How does our over-resourcing of and English provision/mentoring/support de-prioritise the breadth of curriculum in which all students are more likely to flourish? How do we reconcile this with our allocation of teaching assistants? To what extent do we as a school see test performance as our chief end, as opposed to focusing on becoming a ‘good citizen, parent, employee or team member’? Educating for Hope and Aspiration How do we help our students conceive their future? What kind of future do they have, and how could our school help present a brighter, more ambitious vision, seeing them with God’s eyes? If we see each child as God sees them, what barriers would still remain? How do our teachers practically embody hope at parents’ evenings? How often do we let ‘bad experiences have the last word’ – to what extent do we pigeon hole based on the past? How many times should we forgive? Educating for Community and Living Well Together If our school was known for being a ‘just institution’, how would we know with our use of Pupil Premium funding – what tangible things would be seen? If we drew a pie chart of how much time we give to building character versus improving performance, how might it look? Does your school really believe that these students are of ‘ultimate worth’? I’m not sure you do…could you show me how your actions demonstrate this? Is school the place where your disadvantaged students feel the most loved? Should it be, and if it were, what difference would that make? Educating for Dignity and Respect How did the lesson you taught today demonstrate the dignity with which you see your disadvantaged students? How could you spend the money, if your chief aim was to bring dignity? Do your students ever feel ashamed of failure – if so, how do you reinforce this? School Leaders Exemplar Approach 3: ‘Staff/Students’ Well-being’ Educating for Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills If Good schools ‘foster confidence and delight’, how does your approach to teaching and learning deliberately build pupils’ confidence? Can you see this confidence grow in your lessons? How are you developing pupils’ ‘emotional intelligence’ alongside the pressure to improve their mathematical skills – is developing the confidence to fail the most important element of Maths teaching?
This vision values a broad curriculum – ‘creativity across the whole range of school subjects’ – how does you timetabling and staffing reflect this, and what impact does your curriculum have on pupils’ wellbeing? What impact on staff wellbeing does the pressure to achieve test results have, and what difference could it make to broaden the school’s aims ‘to be a good person, citizen, parent, employee’? Educating for Hope and Aspiration How could the relationships within your staff team help you deal better with ‘the drama of ongoing life’ in terms of the way that you ‘approach the future’? What kind of resources does your school have for ‘healing, repair and renewal’ and what impact does this have on your staff and pupils’ wellbeing? Do you ever let ‘bad experiences have the last word’? How could you embody hope as leaders of learning? Are you a reservoir of hope? What practical steps could you take to improve this? Educating for Community and Living Well Together We are ‘inextricably involved with others, utterly relational’ – to what extent do our relationships contribute positively to our as staff? If our school was known for being a ‘just institution’, what would we actually see in terms of pupils’ wellbeing? To what extent do you see your pupils ‘flourishing together’- what would you like to see more of, and how could you achieve this? Educating for Dignity and Respect How did the lesson you taught today demonstrate the dignity with which you see your pupils? If your are of ‘ultimate worth’ – how do you reflect this in the way you treat one another? School Leaders Exemplar Approach 4: ‘Gender gaps in achievement’ Educating for Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills Good schools ‘foster confidence and delight’ - How does your teaching and learning reflect the different ways that boys’ grow in confidence and in what ways do they learn to experience and embrace failure well? “Boys and girls want to succeed just as much as each other – it’s just that boys want to achieve without trying” – how could your pastoral work develop boys’ ‘emotional intelligence’ more specifically to address this self-awareness? Do you teach boys with ‘imaginative and daring exploration’ and how does your timetabling in the middle years positively discriminate to give them the best chance of keeping pace with faster-maturing girls?
