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Genuinely positive relationships between staff and students. Clarity of values for the school and how these are shared and owned by all; students, staff, parents and wider community.

Fantastic staff and fantastic students. Curriculum key to everything, seeing it as a “living” thing that is constantly refined and developed in light of student and staff voice, experience and views.

Kindness, empathy and respect at the heart of everything.

Staff expertise and passion for their subject(s), supported by genuine focus on staff well-being that underpins all decisions for staff.

Parity between support and teaching staff.

Bespoke CPD for staff and the focus on teacher expertise.

Open door policy.

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In order to address issues relating to disadvantage within a rural setting (catchment is 15 miles in any direction), we created an extended day. School finishes at 4.30pm on a Thursday. Every child has to take a personal development activity in that time. The extra-curricular has become part of the curriculum and is fully inclusive. There is a wide range of activities each term (over 40), each activity has to deliver one of the CBI list of skills that employers most often want from school leavers. Student voice is strongly positive- students talk about how it has boosted their self-confidence and helped them in their other subjects and raised their aspirations.

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I’m proud to work somewhere where we want to do the best for the staff, students and parents and think really hard about what are the very best ways to do that for them in a way which is not only guided by external performance measures.

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I am proud that our school represents our community, taking local challenges and areas to celebrate and linking them to the national and global stage which gives our young people the chance to enjoy positive relationships whilst working through a relevant curriculum and giving them the skills to progress, be it home or away

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We have started to explore and share students attitudes and idea to social media and wellbeing. We share their ideas with students, staff and parents - the aim is to generate some useful action in a complex area.

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Continuing to promote a broad, balanced and creative curriculum;

Expanding our alternative curriculum to include forest school for all in Year 7;

Prioritising and investing in pastoral care and support;

Implementing a new whole-school literacy strategy which we hope will begin to seriously tackle disadvantage;

Prioritising extra-curricular, including Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award and Activities Week.

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I am proud of the open and transparent culture we are building amongst staff and pupils ensuring the voice of all is heard and acted upon.

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I am proud of the way all the staff work together (irrespective  of job) work together as a team and paint a wider picture of the student body and help improve it. 

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I am proud of the way all the staff work together (irrespective  of job) work together as a team and paint a wider picture of the student body and help improve it. 

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Whilst enjoying this debate and clear focus on moral purpose and doing the right thing for the young people, we will all be returning to base next week to be faced with an agenda and working towards a judgement framework which has different priorities. Lee spoke of ‘taking our fair share’ and this is something which I suspect everyone in the room would support, but this could push us towards a downturn in performance outcomes given the current measuring system and given our challenges in finance and recruitment, an RI judgement would be a disaster.

And yet, I know it is wrong to think that way and goes against everything that I believe about teaching.

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We are really proud of our professional learning programme in school which started as our PTI Leadership Project. Based on each one teach one it has teaching and learning at the heart. It had been running and developing across a decade. It involves students and governors and outside speakers but depends on sharing good practice from within.

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Our commitment to developing students creativity in the arts KAEP

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I am proud of our whole school strategy to support our persistently disadvantaged students and of the impact of our policy of 4 S’s - Seat, Speak, Support and Smile

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Creating a forest school offer for secondary school students

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I am proud of the determined and relentless approach to improvement

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We have a very strong ‘values’ driven culture at the school that is very much seen as the DNA of the school. Additionally, we have a very strong & tangible cultural diversity with 74% EAL & 54 languages represented & this makes the school have a strong, vibrant & family feel.

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Proud of relationships between staff and students, relentless focus on quality of teaching, commitment of leaders to improve the school, opportunities that are provided on a daily basis, positive culture and the drive to create a better future/

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The warm relationships staff work hard to create between themselves and students KEAP

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I am proud of the way in which our school is developing career and destinations support

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We are proud of our trauma informed practice; how we support students individually, building trust and mutual respect.

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Proud of being genuinely inclusive and giving any student from any background the voice to be heard.

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I’m proud of our relentless mindset of never giving up on anyone.

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Proud that teachers want to be the best they can be and always reflect and challenge themselves

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I am proud of the wealth of enrichment opportunities available to our students; our emerging strategy to bring more disadvantaged students into the grammar school setting- this is very much in the ideas stage but the will is there! I am proud of the character development but want to codify this more clearly.

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I am proud of staff and pupil relationships.

