As I write we are in the midst of an ERO review. Having heard from a number of effective school leaders recently about the damaging experience their recent review had been for staff, and particularly their leadership team, I had mentally set aside this column to reflect upon the trauma of education audits. Except that, we are 4 days in and so far, so good . . . So what has happened on both sides to make it go so well? Openness to audit: we gave ERO a genuinely warm welcome and made a conscious decision to open up, instead of covering up. Whilst to me this is a no brainer, their appreciation of our openness was one of the notable comments they made to us in our interim feedback, so it obviously isn’t an approach adopted by all schools. I think it is worth leadership teams deliberately planning how to practically demonstrate openness to the process prior to an ERO visit. Evidence of self-audit: we created a team presentation summarising the key changes we had made and how we had addressed recommendations in our last review. We each presented the aspects we had led and rehearsed to keep it short and snappy! The presentation had links to the key working documents and evidence we had used, none of which had been created with ERO in mind. NCEA results are not the whole picture: Our NCEA results place our school at or above similar schools nationally at every level. As a team we showed how we placed value on the voices of our students and how we ensured that the voice of our community was heard throughout the school. In 2016 our Māori students told us that they chose our school because it is a good school BUT they said, ‘It isn’t easy to be Māori at our school.’ This led to a lot of reflection and our current work on culturally responsive and relational pedagogy. When presenting to ERO we ended with this student voice because it is still our greatest challenge. Incidentally, as I write this the UK school inspectorate Ofsted have announced changes to their evaluation process. Ofsted acknowledged that they have placed too much weight on exam performance. Instead from 2019 there will be more focus on breadth of curriculum, student behaviour and attitudes. ‘Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools, outlined details of the new inspection regime, with the current category of “outcomes for pupils” that includes exam performance to be dropped in Ofsted’s inspection reports. Concentrating on exam performance “has increased the pressure on school leaders, teachers and indirectly on pupils to deliver perfect data above all else,” she said.’1 Sharing evidence of successes and the things we have tried that didn’t work: Like many high schools we have struggled to find ways to effectively track Year 9/10 achievement and identify predictors of NCEA achievement. I shared the KAMAR summary markbook I set up to track priority learners which was a massive
exercise in frustration and wasted time! I shared how it had led us to explore how to adapt ASSAY for use in the junior school. The things that don’t work are often as important to our progress as the things that do. Our HoD of Maths shared priority learner maths data with the ERO team and together they acknowledged that there was clear evidence of acceleration of learning. As a result of the discussion he went away and analysed the data differently to show that acceleration more clearly. Trust in our community: as a team we encouraged ERO to go out and talk to our middle leaders, our Curriculum, Māori Achievement and Wellbeing teams and our students. We trusted our staff to talk about their challenges and the things they are working on them without micromanaging their conversations. In conclusion, unlike other reviews I have been part of, where I have felt that there was a lack of trust and a predisposition to deficit thinking (on both sides), I feel optimistic that we will come away from this experience confident that our own self audit processes are pretty robust. I also feel that we will have a clearer sense of direction and a renewed confidence in the quality of our team. On a lighter note, when I googled self audit during the process of writing this article, I encountered a barrage of tools. Things have certainly moved on since the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – in order to compete these days Stephen would definitely have to come up with more than 7! First up was, ‘The self audit that changed my life’ which seemed to involve writing everything you do daily on sticky notes. Then ‘50 easy steps to make life better’ which made me wonder how easy it could be if it required 50 steps . . . and the intriguingly titled ‘7 strange questions that help you find your life purpose.’ If you are interested the one that gave me most pause for thought was, ‘What is true about you today that would make your 8-year-old self cry?’ I have to conclude my 8 year old self would be horrified at my failure to become a librarian and the overwhelming swathe of black that confronts me when I open my wardrobe – when did I stop loving floral dresses? I have to conclude that whilst there may be a few downsides to a career in teaching (the fact that I have no use for ‘5 ways to creatively use your spare time’ or ‘9 books that helped me to retire at the age of 28’ yes, really!) one of the advantages is that I don’t need 100 sticky notes or 50 easy steps to conclude that my life is purposeful – which is great because who has the time?!
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/oct/11/ofsted-toditch-using-exam-results-as-mark-of-success-amanda-spielman
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