NPQSL Leading Culture and Ethos
Cycle 2 Practice Activities
Select three of the following nine activities to submit to your leadership coach.
Choose activities 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: Using groups to sustain school’s strategic direction
Rachel Jones’ practice piece in the ‘School culture study pack’ explains how the senior leadership team at Halifax Academy communicate and sustain the school’s strategic direction through groups:
quality of education group, responsible for curriculum achievement
teaching, learning and pedagogy group
student well-being group
student experience group
Reflect on the management structure, division of responsibilities and use of groups in your own school, and how that contributes to establishing and sustaining the school’s strategic direction.
How are groups used in your school to communicate and sustain strategic direction?
How do groups and meetings ensure all aspects of the school’s approach to continuous improvement are aligned to each other and around this strategic direction (for example, through standing agenda items to review progress, allocation of responsibilities)?
What action is needed to support communication of the school’s strategic direction through groups (for example, updated agendas or templates for recording minutes, changes to roles and responsibilities, creation of new groups or changes to group membership)?
How could groups be designed or organised to ensure the school’s strategic direction promotes ambitious standards for pupils more effectively?
Submission
Write a 100-word (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your performance coach.
Resource
Practice piece: Rachel Jones, deputy headteacher at Halifax Academy
Activity 2: Reviewing the implementation of school policies
Meet with one or more colleagues to discuss your school’s approach to supporting the implementation of school policies and securing alignment.
Select one policy for review based on your school’s priorities.
How do leaders monitor the implementation of the policy?
What evidence do you have that it is implemented effectively and consistently?
How are staff and pupils supported to meet the requirements and recommendations outlined in the policy?
What action is needed to reinforce the implementation of policy (for example, professional development and training, modelling by senior leadership, clearer communications)?
Submission
Write a 100-word (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your performance coach for feedback.
Activity 3: Developing trust
Read pages 28 to 29 of Day et al.’s (2020) report, which emphasises the importance of positive relationships and trust between teachers and leaders for schools to be effective and for change to have impact. They identify the leadership behaviours associated with an effective culture of trust as:
building relationships inside and outside the school community
developing and sustaining relationships with staff at all levels, making them feel valued and involved
demonstrating concern for the professional and personal well-being of staff
maintaining a relationship of mutual trust and respect with the senior leadership team
engendering loyalty from parents, staff and pupils
Use the list of leadership behaviours above to help structure a reflection on your daily interactions with colleagues, parents and pupils. You might find it useful to keep a diary for a few days.
What evidence do you have that your actions and behaviours have contributed to a positive school culture?
Referring again to the list, what action could you take to further develop a culture of trust?
Submission
Write a 250-word (maximum) summary of your response and submit to your performance coach.
Resource
Day, C., Sammons, P., & Gorgen, K. (2020) Successful school leadership. Education Development Trust. https://edtlive.b-cdn.net/livenew/media/cvifybqp/successful-school-leadership-2020.pdf
Behaviour
Activity 4: Reinforcing expectations
Read section 5 of ‘Creating a culture: A review of behaviour management in schools’, paying attention to the guidance on reinforcing expectations through sustained professional development, and the case studies illustrating effective practice in holding staff to account for the consistent implementation of school behaviour policies.
Meet with a senior colleague or middle leader at your school to discuss the use of professional development to reinforce expectations of behaviour.
How are expectations of behaviour reinforced in your school (for example, holding staff to account, continuous professional development, standing agenda item in meetings, modelling and reinforcement by senior leadership team, assemblies, communications to parents and pupils)?
How do leaders at your school monitor the impact of activity to reinforce expectations on pupil behaviour and school culture?
What action is required to better support staff in reinforcing behavioural expectations (for example, improvement to monitoring and review, refining the behaviour policy or behaviour management systems, increased support from senior leaders, professional development, additional resources)?
Draft a plan to improve the school’s approach to reinforcing expectations of behaviour.
Submission
Submit your plan, supported by a 100-word justification, to your performance coach.
Resource
Bennett, T. (2017) Creating a culture: A review of behaviour management in schools. DfE.
Activity 5: Teaching learning behaviours and social and emotional learning
Read section two of the EEF guide (2019), ‘Teach learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour’, which makes recommendations for increasing pupil motivation through social and emotional learning.
