I am currently working in 6 secondary schools, with 3 schools and 1 COL on the horizon. For each of these schools the focus of the work is different;
- leadership of professional learning with a focus on embedding teaching as inquiry and a collaborative culture
- literacy within science
- SOLO taxonomy
- Middle leadership support in Science
- Middle leadership development across the school
- High expectations pedagogy
In each of the schools, there is at least one more facilitator working alongside me. I see this as a very positive thing as it is very easy to get tunnel vision when working by yourself.
I am focussing on being responsive and always try and find out as much as I can to understand the context and issues before working with leaders to determine in more detail what the work might look like. I use school websites, NCEA data, ERO reports, journal applications, annual plans, talk to colleagues who have worked there previously, ask questions and listen to leaders, teachers and support staff, and often observe lessons and gather student voice.
I am wondering, however, whether we should be thinking about a more formalised framework for this work, some form of inquiry process. It would need to be something responsive and flexible which builds in evaluation, to give us direction and a means of reflecting and reporting on our work. In other words something that helps us understand where we are at and where we are heading. I know in some of the 'packaged programmes' that used to be delivered had something like this.
What are other people using to guide your work? How are you evaluating your effectiveness?
