclusion Chartermark' as a signal that even though they may not have reached the destination of full inclusion, they recognise the need and have started on the journey. How do we get this debate into the open?

Leadership - and if you are reading this then you are a leader - is (amongst other things!) about clearly articulating a vision, understanding the gaps and helping people fill those gaps to get to the vision. Openness and honest/committed dialogue are critical and in we can take people, even the doubters, with us if we show that we have a great Vision and are totally committed to delivery in a way that meets the needs of the most important players - the pupils. It is too easy to avoid or sideline the doubters, yet they are only doubting because they cannot see how our Vision meets their needs; we have to value this resistance and learn from it, not sideline it. We all know that a convert is often the best advocate.

"Wicked Issues"

2009-09-11T11:21:00.002+02:00

In his own blog Chris Edwards lists the "Wicked Issues" facing him this coming year.

Well here are mine...

Bigger Picture

BSF – or some other mechanism to get our estates up to scratch

LILS – let’s get on with it!

Governance – what will the government have to say when (if) they finally publish Jim Knight’s review

Governance - making the many forums to which governors are invited more than just talking shops

‘My’ schools’ picture

Ofsted – due this term

Farnley Park – where will the kids go when work starts on the main school?

Specialist status – what do we go for?

Advanced Skills Teachers – surely they ought to be all over the SILCs?

Governance – helping all governors to make a positive contribution

Reflections on Ripples

2009-09-10T15:32:00.002+02:00

Some of you may know that I make a living (just!) as a coach/practitioner in organisational change. In that role I often use metaphor as a way of helping people explore change. Well, us governors have more than our fair share of change to deal with and I thought you might like to read my latest musing:

Market day in Tonneins - busy busy, hot hot, dusty dusty; lots of French (and a few English) locals, the usual North Africans, tourists, migrant workers for the plum/corn/sunflower harvests. The ‘ethnics’ all at one end with their brightly patterned and coloured clothing, their spices; the locals sifting through market stalls filling with fleeces and other autumn and winter clothing, picking the sweetest and juiciest tomatoes, melons, the first of the season’s prunes and the last of the haricots verts, jaunes et noirs.

It was an unprepossessing little fountain near the riverside ; no more than a piece of local rock about 6ft wide with a hole drilled through it and six 12” jets of water spurting from the top, splashing on the rock and into the pool around the rock. Still it offered a coolish resting place and the gentle tinkle of water on water. I sat on the surround for a brief rest, the fountain to my back. Drifting into some heat induced trance, I noticed the occasional wet spot appearing and disappearing in front of me, several metres away from the fountain. It’s not raining, no local child with a water pistol, they can’t be travelling so far from the little fountain – what’s going on?

Sherlock Holmes kicked into action – yes they were coming from the fountain after all, very occasional little splashes hitting the rock at just the right angle to reflect them out across the pool so far away as to seem improbable. The pool, and the ripples of the water splashes, had my attention...

As I watched, entranced by the ripples, I noticed that sometimes the surface was relatively calm, at others turbulent with the interactions of several ripples; sometimes small splashes, at others large blobs of water would disturb a great part of the pool - ever changing and always something happening, my attention gripped by the circles of light and dark as the ripples shed their shadows on the pool bottom. Always light after dark, the shadows fading as the ripple spread out across the pool, intersecting ripples throwing up sun-bright spots and night-dark shades.

I am sat focussing on the ripples and their shadows before my eyes, only just now noticing the contents of the pool – what was in the pool, on the bottom, floating on the surface, coming into eyeshot. Bunches of grapes, last night’s coke can, single leaves and leaves formed into mats solid enough to resist the charms of the water splashes, tiny tiny fish, gnarled rocks and smooth pebbles.

Suddenly a tsunami! Now the local boys had started playing in my pool, all the time they had been creeping up and now they struck coming from outside my viewpoint to change the whole pattern of my little ripples.

Well, I could sit here and philosophise or I could actually go get my pen and paper and record these thoughts – so I do so.

Coming back to the fountain I can see nothing, the glare of the sun on the ripples totally bleaches out everything. But as I walk around the pool to my starting place, the glare reduces as the angle of the sun changes until I can finally see all the original detail. It was worth coming back. I sit, I think, I write, I remember that 30 metres away from this mesmeric little pool, perhaps 3 metres across, flows the mighty Garonne River as wide as a bus and as deep as a house; strong enough to sweep away this little piece of rock without even blinking an eye. I notice again the hundreds of people going about their daily business all around whilst I muse on ripples and their metaphorical relationship to organisational change. I move on – if I stay I get damp or sunburned and neither of those is in your writer’s plan...

If you want to know my 'interpretation' or how I related these musings to change, do get in touch - leave a Comment or email me at geoff.roberts@developingminds.co.uk

Do we make any difference?

2009-08-25T10:56:00.003+02:00

I have recently been elected to the Governors' Forum and as part of that volunteered to be part of a group with some form of oversight onto LEA purchasing; I may try to get onto the Schools Forum; I already attend 'Wedge' meetings (for governors from schools in a defined geographical area of the city) as well as my two governing bodies and a reference group on revamping special needs education in the city...

A bit more than many I suspect yet I still occasionally wonder if we really make any difference!

How much different would schools be if we had some city-wide or wedge-wide strategic governance with HTs and senior staff doing the implementation? (Large scale Federation might be one way to look at it.)
What difference do these various reference groups (for that is what most of them are as they have few executive or decision-making powers) make in the real world?

Are we just feeding our egos and taking up lots of time and cost for the LEA that might be better spent on the kids?

Discuss freely....please....

Help improve the chances for children with Special Educational Needs

2009-08-07T09:15:00.002+02:00

Once again the Leeds NW SILC has the opportunity to win support for a project designed to improve their school’s environment. The Sun are working with Dulux to make a difference to the community – their ‘Paint for Change’ project gives us the chance to have the main hall at Penny Field repainted. All we need is lots of votes – yours counts, so please go to:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/advertisement_feature/dulux/ click on Yorkshire to read a little about our project and then vote for us

(you might even win £1000 yourself, what more incentive can there be?) Do it now.

The Painting for Change project will benefit the pupils at the NW SILC, Penny Field Specialist site by creating an improved learning environment that will extend opportunities for disabled and/or multi-sensory impaired children and young people to experience their world through their senses and improve the quality of life in school as well as pleasure and self-esteem.

All the pupils have statements of special educational needs. All are either disabled and/or multi-sensory impaired. All are considered to be ‘vulnerable’.

In its present state the hall is drab and shabby and the walls are unpainted grey breeze blocks. The hall is the focal point of the school and needs to be visually stimulating to support our pupils to enjoy this multi-purpose area e.g. social and dining experiences, therapeutic activities, music, creative arts and school performances.

The Paint for Change Initiative would make a massive difference towards improving the learning environment for our pupils. The NW SILC is an all age, generic special school providing education for pupils aged 2-19 with a wide range of special needs including; moderate; severe; profound and multiple learning difficulties; emotional and behavioural difficulties; physical and or sensory impairment; specific medical conditions such as epilepsy; and autism. We work with other agencies and services e.g. health, social services.

Vote for us now – it only takes a minute of your time and will help these disadvantaged kids for a lifetime http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/advertisement_feature/dulux/

It seems that you can vote with each individual email address you have!

Thank you – now get your friends and colleagues to vote too, why not ‘Forward’ this info to all your contacts?

End of year praise

2009-07-17T18:24:00.005+02:00

Having been to two Leavers' Assemblies today, I find myself humbled by what I have seen and heard. We help educate some of the most challenged pupils in Leeds and it has been an education and deeply moving to see and hear about their achievements.

Ranging from one lad who has never missed a day's school in his life, to another who represented the school at a whole range of sports, to others who have achieved academic success that might not have been thought possible, others who have learned social skills that come naturally to most of us, and so on... Some are going on to college, some will stay on into our sixth form and all will remember the time they spent with us, as I will remember the time I spent with them today. What a pleasure to be with pupils who have not lost the innocence of childhood, who find pleasure in the simplest things and who reward you with their recognition.

