Welcome to our latest newsletter looking at the exciting ways schools engage with Research and Evidence!
This month we are looking at Kingsford Community School, where they have focussed on integrating coaching linked with peer observation into their Professional Development whole school plans (download a print-friendly pdf version here).
Starting Point
Kingsford Community School is a secondary school with 1,476 students. Ofsted have recognised the outstanding leadership that has already moved the school from satisfactory to good, and the school has been awarded The Teacher Effectiveness Program (TEEP) ambassador status. A much higher than average proportion of the students are eligible for pupil premium and well over half speak English as an additional language.
The school knew that the wider evidence highlights the power of coaching linked wih peer observation in developing teaching and learning and so set about integrating these practices into their Professional Development whole school plans. The aim was to use coaching to further embed and deepen colleagues' understanding of TEEP and promote excellent pupil progress over time.
Developing Coaching
Whilst many staff had been introduced to coaching through TEEP, Joanne Mackreth-Aylett (Assistant Head Teacher for Learning and Teaching) wanted to make sure that all staff fully developed their skills and understanding of the coaching process. Joanne and Sen Galagedera (Assistant Head Teacher) worked together on a strategic plan to embed coaching into the Effective Formative Assessment project and commissioned the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE) to run an interactive workshop with 12 "coaching champions". The day focussed on on exploring evidence about why as well as how coaching works alongside practical tools and strategies for the champions to use.
"Teachers are more open to evaluating their own practice. I now have colleagues telling me what they think their next teaching and learning development targets should be."
Sen Galagedera - Assistant Head Teacher
Following the day the plan was to develop peer coaching and observation with all staff. As the school had an opportunity to participate in an Embedding Formative Assessment project it was decided to use this as a focus. The project involved all teachers working in Teaching, Learning Communities and so the plan was to use coaching to structure teachers' contributions to the communities and help colleagues develop key aspects of assessment.
Effective Formative Assessment is a two year professional development project sponsored by the Education Endowment Fund. Learning Community Leaders deliver 18 workshops on effective formative assessment over the two years and use the coaching model to support colleagues with the peer observations in the Teaching, Learning Communities.
Joanne and Sen;
- developed a coaching booklet for all teachers that included key CUREE tools;
- commissioned CUREE to run a whole-school coaching launch; and
- ran sessions with the Learning Community Leaders to plan how to use coaching within their meetings.
Using Coaching
Learning Community Leaders are now facilitating 9 sessions over the year which involve colleagues exploring an aspect of formative assessment such as questioning or marking and feedback. At each session teachers plan a specific way of developing their practice and organise for their coaching partner to oberve them. This may be a 10 minute slot where for example they are using 'exit tickets' (strategies to gauge learners' understanding at the end of lessons). At the next Learning Community meeting the partners take it in turns to coach each other to reflect on the impact of the strategy and to plan next steps.
Learning Community leaders provide on-going support through the Teaching and Learning Communities in getting the most from the paired coaching.
Key Challenges
Of course any development will encounter challenges and colleagues highlighted that the challenges that the initial challenge was explaining the rationale for the structured approach to coaching and observation to all colleagues. Whilst this degree of structure seemed challenging at first, colleagues have come to appreciate it. Careful planning of activities and ongoing support for the Teaching Learning Communities has been crucial.
The school found it valuable to include a live coaching session with a member of the leadership team at the launch and to show a video of their Assistant Head's lesson. This meant that the leaders were able to model and demonstrate how to use the coaching approach and to work as fellow learners.
The Impact so Far
Colleagues have noticed that the coaching process has had a range of positive impacts including:
- More interesting lessons and improved outcomes for pupils.
- Staff have recognised that observation can be used for learning rather than solely being used as an accountability measure.
- A changing culture in which colleagues understand and are keen to further develop effective formative assessment strategies to further enable pupil progress.
- Evidence of colleagues being increasingly reflective on the underpinning rationale for TEEP to ensure that the TEEP framework has a positive impact on the outcomes of pupils.
"Teachers feel braver to try things they wouldn't have tried in the past"
Sarah Monsell - Learning Community Leader
Next Steps
The school is always keen to move forwards and next steps involve:
- Building more opportunities for coaches to work in triads rather than pairs so that one person can observe and help develop the coaching skills.
- Further developing the tools for evaluating the impact of coaching on pupil progress over time.