Sustainable School Improvement Building a System-wide Vision

1. Sustainable School Improvement Building a System-wide Vision David Jackson Melbourne, 2003 “Good ideas come from people with talent working collaboratively together…..”

2. NCSL’s Goal Every child in a well led school; every leader a learner

3. White Paper Themes • Transformation • Innovation • Diversity • Inclusion • Informed Professional Judgement • Knowledge-Creation, Transmission and Utilisation • Practice Informed Policy

4. KNOWLEDGE POOR 1970s Uninformed professional judgement 1980s Uninformed prescription NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT 1990s Informed prescription KNOWLEDGE RICH 2000s Informed professional judgement

5. Challenges for ‘System-ness’ Personalised Education Diverse but collaborative and interdependent Divided and selective Excellence for Some Excellence for All National (or state) standards and targets Comprehensive Standardised Education

6. The Old Way NATIONAL POLICY LEAs SCHOOLS

7. A New Way NATIONAL POLICY LEAs SCHOOLS External Providers Universities and other Consultants Governors Business and Community Groups NETWORKS OF SCHOOLS

8. School Development Networks - some of the challenges • Poor collaborative histories • Divisions within systems &organisations • Traditionalists, resisters and cynics • Dependency cultures • Communication barriers • Isolationism • Lack of clarity about the model • Avoiding ‘mateship’

9. An argument for….. • Learning networks offer a design for school to-school collaboration and system learning • They are a means to build capacity and support innovation at school and system level • They grow out of theoretical, practical and policy contexts that offer fertile ground • They offer a locally owned learning model

10. What Is Known The knowledge from theory, research and practice What We KnowThe knowledge of those involved. What we bring to the table New Knowledge The knowledge that we create together Three Fields of Knowledge

11. An argument for…..(2) • Collaborative professional enquiryis central to creating the conditions for deep learning and professional learning community • ….but education has a long way to go in the field of knowledge management • Network learning models create scope for coherence and context specificity: • for schools within a network • collectively for a network of schools • for the system - networks of networks

12. Professional Learning Communities Culture of Collaborative Practice School model Network model The school as a learning community, collaborating to connect with and reinterpret practice from outside and to reinvent practice within the school Internally collaborative community risking the continuous re-cycling of traditional or low level practice

13. Differences Between Sectors (OECD 2000)

14. Learning Together • “It is one of life’s great ironies: schools are in the business of teaching and learning, yet they are terrible at learning from each other. • If they ever discover how to do this, their future is assured.” • Michael Fullan, “Leading in a Culture of Change”

15. Reasons for Networking • FOR LEARNERS – through our own learning we can enhance pupil learning • To draw from the knowledge of other schools • It can free us from our own contexts • Knowing that there is support takes away the ‘I stand alone’ feeling • To move from dependence to interdependence • We are farming in the same field of learning • We are all teachers and learners. We need to model both learning and teaching by working with other teachers and school South African School Principals

16. A Networked Learning Metaphor Adapted from Madeline Church, 2000, “Participation, Relationships and Dynamic Change”

17. Threads, knots and nets - a network metaphor The triangles represent the members The threads stand for the relationships, the communication and the trust The knots represent what we do together

18. Net-Works - a dynamic for learning • The ‘net’ structure: • is created by, and benefits, members • provides solidarity and tensile strength • is dynamic and flexible • has to be ‘worked’

19. What makes Networks work? • Shared values & aspirations - beliefs • A common focus – purposes that act themselves out in classrooms • Supportive ‘structures’ – facilitative norms and arrangements • Will – the ‘moral purpose’ desire

20. NLCs – a core set of beliefs • Intelligence is not fixed – it can be grown • All children can become successful and energised learners • Educational professional and schools can learn together to deliver what it takes • Making what we know visible and transferable (within & between schools) is not a bad place to start • The knowledge exists to do it!

21. ‘Network Child’ – the Unit Change • Networked Learning Communities involve collaborative change built around a unit of one • One child, in one classroom, within one school, within a network of schools is the unit • What would a Network need to know and to do in order to ensure that every single child can be the most powerful learner that he or she can be?

25. “If we want to develop young people who are participating members of society, we must model that by being collaborating members of the educational community” The Durham Board, Canada - A Networked Learning Community

26. FIVE LEVELS OF LEARNING (Levels of Leadership Influence) • Pupil learning (a pedagogical focus) • Teacher learning (with professional learning communities as the goal) • Leadership learning (at all levels in the school) • Organisational learning • School-to-school learning

27. 3 Non-negotiable Principles • Moral purpose (caring about children in other schools) • Shared leadership (leadership that travels laterally and stretches across more than one site) • Enquiry and the use of evidence (we are not sharing anecdote)

28. ‘Networked Learning Communities are about schools working smarter together rather than harder alone.’

29. Ten Proposals • Align the various partners/agencies around a system vision • Build internal commitment across schools • Identify ‘cultural architects’ for each school • Heads and CAs commit to ongoing learning • Generate new communication strategies – value voice • Create a Network Forum – allow a focus to emerge • Agree some compelling shared aspirations • Establish cross-school ‘study groups’ • Transform existing time into new ‘learning spaces’ • Celebrate and communicate intensively

30. Innovation in Challenging Circumstances

31. Widespread & Diverse • National Spread – 110 • Urban, suburban, rural • Primary, Secondary, Special • Phase specific and Cross - phase • 6-34 schools and whole LEAs • International connections • Independent and state