I cannot praise these pupils too highly, nor indeed the staff who cope with the huge range of needs with a smile and patience and forbearance that goes beyond expectation. Every one of them deserves a relaxing break and to come back refreshed and keen to make a difference to the lives not only of our pupils but of their families and friends.

Thank you to everyone I have seen and spoken to today - I feel truly humbled by your abilities.

The challenge of all-age, multiple site governance

2009-07-08T17:37:00.002+02:00

At one of 'my' schools, we have just been reviewing our effectiveness as a GB - we run an all-age (3 to 19) special school on several sites including some mainstream partnerships. The discussion got to a point where we started to explore the governance issues associated with this unusual beast.

Stereotypically, primary GBs are much more involved/active than secondaries who tend to be more 'directorial'/strategic. Most schools only operate from one site that they 'own' (although federations challenge this model).

So the question we are to explore is

How can we be effective governors in an all-age special school meeting a range of learning needs in a variety of educational settings?

I feel sure that there are some specific challenges in this arena and wonder what you out there might be able to add to our deliberations?

Policy or Practice?

2009-07-06T10:04:00.003+02:00

Well, finally back in action after a belated honeymoon in Italy and I have been trawling the posts in one of my other favourite forums, UKGovernors. This one took my attention, relating to the importance of Policy and/or Practice. The specific content is of less relevance to this post than the principle of whether we should be concentrating on Policy or Practice.

If the school does what it should with regard to race, the existence of a written policy is of minimal importance. A challenge would surely only come if your practice was bad.

I agree and yet we come across too many "ticky box" administrators/auditors of one sort or another - I used to have a running 'discussion' with the regulators of my former industry who seemed more interested in the process than the outcomes (even threatened us with enforcement action once because we did not follow the procedure even though had we done so the outcome would have been worse for our customers!).

There seems to be a common development route with regulators (of which I have considerable experience - honestly!) who start with the paperwork (Are you following the rules? Have you got the right Policies?), move on to implementation (What procedures do you have? Prove to me that you follow your policy), before finally landing on outcomes (How do your customers/stakeholders feel they have been treated?).

The point of this little piece is to ask you to check where on this spectrum your regulator/auditor has reached. If they are still in the ticky box phase then you need to tick the boxes, if they have progressed then you need to do something else. Personally, I am interested in outcomes and all the paperwork is incidental. however I recognise that sometimes we need to make sure the paper is there.

Ofsted's revised regime

2009-06-12T10:24:00.003+02:00

This morning, Ofsted has been all over the media speaking about the revised inspection regime.

Now I am not a union-basher (I actually used to be a Branch Secretary!) but the following bugged me:

But the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, John Dunford, said there was "considerable anxiety" among members about the new inspection framework.
He said: "I am extremely concerned that Ofsted is again raising the bar and making it harder to get good and outstanding grades.
"It's like telling athletes running a four-minute mile that they need to do a mile and a quarter in the same time."

Duh! Isn't that what athletes actually do - try to run faster next time!

In business we realise that you are not progressing if you are standing still - standards need to improve constantly. What is so wrong about the same philosophy applying in education! Or perhaps we should go back to slates, the cane and Victorian educational values?

I see the improved regime as exactly that - an improved (yet probably not perfect) regime. If the teaching union(s) were more prepared to accept that the world changes, that some teachers are actually below par and that our children deserve ever-improving standards of education then I might be more willing to listen to their views. Meanwhile, please get out of our way while those of us who are working for a better future , rather than a comfortable past, get on with delivering it.

Ofsted are (probably) coming...

2009-06-04T08:38:00.000+02:00

It is three years in October since we got a Satisfactory ( and reviewing the paperwork it was probably verging on Good)so we reckon that a visit is likely in the Autumn term. So what, if anything, need we be doing in preparation?

The purist answer - to which I fundamentally subscribe - is that if the school is doing its' job effectively then Ofsted should be able to drop in at any time (unannounced inspections) and find the school working well.

The realist/pragmatist's answer is that whilst we want to keep the pressures and stresses on staff to a minimum (it's a tough enough job anyway!), we want to make the best impression possible and that comes from preparation not passivity (Proper Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance!).

So I and the governing body are going to be working with the leadership team to insulate the majority of the staff from any hassle as well as making sure that our ducks actually are lined up. This is where the fun starts...

Governor expenses

2009-05-26T14:35:00.003+02:00

Ever a thorny subject, this one has raised itself in my consciousness again, stimulated by an article by Janette Owen in the Grauniad.

Some schools find it hard enough anyway to recruit governors from a wide range of stakeholders, some governors who are in place find it hard to attend meetings due to child (or other) care needs (and, of course they do not have to be a Parent Governor to have this challenge!) and some governors (Chairs especially) have significant expenses – if I take mileage alone, I could legitimately have claimed ca £500 last year.

I suggest that there ought to be a much stronger presumption that governors will claim as appropriate. This might be encouraged by expenses being paid by the LEA from a ring-fenced and adequate budget, which while we are at it ought to include all costs for governor training as well.

To continue to accept that such a critical strategic role should be undertaken by those prepared to pay for the privilege is both unreasonable and unsustainable.

FGB on track!

2009-05-15T11:13:00.003+02:00

Great meeting last night. Strategic, challenging, supportive, decisions and sharing of useful stuff - we even discussed "How have we improved the chances for our pupils tonight?"

It's fantastic to come home from a governors' meeting feeling that you have helped make a difference and that everyone else there shares that feeling. How great to be able to 'work' with such a committed and knowledgeable group of volunteers - we really CAN change the world!

It looks like our Inclusive Learning Strategy might be back on track - "how can we help?" is the constant question that we now need in mind.

2009-05-14T11:20:00.003+02:00

I have been quiet for far too long on this blog and am still wondering why. However, I came across the following in my colleague Chris Edwards' blog today and found it inspirational:

Bringing out the best in people – in your family, at your school and at your work – is largely determined by the language we use about them and by how much we encourage individual creativity and responsibility... If we want to bring out the best in the people we live with and work with we need to trust them, empower them, engage them, encourage them and celebrate everything they do well. Everywhere we look at the moment ‘the language of blame’ governs relationships, making someone ‘wrong’ and bringing out the worst in people who become frustrated, demoralised, anxious or bolshy. The language of blame is used to dominate and control and we all know that the outcome is to encourage people to simply become mediocre. Watch any ‘soap’, read any newspaper, listen to any journalist interviewing any politician, and you cannot fail to see how widespread and corrosive this approach is. Education Leeds is based on a positive and constructive culture; an approach that values and recognises colleagues as the talented, brilliant, gorgeous and wonderful individuals they are. When I think about the way I act and the way I manage and lead, I ask myself how would I treat a child who was engaging in a task, doing a job or managing a team? How would I help them manage their own self-talk and build their self-esteem to develop their self-efficacy? Surely, then that's the way we should treat our colleagues to build a brilliant school, a brilliant team and a brilliant Education Leeds.

I happen to be aware that some people 'question' Chris' constant enthusiasm and his favourite word "brilliant"; but why? Would you rather be thought and spoken of as being brilliant or rubbish? Do you aspire to brilliance or mediocrity? Language is MUCH more important than we sometimes think. There is some research backing up a bit of my work that suggests that every criticism needs to be counterbalanced by at least 12 congratulations - but why bother with the criticism anyway?

How can you (and I) translate this for our school/workplace/home?

School staff and investigations

2009-03-26T15:41:00.002+01:00

Some of the most difficult tasks facing governors are to pass 'judgement' on staff disciplinary matters and to review longer term or permanent exclusions.

I have had a few experiences recently which required teachers to present 'a case' to either a Staff or Pupil Disciplinary Committee. I was disappointed to find that some of the evidence and investigation was of relatively poor quality. I have a background in investigating offences so am familiar with criminal procedure and standards of evidence - although I recognise that we are dealing with the civil standard of proof in these cases - and would not have found much of the investigation or evidence up to standard in my old profession.

It did actually raise the question of the appropriateness of teachers as investigators - not a role for which they are trained or necessarily willing. What must it be like to have to investigate the behaviour of a working colleague? What must it be like to have to conduct an investigation with legal consequences (e.g. one that might lead to dismissal) when untrained?

