School A and School B rarely, if ever exist in the way portrayed. Often we have a School A which has a strict behaviour policy, resulting in many SEND kids either not applying there in the first place, getting pressured to leave, or getting excluded when their behaviour and performance are threatening to lower the school's league table place. These kids then go to School B, where they are accepted for who they are. School A continues to raise its league table place, but more- inclusive School B's league table place falls.
My son can’t focus at all in a noisy environment. Lucky he went to a school with a strict behaviour policy where most lessons were silent…..imagine he had been in noisy classrooms….he would have not focused and probably been labelled with symptoms of ADHD. He has just completed his GCSE’s.
A really valuable contribution to the debate over the last few days, thank you Adam. I've really enjoyed your output this year and have learned so much! I have a provocation for you:
"The frustrating thing is that getting to School A’s level of performance is hard, but it isn’t that hard. A systematic approach to school improvement that uses top performing schools as examples results in gradual year on year improvement."
But it really is that hard no? A somewhat common refrain on X is that we've never had better models of success available and schools such as your own are so open and generous. Would not having School A as a model for School B really be the critical barrier to its success? Or would it be deeply engrained cultural beliefs among students, staff and even leaders in the role of a school and how students learn be a greater challenge to overcome? What we're seeing played out in national policy is not far removed from the challenging conversations being had between teachers within School B, and how they define themselves against School A. Is school about creating memories, and experiences and adaptation to the needs of individual students or do we embrace cognitive similarity and cog sci to build strong universal provision. How do we bridge the gap between the language and beliefs that are used by 'School B thinkers' and 'School A thinkers'?
I think it's a great question. My *personal* experience is that if you have a school like School B, where things are not falling apart but not great either (i.e. not full "turnaround" territory) there are often simple fixes that with a bit of willpower can be done quite fast. The problem is that leaders make poor decisions and invest in the wrong thing, and the entire training and CPD infrastructure we have is almost geared to that. For example, a lot of these schools that I visit immediately invest in things like instructional coaching, and I'm like "um, you don't have anyone that's actually qualified to coach"
i genuinely genuinely believe that the "hardness" involved in getting a -0.5 school to 0 isn't the actual things they need to do. it's finding the people who *know* what those things are
Great analysis. A bit of a typo mix up between the names in the school A and B section which might confuse skim readers. It names Jamie as the pupil at both schools. 🙂
School A and School B rarely, if ever exist in the way portrayed. Often we have a School A which has a strict behaviour policy, resulting in many SEND kids either not applying there in the first place, getting pressured to leave, or getting excluded when their behaviour and performance are threatening to lower the school's league table place. These kids then go to School B, where they are accepted for who they are. School A continues to raise its league table place, but more- inclusive School B's league table place falls.
Last post was way too long ago. Great input!
My son can’t focus at all in a noisy environment. Lucky he went to a school with a strict behaviour policy where most lessons were silent…..imagine he had been in noisy classrooms….he would have not focused and probably been labelled with symptoms of ADHD. He has just completed his GCSE’s.
Environment and expectations truly matter - the kids really need us to create a space where this balance is just right.
What a read! 🙌
A really valuable contribution to the debate over the last few days, thank you Adam. I've really enjoyed your output this year and have learned so much! I have a provocation for you:
"The frustrating thing is that getting to School A’s level of performance is hard, but it isn’t that hard. A systematic approach to school improvement that uses top performing schools as examples results in gradual year on year improvement."
But it really is that hard no? A somewhat common refrain on X is that we've never had better models of success available and schools such as your own are so open and generous. Would not having School A as a model for School B really be the critical barrier to its success? Or would it be deeply engrained cultural beliefs among students, staff and even leaders in the role of a school and how students learn be a greater challenge to overcome? What we're seeing played out in national policy is not far removed from the challenging conversations being had between teachers within School B, and how they define themselves against School A. Is school about creating memories, and experiences and adaptation to the needs of individual students or do we embrace cognitive similarity and cog sci to build strong universal provision. How do we bridge the gap between the language and beliefs that are used by 'School B thinkers' and 'School A thinkers'?
I think it's a great question. My *personal* experience is that if you have a school like School B, where things are not falling apart but not great either (i.e. not full "turnaround" territory) there are often simple fixes that with a bit of willpower can be done quite fast. The problem is that leaders make poor decisions and invest in the wrong thing, and the entire training and CPD infrastructure we have is almost geared to that. For example, a lot of these schools that I visit immediately invest in things like instructional coaching, and I'm like "um, you don't have anyone that's actually qualified to coach"
i genuinely genuinely believe that the "hardness" involved in getting a -0.5 school to 0 isn't the actual things they need to do. it's finding the people who *know* what those things are
Her zaman iyi ve daha iyisi vardır. Her ürünün, hizmetin bir müşterisi de vardır....
Great analysis. A bit of a typo mix up between the names in the school A and B section which might confuse skim readers. It names Jamie as the pupil at both schools. 🙂
lordy lord that's bad. thanks for spotting and pointing out. do you know how many rounds of review this went through and nobody picked it up??
Very easily done I’m sure, when you have so much good stuff to get out.