Cut the Crap about School Improvement

“Give me great teachers and I will give you a great school”. That was said by someone that no one has heard of, apart from me. The speaker’s lack of fame does not lessen the truth of the statement. The government’s attempts to raise standards in our schools is flawed because teachers are not only ignored but they are snowed under with rubbish that gets in their way.

In the turmoil of inventive innovation, aka, ‘move every fourth deckchair’, driven by ideological and political cant, it is too easy to forget that real improvement depends on what happens at the front line.

Without attention to the queen the beehive dies, without a skilled driver the F1 racing team is a bunch of noisy petrol heads, without a quality surgeon the operating theatre is a sterile place full of gowned people looking at a dying body.

Teachers are swamped in their classrooms by the influx of accountants, bureaucrats, inspectors, consultants, managers, mentors, moderators, monitors, top spot hot shots, reformers, curriculum architects, gyrating strategists, leadership gurus, business partners, guest heads and gobshites.

The issue is further confused when people, who don’t know better, use language like ‘compelling’, ‘making’, ‘driving up’ while tinkering with structures, tests and measures. Their out-dated management speak is their only weapon because they do not understand teaching, learning and how to bring the two together in the most imaginative and creative way possible for the benefit of the learners and the teachers.

Politicians do not qualify as shapers of school improvement just because they once went to school. To have a voice, improvement leaders must have lived and moved in places of learning, proved their worth over years, demonstrated they are exemplars of what they preach. Then they are entitled to sit at the top table and discuss ways of going forward.

Headteachers who have done all these things and have proven track records are best placed to manage the changes required if generations of children are to find the entitlement they deserve. They know the value of the classroom teacher and understand the need to keep out the intruders who are as useful as a bull in a china shop.

Any attempt to improve standards must first attend to the classroom teacher, then we can argue over structures and organisations and debate the benefits of school as stand-alone units, two tiered, three tiered, all through schools or if they are to be grouped in academies, partnerships, or in local authorities.

Two fundamental principles should guide any attempt at improvement.

Number One: The point of contact with pupils where teaching creates and perpetuates learning is the most fundamental and supreme activity in the school and is the only activity worth pursuing.

Number Two: Any activity or person other than those engaged in teaching learning is subsidiary to and exists only to serve that primary purpose. Any person or any activity that does not serve that purpose in a singular way is irrelevant, wasteful and an obstacle that should be removed.

Structures, procedures, policies, practices and personnel are lined up and allowable with only one purpose in mind – supporting the supremacy and delivery of teaching and learning. That purpose justifies the exploration of every nook and cranny in order to winkle out those parasitical activities and persons draining the energy and weakening the activities of teachers.

Give quality headteachers all the power they need to get on with establishing the priority of teaching learning and removing any obstacles to it. Leave no room for cant or political and theoretical meanderings. Be preoccupied with making our teachers the best they can be to provide the most outstanding learning imaginable.

Will schools look different? They should do, even if it is only by ridding them of all the rubbish that has been dumped on them for years.

Will the change be easy? No. Pursue change using the two principles and you will open new possibilities, challenge orthodoxy, debunk unquestioned assumptions and refuse to think as you have always thought. That will lead to root and branch change.

Take the challenge: examine any activity in your school and in evaluating it do not waste time asking - why do we do that. Instead ask – in what way does it contribute to teaching and learning? For example, all staff and pupils start the school day at the same time. How does that contribute to effective teaching and learning? Now work through the consequences of that simple question and see where it leads you.

Will there be a single formula for what makes school successful? No. Each one is unique.

Successful schools will have in common an emphasis on teaching learning to the highest expectation. Let teachers get on with doing that and we will have all the improvement we need.