There is surely a better way - how about each LEA creating a team of independent individuals who are trained in investigation techniques, who would take over investigation of the most serious staff cases (i.e. gross misconduct) and who could advise proactively on e.g. permanent exclusions?

Discuss...

Now that the snow and ice has gone..

2009-02-18T18:53:00.002+01:00

...seems to be a good time to reflect and learn.

Many schools closed, many managed to stay open and some managed both! Congratulations are due to the many staff and pupils who made it in to school, sometimes in the most challenging circumstances.

My immediate reflections take me to several issues:

Did our transport providers always make the best decisions in the light of the information they, and we, had at the time. In particular, how does it happen that we were unable to contact them until 'too late' to truly consider the situation and make joint decisions?
To what extent did over-zealous H&S concerns get in the way of opening our schools?
How effective are our processes for letting parents and pupils know of the daily decision in such circumstances?
How come schools who struggle to open only to find that significant numbers of pupils cannot get there (for whatever or whoever's reasons) find their 'Unauthorised Absence' figures adversely affected?
What's the situation regarding staff who did not make it - do they now 'owe' us one or more days' work?

I am sure that there are other questions that deserve exploration - what do you think?

An outsider's frustrations...

2009-02-05T11:52:00.002+01:00

As a governor, who has vast experience of and expertise in leading and managing organisations, I find myself often amazed by some practices in the education sector and subsequently frustrated by the slow speed of change. It's a microcosm of the whole public sector and as en ex-employee of a privatised utility I know that things can change and will change. My experience is that the pace of change is largely dependent on the will and expertise of the change leaders.

Meanwhile, it is too easy to see and comment on only the problems.

I hereby commit myself to noticing and praising the great stuff that goes on most of the time. (Whilst also pressing for change where it is needed!)

Schools closed for snow...

2009-02-03T12:12:00.003+01:00

Once again some of the most challenging kids in Leeds lose a day's worth of education because their schools are closed. OK, not all schools are closed, but enough are to worry me. That some managed to open despite the challenges of the weather is surely a lesson to the others who found it too much of a challenge.

I govern in 2 Special Schools where many (most?) pupils are dependant on transport from the City Council - who have proved themselves unable to respond to the challenge today. OK the forecast was bad and there might have been a reasonable presumption of closure if there really had been the 30-45cm predicted. But that did not happen and it seems that there was insufficient time this morning to change the decision - our transport people are apparently only available from 0730 onwards! Now special circumstances require special measures and I would have hoped (dare I say "expected") that contingency plans would have been in place for either worse or better weather than expected.

Now I try not to be cynical, but it does sometimes appear easier to stay at home and plead bad weather than get off your **** and go out of your way to help some of the most disadvantaged kids in the area. Please everyone, let's do better next time.

Holding your Head to account

2009-01-29T09:18:00.003+01:00

As the current round of HT performance management is over (or should be!), I have been pondering on the criteria for giving HT's a pay rise. The guidance is quite clear that such a rise is dependant on HT having delivered 'sustained high quality of performance' (often quoted as Sustained Outstanding Performance SOP, so that's the phrase I shall use), yet I hear of many HTs around the country being given automatic pay rises by their governors without having delivered SOP.

For me, sustained outstanding performance goes beyond both business as usual and PM - I expect them to deliver more than was asked and can be expected over the whole year. Having moved away from the automatic progression that has plagued the public sector for so long, we now need to recognise that increases in remuneration are properly awarded for delivering more than the day job and for developing one's capability more than might be expected each year. The pay rise will then be a recognition of this contribution and development rather than just occupying a post and delivering the minimum required.

Any governor who agrees to a rise in circumstances other than where SOP has been delivered is corrupting the system and weakening the position of those of us who operate within the guidelines that took so long and so much effort to thrash out at national level. Had they wished for a automatic rise, or one linked purely to PM then STPD/RIG could have said so - they chose a more difficult hurdle so what good do so many govs think they are doing by reducing the height of the hurdle? Would they let pupils get an A* for just delivering the basics?

How do your PM governors deal with this - are the submissive or are they holding your HT to account as rigorously as the HT should be holding their pupils to account?

The Lamb Enquiry

2009-01-28T12:25:00.004+01:00

I consider myself to be better informed than many governors and yet the Lamb Enquiry (principally into SEN and parental confidence?) seems to have slipped past my mind without leaving a mark.

It seems to me that this is an important piece of work - parents of children with SEN tend to be more concerned about and interested in their child's provision and progress and it is critically important they they can have confidence not only in what is happening now but also what plans exist for the future.

Most recently his brief has been extended by Ed Balls to include

"an investigation to tackle poor information to parents of children with special educational needs, the failure of some Local Authorities to comply with their SEN duties and lack of transparency in the SEN system".

I know that this is a system/process that exercises the minds of many parents, not least because of potential confliocts of interest where the LA is the assessor, funder and deliverer.

I will be following his progress rather more carefully than so far...

Holocaust Memorial Day

2009-01-27T15:08:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Chris Edwards for reminding me...

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day...

A day when we remember where racism, intolerance and a lack of respect and understanding leads and the need for us all to be constantly vigilant. We must continue to build respect, tolerance and understanding and to celebrate difference. We must help our young people learn from the past and that we can stand up to hatred and create a safer, better future for us all.

Why not visit the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website and light a candle to support those who are standing up to hatred across the world. The website is at www.hmd.org.uk.

Standards for School Leadership

2009-01-25T09:35:00.002+01:00

As both a school governor and someone who has a professional practice leading and helping others become better leaders, on Friday I went along to one of the consultation events in respect of the new Standards for School Leadership. I was both thrilled and disappointed and found the event, and the statements made by some participants, interesting on several accounts:

Only about 20 people turned up, of whom most were either academics or held roles 'administering' schools (LEA staff); only 3 were practising Heads. What might this say about the standards - that they are of so little interest/relevance to practising Heads that they decided that they could find better things to do with their precious time? That actually being in school leading is a more useful activity that considering the leadership navel? Disappointing yet not really surprising...
There were 2 governors there (well, 2 who declared themselves) and we were both almost incensed that the word "governor" only appeared once in the document and even then not in the 'intended audiences' part. What the **** is governance about of not helping shape the ethos, values, vision etc of the school - leadership in other words. This is, IMHO, a serious shortfall that risks further weakening the role of governors in the eyes of HTs and other 'education professionals'. BTW, how disappointing to hear one of the Heads say "governance has not changed since Victorian times" and the other that leadership and vision was not the role of the governors!
There seemed to be a lot of linguistic confusion about Leaders, Leadership and the difference between Leading and Managing. Yes, effective leaders need to be able to manage and, yes, they can distinguish the management of the now/status quo from the challenge of leading people into the future. This distinction between 'doing the best we can with what we have and where we are' is distinctly different from 'figuring out where we need to be and helping everyone get there' - good leaders do both, bad 'people in leadership positions' miss the second.
With the pace and scope of change in the education sector these days, the need for devolved/distributed leadership seems clear to me. It is not just the job of the Head, the cleaners, the dinner ladies, the office staff, TA and Teachers all have a role in leading the pupils, the community and each other. It is a fact that everyone is a role model (good on bad) to someone and surely we want all of our people to model the appropriate values, beliefs and behaviours for our school? What a shame then that many (even perhaps most) of the participants exuded a top-down hierarchical model of leadership in which only individuals with designated leadership roles have to lead - and from one person that did not even include those with TLR! Pupils are moving into a world where they will need to be self-motivated and self-led, they need to see this mindset in action throughout their school life.
"Will these stardards be included in Regulations?" came up several times. AAAAArrrrrggghhhhh! The vast majority of the non-educational world manages to run effectively (OK, a moot point for banks!!) without Regulations saying that 'this is how you need to behave when doing your job and evaluating how well others do their jobs', so what is it about the education mindset that needs to be forced to do things rather than just do them because they are good practice. We had a brief and interesting discussion about how regulation might force compliance whereas recognising the real value of the standards woudl encourage committment. Performance Management in Schools is currently on this journey; business has been actively managing the performance of staff for a very long time yet it takes regulation and national 'guidance' to implement it for Teachers. 'My' schools know the value and are having little or no trouble voluntarily implementing it for all staff. Of course if PM is implemented on a 'I have to do this to you...' basis can we expect anything other than grudging compliance? The same goes for these leadership standards.
As for the content of the standards, I was rather impressed. A good broad approach to identifying leader behaviours that can be applied appropriately (we spoke of depth and breadth) throughout a school. The concept of five strands of leading (Strategy, People, T&L, Organisation and Community) is an interesting and potentially useful chunking enabling different parts of the standards to be distributed to different individuals who have specific accountability for that part of leading leadership in the school.

