Written by Dan Roberts FCCT, CTeach (Leadership)

Who are you?

Having graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2006, I went on to complete my Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Secondary Geography) and my Master of Education (Researching Practice) from the University of Cambridge as well. I am passionate about professional learning and development, and in recent years I have successfully completed my National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and have become a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. I am also a British Schools Overseas (BSO) Inspector, support schools across the world to gain BSO accreditation.

What did you learn about yourself from the experience of gaining Chartered Teacher (Leadership) status?

There are many things I learnt about myself as I worked towards achieving Chartered Teacher (Leadership) status. In particular, I am proud of how I used feedback on my assessment tasks to improve my own knowledge, understanding and leadership skills. For example, the feedback I had from the written educational debate task (part of the Certificate in Evidence Informed Practice) highlighted the need to show how I can apply my own knowledge and understanding of a broad evidence base to the context I am working in. I personally found this feedback extremely valuable and it led me to challenge my own approaches of how I critically engage with research when making decisions within my own schools context as well as how I communicate this to my colleagues. 

In turn, these reflections led me back to really thinking about what successful school leadership looks like and I took the opportunity to revisit the work of Day et al (2020), which reminded me that the most successful school leaders are ‘flexible rather than dogmatic in their thinking within a system of core values’ (Day et al, 2020) – after all, there are no guarantees about what works in education, but using research evidence alongside my own experience allows me to make ‘best bets’ on what might work in my current context. 

What were some of the challenges?

Ensuring you are strict with yourself about committing time each week to your own professional development is important. Like all teachers and school leaders, I am acutely aware that there is always something more I can do for my school community! However, part of improving the school is also about upskilling your own knowledge and understanding – particularly around evidence-informed approaches to education. Therefore, being strict with your own diary and time management to ensure you block out a period of time each week to focus on your own professional learning & development is really important. 

While it may appear daunting to some, I also feel the length of time it takes to complete the different units of the Award is also important. Afterall, we know that a programme needs to last at least two terms or longer is considered to be effective in leading to change (Cordingley et al., 2015). While the commitment needed to keep going can be challenging at times, it is certainly worth the effort in the long run.

How did the assessments support your school development and help you gain a better understanding of your own context?

Like many schools, we have historically run a coaching & mentoring programme in my school. However, my critical engagement with research evidence led me to re-launching this as ‘Instructional Coaching’, which has been claimed is one of the most effective approaches to teacher professional development (Sims, 2019). As Papay & Kraft (2017) indicate, it is an approach that provides individualised, intensive, sustained, context-specific and focused professional development for teachers and, for these reasons, it is likely to be more effective than a one-size fits all approach (Sims, 2019) and has the potential to meet the requirements for high-quality professional development as outlined by the Department for Education (2016).

Central to this was the way I sought to develop the relationship of mutual trust and respect with the colleagues I work with, as I acknowledge that for more experienced teachers/leaders, the evidence base suggests that instructional coaching is less effective. Using what Goodrich (2021) describes as a ‘problem-based approach’ was certainly something I tried to embed in my own instructional coaching of my experienced Middle and Senior Leaders.

What did you learn about your own leadership and what are you most proud of?

I have found myself reflecting on the value that this course has made to my own leadership. Unlike my National Professional Qualification for Headship – where I felt we were encouraged to accept the evidence presented to us – I have relished the opportunity to critically engage with research and really reflect on how it can be best applied in my context. Without hesitation, I would say this has improved my evidence informed decision-making as a leader and has been some of the best professional learning I have undertaken in my career.

Ultimately, I am proud of the impact the journey towards Chartered Status (Leadership) has had on my own professional practice, which I also believe has had a positive impact on my colleagues in my school as well. Being able to celebrate gaining Chartered Status with my family on ‘Graduation Day’ was also a proud moment and gave me an opportunity to reflect on the achievements I have had throughout the course.

Any final reflections?

As Dylan Wiliam famously said, every teacher (or in my case, leader!) ‘needs to improve, not because they are not good enough but because they can be even better’ (William, 2012). With this in mind, I have already begun to focus on my next professional development journey. As I write this blog, I have just started my National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership and I intend on being much more critically engaged with the evidence base than I was in my NPQH study.

References

• Cordingley, P., Higgins, S., Greany, T., Buckler, N., Coles-Jordan, D., Crisp, B., Saunders, L. and Coe, R. (2015) Developing great teaching: lessons from the international reviews into effective professional development. Teacher Development Trust. Available at: https://tdtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DGT-Full-report.pdf (Last accessed: Tuesday 17^th December 2024).

• Day, C., Sammons, P. and Gorgen, K. (2020). Successful School Leadership. Education Development Trust. Available at: https://edtlive.b-cdn.net/live/media/cvifybqp/successful-school-leadership-2020.pdf (Last accessed: Tuesday 17^th December 2024).

• Department for Education (2016). Standard for teachers’ professional development. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-for-teachers-professional-development (Last accessed: Tuesday 17^th December 2024).

• Goodrich, J. (2021). How Can We Make Coaching Work For Both Novices And Experts? – Steplab.co [Online]. Available at: https://steplab.co/resources/post/BPre9-a7/How-can-we-tailor-our-instructional-coaching-approach-for-both-novices-and-experts (Last accessed: Tuesday 17^th December 2024).

• Papay, J.P., & Kraft, M.K. (2017). Developing Workplaces Where Teachers Stay, Improve, and Succeed. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338411702_Developing_Workplaces_Where_Teachers_Stay_Improve_and_Succeed (Last accessed: Tuesday 17^th December 2024).

• Sims, S. (2019). Four reasons instructional coaching is currently the best-evidenced form of CPD. Sam Sims Quantitative Education Research. Available at: https://samsims.education/2019/02/19/247/ (Last accessed: Tuesday 17^th December 2024).

• Wiliam, D. (2012) How do we prepare our students for a world we cannot possibly imagine? Keynote speech at SSAT National Conference, AAC Liverpool, UK, 4–5 December 2012.