School Improvement is not a science – more an art form! There are hundreds of good ideas out there and it takes a skilled manager to recognise what will work for a particular school at a particular time. This is the second article written by three assessors of schools that have successfully gained a prestigious Science Mark Award from the National STEM Centre', who want to share our observations about what constitutes excellent practice with the school and college science community and hope to provide inspiration for schools wanting to improve their practice.
As explained in our previous article “Science Mark is a quality standard designed to recognise and celebrate inspiring practice in secondary and FE science departments with silver, gold and platinum levels. We were able to learn about many good ideas and strategies occurring in our schools at all levels. The article aims to provide a spark that will start a department on a journey to improvement.
The Science Mark criteria are divided into three sections: 1 Teaching and Learning, 2 Leadership and Management, and 3 Curriculum. This article discusses section 2 - Leadership and Management. In this article we continue to analyse the strategies that schools have in place and the systems used to implement them to produce cycles of improvement. Departments get better by deciding on new ideas, implementing them, evaluating their impact and then repeating the process again and again.
2 Leadership and Management
2.1 Vision
The best schools devise a vision that is real, well-formed, and filters all the way through, incorporating their vision into staff and department handbooks. Subject specific development plans addresses areas to develop, costed for time and resources. Evidence shows that the vision is living and breathing, and not just a document or a poster on the wall, e.g. the way staff speak when questioned.