In this article, I continue my application of the work of Connors and Smith to schools. Essentially, they say that without clearly stating the results that you want to achieve, doing anything to change your culture is pointless. The previous article can be found here.
opinion
Create a Culture of Accountability the Right Way
In many schools, accountability is something that happens to you when something has gone wrong. It creates a culture of fear, a culture that is not based on trust and a culture that wants to avoid being accountable if at all possible. It is a culture that doesn’t work.
Toxicity in Education
When I wrote Trust in Education, I was writing about good leadership, ways that good leaders can build a great culture and empower their staff to be better. This article is about something that is in many ways the polar opposite – the Toxic Triangle, which can exist in all organisations.
Thanks for reading this.
Last night, while strolling back from enjoying an evening at #BrewEdYork, I decided to stop for a bite to eat. While waiting for my food to arrive (two chicken fillets and chips with spicy mayo for those interested in after-alcohol dining experiences), a group of four children entered the dining establishment.
Why are we still talking about workload from marking?
In 2014 the government’s Workload Challenge survey identified the frequency and extent of marking requirements as a key driver of large teacher workloads. The reform of marking policies was the highest workload-related priority for 53% of respondents. More recently, the 2016 report of the Independent Teacher Workload Review Group noted that written marking had become unnecessarily burdensome for teachers and recommended that all marking should be driven by professional judgement and be “meaningful, manageable and motivating”.
Are your school policies a barrier to achieving your vision?
If you are noticing that your staff are looking more stressed, their performance is inconsistent, deadlines are being missed more frequently, parents are complaining more often, staff are asking more questions about “normal” operations or there is a feeling of confusion in a department, then it may be a sign that your policies are not working the way they should be.
Trust in Education
In any successful classroom, relationships between teacher and adult are built on trust. Whether it is the consistency of action in behaviour management or simply doing what you said you would. Trust allows students to take risks without fear of castigation for failure, they trust that their teachers will have their back.
Razing ‘Aspirations’
Ok, I’ll admit it, I have shamelessly pinched this pun from @SchoolsWeek, but it really caught my eye. I imagined teacher’s armed with pitchforks and burning torches burning the “aspirations” monster like the windmill in Frankenstein. My first instinct was to send a teacherly reply suggesting they spellcheck their tweets in future, however, on reading the article which the tweet was linked to, I have decided to salute them for a great “clickbait” headline.
What is the real cost of an underfunded education system?
The lack of funding in schools has been hitting the headlines in the UK recently, although often buried under the Brexit Shambles (B.S. for short). This article is not one where I will be decrying the real-terms fall in education investment by the government — there have been enough of those articles already. Instead, I will be taking a look at what the hidden costs of this are.
Does failing make you a failure?
In a world where education is driven by performance goals the action of failing to achieve a target has resulted in labels being given to children at an early age.
The action of failing at something has become an identity. I failed, therefore, I am a failure.