I was generally encouraged, whilst being slightly disappointed at some of the attitudes and beliefs that manifested themselves. Take a look at the documents yourself and PLEASE make the time to comment - after all Governance is leadership.

Trusting your Head

2009-01-25T09:16:00.002+01:00

I read in other forums about the hassle (to be polite) that some governors have with their HTs either passively or actively witholding information that governors need, or believe that they need, to effectively exercise their role.

Yes, there will always be bad or ill-informed apples, so what a pleasure I have to work with 2 Principals at the other end of that spectrum. Both recognise that governors have a valuable role and contribution and that whilst, on occasions, their 'demands' may be challenging and their opinions 'interesting' they all have ther right thing at the centre of their beliefs - that we must do the best we can for and by our pupils.

The mechanisms through which we hold schools to account are many, yet we need to be careful to avoid tying up our schools with a plethora of rules, regulations and paperwork designed to catch the very few bad apples - Haringey probably shows that even these cannot be guaranteed to work.

It does of course raise the issue of how governors can go about satisfying themselves that all is well as described. Yes, we need to work on the basis of 'trust everyone untilt they are shown to be untrustworthy', yet that leaves us with the dilemma of how to find out the truth before our school goes into Special Measures. Any ideas?

Celebrations!

2009-01-19T10:22:00.003+01:00

Isn't it great to have something to celebrate (apart from, at my age, being awake in the morning that is!)?

Two key members of staff with whom I am involved at 'my' two schools have just got unqualified passes on their NPQH. This is far from a straightforward journey and involves significant committment by anyone signing up for the qualification - which, just in case you did not know, all newly appointed headteachers appointed after April MUST have.

So my heartiest congratulations go to Michelle Wilman and Jane Reed.

On becoming a new chair...

2009-01-14T20:57:00.002+01:00

Well, I have been CofG for about 5 weeks now, during which time we have, inter alia, appointed a new Principal (congratulations Michelle), heard about how we might or might not get a rebuild as part of the advancement of the BSF spend and heard not enough about the strategy for refreshing inclusive education in Leeds.

I am remonded of the advice generally given to new CEOs to spend their first 100 days 'just listening' and that is mostly what I am doing - going round talking with all sorts of people who might give an insight into the good and bad of the school (not much of the latter has shown up so far - thankfully), where we can offer best in class services to others and where we need to do better.

We have gone 2.5 years without good old Ofsted visiting us so I guess they are at least approaching the horizon. Not that that should be of any concern; in the old days when we got 6 weeks' notice staff would get stressed for 6 weeks running round getting lesson plans up to date, filling in student reports and doing all sorts of stuff that (surely) they should have been doing anyway. If nothing else the curent regime reduces the duration of the stress and implicitly 'requires' staff to do the right thing all the time and not just for the weeks before Ms Gilbert's little helpers arrive. What I would however like to see is more proactive support/advice from the Inspectors - waalking in, spending two days to decide that you are only satisfactory (or worse) and then ****ing off is just not good enough these days.

Anyway, back to this question of the future of inclusive education in Leeds - LILS as it has been known. All has been quiet for a few months now and when there is an information vacuum people tend to start filling it with their own beliefes, often wrong, about what's going on, why 'they' are not communicating with us and how badly affected we are going to be. My short term agenda is to get the information flowing again - my professional practice is in the arena of change leadership and management and I just know that communications is critical to successful implementation. Even when there is nothing to say, it is important to say that there is nothing to say, otherwise the rumour mill starts working as above...
The most destabilising time during any period of change is not knowoing what is going to happen - even bad news gives the participant something to work with whereas no news leaves a void. So let's make those difficult decisions and get on with implementing. All that planning achieves is a plan (which, by the way, is always wrong), only action achieves any change.

Current thoughts

2008-12-29T11:05:00.002+01:00

So what's on my mind at the moment?

New Principal and as I am also the new Chair we have to figure our how to work nost effectively together.

10 day exclusion to handle.

Staff disciplinary in process...

New build throughout the city will significantly affect how we deliver our services - we are particularly affected by one school where we may get thrown out of our temporary accomodation during the rebuild and we have nowhere to go!

How to reinvigorate the governing body where I have just been elected Chair?

How can I reduce my involvement in my other school yet still make a valued and valuable contribution?

...and we do this because we enjoy it!? Yes, it is both a pleasure and an honour to be able to contribute in some way to helping those with poorer chances than most to achieve their potential.

From a new Chair...

2008-12-04T12:22:00.003+01:00

Last night I was elected as a new Community Governor and as the Chair of Governors at another Special School. The Principal and I thought that the staff might like a quick introduction...

In doing so I was tempted to talk about myself, but being a governor is not about me – to paraphrase Bill Clinton, “its’ about the children stupid”.

So, how can a Chair of Governors help our pupils get the best possible chances in life? Great learning for life requires great staff (we already have those), great kids (taken for granted), great parents (they all can be), great support (we can get it when we try) and great facilities (OK, we still have some work to do!). One key role of governors is to be both challenging and supportive in making sure that all of these ‘greats’ are in place. The question that needs to be constantly in our minds as we help create and meet the changes that are an inevitable part of modern life (and not least in education) is “How does this help give our pupils better chances in life?” You will already know about LILS and how it is still in its formative stages – no firm decisions yet. This will probably be the biggest change in the next few years and we need to be involved in setting the direction, offering up our thoughts and opinions, challenging where we cannot see the benefit and supporting where what we hear makes sense, thinking through how the various options might help give our pupils better chances – let’s get firmly in the driving seat (or at the least make sure we are on the bus!) because when change is around it is better to be doing it that be done to.

So I guess they are my two biggest challenges, working in partnership with you all to make sure that we offer great learning opportunities to help our pupils be the best they can and to guide us all through LILS (whatever it might ultimately look like and wherever it may lead us). My role is primarily to work with Michelle (or whoever we finally appoint as Principal!), the leaders in school, other governors, Education Leeds, parents and above all pupils to make sure that we continue to be great and get even greater at what we do. I am sure that I will get to meet many of you over the next few weeks – if I don’t and if you want to talk to me then just leave a message on xxxxxxxxxxxx or email me and I will get back to you.

My buzzwords then – Partnership, Change, Challenge, Support, “Pupils First”

We made a difference!

2008-12-03T12:37:00.002+01:00

Thank you to everyone who voted for us last week. We were presented with the 'Big Cheque' last Tuesday afternoon, just two days before I finally got married (not that this is too relevant but it does explain the lack of posts for the last week or so!!) and everyone at school is abuzz with excitement.

Thank you - we won!!

Vote for Penny Field and make a difference

2008-11-24T08:16:00.003+01:00

Today is the day that your vote can make a real difference to the lives of some of the most disabled and challenged children in Leeds. Our People's Millions bid will feature on Calendar at 6pm today and we need YOUR vote to help us win a much-neded £50,000.

You can vote up to ten times from any one number (BT landlines cost 10p per call, other providers may charge more) and the number you can ring - NOW - is:

08716 268171

Lines are open from 0900 - 2400, please help those who cannot help themselves

Followers

2008-11-10T12:07:00.004+01:00

I am interested in who (if anyone - surely I am not doing it for nothing!) is reading this blog regularly, so I have added a Follower gadget at the top left. You can follow either anonymously or publicly - you choose and please do sign up.

Do we need Special Schools?

