Not everyone needs an action plan

In a previous post I elaborated on this model for school improvement that conceives of leaders' work at three levels. The question 'What do we do?' is one of several questions that school leaders should think about and have well formed responses to in order to set the long term strategic direction of the school....

Building capacity

Let's imagine a school that experiences a reduction in its leadership team. Maybe a senior leader leaves and for whatever reason cannot be replaced. Maybe a senior leader leaves and there is a time lag before being able to have a replacement in post. Maybe a senior leader needs to pick up more teaching because of teacher availability...

If everything is a priority, nothing is

List the things that you think you'd like your school to be better at. The chances are that if you set aside a good chunk of time to do this, you'll end up with quite a list, some quite broad and some more specific. Here are some of the things that might be categorized as broad: Curriculum...

The anatomy of strategy

This is a worked example of the structure of a school improvement strategy that I'm thinking about. Before we get to the structure, there are some prerequisite concepts that sit behind it that are worth touching on. The first comes from Vivianne Robinson: Designing the future before understanding the present can lead to misdiagnosing the...

School improvement, informally

Formalhaving a conventionally recognised form, structure, or set of rulesInformalnot following a conventional structure or set of rules The level of formality in the leadership of schools is an interesting continuum. On the one hand, leaders need to establish systems, structures and rules of thumb to ensure the smooth running of the school. On the other hand,...