Consulting

Geese migration routes do not vary, even when members of the flock change. Successful education settings are driven by, and don't deviate from, their core vision and values which underpin all that they do. Are you all flying towards your goal, united together? This commitment to the shared vision ensures you will make it to your destination. 

I can provide consultation and advice on setting and reviewing Vision and Values for the education setting. This drives purpose and should underpin all that happens, shaping any improvement plans.

We have all seen an amazing murmuration of starlings, moving together in the sky as one entity rather than a collection of individuals. In education settings, change comes from within and it is much better to do this intelligently together as a collective response. Without investing time and focus on the development of key responsibilities and expectations, 'seagull management' can occur when those in these roles can become opportunistic, speaking for themselves rather than on behalf of the team, and like seagulls become competitors who won't share. A seagull manager operates with a lack of communication and interaction and can therefore make an already difficult situation worse.

I provide consultation and advice on identifying, creating and establishing job roles and descriptions to build a successful structure with positions of influence and innovation that work supportively together for the good of all pupils / students.

'The single biggest way to impact an organisation is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organisation that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.' John Maxwell, leadership author

Leaders themselves are best placed to identify areas requiring further improvement and to plan key priorities from these as they know their setting. Encouraging input to this from wider staff members will establish a feeling of ownership to motivate and drive development, but achieving such consensus and an agreed set of objectives can prove challenging. Involving an external education improvement partner can support this process.

Consultation and advice I provide on education improvement planning can include:

• establishing an effective cycle of evaluation and improvement
• using available evidence (including a range of information and data)
• efficiently organising, recording and presenting improvement priorities
• creating SMART objectives and key performance indicators 
• incorporating distributive leadership with focused roles and responsibilities
• translating strategic improvement priorities into operational plans

'To me, leadership is not about necessarily being the loudest in the room, but instead being the bridge, or the thing that is missing in the discussion and trying to build a consensus from there.' Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand

Successful education settings recruit, motivate and keep the best educators and leaders by providing opportunities for staff to develop themselves, work with purpose, make an impact and strive for the recognition and praise that they subsequently receive from the setting. Leaders monitor and evaluate other leaders and educators in order to determine this impact on the pupils / students. This is a crucial element of any education setting, but how it is done can itself influence the very impact it is measuring. 

Consultation and advice I provide on monitoring and evaluation can include:

• establishing effective policy and process for monitoring that mirrors the setting's cycle of evaluation and improvement
• distributing responsibility for monitoring, evaluating and reporting
• efficiently organising, recording and presenting monitoring records
• delivering qualitative and constructive feedback
• making links between monitoring, motivation and appraisal
• using the outcomes of monitoring effectively

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.' Maya Angelou

I can work with education settings to design bespoke Education Improvement Partner packages to meet individual needs and budgets.