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I am proud of the way we collate student, parent and staff views to inform the leadership team

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Feels like the answer to lots, but I think we do this well through the curriculum. It’s inclusive through accessibility.

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Lots of food for thought. Currently considering how we might introduce a digital portfolio to capture enrichment; oracy etc.

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If instead of a collection of numbers or letters if students left with a holistic profile of knowledge, skills, character etc - how would this be assessed by the next audience - further ed, emoloyers etc?

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Ice cube question! Would just love for us to all discuss this! 

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Ice cube question! Would just love for us to all discuss this! 

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How does the potential ABS fit into this model?

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How does the potential ABS fit into this model?

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Should schools be considering this themselves? Is this something the DfE would do?

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Fascinating discussion re risk taking. - yes or no? Clearly two sides to this and probably even more, but what a fantastic debate to start. We must push boundaries and try new things and accept that these will be dynamic ideas and will need reshaping, and yet we should not be ‘experimenting’ with YP’s one shot at school.

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Interesting thoughts about the critical value & impact of subject & teacher level CPD. I will defiantly review & plan to increase this to secure improved skill & knowledge of curriculum & pedagogy

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The two speakers both emphasised the need for valuable professional development which led to a valuable discussion about quality CPD and empowering middle leaders

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Sharing an article about mindsets of headteachers on flexible working 

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Sharing an article about mindsets of headteachers on flexible working 

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Blogs

With record numbers of teachers quitting the chalkface, embracing flexible working practices is no longer a choice for secondary schools. Neil Renton discusses how his own mindset has evolved

It is 3:30pm and the bell has rung. Like many headteachers across the land, I stand outside the school gate, watching the students set off on their journey home.

Something catches my attention, not a student but a teacher - leaving just after the bell. The learned prejudice kicks in without thinking, as quickly as the students take out their mobile phones at the end of the school day, and I judge.

Why are they leaving? How can they have done all their marking, planning, reports, and contacted parents? Why are they so "uncommitted"?
Changing our mindsets
The process of becoming a headteacher is an interesting one. It takes around 15 to 20 years and in a school like the one I lead, a large comprehensive school in the North of England, there have only been nine headteachers in its 120-year history - rich pickings for values and cultural ideas to be passed on from generation to generation.

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Embracing flexible working at secondary level teacher recruitment working workload teaching schools education

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With record numbers of teachers quitting the chalkface, embracing flexible working practices is no longer a choice for secondary schools. Neil Renton discusses how his own mindset has evolved

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The digital divide is something the wider sector needs to support access to connectivity and digital infrastructure to avoid the disadvantage gap remaining

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I would really like to hear our thought leaders going beyond the short-term. We spend much time labelling a generation rather than what we want for the next generation and lives of future children. Mass education hasn’t been around for very long and I think we should think about the next 100 years and really think for the future. What changes could leaders make now for a future they will not see?

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As we struggle to contain behaviour and specially attendance, what place does the curriculum have in solving this issue? And more so, where does the curriculum build and reach students beyond the classroom.

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Is the complexity of the system also exacerbated by the focus on the wrong things?

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Is the complexity of the system also exacerbated by the focus on the wrong things?

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Can we ever really measure the efficacy and impact as the contextual factors will always create a different result to the application of a method or strategy?

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Interesting content about EEF. Somewhat surprised about the implied ineffectiveness of some studies but resulted in critical thinking. What should the EEF look like in 1/3/5 years?

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Thought provoking response from Pepe about the environment that schools do/don’t have for employees. A participant spoke about a programme/project about schools that are exploring this further. I don’t know anything about this and would be keen to hear more!

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Are schools flexible enough? Pepe Di'lasio says not and challenges how schools can respond to this !

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Are schools flexible enough? Pepe Di'lasio says not and challenges how schools can respond to this !

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Speaker Spotlight: Lee Elliot-Major OBE 

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Speaker Spotlight: Lee Elliot-Major OBE 

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‘For too long teachers have been given the impossible task of single-handedly countering societal divides and levelling the playing field of learning. The evidence shows it hasn’t worked.’

We are delighted that Lee Elliot-Major OBE will be speaking at the The PTI School Leadership Symposium in February 2024.

Read Schools Week review here: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/equity-in-education-levelling-the-playing-field-of-learning-a-practical-guide-for-teachers/