2008-11-09T19:26:00.003+01:00

A recent article by Rahila Gupta in The Guardian referred to the strengthening of pupils' rights to an 'Inclusive Education'. Now here may not be the place for a discussion of the definition of 'inclusive', so let's just address her statement that more students are now entering Special Schools

On education, the convention seeks to "ensure an inclusive education system at all levels" for people with disabilities. In the UK, there is provision for both inclusive education and special schools. The campaign for inclusive education has been a long and bitter struggle. In 2001, the right of disabled children to opt for mainstream education was significantly strengthened. However, this right was not bolstered by enough support, training and other resources for mainstream schools to make inclusion a success. This has led paradoxically to an increase in the number of students entering special schools although more and more parents aspire to the inclusive ideal.

My experience suggests that the majority of parents who press for Special Schools are doing it because placing their child in a mainstream has failed them. As the article states:

"However, this right (to integration) was not bolstered by enough support, training and other resources for mainstream schools to make inclusion a success."

'Inclusion' is surely about socialisation as well as education and full socialisation is unlikely in a Special School setting. Yes, there is an argument that the most needy/disabled/difficult (choose your own adjective in such a way as to avoid the PC Police) pupils may always need a specialist setting. However who is to say that such a setting cannot be at least co-located with a mainstream? We do not segregate races any more, why would we want to segregate pupils will less ability than the norm? The challenge for mainstreams is not to get SEN pupils "out of their way" but to hold them to account for the success of all pupils in their care, not least those for whom they get additional funding.

You can help us raise £50k to help kids with (very) special needs in Leeds

2008-11-06T21:25:00.002+01:00

Penny Field Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre, a Special School catering for pupils with some of the most extreme/difficult/challenging (choose your adjective) needs in Leeds, will compete in ITV’s Big Lottery Fund, People’s Millions 2008 on Monday 24th November.

To win £50,000 of Big Lottery money, they need your vote...

The Penny Field Centre provides education for children and young people aged 2 to 19 with a range of special needs. A multi-sensory environment is the ultimate teaching tool to support and reach children, young people and adults with profound and multiple learning difficulties, emotional and behavioural difficulties, communication difficulties and physical and sensory impairment. Penny Field has made it through to the final eight groups in the Yorkshire & Humber region to compete for the fund and are the only Leeds based finalists. They will go head to head with one of the other finalists to compete for one of four £50,000 funds – so they have a 50% chance of winning. If they win, they will use the money to install a new state of the art multi-sensory studio at the centre.

This new equipment will be used by children and young people who regularly visit the centre, as well as groups from the wider community and will massively improve the children's and young people’s quality of life".

On Monday 24th November, ITV will publish the telephone number you need to vote for Penny Field - it will also be posted here. Penny Field will feature on Calendar Evening News at 6.00pm that evening, but you can vote from 9.00am and any telephone can be used up to 10 times to vote.

Please make sure you help to make this difference by voting on Monday 24th November it costs you little and will make such a huge difference for others.

Change in the public sector

2008-11-04T19:32:00.005+01:00

Change is endemic throughout life - and especially in the public sector at the moment.

Coming from a large corporate that has undergone very significant change over the 26 years I worked there - and went from pariah to paragon of excellence - I believe that the predominant public sector change model is fundamentally flawed and inevitably leads to dissatisfaction and mediocrity.

As a change leadership professional I am often appalled at the slow pace of change in the public sector. Some of it is understandable in that the stakeholder model inevitably requires more consultation etc. However, too many consultees do not seem to understand the difference between consultation and democracy - "I can and will consult you, your views may or may not influence the decision" is very different to "Vote for A or B, I will accept the result of the ballot". Moreover, I often see a lack of understanding of the need for real involvement, that goes beyond simply holding consultation workshops; it is by really involving people that the deep issues are exposed and addressed and long-term committment to the solution achieved.

Then the decision processes are far too drawn out and I often wonder if the purpose of the processes, typically involving layers of committees, is to avoid being able to hold anyone to account.

What business has to contribute is the urgency and recognition that change can and should happen faster - if I had a philosophy in this arena (and this is a deliberate caricature) it is "make the change and sort any mess out later" (there will always be mess!), whereas the public sector seems to be "try everything we can to avoid any mess" - a forlorn hope. How much more effective could we be if we applied the Pareto Principle rather than trying to get everything 110% right before moving. By the time the public sector has consulted, considered, decided, planned, consulted about the implementation plan, etc, the goalposts have changed!

As Governors we can force the pace - don't let 'the system' slow you down. Set challenging timescales and hold people to them; the first death-knell of rapid change sounds as an unmet deadline goes rushing by. Don't let it happen to you!

Wordle

2008-10-31T15:09:00.004+01:00

Well I just discovered a cute little toy for finding out and displaying the content of some text in graphical format (bigger words occur more frequently).

So I had a play and chose a chapter of the Governors' Guide to the Law to experiment with - Ch11 relating to the relationship between governors and the school.

Here are the results.

Interesting that the most frequent words are Evaluation, Improvement, Performance, Inspection. This seems to be what GttL expects us to be doing - do you?

Governance or Management again!

2008-10-21T08:17:00.001+02:00

I find myself once again being the butt of criticism (both overt and covert) by a couple of other governors for what I am doing for the school and this is annoying and frustrating me to the point that it is distracting my attention.

From my viewpoint, the issue is that I have a bunch of professional skills that are very helpful to the HT and senior members of staff - as such I both volunteer and get asked to use these skills (for example in developing strategy and facilitating meetings and focus groups). My co-governors do not have these skills but seem to have plenty of skill in raising money for the school.

So, I get criticised when I volunteer my skills for the benefit of the school but it is OK for them to use their different skills - the difference seeming to be that I get involved with school managers quite a lot (although I am always very careful to avoid actually managing - the critics cannot seem to understand the difference between facilitation and management) and they don't.

The boundary between Governance and Management is a simple one in theory (not!) and a much more complex one in practice!

Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh....!

A new year starts...

2008-09-02T14:49:00.003+02:00

Well, here we go again with another year to look forward to, wondering what challenges and delights it will bring.

Do you sometimes find yourself lost in the challenges and overlooking the delights? That's an easy situation to get into, especially as a governor where we so often find ourselves on the receiving end of complaints from staff, students, parents, councillors etc..

One thing we started last year and I will be emphasising this year is to focus much more purposefully on the good news - and there will be plenty. Let's go overboard in recognising the achievements of everyone associated with our school, it's rare that someone blows a trumpet for us so we will make sure we blow our own. This might seem a bit 'unBritish' or even arrogant at first but what's wrong with celebrating achievement?

So., here's my first success. Yesterday we ran a session for all staff at one of our sites during which one exercise was for everyone to list their skills/strengths/positives/etc and then talk to others in the room about how great they really are; 1 minute then move on and tell someone else; then again; then again; and so on... It was great, once people got over the initial embarrassment of talking so positively about themselves the enregy level really kicked up and peole had a great time. It struck me as a great energiser the day before term starts. Let's hope (expect?) that the same energy levels can keep with everyone through the term - I will be doing what I can to help.

Providing for SEN - whose responsibility?

2008-08-15T12:16:00.004+02:00

I am a governor in a Special School with pupils with a HUGE range of needs, many of which are overtly represented in the children's Statements (I don't want to go into 'many' 'most' or 'all' in this post - that's for elsewhere another time). Now a question that I have been raising is where the ultimate responsibility lies for provision of what you might call 'non-educational' needs. Let me explain what I mean - and I am deliberately caricaturing a position here to stimulate dialogue.

The caricature is that teachers are there to impart knowledge/skills and that everything else is either to facilitate the pupils' learning or to more generally help thier lives and development. The Statement will list the required provision - let's say Speech Therapy, Hydrotherapy, Physiotherapy, help with personal hygeine (toiletting), Psychological Support - the question is who must take ultimate responsibility for providing all this support?

One position, which I suspect may be the default, is that the school has (or at least accepts, explicitly or implicitly) responsibility. Another is that the various 'other agencies' outside the education service (and I mean that in the administrative sense) must accept their own responsibilities. For instance, Physio is often provided (or not - that is the point of this post!) by the Health Service - but what happens when they are understaffed or just incompetent and unable or unwilling to deliver the requirements of the statement? The school fills the gap, resulting in the efforts of our 'teaching professionals' being diverted from ther primary duties. Or how about hydrotherapy? Teachers are trained to teach, and SEN teachers have a special set of skills that do not necessarily include (nor, I would argue, do they need to include) supervising hydrotherapy sessions. But again, who else will do it?

