Case Study:
High Storrs School
High Storrs School: Enhancing Practice Through Pedagogical Inquiry
We spoke to Andrew Walton-McBain, Deputy Headteacher at High Storrs School, a member of Minerva Learning Trust, about his school’s innovative approach to people development, and how this has impacted staff. Andrew has responsibilities for target setting, tracking and reporting, continuing professional development, and performance development or appraisal, as it is known in some schools.
Taking a more developmental approach
Andrew reports that, aligned with a trust-wide strategy, there has been shift away from high-stakes appraisal towards a developmental approach:
“Our focus is to help all members of staff, both teaching staff and support staff, improve their skills and knowledge within their roles. We’ve moved away from the term ‘appraisal’, using instead ‘professional development review’ or ‘PDR’ cycle’.
“For teaching staff, our theme for professional development reflects our whole-school teaching and learning focus for the year. This reflects the school action plan which is based on an analysis of issues which have arisen during the previous year. So, for example, this year, our whole-school focus has been on adaptive teaching as we’ve had an increase in the percentage of students with higher SEND needs or with an EHCP.”
High Storrs School uses The National College People Development solution (formerly BlueSky Education) as a single, central hub where all PDR activity is recorded. Andrew recognises that, to change the culture, you have to change the language, and reports that the school has used the platform’s customisation tools to reflect its terminology and processes, enabling it to successfully embed the new approach:
“All of the notes from meetings and the reviews are captured in The National College’s People Development platform. We have also taken advantage of the templates and have changed the language to fit in with our new approach. We use the term ‘ambitions’ instead of ‘objectives’, for example, and ‘desirable outcomes’, rather than ‘KPIs’ or ‘success criteria’.”
Creatively addressing issues
Andrew explains how this new developmental approach works in practice, and the rationale behind it:
“Our PDR cycle comprises a main annual review in September, when staff review their ambitions from the previous academic year and set ambitions for the new year, and also a mid-way review in March.
“For teaching staff, our first ambition comes directly from our cross-curricular ‘Teaching and Learning Groups’. This approach to CPD for teaching staff was introduced and developed by our current Headteacher Dr Claire Tasker. Claire, working with our professional tutor and others, identifies a list of research-led strategies which might help us address our teaching and learning focus for the year. We then run three twilight INSET sessions, spread evenly across the year.
“During the first session, working in cross-curricular groups, members of staff select one or two strategies that they are going to try out, to be discussed and evaluated at subsequent sessions. Each colleague’s ambition for the year takes the form of a research question, for example, ‘How can the use of chunking help me effectively support learners with SEND?’
“Mainscale teachers only have one ambition – their TLG ambition to improve and develop their classroom practice. Our TLR holders have a second ambition, directly related to their area of responsibility. Again, we have moved away from numerical targets, and towards supporting staff to creatively address any issues using research-led strategies. Staff appreciate the fact that there’s been a reduction in workload, as our focus is on significantly improving one or two key areas.”
The school implements the same PDR cycle for support staff, as Andrew explains:
“We also have all our support staff on the platform and use the same PDR system. We use the templates and set ambitions in a similar way, though there isn’t the same overlap of priorities between, for example, the caretakers, data team and admin staff as there is for teaching staff. We ask them to identify one or two ambitions linked directly to their job where they can explore training that might improve their practice.”
Growing, learning and taking risks
High Storrs School has developed a PDR process which focuses less on what staff are meant to achieve, and more on equipping them with the knowledge and skills to get there. There is very much an emphasis on peer support and collaboration, a redefinition of ‘success’, and a liberation from the constraints of target-driven appraisal:
“We want all members of our teaching staff to continue to develop their classroom practice, everyone from the headteacher to our newest ECTs. Regardless of their level of experience, we encourage colleagues to try new strategies and to be creative in their approaches to teaching and classroom practice. We’re also very keen to promote peer observations. So, within each cross-curricular group, colleagues will undertake a peer lesson observation and discuss strategies with their TLG partner.
“We have worked to develop a culture where people want to grow, learn and take risks. Staff are asked to try something new – the approach might not work, but trying something new and learning from the experience is not failing. At High Storrs, to be successful is to have engaged fully with the process and learned new techniques and approaches.
“We don’t want staff to be restricted by the need to hit targets which reduces creativity. One of the issues with targets is that it gives you something to hit, placing limits on performance, whereas we encourage staff to improve the quality of their teaching so that all students reach the highest standards they possibly can. There is more accountability for staff with TLRs with their second ambition, but we don’t impose constraints. There are already more than enough accountability measures for teachers.”
Sharing practice across the school
Of course, with all the inputs from staff, a huge volume of information is stored on the platform during the PDR cycle, ready for evaluation at the end. Andrew explains:
“There are two parts to the TLG process. The first part involves every member of staff keeping a teaching and learning journal, where they log their activity throughout the year – the strategies they’ve tried, the pupils they’re targeting, a screenshot of resources used, lesson observations and discussions.
“In the second part, staff deliver a mid-year presentation to their cross-curricular group in which they report what has worked and what hasn’t. It’s all about sharing practice across the school. Finally, at the end of the year, we all share what we have learned within our TLG groups and our department teams. Those colleagues who have trialled and developed strategies that have been particularly successful are asked to share their strategies to all staff in the final CPD meeting of the year.
“We also undertake one formal subject lesson observation each year (which includes feedback from student voice). These are also recorded on the platform. We’ve created a bespoke lesson observation pro forma which includes a field where the effectiveness of strategies can be recorded. Lesson observation feedback encourages staff to consider what they could do better, how they could evolve their practice, and whether they could benefit from strategies implemented in other lessons.”
Modelling lifelong learning
“We want our teachers to model lifelong learning, we want them to be passionate about learning, we want them to be constantly reviewing, reflecting and improving their practice, rather than relying on the same practices year after year.
“It’s not just about whether staff have achieved their ambition. We also offer staff an opportunity to record any other achievements during the year that they are proud of, such as setting up a club, an excellent set of exam results or finding a strategy to manage a particularly difficult year group.”
All information in one place
Andrew reports that staff and leaders appreciate the value of using the online People Development solution, including having one secure place for all information, and being able to deliver a bespoke and consistent process across the school, and instantly track and report on activity:
“We couldn’t do it without your platform. All information on lesson observations and the PDR are in one place. It gives us the ability to record all this information, and we can make the platform bespoke to our needs. When staff come to their mid-year reviews, the fact that they don’t have to spend time trying to find bits of paper from different sources is highly beneficial. The only thing that might get lost is the password, which I can easily reset.
“The templates available on the platform help us to standardise our processes, and the reports enable us to instantly see which members of staff are working on the same strategy, how many members of staff have engaged and whether or not their strategies were successful.”
Making staff better at their jobs
In summary, Andrew believes that his school is delivering a more effective response to the much-debated issue of staff development, encouraging self-reflection, open dialogue, practical application of theory and a shared commitment to school improvement:
“I believe the High Storrs approach to professional development is the best I’ve come across. And I think staff appreciate the fact that what they are engaged in during INSET Days and through the PDR cycle directly contributes to making them better at their jobs. New staff comment that the way we go about professional development is different to anything they’ve previously experienced. When we talk to colleagues at other schools, they say ‘Wow, that sounds really good!’”
“Our model is about finding out ways staff can develop and make their day-to-day lives easier and more effective and, critically, about making new approaches stick. It’s no good staff watching a video or presentation and letting the information go in one ear and out of the other! Our way changes classroom practice, and the platform is fundamental to that.”