School based leadership and management of the Research Lesson Study project

1. School based leadership and management of the Research Lesson Study project What have we learned from phase 1? • The project worked best where a member of the school leadership team was identified at the start to oversee the project in school and: • ensured that the project was an integral part of current school priorities; • became personally familiar with the aims, processes and intended outcomes of the project; • ensured that all relevant members of teaching and administrative staff were briefed about the project, the activities to be undertaken by the subject teachers and of implications for timetabling, funding etc; • maintained regular contact with the participating teachers (including becoming involved in observations and feedback discussions); • enabled internal dissemination of learning from the project in order to ensure wider benefit from project participation.

2. What have we learned from phase 1? • In order to avoid obstacles to implementation it is essential that: • budget managers are fully briefed about the funding available and the intended allocation; • cover managers are fully briefed about requirements for teacher release and the budget source; • forward planning takes place to avoid clashes of project implementation with other commitments for teachers (eg overseeing work experience placements, examination responsibilities) • solutions are found for situations where teacher release/lesson cover is difficult (eg examination classes, shortage of suitably qualified cover staff). • Solutions found in Phase 1 included teachers receiving TOIL or being paid for additional hours when project activities carried out in own time.