One big challenge here is parental expectation, where often they do not understand the nature of the system and school staff become seen as being totally responsible for delivering a child's needs (we once even had a parent expecting us to arrange an optician appointment and get glasses for their child!).

I think that it is time that all support professions accepted their specific responsibilities and stood up to be counted when things are not delivered.

Holidays time - what to do...?

2008-07-27T20:17:00.000+02:00

Well, school has finally closed for the next few weeks - what's a governor to do?

Go on holiday - yes!

Read up on all the stuff we missed over the last year? What's important I wonder - there is so much that sometimes it becomes hard to distinguish the Important/Urgent from the Unimportant/Not Urgent/Waste of my Time stuff. So I think not.

Start to think about HT's PM objectives for next year - definitely. Not least because he is being seconded away for 2 days a week to help implement our emerging Inclusive Learning Strategy across the whole city. This raises the interesting challenge of who will PM him on this aspect of his time and whether or not working 3 days a week for the school is likely to generate "sustained exceptional performance" and hence a pay rise - clearly some discussion will be needed with his other part-time manager on this one.

Get clearer about where the priorities lie for the next 12-24 months? Well that's a full governing body issue so I woudl not want to get too locked into my own thoughts.

So - rest then?

On governor involvement...

2008-07-21T19:37:00.003+02:00

Had an interesting discussion with our Business Manager a couple of days ago about the extent to which it was appropriate for governors to get involved in the running of the school. Now some of you will say 'never, governance is a strategic role", some will want to be involved in the detail of whether or not to spend £500 painting the toilets and some will be in between. It got me thinking about where the line is drawn between strategic governance and operational management and how many governors do stuff that is hugely supportive but not governance.

Let's take this latter idea. We have governors who help out with swimming sessions, read to the kids, occasionally help out in the playground, etc. To me, this is not governance even though it is governors doing the tasks; it is straightforward volunteering. OK, it does give the volunteers a particular insight that may help them in their role as governors but can we really argue that helping little Johhny get dried and back into his clothes after a swim is governance?

On the other hand there are governors who turn up for their termly meeting, say little and then disappear for a term. That's not governance either - they are so remote for the school that they can hardly have a local context within which to make their strategic decisions.

So where is the middle way? I recently facilitated the development of an HR Strategy for our school - I actually commented that I would have done this for any school that had asked me; it is using my professional capacity in a socially responsible (in the CSR sense) way. So was doing this for the school where I am a governor getting too involved or not? Especially as one reason I was in the group was to represent a key stakeholder, the governing body. What if I next get involved in taking the targets we are about to develop and converting them into projects - for me that crosses the boundary from the strategic 'what' into the operational 'how'.

In another role as a non-exec director, this distinction between what and how is much clearer than it can be in schools. Now the model does not exactly cross over but it seems to be a decent starting point. We need to know enough to be able to ask useful questions (the 'critical') and to be able to support the school publicly and the (senior?) staff privately if necessary (the 'friend') but neither of these roles demands that I know Juliet's latest SAT results or that Billy has been bullied by Susan.

So - any thoughts/examples of the boundary between governance and operations?

What great meeting!

2008-07-16T08:47:00.002+02:00

Last night I chaired the last meeting of our GB this academic year. The major item was to agree (or otherwise) on a secondment for our Principal. Fantastic discussion that was a pleasure to chair - everyone had their say, great points made about the benefits and challenges of the secondment and a very clear decision at the end (only 1 dissenter out of the whole GB) to let him go.

Several people commented afterwards about how mature the discussion had been and that's so encouraging when a couple of years ago it might have descended into argument and other unproductive hecticness. This level of maturity does not come easily, it takes time and preparation - although it does disappoint me to find 'experienced' governors coming along without having read the papers, when I'm King we will just assume they have been read - as well as pre-positioning. How often do members your GB discuss issues that are upcoming outside/ahead of the meeting to give the chance to recognise and work on the issues that are likely to come up; good decisions tend to some from good preparation.

Thoughts on seconding staff

2008-07-15T16:34:00.002+02:00

Opportunities arise for staff to go away on secondment, what do we do?

On the one hand we lose, albeit temporarily, a valuable member of staff who has built up relationships with pupils and other staff members; on the other we risk getting in the way of CPD of that staff member, we miss the opportunity to influence more than might otherwise be the case the topic for which they are to be seconded, we miss out on the opportunity for other staff to step in/up and get their own CPD, we miss out on whatever the person may bring back from their secondment...we stand to have someone else 'owe us a favour'...

Nobody should be irreplaceable and a secondment creates an opportunity to explore ways of coping without that person. What would you do if they won the lottery, walked out and went to Barbados for ever?

The future of governance

2008-07-14T08:11:00.002+02:00

On Friday I went to a hugely stimulating workshop on the future of governance in the context of Extended Services, Children's Services and the whole concept of local delivery of family services.

The overall impression that I brought it away is that there is a clear recognition of the need to change the overall governance of service delivery as the concept of what a cluster is becomes embedded into the city. The basic philosophy behind this is that wherever possible all family services (including schools) will be delivered locally through one of 40-odd clusters. Interestingly these clusters are generally defined by groups of local schools. Whether or not the cluster is 'responsible' for children living in the cluster or educated in schools within the cluster is an interesting issue that remains unclear. The relevance for us, as a Special School, is that we take puipils from right across the city not just our local cluster (indeed we are not even included in a clsuter at present) and so the model needs tweaking for us - just like the Extended Services model is slightly different because of the geographic reach of our school.

It is important to note that we were not just talking about school governance, but overall governance of all the services offered to families in a cluster. The default model seems to have been that, because they are generally the only existing legal entity in a cluster, school governing bodies have become the focus for extended governance. I sensed an undercurrent of opinion that this was not viable into the future, not least because school governing bodies have a defined statutory role this does not include overall governance of the wide range of services likely to be delivered through the cluster arrangements. Other models, including Trusts and Charity Companies are being explored elsewhere in the city.

Watch this space, not least as I will use it to develop my own thinking on the topic...

The future of governance

2008-07-08T08:57:00.003+02:00

Fiona Millar's article about governance in the Grauniad makes interesting reading.

Now this is an issue that deeply interests me so here is my twopenn'orth. I see a possibility to both increase stakeholder involvement and reduce the size of GBs. Why reduce the size? No compelling reason beyond a recognition that in many (most?) GBs there are a number of 'sitting members' - they are members and they sit in meetings and that's all - who contribute remarkably little. Now you could argue that there is a recruitment and training issue there and I would agree, however the pragmatist in me also recognises that those issues will not be fixed quickly.

What I suggest is a two-tier system with:

a smaller (no more than 9?) 'Executive GB' which has the statutory responsibility and whose members are required to undergo induction and ongoing training (CPD if you like); this EGB might, only might, have a paid Chair and this may be especially important in larger schools with substantial budgets etc
a statutorily required series of larger stakeholder forums, each chaired by a GB member, whose role is to sense and explore the views/needs of the broader stakeholder group.

So the governors of the future will need competence in consultation/engagement processes in addition to everything they already need to know. At risk of repeating myself - we are dealing with the future of our society here, let's make sure that it is in the hands of competent committed governors.

Faith schools - ethos or faith making the difference?

2008-07-05T10:54:00.002+02:00

Now I am no fan of mixing state-funded education with promoting (I would use 'indoctrinating' when applied to uncritical infant minds) a particular religion, yet I have to accept that on many counts faith schools do a better job of educating or kids than non-faith ones. What is behind this differential?

I have just started a thread about the ethos of faith schools in my favourite governors' forum:

"An article by Zoe Williams challenges us to explore the real reasons for the (relative) success of faith schools c.f. secular ones.

Let us just, for the moment, put aside the 'religion' bit and suggest that there may be something about the ethos of those schools that generates/stimulates more effective learning behaviours by their pupils. (Admittedly the parents are part of this as well and interestingly en passant Zoe highlights an observation about a possibly anomalous belief that there is less social deprivation in faith schools - and we all know that social deprivation links to poor achievement.)

