NPQLBC Building culture and ethos
Practice Activities
Select three of the following nine activities to submit to your leadership mentor.
Choose an activity based on your areas of interest and the results of the initial needs analysis undertaken at the start of the course.
School culture
Activity 1: Creating a shared responsibility for improving behaviour
Task
Read section 6 Consistency is key of the EEF (2019) guidance on improving behaviour in schools, which recommends implementing a whole-school approach to managing behaviour. Leaders of behaviour and culture can create a shared responsibility for improving behaviour and pupil outcomes by developing teachers' understanding of the part they play in creating an effective culture.
Look at the school improvement plan and identify the priorities relating to behaviour and culture. You may find it useful to meet with a senior colleague to discuss these priorities.
Read Recommendation 2 of the EEF (2021) guidance on effective professional development.
Draft a one page plan for a series of professional development activities to improve colleagues' understanding of these priorities, why they were selected as an area of focus and their role in addressing the priorities.
Ensure your planned professional development effectively builds knowledge, motivates staff, develops teaching techniques, and embeds practice by following the guidance in Recommendation 2 of the EEF (2021) guidance on effective professional development.
Submission
Write a 200 word (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resource
EEF (2019) Improving behaviour in schools
(2021) Effective professional development
Activity 2: Develop behaviour management expertise
Read pages 35 to 52 of Bennett's (2017) Creating the culture, which includes guidance on implementing teacher training to develop teacher expertise and maintain an effective culture.
The guidance includes recommended skills and knowledge for development, for example, high expectations and consistency, school routines, school rules etc.
Meet with a senior leader or specialist in behaviour in your school to discuss their approach to developing the behaviour management expertise of their teams.
Share with them what you have learned from Bennet's (2017) guidance report.
Use Bennet's recommendations to help you identify areas requiring further development in your school (for example, school routines, school rules, consequences, sanctions and rewards).
Where can you access expertise in the areas identified (for example, through links with a local university, behaviour hubs, partner schools, professional expertise, commercially produced programme of development)?
Work with your colleague to draft a menu of professional development to improve teachers' knowledge and skills relating to behaviour management and address any gaps in existing provision.
Submission
Write a 200 word (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resource
Bennett, T. (2017) Creating a Culture: How school leaders can optimise behaviour
Activity 3: Protect time for CPD
Task
Leaders need to ensure time is protected for professional development. In her practice piece about contributing to effective professional development, Tessa Miles explained how development time was disaggregated, freeing up INSET days for other activities and allocating time throughout the year, for example, in twilight sessions. This provided time for teachers to observe effective classroom practice and to plan, test and implement new, evidence-informed ideas.
Read page 35 of the EEF (2021) Effective professional development report, 'Time constraints and adapting accordingly'.
Meet with colleagues to discuss the use of professional development time at your school.
Identify a recent professional development programme or activity related to behaviour or culture.How did the design of the PD activity fit in with the school routine?
How were the benefits and relevance of the PD activity or programme communicated to teachers?
What action was taken to balance the desire to promote lasting and meaningful learning with the imperative to minimise the pressure placed on teacher time?
How could the design be adapted to make more productive use of development time?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Tessa Miles, professional learning mentor, St Albans Girls’ School
Education Endowment Foundation (2021) Effective professional development guidance report
Activity 4: Observing classroom practice
Task
As a leader of behaviour you will want to ensure lesson observations are part of a supportive development process which is sensitive to a teacher's workload, well-being and level of confidence.
Coe et al., (2014) suggested separating CPD from the management appraisal process and DarlingHammond et al., (2017) recommended that leaders provided sufficient time and resources for staff to engage in professional development without increasing workload.
Conduct a supportive observation
Identify an appropriate framework or resource for supporting and providing structure to lesson observations in your school. (For example you may choose relevant statements from the Early Career Framework relating to behaviour and culture or use a commercial professional development programme).
Identify an area of focus (for example, use of rewards and sanctions, setting high expectations of behaviour, effective routines, implementing the behaviour policy). Your choice should be informed by school priorities, evidence or data.
Arrange to observe a lesson (You may find it useful to work with a colleagues to co-observe).
Provide the teacher who is being observed with clear guidance on the area of focus and the relevant framework statements or resources to be used to structure the session, ahead of time.
Avoid judgement and criticism by using your chosen framework or resources to help focus your attention and guide discussion after the observation.
Ask clear and intentional questions to facilitate reflection (you might wish to use framework statements or questions provided by your chosen development programme as the basis for these, adapting appropriately for the context and teacher's needs).
