Teachers Notebook

I started my new role of Pedagogical Leader in September and my main aim was to create an effective whole school coaching programme.

We already had an instructional coaching programme which had been well received by staff however it still didn’t have the full momentum to make it truly effective. The first 2 years consisted of 4 trained coaches working with staff that had volunteered into the instructional coaching programme. There was a real buzz coming from those who participated which prompted more teachers to sign up. For the third year the coaching team increased to 7 teachers, a mixture of senior leaders and classroom teachers and all staff received a 6 week coaching wave during the academic year. Positives from staff voice included:

This told me that staff valued instructional coaching however there was so much more we could do. Staff suggestions for improvements included:

Collaboration is a key part of why we began to view our coaching programme from a different angle. Our team of instructional coaches in relatively small and so in terms of time for one-to-one all year would be challenging. I believe in the concept of quality of quantity however the previous 6 week model didn’t have the impact on building habitats within a teachers practice therefore progress wasn’t sustained and often soon disappeared. I researched team coaching models and many of the current research on instructional coaching is based upon one-to-one models however I came across an interesting blog post by Teacherhead who explored the direction of team meetings as team coaching. There is no clear evidence that a one-to-one model is the only effective mechanism for instructional coaching however there is evidence that discusses the benefit of collaboration especially within experienced teachers.

We now had 8 trained instructional coaches and the first step of this programme development was to ask staff for their preference of a coach. I was able to honour first and second choices and created teams where all staff were cross-curricular and there were no line managers with their faculty members within these coaching groups. I wanted to ensure that coaching conversations focused on the T&L principles rather than the curriculum content. Groups contained a mixture of experienced and novice teachers and contained 6 members of staff.

Each group was given an academy focus to arch over the group focus: SEND, PP and Stretch & Challenge. This was also to allow us to focus our educational research and to create a purpose for discussions. I created a library of research and during the first meeting staff read this and discussed challenges they were currently experiencing to start a first focus for coaching drop ins. Conversations flowed and I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed these first discussions. The coach of each group organised how drop in’s happened, some coaches observed all teachers in their group, others coordinated paired observations and one group asked staff to record their lessons and share with the coach. The group coach was then asked to create a first group next step based on observations. Yes, this does mean that the next step is not completely focused on each individual however it did enable the coach to use the strengths of some teachers within the group to be able to support a model great practice to others.

What first surprised me was the buzz of professional conversations that occurred within each group each time we met. Very soon teachers were asking each other for advice and support, there were more lesson observations within the first term than there had ever been in previous years. Trust built quickly within coaching groups because teachers felt they shared a common purpose and goal.

Half-way through the academic year we pulled all staff together for a speed-dating collaboration event. Groups with different focus were paired up ‘speed-dating’ style in the hall, prompt question cards were given, and a 3-minute timer was set for conversations. The atmosphere was truly electric, teachers were sharing their pedagogical journey and the only complaint we had was that it was too loud!

For second half of the academic year I found that many groups now began to revisit next steps several times, perfecting their strategies to make it most effective, such as developing scripts and cue for introducing MWB as a thinking planning tool. Time for observations however became a pinch-point. Some staff feel confident to record their lessons, however some still had a sense of trepidation fearing that it would not be confidential. The redeveloped StepLab record app now offers personal control of lessons recordings and I gave training of this app which did help with this barrier. I further want to develop the use of this technology next year.

To finish the year, we pulled staff back together as a whole, groups within each academy focus discussed their journey and discussed successful strategies. Collaboration has been the main driver of this instructional coaching model; trust has been built between staff and an environment has been created to give teachers a safe space to trial and practice new strategies within a reflective environment. I don’t feel like I’ve had this opportunity since I first began my teaching career.

The team coaching model has worked for us as a school, it has broken down the issue of time to embed and practice our next steps, however with the size of the groups, not everyone has felt the same amount of personal growth. So, what do we do next…….. team coaching is staying but next year we will reduce our groups to 3. To prepare for this, I have trained our next cohort of instructional coaches who will lead their group but also promote staff to coach each other with the triad group with the support of the StepLab coaching platform. There are positive working relationships now between teachers from different departments. There is a cohesion with the vision of what T&L have an impact with our students in our context. I’m excited to develop the theme of collaboration further. We now have 13 protected coaching sessions on a 3 week cycle planned within next year CPD calendar to ensure the momentum is there throughout the year and teachers have time to reflect, practice and implement their next step stratergies. If time is a barrier for whole school instructional coaching, teamwork may be the answer.