I don't know what that ethos is, but I'll take a guess that it has something to do with discipline, application and respect. And where that ethos comes from is an interesting chicken/egg question - does religious belief stimulate certain values/behaviours or do people with certain values/behaviours find themselves attracted to religion? Surely it is possible to have an equivalent set of values/behaviours as a Christina/Jew/Hindu?... without subscribing to those beliefs and, if that is the case then what do our non-faith schools need to do about it?

How interesting might it be to explore the similarities between the ethos of successful non-faith schools with that of faith schools?"

Late SAT results

2008-07-05T08:48:00.003+02:00

I read that the SAT results are going to be late.

Now I totally understand some people's desire to 'get the results', however I really do wonder what part of a pupil's world will change forever if the results are never published. Did a potential employer ever ask to see SAT results? Did a potential college ever...? etc?

What really bugs me is the incompetence of the marking company. So an interesting question arises - should the company be sacked for gross incompetence or given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes?

Equal Pay and its' implications

2008-07-04T19:09:00.004+02:00

The sorting out of the long-standing Equal Pay issue for council manual workers has had the odd interesting/challenging by-product, not least the removal of the SEN Allowance payable to staff working with Special Needs pupils.

Remember that the position is complex as although the staff work in our school and tend to see the GB (or even Head) as their employer, they are technically employed by the LEA, who deal with them through their Education Joint Venture Company and eventually us. We have no locus in the Collective Agreement being negotiated even though, until today, the LA have been insisting that we formally sign up to the agreement or suffer the consequences.

As a Special School, we have lots of staff eligible for the SEN allowance and have been pushing our Council very hard indeed to come to a resolution that does not involve a very significant portion of our staff losing out. We, along with a few other schools, refused to sign up to the initial offer and are convinced that this move 'stiffened the spines' of those doing the negotiation. We stood firm and this afternoon got a result of sorts. The LA are now working with the JV Company to find a way to 'fudge' (although they woudl not use the word!) the system so that we can paqy our existing employees a different sort of allowance - retention perhaps - that will cover their losses.

Moreover, we have ended up in a position where we have not accepted the deal, merely acknowledged that it is happening. Weasel words to some but an honourable position to us - we fight hard for our staff and this is an unstoppable train so let's do our best to get it to the right destination.

A good day.

Not so different after all...

2008-07-04T09:11:00.001+02:00

In schools we seem to spend a lot of time moaning about lack of funds, despite the huge amount that is being spent rebuilding schools and the not inconsiderable amount we get each year for our revenue expenditure (the biggest schools are in excess of £10million 'businesses').

Well, I was in a business yesterday and recognised the same challenges. This business spends over £1million per day building new stuff and well over that on operational costs. I was talking about how to fund the extension of a personal development programme that has already given massive savings indeed the programme so far has paid for itself several times over and that is just in the direct savings, not the long-term benefits from having more capable staff. "We might not be able to afford it" was the cry - "Despite the 7 figure benefits already delivered by previous programmes?" I ask. It seems that to divert some of the savings, or indeed part of the £1m per day capital spend, into training to save even more money is at least a challenge.

Small box thinking is everywhere I am afraid, not just in schools - the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side (NB Trusts!).

Ofsted's competence

2008-07-02T18:15:00.000+02:00

I have raised the issue of the competence of Ofsted's Board with my MP. Specifically, whether or not they need some experience of governance:

"As a school governor myself (Vice-Chair at the Leeds North West SILC) I am very aware of the importance of Ofsted’s inspections and pronouncements. As you say, the operational responsibility for these lies with the officers and inspectors who certainly, in my view, need some experience of the requirements and challenges of being a governor. After all as governors it is us, and nobody else, who is accountable for the strategic direction of schools and I believe that the current inspection regime underplays that strategic role, especially when a school is found to be in need of improvement or special measures. Having been in such a position I know how little effort the inspectors make to really engage with governors – to be blunt about it, if a manipulative and devious Head can pull the wool over the eyes of a whole governing body then they can certainly do so for one or two individuals visiting for two or there days and I have been in the position where as an Additional LEA Governor in a school in Special Measures the Inspectors were unable to talk to me despite my having a somewhat different perspective to the majority of the governing body that had go the school into SM.

On to the Board then; if the Board is to effectively set the strategic direction of Ofsted then my view is that the members need to have, between them, experience and understanding of the issues affecting the work of the organisation. If I were running a bank I would want to be sure that at least some of my Board had bank accounts (and so understood the practical implications of the system). Board members in a water company need to know something about water supply and effective Ministers need to know or learn about the topic for which they are responsible. How then can we justify a system in which the body responsible for the strategic direction of Ofsted need not have either experience or understanding of the role and challenges of the bodies responsible for strategic governance of schools? I am not saying that all members need such knowledge/experience, merely that some do"

He's passed the query on to Ed Balls - let's see what he has to say...

What do you think?

HR strategy again...

2008-07-02T08:39:00.000+02:00

Well, it seems like the major item on my agenda at present is people, so I am off to the penultimate working session of our "Shaping the Future" working party.

This has been really interesting, not only deeply engaging those staff who are part of it but also highlighting a series of issues that as a governor I need to keep an eye on. More of this later after we have drafted our recommendations, meanwhile it has been a real pleasure to help with this (I facilitate this sort of thing for a living and it it not always a pleasure, believe me!) and to recognise the committment and capability of the people we employ.

This teamworking approach has cost us in the short term - paying for cover whilst teachers and TAs are out of the classroom - but I just know that it will pay off in the longer term. Short term pain, long term gain.

Our next challenge is to extend the remit of the strategy beyond the school boundaries - as a Special School we have deep reliance on other agencies, such as Health, Transport, Psychologists, Speech and Music Therapists, none of who we employ but all of whom are an essential partof our team. Ah well, one step at a time, eh!

Pay for qualifications

2008-07-01T19:28:00.000+02:00

Interesting point raised last night in relation to whether or not we pay anything for staff getting themselves further qualified.

It has been custom, for example, to advance TAs by one Grade on achievement of the relevant NVQ. This, regardless of whether or not there were additional duties expected of them or we had higher level posts available.

So the discussion was whether or not to maintain 'training grades' with automatic progression, or to say that if you want to study we will support you but you can only get advancement if there is a vacancy available. The interesting analogue was a Deputy Head who got their NPQH - would we automaticaly advance them to a Head's position/salary? Probably not!

Fortunately we are in the process of developing an HR Strategy so we can think this one through a bit more....

FMSiS success

2008-06-28T10:26:00.000+02:00

The assessors have granted us a FULL pass which is aparrently very rare. We have only two minor recommendations - one of which is ridiculous:

Financial regulations to be approved by the full governing body and not just the Business Cttee

Our BC had fully legitimate delegations to approve the Financial Regs and has done so; for the Inspectors to decide that they are a higher law than the School Governance Regulations is ridiculous.

We will do this, if onloy because it will be a 1 minute agenda item and then over and done with, but....

Congratulations to everyone involved - it was hard work and ultimately worth it - I am assured that it has thrown up one or two things that might not otherwise have surfaced.

Grrrrrr.....uninformed governors

2008-06-28T10:22:00.000+02:00

Just got back from an excellent Governors Conference and need to dump my anger (yes, anger!) at how many governors don't know even the basics!!!!

A Chair who did not know the name of the school immediately opposite them on the same road, a chair who did not know what we call Special Schools round here, a chair who did not know what NPQH stood for, a chair who did not know what CRB stood for!!!! I coud go on and won't.

Why do we allow these people any influence over the future of our children?!

FMSiS again..The Inspector Calls

2008-06-16T21:34:00.000+02:00

Arriving tomorrow - is it more stressful than Ofsted? Perhaps for the office staff.

Straightforward Business Committee approving a few missing bits of paper; what was really interesting was to see, for the first time. a benchmark comparison of finances for some similar schools. We have the biggest budget and the lowest per pupil cost! Good or bad - you guess because I certainly am not sure (yet!). Threw up some stuff well worth investigating as part of a cost/Best Value review.

