A Guide to Leading the Implementation of the National Curriculum 2014 Written by Keith Lloyd
Contents Introduction What do we know about successful leadership?...2 Outcomes of research... 3 A framework for change A framework for change... 4 Setting direction and planning for change... 4 Motivating and developing people... 7 Developing structures and systems... 8 The look of success The look of success...10 Further reading...10 Endnotes...10 Acknowledgements About the author After teaching in primary and secondary schools in the UK, Keith held two primary headships in Oxfordshire, followed by local authority advisory work in Derbyshire. He was appointed as one of Her Majesty s Inspectors in 1987 and was head of the primary and independent schools division in Ofsted from 1996 to 2003. Since leaving Ofsted in 2003, Keith has worked as a consultant at CfBT, Capita and the National College. He is currently a consultant with Oxford University Press and the Chester Diocese Academy Trust, specialising in the use of assessment and performance data. Artwork: David Semple; P1 Ratch/Shutterstock; P5 Konstantin Chagin/Shutterstock; P6 Sturti/iStock Extracts from DfES materials are reproduced under the terms of the Open Government Licence. Who is this guide for? This guide is aimed at school leaders at every level, all of whom share responsibility for the successful implementation of the 2014. 1 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Introduction Getting the curriculum right is key to the success of your school. The National Curriculum, through the programmes of study, determines the fundamentals of what should be taught. You also have the scope to range beyond the National Curriculum to create a School Curriculum that reflects the distinctive character of your school. Your ability to get the curriculum right will also be important to Ofsted inspectors, who are expected to consider the extent to which leaders and managers: Provide a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils, enables all pupils to achieve their full educational potential and make progress in their learning, and promotes their good behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. 1 What do we know about successful leadership? A synthesis of evidence collected in both school and non-school contexts, described in Seven Strong Claims About Successful School Leadership (2006), 2 found four broad categories of practices identified as important for leadership success in almost all settings and organisations: Building vision and setting directions: motivating and inspiring, clarifying roles and objectives, and planning and organising. Understanding and developing people: providing individualised support and consideration, fostering intellectual stimulation, and modelling appropriate values and behaviours. Redesigning the organisation: building collaborative cultures, restructuring the organisation, building productive relations with parents and the community, and connecting the school to its wider environment. Managing the teaching and learning programme: staffing the teaching programme, providing teaching support, monitoring school activity and buffering staff against distractions from their work. 2 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Outcomes of research Recent research on the leadership of effective and improving schools in England showed that classroom observation and using data and research are important features of leadership, especially when managing the teaching and learning programme. 3 This research confirmed that there are strong leadership effects on what goes on in schools in terms of school and classroom processes but that leadership effects on pupils outcomes are, as might be anticipated, mostly indirect. The effects operate through the leader s influence on school climate, organisation and staffing and by supporting teachers classroom work, and promoting highquality teaching. 4 This research also outlines the main challenges facing all school leaders including: ensuring consistently good teaching and learning integrating a sound grasp of basic knowledge and skills for pupils within a broad and balanced curriculum managing behaviour and attendance strategically managing resources and the environment building the school as a professional learning community developing partnerships beyond the school to encourage parental support for learning and new learning opportunities. The evidence from Ofsted inspections provides further insight into effective leadership. The chief inspector s Annual Report in 2012 5 identifies four leadership activities that are associated with school improvement: Leaders that improve their school to good or outstanding have moved on from getting systems in place to: leading teaching and learning, identifying and spreading best practice challenging underperformance growing other instructional leaders promoting professional development as an ongoing preoccupation of the whole staff. 3 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
A framework for change Within these sources of evidence about effective leadership are a number of common strands, three of which provide a useful framework for guiding the leadership of the new 2014 in your school: 1. setting direction and planning for change 2. motivating and developing people 3. developing structures and systems. Setting direction and planning for change Step 1: Task 1.1: Agree audit aims Step 1: Task 1.2: Set milestones Step 1: Task 1.4: Find the evidence Being clear about what you want to achieve and how you are going to get there is the foundation of successful change and improvement. So, in the context of introducing the 2014, what are the stages in this process and what should your school be doing in each of them? Stage 1: Gather evidence Setting direction begins with an honest, accurate self-evaluation or audit of the strengths and weaknesses of your current curriculum and its impact on teaching and learning. Headteacher to ensure the involvement of the governing body from the beginning, working with them to clarify how they will contribute to the audit. All staff, working as a team, to devise an audit for each subject and the curriculum as a whole. Ensure that you compare the curriculum as it is currently taught in the school with the new requirements