Shifting the focus to quality of teaching and learning
At the heart of what we aimed to achieve at my school, Shevington High School, was increasing student agency – placing students at the centre of their own learning.
I have been the Headteacher at the school since January 2013. It is smaller than average with just under 800 students on role, and Shevington’s greatest assets are the staff and the students. The staff are great; they are collegiate, reflective and always support school strategies to improve outcomes for students. Student attainment was good and in line with national benchmarks but students were not making sufficient progress from their starting points at KS2.
As a school leader my initial strategic intention at the school was to improve exam outcomes and the progress of students in the school. We began by evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum through a series of quality assurance checks such as mapping the curriculum against the National Curriculum programmes of study, analysis of exam results over time and observations of teaching and learning across school.
The key outcome of this wide scale evaluation was the need to make a shift in the culture of the school so that its fundamental focus was on the quality of teaching and student learning. We launched a campaign to do this. A priority was setting the standards and expectations for all teachers.
We created a Shevington lesson plan that aligned with the lesson evaluation documentation. It was a collaborative process of Focused Reviews of Faculties and subjects. All staff within the faculty participated in elements of the review and evaluation activities from work scrutiny to lesson observations etc. It was a truly inclusive process that involved all staff.
Empowering students in their learning
What became apparent through the evaluation process was the number of students across the school that had low aspirations, and lacked resilience, perseverance and determination to meet expected outcomes. From lesson observations it was quite clear that staff were working harder than the students in some of the classes around school. A cluster of students were happy for a grade 4 or 5 rather than the grade 6 or 7 at GCSE that they were more than capable of achieving. We needed to develop student agency and ownership of learning urgently.