Too much to process!

I work in a special measures school.  There I’ve said it!  I’ve said it and it’s out there in the Internet ether forever.  But I’m not ashamed of working here, in fact there are many, many things I’m proud of about my school.  Being in special measures is just one more thing going on that I have to deal with, learn from and get out of as quickly as possible.

Sometimes I feel like there’s too much going on to process and I need to find some clarity in my thinking.  Today, or rather this week, seems to be one of those occasions when I’ve been getting bogged down in the ‘stuff’ going on in and around education and it’s distracting me from what I should be doing (which at the moment is to help resolve our staffing issues so I can complete the timetable!)

All this stuff about coasting schools and enforced academisation has got me in a state and it shouldn’t.  I got an email link to @LeadingLearner’s blog this morning and it made me stop, clarify my thoughts and write a response:

Wow!  This is what I’ve been waiting to hear.

This paragraph for me hits the nail on the head:

 “Our young people deserve nothing best.  The debate is how best to achieve it.  We can keep focussing on structures or shift our gaze to the class room and the process of learning.  One creates froth the other may take us from a system stuck at good to the World Class one we all crave.  I’ll leave it to you to decide which one is which.”

I think it’s time to go back to what we do best and what we joined the profession for – focus on the students, the classroom and being the best teachers we can. 

I’ve wasted too much energy this year on worrying about external forces.  I work in a converter cooperative academy with positive results in all subjects except Maths.  Our English results dipped to just below the national average due to last minute changes and bingo one no notice inspection later we are in special measures.  I’m not saying we aren’t to blame, as a member of SLT I take full responsibility for the position we are in at present, but external forces, recruitment issues, tinkering with grade boundaries, fiances etc. haven’t helped.  The report reads like a car crash of a school, which we are not.  Everyone who visits (and I mean everyone) says ‘this doesn’t seem like a special measures school’.  Which is why ten months on we are all still in a job.  The DfE brokers left us dangling but have not forced a sponsor on us, we have a formal arrangement with a MAT sponsor of our choosing but we’ve not be forced to join them.

So the froth outside our school gates can go on, I intend to focus on the following:

• Student centred leadership
• A strong focus on teacher development
• CPD based on what really works
• Finally really good feedback and take up time for our students to master skills and develop deep understanding rather than how to jump through hoops.

 So @NickyMorgan01 I’m not interested in what you’re saying until you show me some evidence that your meddling will have an impact in a positive way on what really matters to us teachers – our students!

 Thank you for posting something that has finally clarified my thinking.

So this is what I’ve learned today….it’s time to focus on what really matters, doing my best for our students, everything else is just froth!