of the 2014 for each subject. Headteacher to allocate responsibility for the auditing of each subject to specific members of staff. Senior Leadership Team to devise a staff questionnaire, focusing on the extent to which the current has helped or hindered the planning and teaching of subjects. about their experience of teaching different subjects and the implications for planning and teaching the new curriculum. Subject and key stage leaders to use assessment data, both internal and external, to measure attainment and progress in English and mathematics, and to identify aspects of the curriculum in each subject where improvement is needed. If staffing allows, headteacher to create a temporary post of champion, who will coordinate the audit. Headteacher to set deadlines for the completion of the subject audit, the staff questionnaire and the production of reports on their outcomes. Senior leaders to use the evidence from lesson observations for professional dialogue with staff 4 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Stage 2: Set out a clear vision Having a clear vision for the new curriculum will help to define your strategic plan and identify the goals that will enable you to put your plans into action. Remember to emphasise the ways in which the new school curriculum goes beyond the requirements of the 2014 to create something which is distinctive and unique to your school. You and your team will need to dedicate time and effort to communicating your vision to the school community. Senior leaders to identify the key messages for the new curriculum that have arisen from the audit and staff questionnaire. Senior leaders to use the key messages to draft a statement of the school s vision for the new curriculum and give staff and governors the opportunity to comment and contribute. Senior leaders to agree a final version of the school s vision and circulate to staff, governors and parents. Step 1: Task 1.6: Share your findings Headteacher to use all channels of communication to ensure that the vision for the new curriculum is shared by the whole school community. Allow time for other leaders to communicate what it means and how it will benefit all pupils. 5 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Stage 3: Draw up a strategic plan A strategic plan for implementing the 2014 needs to be aligned with the school s overall improvement strategy. It should have realistic goals, measurable objectives and an action plan. Senior leaders to translate the vision for the new curriculum into clear goals, with objectives and an action plan that will show how they are going to be achieved. Headteacher to ensure objectives can be translated directly into action and that their impact can be measured in terms of better provision (the curriculum, teaching or assessment) or improved pupil progress and attainment. Headteacher to ensure action plans show how leadership will be shared, saying which members of staff are going to be involved and defining their roles, responsibilities and deadlines. champion or headteacher to create a timeline showing the dates of key deadlines in the run up to September 2014, including how and when the outcomes of the audit and staff questionnaire are to be reported and to whom. Step 2: Task 2.1: Create a strategic action plan Step 2: Task 2.2: Create a subject action plan Step 2: Task 2.3: Lead and manage change Headteacher to delegate responsibility to key members of staff for regular monitoring and evaluation of the progress being made against the timeline and objectives in the action plan. 6 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Motivating and developing people Since the curriculum is fundamental to the work of everyone in your school, involving them in the development of the new curriculum will create a sense of ownership and will also help to promote a culture of continuing professional development. To achieve all of this requires good leadership, and there are important roles for leaders at every level in the school. Where are we now? When introducing initiatives, such as the 2014, start from where people are, as opposed to where you think they are. As always, some teachers will be more confident and in a better position to implement change than others. The staff questionnaire should provide valuable information about teachers concerns and help to ensure that training and support are responsive to individual needs. You will also have valuable information from the monitoring of teaching and performance management to help you assess the school s overall position. Step 2: Task 2.4: Plan for CPD Step 3: Task 3.4: Professional development Step 3: Task 3.5: Use PD videos Step 3: Task 3.6: Access PD events Supporting change There is a wide range of options for building teachers capacity to implement the 2014. These include peer support, coaching, in-service training and sharing best practice. Above all, involving teachers in the process of evaluating the existing curriculum and creating a new one will be a powerful motivator and valuable source of professional development. 7 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Developing structures and systems This third aspect of leadership is concerned with the structures and systems that help you and your team to translate the objectives for the new curriculum into action and ensure reliability in how this is done. Many of these structures will be concerned with schemes of work, short-, mediumand long-term curriculum planning, assessment and pupil tracking. Others will be concerned with defining leadership and management roles, particularly in relation to auditing the existing curriculum and preparing for the implementation of the new one. The importance of structures and systems They help to ensure consistency of practice in teaching from one class to another and coherence in the learning programmes being used. They provide reliability in the approach to pupils behaviour and development. They ensure a common approach to the organisation and use of time. They provide professional guidance for teachers, which helps to ensure compliance with statutory requirements. They provide leaders with the tools to influence, monitor and evaluate the impact of the curriculum on the quality of teaching. They provide the data to measure pupils attainment and progress in each subject. We can divide these structures and systems into two categories: Planning and timetabling. Monitoring and evaluation. Planning and timetabling Planning and timetabling provide the framework that helps teachers to decide what should be taught and when. There are a number of references to planning in Ofsted s School Inspection Handbook. In particular, leaders and managers are judged on how well they ensure that the curriculum is effectively planned and taught. 