Raising Your Game in Your Subject Area

1. Raising Your Game in Your Subject Area Geoff Barton Head, King Edward VI School, Suffolk Download today’s presentations free @ www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources (Presentation 49)

2. Approach:

3. RHETORIC

4. REALITY

5. 5 PROVOCATIONS

6. The Things that Great Subject Leaders Always Do Despite the Changing Landscape

7. RHETORIC

8. The core purpose of the subject leader Subject leaders provide professional leadership and management for a subject to secure high quality teaching, effective use of resources and improved standards of learning and achievement for all pupils. TDA

9. Key outcomes of subject leadership: • Pupils – Sustained improvement , know purpose of activities, are enthusiastic • Teachers – Have enthusiasm, shared aims/policies, plan/teach appropriately • Parents – Informed of child’s achievements, targets and how to support • Head teachers – Understand needs of subject, make informed decisions • Other adults – Are informed and able to play a supporting role TDA

10. Professional knowledge and understanding • Subject leaders will know/understand … • Subject links with whole school priorities • Statutory requirements for the subject (including assessment) • Characteristics of high quality teaching in the subject • Up to date evidence from research and inspections about the subject • How to use data / other assessment information to set standards • How to develop cross curricular aspects eg ICT, literacy, PSHE, Citizenship TDA

11. Skills and attributes: • Lead and manage people to work to common goals • Solve problems and make decisions • Make points clearly and understand views of others • Plan time effectively and organise self TDA

12. Key areas of subject leadership Strategic direction and development of the subject Analyse relevant information to inform policy, plans, practice Involve staff in establishing plans for the development of subject Monitor progress made against plans and expectations Teaching and learning Ensure curriculum coverage, continuity and progression Ensure teachers are clear about objectives and share these with pupils Guide staff on teaching approaches Ensure information on pupil achievement is used to secure good progress Set expectations for and evaluate pupil achievement and quality of teaching Use evaluations to improve teaching Establish partnership with parents / links with community Leading and managing staff Establish constructive working relationships (with colleagues, pupils) Appraise staff as in school policy Audit staff training needs and lead/arrange training Work with SENCO to match work to pupils’ needs Efficient and effective deployment of staff and resources Advise head teacher on staff/resource needs/deployment Ensure efficient and effective use of resources Create a safe, effective and stimulating learning environment TDA

13. DCSF

14. Recent research has found that: • Middle leaders have a vital role in sustaining and developing all pupils’ learning experiences and achievements and raising standards for all • Senior leader teams need and expect all middle leaders to be engaged in whole-school developments • The most effective schools have leadership that stretches beyond the senior team and includes various levels of leadership within the school DCSF

16. Ofsted has said of subject areas where practice is effective: • there is a systematic approach to the monitoring of teaching and learning and of progress in implementing action plans • departments evaluate regularly and pupil progress data is routinely analysed • there are clear lines of accountability and the structures for performancemanagement are known, understood and implemented • senior leaders support departments with planning, training and observation • analysis of pupils’ performance has improved and targets are set for individual pupils, validated against previous results • underperformance is tackled promptly and rigorously. Ofsted

18. Main Findings: 1 Middle leaders (subject leaders, middle managers, heads of department, curriculum co-ordinators) play a crucial role in developing and maintaining the nature and quality of the pupils’ learning experience, but the ways in which they do this are strongly influenced by the circumstances in which they work.

19. 2.There is a very strong rhetoric of collegiality in how middle leaders describe the culture of their departments or responsibility areas, and the ways they try to discharge their responsibilities. However, this is sometimes more aspired to than real, and it may sometimes be a substitute term for professional autonomy.

20. 3. • Middle leaders tend to show great resistance to the idea of monitoring the quality of their colleagues’ work, especially by observing them in the classroom. • Observation is seen as a challenge to professional norms of equality and privacy, and sometimes as an abrogation of trust. • Subject leaders who managed to introduce some sort of classroom observation procedure did so as a collaborative learning activity for the entire department rather than as a management activity for the subject leader.

21. 4. • Subject leaders’ authority comes not from their position but their competence as teachers and their subject knowledge. • Some primary subject co-ordinators doubted if they had sufficient subject knowledge, which made it difficult for them to monitor colleagues’ work. • However, high professional competence did not appear to carry with it the perceived right to advise other teachers on practice.

22. 5.Subject knowledge provides an important part of professional identity for both subject leaders and their colleagues. This can make the subject department a major barrier to large-scale change.

23. 6.Senior staff expect middle leaders to become involved in the wider whole-school context, but many are reluctant to do so, preferring to see themselves as departmental advocates. This is exacerbated by the tendency of secondary schools, in particular, to operate within hierarchical structures, which also act as a constraint on the degree to which subject leaders can act collegially.

25. The core purpose of the subject leader Subject leaders provide professional leadership and management for a subject to secure high quality teaching, effective use of resources and improved standards of learning and achievement for all pupils. TDA

26. RHETORIC

27. REALITY

28. The Things that Great Subject Leaders Always Do Despite the Changing Landscape

29. 5 PROVOCATIONS

30. Beacon Schools Training Schools Coasting Schools Super Heads Consultant Heads Executive Heads 1 Schools are becoming immune to school improvement London Challenge National Challenge National Strategies Leading Edge Consultants School improvement partners Gaining Ground Leading Light Schools Trust Schools

31. 2 More of the same = more of the same

33. 3 There’s no cavalry

35. 4 Harold Wilson was right

36. 5 To a worm in horseradish the world tastes of horseradish

37. The Things that Great Subject Leaders Always Do Despite the Changing Landscape

38. 5 Words 1 Image

39. Visible

40. Optimistic

41. Work

42. Hungry

43. Resilient

44. 1 image

46. Raising Your Game in Your Subject Area Geoff Barton Head, King Edward VI School, Suffolk Download today’s presentations free @ www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources (Presentation 49)

47. Developing Effective Teaching & Learning Geoff Barton Head, King Edward VI School, Suffolk Download today’s presentations free @ www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources (Presentation 49)

48. An Evaluation Culture

50. Developing a self-evaluation culture Michael Fullan: “20 years in teaching is … Whole-school culture: Some opening assumptions 1 year, repeated 20 times”