By Russell Plester

WHAT a difference a year has made.

Twelve months ago, I signed up for the Exemplary Leadership Programme and the impact it has had on my school has been staggering.

When the course started, I had no idea what to expect. I admit it was a bit scary at first, particularly how amazingly positive the Americans are, but I was blown away.

Straight away, the course gets you thinking about the clarity of what you are doing in school. It was immediately obvious that what we were learning in the programme was going to have an impact.

Starting small

At our school, Finham Park 2, we started by looking at pupil culture. So, as soon as children returned in March after the lockdown, we had two foci.

The first was pupil culture and, in particular, getting the students to line up in silence. It sounds like a simple thing but we wanted to start small. We called it “Good to Great”.

Once we did that, we focused on ends of lessons because we already had decent starts to lessons.

This approach, and the programme as a whole has given us clarity of goals and purpose.

Before the course, we had zero expectations for students lining up. The students would line up but sometimes it took five minutes, sometimes it took 10 minutes. Unsurprisingly, without any clear expectations from staff or students, the outcome was poor.

So, we first focused on a goal: a target of 100 per cent of students lining up within five minutes of the whistle.

Then, we looked at the purpose. We also talked a lot about why we do what we do, what motivates us. When you are shattered, it really helps to think about the individual students and the impact you can have on them. Every single member of staff bought into it. Everything we do starts with a ‘why’ now.

We told the staff and students what we expected and showed them an exemplar or, as it is called in the course, ‘What a Good One Looks Like’ (WAGOLL). We spoke of the impact of doing it well and the impact of doing it poorly. We went through the procedure in fine detail, so staff knew exactly what they were doing… and this was just for lining up!

Seeing the impact

I was worried it would create more workload for staff and whether the benefits were worth it, but I needn’t have worried.

Within a couple of days, the impact was obvious. Regularly now we have between 90-100 per cent compliance on lining up. Some days it dips below 90 but, before Christmas, the figure was 50 or 60 per cent.

We did something similar with ends of lessons – everyone was dismissing the class in difference ways. Now we are at about 85 per cent success for diagnostic questioning.

Thinking big for next steps

This is just one small example of how the course has made a difference. In truth, our whole strategic framework has changed due to it and the impact has not just been for Finham Park 2. Our MAT, Finham Park Trust, is taking the lead from us in the way that we have taken the lead from this course. Instructional coaching is the focus for this year across the MAT.

There have been six heads in the MAT who have applied for next year’s course. I know that what they will learn will help them improve their school. I’m sure that, if you sign up for cohort 2 this October, you will find the same.

Russell Plester is Headteacher of Finham Park 2 in Coventry