6 There are important leadership roles here for subject and key stage leaders in the run up to September 2014: Translating the 2014 programmes of study for each subject into schemes of work and helping teachers to interpret them to ensure continuity of teaching between key stages and year groups. Ensuring that the content of schemes of work comply with the requirements of the new for each subject and key stage. Ensuring that schemes of work show teachers how to achieve progression in pupils learning within and between year groups. continued... 8 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Ensuring that there are common planning templates for each subject and key stage and that they are fit for purpose. Collaborating with other leaders to agree a planning policy for each key stage, deciding in particular on required levels of detail in teachers short- and mediumterm planning to avoid excessive workload. Using the change to a new curriculum to assess the use of time for each subject in terms of balance and breadth. Step 3: Task 3.9: Analyse your current schemes of work Using the change to a new curriculum to assess the breadth and balance of the school curriculum as a whole in each key stage. Reassessing the pattern and structure of the school day and its capacity to support delivery of the new curriculum. Monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and evaluation are ongoing activities for leadership at all levels in the school. To be effective they depend on structures and systems that are reliable, fit for purpose and have the confidence of the staff. They are also an important part of inspections, during which Ofsted inspectors are required to consider the robustness of procedures for monitoring the quality of teaching and learning. 7. 8 Systems to support effective monitoring and evaluation by school leaders include: Lesson observation procedures and pro-forma for evaluating the quality of teaching. Management information systems for recording and monitoring pupils progress and attainment across the school, particularly in the core subjects. Performance data on a class-by-class basis to monitor pupils progress and assess the impact of teaching over the year. Clearly defined performance management systems for evaluating staff performance and development needs. A well-defined system for selfevaluation, including arrangements for the collection and analysis of evidence and an appropriate structure for recording outcomes. Systems and structures to ensure the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements. Step 4: Task 4.1: Reflect and evaluate Step 4: Task 4.2: Postinitiative review Annual arrangements for analysing the data in RAISEonline reports to monitor trends, contribute to evaluation of the school s effectiveness at each key stage and identify priorities for improvements. 9 Oxford University Press 2013 Copying permitted within the purchasing school only www.oxfordowl.co.uk
The look of success With very few exceptions, your success with the new curriculum in 2014 should be measured in terms of promoting pupils achievement, behaviour and attitudes. You will also need to include the impact of the new curriculum on the quality of teaching and assessment. There are helpful criteria, in the form of detailed grade descriptors in Ofsted s School Inspection Handbook, to help you with evaluating the quality of teaching. Where teaching is good, for example, one of the grade descriptors states that teachers listen to, carefully observe and skilfully question pupils during lessons in order to reshape tasks and explanations to improve learning. 8 The evidence from your own self-evaluation, much of which can be derived from lesson observation and analysis of pupils work, is of crucial importance in the process of measuring success. This applies not only to the impact of the 2014, but also to those aspects of education in your school that go beyond the to make the school curriculum special and unique. Further reading Higham, R., Hopkins, D. and Matthews, P. (2009) System Leadership in Practice, Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill Education. Ireson, J. and Lloyd, K. (2006) Primary Middle Leaders, Effective practice in action, Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. Endnotes 1 Ofsted (2014) The Framework for School Inspection (120100). London: Ofsted, Crown Copyright 2014.. 2 Leithwood, K., Day, C., Sammons, P., Harris, A. and Hopkins, D. (2006) Seven Strong Claims About Successful School Leadership. Nottingham: DfES/NCSL National College for School Leadership 2006. 3 For example, see: Leithwood, K., Day, C., Sammons, P., Harris, A. and Hopkins, D. (2006) Seven Strong Claims About Successful School Leadership. Nottingham: DfES/NCSL; Day, C. and Sammons, P. (2013) Successful Leadership: A Review Of International Literature. Reading: CfBT. 4 Day, C., Sammons, P., Leithwood, K., Hopkins, D., Gu, Q., Brown, E. with Ahtaridou, E. (2011) School Leadership And Student Outcomes: Building And Sustaining Success. Maidenhead: Open University Press; Sammons, P., Gu, Q., Day, C. and Ko, J. (2011) Exploring The Impact Of School Leadership On Student Outcomes: Results From A Study Of Academically Improved And Effective Schools In England, International Journal of Educational Management, 25 (1) pp. 83 101. 5 Ofsted (2012) The Annual Report of Her Majesty s Chief Inspector of Education, Children s Services and Skills 2011/12, London: Ofsted, Crown Copyright 2012. 6 Ofsted (2014) School Inspection Handbook (120101). London: Ofsted, Crown Copyright 2014. 7 Ofsted (2014) School Inspection Handbook (120101). London: Ofsted, Crown Copyright 2014. 8 Ofsted (2014) School Inspection Handbook (120101). London: Ofsted, Crown Copyright 2014. web www.oxfordprimary.co.uk email primary.enquiries@oup.com tel 01536 452610 fax 01865 313472 1