Incidentally find that we seem to have been disadvantaged in prioritising Primary Capital Spend. We have three buildings and they have not been treated independently (imagine - we coudl have a dump and a palace, so on avergae we are OK!), nor has our special situation as a Special School been accounted for in looking at Value Added. I hate to say "I told you so" but when we were consulted I did suggest that we consider whether or not the, surface valid, criteria might disadvantage us. "I told you so!"

Time for disciplinary action?

2008-06-13T20:10:00.000+02:00

In another forum, I read a post where the Head had unilaterally changed the uniform requirements. Clearly not in line with Guidance and in need of Governing Body consideration.

What really galled me was that yet again we have a Head acting alone and ultra vires.

Is it time to consider disciplinary action against a HT who is clearly acting other than in accord with well known and publicised guidance and who has taken upon themself a decision that did not follow due process and was not considered by GB.

I am getting more and more fed up with hearing about HTs who think they are 'god' (not ours, thank heavens!) - it is time we as governors reminded them of their and our place.

Business Manager vs Educational Professional in the top slot?

2008-06-13T11:01:00.001+02:00

The question – “Does the most senior post in a school have to be occupied by someone with teaching qualifications or can the responsibilities of that role be more effectively be delivered by someone with a ‘management’ background?”

I do not intend to dissect the role and offer pros/cons but to suggest analogues which indicate that the need for a qualified teacher at the top of a school may be unnecessary.

IMHO an exploration of this question needs to start with an examination of the role of the most senior person in the school (for the sake of this item I will deliberately not use the word ‘headteacher’). That role varies depending on the type and size of school. Can it be that the capabilities needed of the leader of a small primary are the same as those for a large secondary? I suspect not.

What is likely to be needed in a small primary is someone who can, inter alia, occasionally teach and regularly offer ‘technical’ support to other teachers to help them improve their performance as teachers. Contrast this with the head honcho in a large secondary, which may have well over a hundred staff and a budget in excess of £10m where if they ever need to teach then something has gone seriously wrong with staff scheduling – their role is much more leadership and management than direct involvement at the chalkfront.

Think about this in the context firstly of the management of your LEA – does the Chief Executive of the LEA have to be a teacher? If not, at what point up the hierarchy does the requirement to have been a teacher stop? Now shift the focus of the question to industry – maybe the head of 10 person IT company needs to be pretty familiar with computers but does the CEO of Shell have to have drilled for oil or driven a petrol tanker or filled vehicles on a forecourt?

An interesting, and no doubt controversial, analogy might also be leadership in the Arts or Hospitals. In both of these sectors there has been a recognition that the ‘arts/health professionals’ do not necessarily have the capabilities, or maybe even the desire, to be effective managers of the whole enterprise. A very clear lesson from both of these sectors is the need for very close collaboration and shared Values/Ethos between artists/doctors and managers. A manager driving commercial success through ‘bums on seats’ may not gel well with an artist driving a grant-funded leading edge repertoire; in the same way, medical consultants need to acknowledge that there is limited funding and consider value for money just as hospital administrators need to handle the fact that they are in the business of saving lives not making money.

Speaking personally, I started my career as a pretty good synthetic and analytical chemist whilst ended it, having climbed very high up the greasy pole, negotiating with government and regulators about environmental quality standards. I did not shake a test tube for the last 25 years of my career, yet an appreciation of the technical/chemistry issues associated with improvements in environmental quality gave me a sounder foundation than if my background had been in teaching. The CEO of Shell needs to appreciate some of the issues around filling vehicles on forecourts but does not need an NVQ Level 4 in the topic to be able to operate effectively at his level.

I see to many managers in industry who have been promoted apparently on the basis of their technical competence and who do not seem to understand that management is itself a discipline that needs to be learned and studied. Engineers (for example) are happy to undertake CPD, indeed it is a requirement of their continued registration with the Engineering Council, why then do they think that they do not need to go and study management? You would not put an MBA to design a bridge any more than you should put a C.Eng. in charge of 100 people without substantial management training.

So my basic proposition is that whilst all head honchos need at least a modicum of leadership/management competence, the amount and balance between that and teaching qualifications/ability depends on the size and nature of the school. The move to new Headteachers being required to have the NPQH is a move in the right direction. A further move to recognise that the biggest schools would benefit from professional managers doing the management and professional teachers doing the teaching would be a further positive move. I would be very happy to appoint a professional manager to head large secondary provided that they formed a sound working partnership with the senior teacher and each of them were able to operate understanding the needs/constraints of the other.

What a list of topics to rear their head!

2008-06-12T15:25:00.000+02:00

Almost at the bottom of the list for capital spend, LEA possibly misrepresenting an email sent (by me!) to them; continuing debate about the implications of the 'Equal Pay Settlement', the improvement advisor we were to have seconded to us has taken an other job and no longer available, discussion about who should hold the Register of Governors' Interests and whether or not it is a public document, FMSiS assessors due in next week, more work on the HR Strategy...all these, and more that don't come immediately to mind, have reared their head in the last 3 days!

Perhaps as Vice-Chair, and perhaps because I tend to be more active than others, I do seem to get involved in all sorts. I sometimes wonder where to draw the line, not in terms of strategy vs tactics (I have a pretty clear position on that) but on which issues I ought to get involved in. The challenge is (at least) threefold- one that I only have so much time, two that anything I do reduces the involvement/development opportunities for other governors and three that the more I get involved in the more I risk getting accused (again) of 'doing everything'.

UK Governors your free resource

2008-06-10T09:04:00.000+02:00

HOw sad that the first thing I did on my pooter today was to look up new posts on http://forums.ukgovernors.org.uk/ .

Great site.

If you are a governor and you are not a member - now's your chance.

FMSiS - tying the knots

2008-06-09T22:44:00.000+02:00

Yet more paperwork to be formally agreed by the Business Committee just in case the assesors check on it. I wonder is this actually a valuable use of governors' time or just bureaucracy gone mad? It increasingly seems like a good idea (making sure that schools have proper financial controls and systems in place) has growed like Topsy and cgenerated an industry for the form fillers. AAAArrrrggggghhhhh!

Great strategy session

2008-06-09T22:40:00.000+02:00

Isn't it amazing what can be achieved by a small number of committed and informed people?!

We had a great dialogue around the issues we need to address for the future - so great that we have arranged a further session to finish off the work.

HR advisor impressed with our inclusive approach - "I usually have difficulty persuading schools to do an HR Strategy and those that do agree just ask me to go away and write it". Well, that's not the way we work - this cross-functional team stuff seems to be taking off in one or two other areas as well.

HR Strategy for school

2008-06-08T19:17:00.000+02:00

I volunteered to facilitate development of an HR Strategy for our school (it's one of the things I do...) - working on a development session for tomorrow morning.

Already done the usual data gathering = STEEP, SWOT and filling the team in on stuff they were not up-to-date on.

Next step?

Thinking about how our strategy will be driven by Vision/Ethos, Short and Medium term goals, etc. Looks like we will have to do some work on the overall components as well - tentative list:

Change capability
Recruitment and retention
Team working - across sites as well as within sites
Training and development/CPD
Flexibility to meet pupil needs
Remuneration
Life balance (NB NOT Work/Life balance - work is part of life!)
Performance management
Diversity/Equal Opps
Communications
Leadership, management and delivery

What's good is that we have a multi-discipline team from across our several sites doing the work for SMT to consider - a real move forward and one that seems to be paying off in terms of broadening and deepening staff understanding of some of the issues involved in running the school.

Hello

2008-06-08T10:33:00.000+02:00

Well, after searching all over I have failed to find any blog specifically devoted to school governance issues - so here it is.

I have been a governor at three school over the last 10 years; Chair at a mid-sized primary, Additional LEA governor at a school for pupils with Behavioural, Social and Emitional Difficulties in Special Measures and currently Vice-Chair at a Spcial School serving ages 3 - 19.

I am a Community Governor with no children at any of the schools I am involved in (actually I have no kids of my own, although I did 'inherit' three when me and my gorgeous partner hooked up - the story of being a step=father is another blog (but not one that I am going to write!).

There will be more about me on my profile but just thought you might like a feel for my involvement in school governance - I do it because I firmly believe that our kids deserve the best we can offer and that the future lies in their hands so we had better do right by them.