Provide actionable feedback and identify opportunities for the teacher to test ideas and practise implementation of new approaches.
Reflect on the observation experience
Ask the observed teacher to reflect on the experience. How do they feel about the process? How supportive was the experience?
What is their opinion of the use of the chosen framework statements or resources for supporting and structuring the conversation? Was this beneficial or limiting?
Do they feel able to act on the feedback?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
DfE (2020) Early career framework reforms
Activity 5: Design effective professional development
Task
Read section 2 of the EEF guidance, Ensure that professional development effectively builds knowledge, motivates, develops techniques, and embeds practice, which recommends the use of 14 mechanisms to ensure professional development creates impact. The mechanisms are summarised on page 29.
Review a recent professional development activity related to behaviour and culture. You may find it useful to discuss this with a leader of professional development.
How were the mechanisms applied in the activity?
How could the use of appropriate mechanisms improve the professional development?
As a leader of behaviour how can you apply these mechanisms appropriately in the design and delivery of CPD to improve classroom practice and behaviour management?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
EEF (2021) Effective professional development guidance report
School culture
Activity 6: Contributing to a culture of high expectations
Task
To contribute to a culture of high expectations you will need to ensure colleagues prioritise and communicate expectations of behaviour and culture. In his practice piece about contributing to a culture of high expectations, Imran explained how he and his team identified 'non-negotiables' which included punctuality, dress code and attendance. Expectations of these aspects of behaviour were continually communicated and enforced.
Read section 3 of Bennett's (2017) Creating the culture, Recommendations for school leaders which includes advice and examples of how leaders can establish, sustain and communicate intended school culture.
Meet with a senior colleague to discuss expectations of behaviour to support the intended school culture.
How would you describe the intended school culture?
Identify the values or key principles which should inform practice in your school.
How are these values and principles communicated to staff and pupils?
Draft your own list of 'non-negotiables. How do these relate to the values and principles identified?
What action can you take as a leader of behaviour and culture to promote a shared understanding of these non-negotiables?
How can you support teachers to communicate and reinforce these expectations of behaviour?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Imran Hamidon, senior assistant headteacher, The Green School for Girls
Bennett, T. (2017) Creating a culture: How school leaders can optimise behaviour
Activity 7: Social and emotional learning (SEL) audit
Task
The evidence underpinning the framework highlighted the benefits of nurturing a community where staff and pupils feel safe, valued and supported to achieve their best. Teachers can contribute to the creation of a supportive culture by promoting effective relationships and well-being through social and emotional learning (SEL) and the explicit teaching of social skills and self-regulation.
Read the EEF (2019) guidance on improving social and emotional learning in primary schools and download the associated SEL self audit tool.
Meet with a colleague to conduct an audit of your school or department using the SEL self audit tool and prompts for discussion.
Make a note of your findings to share with colleagues.
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
EEF (2019) Improve social and emotional learning in primary schools
EEF (2019) SEL self audit tool
Activity 8: Setting short-, medium- and long-term priorities
In his practice piece Andy Mirkovic explained how he supported the creation of a culture of professional learning by engaging staff in the identification of improvement priorities and solutions and ensured teachers understood the relevance of professional development for their own practice. Andy used data and input from staff to identify short-, medium- and long-term priorities.
Meet with two or more teaching colleagues to identify short-, medium- and long-term priorities that will lead to improved outcomes for pupils.
Prioritisation should be informed by pupil data, behaviour records, the school improvement plan and the expertise and experience of teachers.
As a group draft a one page action plan to address these priorities.
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Andy Mirkovic, deputy headteacher at Chessbrook Education Support Centre
Activity 9: Improve mental health and well-being
Key to creating a positive culture and supportive environment is the provision of effective support for staff and pupil wellbeing.
Read the chapter 5 of the DfE's (2021) Promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing and browse through Promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges which recommends a whole-school approach to improving the health and wellbeing of staff and pupils.
Meet with a senior colleague, mental health and wellbeing lead or SENCo to discuss support for staff and pupil mental health and wellbeing in your school.
How are staff supported in relation to their own health and wellbeing?
How are they supported to be able to support pupil wellbeing?
The Staff wellbeing charter (2021) includes resources for supporting mental health and wellbeing. Look at these resources with your colleague. Identify appropriate resources from the list.
How could these resources be shared and implemented in your school?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
DfE (2021) Promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges
DfE (2021) Promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing
DfE (2021) Staff wellbeing charter