Meet with an experienced teacher or curriculum leader to discuss your school’s use of social and emotional learning (SEL).
Identify and review two examples of SEL or the explicit teaching of learning behaviours in your school.
What is the evidence of the impact of SEL or the explicit teaching of learning behaviours in your school?
What action is required to increase the impact of SEL and the teaching of learning behaviours?
Draft a plan to develop the use of SEL and the teaching of learning behaviours to improve behaviour.
Submission
Submit your plan, supported by a 100-word justification, to your performance coach.
Resource
EEF (2021) Improving behaviour in schools
Activity 6: Responding to individual pupil needs
Read section 5 of the EEF guidance (2019), ‘Use targeted approaches to meet the needs of individuals in your school’, and the UCL (2020) guidance on the use of behaviour reports.
Meet with a senior colleague or school SENCo to reflect on the support you provide to staff to develop an understanding of individual pupil behaviour, their needs and context, and facilitate a targeted approach.
What systems and processes are in place to ensure staff develop an understanding of individual pupils (for example, pupil profiles, functional behaviour assessments, progress review meetings)?
How do leaders ensure teachers share and act on an understanding of pupil needs appropriately to inform behaviour management?
What tools are used to support behaviour management for pupils with more complex behavioural needs (for example, daily report cards, commercial behaviour management systems)?
How do leaders ensure behaviour management tools are implemented consistently and appropriately across the school?
What actions are required to better support staff understanding of pupil’s individual needs and the use of targeted approaches to behaviour management (professional development, refinement to behaviour management processes or policies, implementation of behaviour management tools or resources)?
Submission
Submit a 100-word summary of the outcome of your meeting to your performance coach.
Resource
EEF (2021) Improving behaviour in schools
Professional development
Activity 7: Leading the design and delivery of effective CPD
Read section 2 of the EEF guidance (2021), ‘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.
Meet with a leader of professional development to review a recent professional development activity that they had planned or delivered.
How were the mechanisms applied in the activity?
How could the use of appropriate mechanisms improve the professional development?
As a senior leader, how can you support leaders of professional development to apply these mechanisms appropriately in the design and delivery of CPD?
Submission
Submit a 100-word summary of your response to your performance coach.
Resource
EEF (2021) Effective professional development: Guidance report
Activity 8: Making time for CPD
The Sutton Trust provides practical tips for freeing up time for professional development:
shorten the school day for pupils every fortnight for dedicated professional development sessions
increase class sizes so that each teacher has more students in each class, but less teaching time, for peer observation and collaboration
appoint a specialist teacher to mentor colleagues and occasionally cover lessons so they are freed up to undertake professional learning activities
replace traditional meetings with dedicated free time for collaboration
Meet with an experienced colleague to review the approaches taken in your school to make time for professional development.
What evidence do you have that the approaches are effective?
What action could you take in your school to increase time for development, collaboration and reflection?
Submission
Submit a 100-word summary of your response to your performance coach.
Resource
Sutton Trust (2015) Developing teachers
Activity 9: Collaboration, expert conversations and peer support
Read pages 9 to 15 of Darling-Hammond et al.’s (2017) report, which highlights the benefits of collaboration, expert conversations and peer support to create impact.
Meet with a senior leader at your school to review approaches to professional development in your school with a focus on collaboration (for example, cross or inter-school projects and practitioner enquiries), expert conversations (mentoring and coaching) and peer support (team-teaching, learning triads).
What action is required to facilitate collaboration between teachers within school and with teachers in other schools (for example, setting expectations, establishing and maintaining partnerships and networks, making time and resources available for inter-school activity, refining professional development policy)?
Identify an example of the effective use of coaching or mentoring in your school. What evidence do you have of its impact on pupil outcomes?
What action is required to improve the quality of expert conversations and impact of coaching and mentoring (for example, the use of observation frameworks, training for mentors, video-based reflections)?
Identify an example of the use of peer support for professional development. How did this help to embed practice and create impact?
What action is required to better support teachers to embed practice and increase impact (for example, establishment of a peer support system, teaching triads, providing time and space for team teaching and reflection)?
Submission
Submit a 100-word summary of your response to your performance coach.
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.