Challenging How do you test and evaluate character at interview? Could a student effectively fail every course, but see their character formed positively through failure? How does character relate to human flourishing and Aristotle’s concepts of ‘eudaimonia’ Questioning/ Debating What impact does a members’ character have on their performance as a teacher/leader? In an individually based assessment system, how do you promote and improve group work? What is the role of suffering in character formation? Emerging How do you invest in your staff character as a leader? How do your lessons students to appreciate their differences? Does character form primarily through difficult or painful experiences? Introductory What kind curriculum time do you give to character formation – is it explicit or implicit? Which matters more to you when you’re marking- character or achievement? Does God value the development of our character over our achievements and failures? What leadership questions should you be asking….? What pedagogical questions should you be asking….? What theological questions should you be asking….? School Leaders Exemplar Approach 2: ‘Removing Disadvantage’
Challenging What leadership decisions are you making that actively reduce staff wellbeing? How could you include wellbeing in your lesson observation practice? How does your Christian foundation help you hold it together when it all goes wrong? Questioning/ Debating How are you replenishing your reservoir of hope and what are you doing to model this to others? What strategies can you develop to help pupils fail well and move forward stronger? How do you foster the spiritual wellbeing of your community? (not just teach them in Acts of Worship) Emerging What pressures do you feel as staff and how could these be better shared? How does your approach affect your marking and feedback policy? What difference it make to see every child and staff member through the eyes of God? Introductory How do you practically demonstrate that you your colleagues? How do you improve pupils’ wellbeing in every lesson? How does your school actively enable all pupils to flourish in their God-given gifts? What leadership questions should you be asking….? What pedagogical questions should you be asking….? What theological questions should you be asking….? School Leaders Exemplar Approach 4: ‘Gender gaps in achievement’
Challenging Do your boys need a completely different (and shorter, chunked) curriculum How do your teachers insist on excellence, not just ‘good enough’? What impact could biblical male role models of failure have on your boys’ conception of God? Questioning/ Debating Do your teachers have strengths with boys/girls teaching and does your timetabling reflect this? How does your marking and feedback enhance boys’ love of competition and fear of failure? To what extent does your worship reflect a more ‘feminine’ way of thinking about God? Emerging Who is pastorally picking up those boys who by age 13 realise they aren’t the best at anything? Why do you teach in mixed-gender classes and could same-sex classes make a difference in any subject? Does boys’ identity/faith develop more quickly through actions than words? Introductory What personal successes can you name/celebrate in each of your boys? What impact does your seating plan policy have on progress of boys? What kind of reflective do we provide through our tutor programme and what impact on boys? What leadership questions should you be asking….? What pedagogical questions should you be asking….? What theological questions should you be asking….? Governors Exemplar Approach 1: Recruitment and development of leaders
Challenging How honest are you about the challenges you are facing as a GB in recruitment? How do you allocate teaching resources to positively discriminate and remove disadvantage? Do you see your prospective leaders as the spiritual directors of the school, and if so, how do you test this? Questioning/ Debating How does your advertising invite people candidates into your community? What mode of Teaching and Learning epitomises your school? How much do you pray about the recruitment process and does discernment play any role? Emerging To what extent do GB members share a clear understanding of what they are looking for in a leader? How important do you think pedagogical skill is to being a great leader? IHow do you understand calling/vocation and how is this unpacked at interview? Introductory What frameworks (e.g. HT Standards, Vision for Education) most help you to define what you’re looking for? How much does a breadth of curriculum matter to you? How interested are you in leaders’ personal journeys of faith and how do you explore this? What leadership questions should you be asking….? What pedagogical questions should you be asking….? What theological questions should you be asking….?
Governors Exemplar Approach 2: Keeping school leaders accountable Challenging How narrow are you in your perception of success measures? Do senior leaders respond to your lead on this? How are you ensuring that CPD resources are and accounted for? How do you balance the pursuit of standards with the potential stress/pressure on and what this says about God? Questioning/ Debating How does you GB demonstrate a genuine shared responsibility for accountability? How rigorous are you in ensuring your teachers are improving in practice? How does seeing each ‘through God’s eyes’ empower your rigour and Emerging How do you invest in key relationships such that when a challenging conversation comes, it is easier? What experience is present on your GB and how could you improve this? How do you deal with staff who feel a difficult conversation is ‘un-Christian’ and un-supportive? Introductory How clear are your lines of accountability, and how consistently are they reinforced? How well do you actually know the quality of teaching in school and how often do you experience it? How do you show love in a challenging conversation? What leadership questions should you be asking….? What pedagogical questions should you be asking….? What theological questions should you be asking….?