We’ve a tendency to think that the most significant improvements in a school come from whole-school strategies, but (apart from behaviour) I think most improvement is led at the subject level. This is why. clioetcetera.com/2020/03/09/h... - ThreadSky

michaelfordham.bsky.social • 196 days ago

We’ve a tendency to think that the most significant improvements in a school come from whole-school strategies, but (apart from behaviour) I think most improvement is led at the subject level. This is why.

https://clioetcetera.com/2020/03/09/how-useful-are-generic-educational-ideas/

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clairestoneman.bsky.social•195 days ago

📌

missmc.bsky.social•196 days ago

It would stand to reason, given most schools have wide variations between successes of departments. As David Carter always said when writing Leading Academy Trusts, even the worst school will have a brilliant department (and the best will have some they’re not so pleased with!)

rufuswilliam.bsky.social•196 days ago

📌

michaelfordham.bsky.social•196 days ago

Yes!

https://bsky.app/profile/michaelfordham.bsky.social/post/3kztajo2cd223

michaelfordham.bsky.social•196 days ago

I would agree with @stulock.bsky.social’s recent point that unless your behaviour is exceptional, your best whole-school strategy is to focus on behaviour. If SLT drive this, then that frees up your department heads and teachers to focus on improving curriculum, teaching and assessment.

michaelfordham.bsky.social•196 days ago

I’m also reminded of Dylan Wiliam’s regular reminder that the differences within a school are typically greater than the differences between schools.

rufuswilliam.bsky.social•196 days ago

📌

barbarableiman.bsky.social•192 days ago

E🥼👗

headofenglish.bsky.social•196 days ago

100% agree. Impossible to teach well if behaviour is not managed with strong whole school ethos and strategy. Safeguarding and behaviour first & hire great subject teachers and leaders and let them do their jobs without micromanaging.

gfull.bsky.social•190 days ago

Couldn’t agree more Michael. What I love about my current school is the fact that the leadership empowers Faculty leaders to make changes. There is a real sense that you can’t simply impose generic solutions.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•196 days ago

Hm. I like a lot of this, and as a former HoD and subject advocate, I'm obviously biased towards liking it on principle.

I think there are potentially two challenges. First, I think it works for first phase development. When it comes to marginal gains, I think it's a bit harder.

michaelfordham.bsky.social•196 days ago

To my mind the opposite is true. Schools in awful situations often will get a lot better quickly by some generic quick-fix things. But the marginal gains once stable are more likely to come from subject improvements.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•196 days ago

Oh, okay - so I'm probably thinking about a different point or lens on a change management curve, sort of:

1. Whole school focus on culture/expectation - generic
2. Subject drives progress and academic outcome - specialist
3. Academic to scholarship outcomes - comes back to generic/expert not HoD

geodougie.bsky.social•196 days ago

Top-down strategies often result in generic implementation across departments rather than letting subjects leads work out (a) will it even work or (b) how will it work. A contemporary example is live marking - works differently in maths than in Geog simply because of lesson/task structure.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•196 days ago

Or saying "mark every week" because Eng/Ma/Science have five lessons during that time, rather than humanities who have one/two.

michaelfordham.bsky.social•196 days ago

Classic.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•196 days ago

You can make big steps by really getting curriculum, subject pedagogy, focusing inwards as a Department/Faculty on things - but as you make further development, I think it becomes hard to do that exclusively in a subject lens. I think you have to have a landscape/interconnected view at that stage.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•196 days ago

Second, I'm also really mindful that "excellence in X subject" is often really difficult, contested and complex - and even more in translation to a Senior Leader/line manager.

It also assumes - which I'm not sure we can! - the subject and domain expertise of the HoD/team as driver of change.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•196 days ago

In an increasingly challenging ITT recruitment and retention landscape, we are seeing a *lot* of non-specialist teachers across many subjects. Inevitably, we'll have non-specialist HoDs, or faculty leadership in that space.

Perhaps Trust-wide subject leadership helps, but I think this is a risk!

isaacmoore7.bsky.social•195 days ago

📌

louisecass.bsky.social•195 days ago

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emmabreeze.bsky.social•196 days ago

Great blog. I agree completely, and my recent experience working within my last school also supports this - we really focused on empowering our subject leaders to drive their subject in the ways they needed too, and to lead - we tried to ‘buffer’ other distractions where we could.

brynspiration.bsky.social•196 days ago

Great blog, and is particularly hard for me to read as a teacher in Scotland. We did away with subject departments and subject leaders, and moved to a faculty approach.

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