Appendix 2b
Presentation for members: January 2017
Lynette Jones
Corporate Director of Education
Blaenau Gwent
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Highest performance in BG ever
Highest proportion of schools in top BM quarters (in
top five when ranked)
Highest attendance ever
Lowest NEETs ever
No student left without a qualification (never before
achieved this)
Highest categorisation ever (highest number of greens
and yellows lowest number of amber and reds –ever)
Most schools awarded Good or better by Estyn ever
….build consensus for the principles underpinning the
vision statement for education in Blaenau Gwent:
‘Securing excellent achievement for all learners by
becoming a school-led, self-improving system based on
effective school to school collaboration’
and,
i) to seek your views about the vision statement and core values which
should underpin it
i) to share with you the feedback (including values) from
Headteachers and Chairs of Governors during recent engagement
sessions;
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EAS: At its simplest, it refers to the shift of focus,
resource, energy and accountability from a topdown or centralised system of school
improvement to a system that is led by schools
and practitioners themselves.
EAS led Headteacher meeting March 2016 (relevant
slides provided by Dr. Kevin Palmer EAS)
It is not just a shift of resources and accountability
from the centre to a number of schools – this
would simply be traditional school improvement
relocated to a number of centres
 It is not a derogation of responsibility for the
improvement of schools from the LA/ EAS to
schools or groups of schools
 It is not unmanaged chaos in which strategic and
purposeful improvement give way to ad hoc short
term experiments
EAS definition
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It is collaborative and based on mutual shared
interests and values
It is based on subsidiarity, the principle that
matters ought to be handled by the smallest, least
centralised competent part of the system
It is self-generating inasmuch as all parties in the
system see the value in supporting and
developing it
It is accountable, with accountability being firmly
located in those parts of the system doing the
work
EAS: definition:
 Resources increasingly shift from the centre to the system – from WG/LA/EAS
to schools, so that schools have the time, money and people in place to support
their own improvement and improvement in other schools
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Activities increasingly shift from central locations (WG/LA/EAS) to schools, so
that teachers and leaders work in live educational settings where real teaching,
learning and leadership are happening
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Responsibilities and Accountability increasingly shift from the centre to the
place where improvement is happening, so that schools share accountability for
improvement of other schools
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These things put together form what Donaldson calls in the context of the
curriculum the principle of subsidiarity – the idea that decisions are made
where they need to be made, and responsibility in delegated to the right
place in the system.
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This has been in areas such as the Lead and
Emerging Practitioner Schools Project, the
Outstanding Teacher Programmes in Literacy and
Numeracy, the Excellence in Teaching and Leadership
programmes, the green-school triads and the ‘Wave’
projects in GCSE English, Mathematics, Science and
Welsh.
In 21st Century Learning and the Welsh Baccalaureate
support programme, the massive majority of
development and support work is done by schools and
brokered by EAS.
And you’ll probably know that already in place the
Pioneer Schools for Digital Competence, the New
Deal and Successful Futures.
The ‘givens’ in the system:
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The EAS regional strategy to support and improve school to school
work (S2S) is already in place with more recent focus on cluster
support plans devised by schools in the cluster
The National school categorisation system (green schools S2S)
The national focus in Wales on developing a school-led, self-improving
system (WG Summit Self-improving school system (23/3/17),
supported by:
The successful work of Professor Hargreaves and Mel Ainscow
regarding the self-improving system i.e. London Challenge,
Manchester Challenge, S Wales Challenge CSC
In Professor Donaldson’s review of the curriculum: the principle of
subsidiarity – the idea that decisions are made where they need to
be made, and responsibility in delegated to the right place in the
system.
PLUS – we are on the way up!
Pupil outcomes are improving, but:
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How coordinated and focussed are we in our
approach to S2S work so that outcomes continue to
improve in KS 4 in English and Maths? We have some
excellent practice in BG and certainly practice worth
sharing across the Borough and certainly across our
clusters.
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How resilient to change are our current approaches
to S2S so that improvement continues to improve going
forward?
Analysis of school performance trends over time in Blaenau Gwent
tells us that we need to address the following if we are to create
greater resilience and sustainability in our approaches to improve
outcomes:
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significantly reduce ‘within’ and ‘between’ school variation
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secure good progression and continuity in learning from phase to
phase, key stage to key stage and school to school
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secure high quality teaching and learning for every child, in every
classroom, in every setting
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Addressing these 3 key principles need to underpin the reasons
to work closely with other schools, across the region but also
within clusters
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We want to work with you today to:
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build consensus and agreement in our
overarching vision statement for education in BG we are keen to know your thoughts and the extent
to which you agree with the vision or not
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Help us devise a set of core values which will
guide our behaviours as we work together and
with other schools on this journey
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As a Headteacher/Chair, you become aware that a
school down the road is facing challenges. What
could your options be? What action might you be
minded to take and what could that look like on
the ground?
Round table ‘do-nut’ activity
Feedback
Some behaviours they would engage in:
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Offer to help - would be better brokered by someone else
Maintain high levels of confidentiality – would not talk about schools to
schools
Try to empower and support the colleague
Would maintain the focus on the school experiencing challenges - not
their own
Would invest time to understand the needs of the school including
Governors
Would always be supportive, non judgemental, developmental in
approach
Would try to help secure some quick wins – but would not ‘drop any
system into a school from elsewhere - wholesale.
Have the freedom to choose how they want to collaborate – freedom to
choose
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Professional integrity and trust
Honesty and transparency in approach
Absolute respect
Pursuance of excellence and innovation
…some quotes’ ….
 it helped us build our own capacity,
 sharpened our own practice in order to ensure it was good
enough to share and to steal good ideas from the practice
of other schools (especially those that were currently in
more challenging circumstances)
 the benefit of keeping good staff for longer, especially
senior ones, because of the enhanced experiences they
received, including the ability to 'act upwards' to backfill
capacity when other staff were engaged with other schools.
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Unanimous agreement in the principles of the
vision: school-led, self-improving, school to
school and partners
Builds further on what we are already doing in
our clusters and with other schools elsewhere
Provides us with the freedom to chose with
whom we will work and what we will do to
improve our schools – no pre-determined
map/models
Reinforces the fact that improvement is all about
the pupils and this puts pupils at the centre of all
we do, which is what we want
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Wellbeing needs to be included as does the need to work
with partners – assured that it would be
Scepticism from one Governor that the vision doesn’t go
‘far enough’ and is ‘too open’ and not prescriptive enough
‘too much left to chance’ – in keeping with the vision,
collaboration needs to be school-led, determined by the
school, how it looks on the ground determined by schools
One Headteacher: ‘school-led’ is open to interpretation
and that there is a tension between the words ‘school-led’
and ‘school to school’ – the HT or HTs in the cluster will
determine the approach that best suits their learners’
needs – yes, it is purposefully open to the interpretation of
HTs and groups of HTs -that is what the vision is all
about - empowerment
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Trust
Honesty/ transparency/openness
Respect
Positivity
Commitment
Professionalism
Shared responsibility
Pride
Collective endeavour
Confidence
Empathy
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what extent do you agree with
the principles of the vision? i.e
school-led, self-improving and
school to school working?
 What
on?
set of values would we agree
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Focus on improving whole cluster performance and
support is going to increase (EAS) i.e. in SEWC 15%
of EIG to be ring-fenced for cluster improvement
work/plans.
Focus on the Self- Improving System across Wales is
going to increase (WG SIS March 23rd 2017) – new
grant SIS becoming available
3 key drivers will not change: T and L, progression
and continuity, reducing within and between variation
Support for schools to adopt a more autonomous role
will increase