2. Why do we need to have such a push on KS3?
In four of the good practice visits carried out during the survey, senior leaders
acknowledged that there had historically been a lack of focus on Key Stage 3 in
their schools. One headteacher explained that, up until recently, all of their focus
had been on Year 11. They were now taking a longer-term view, recognising that
what happens in the early stages of secondary education impacts
significantly on future outcomes.
In another of the visits, the headteacher had changed the philosophy and culture
in his school to have a greater focus on Key Stage 3. He believed this was the
‘bedrock’ of future success, commenting ‘If you get Year 6 to Year 10 right then
Year 11 looks after itself.’
6. The project in action
Started with student voice
Needed to be better prepared
Language of exams
Revision and homework opportunities
Closed books
7. KS3 Ebacc Group
Shared vision: 5 year GCSE
Shared our assessments and began to rewrite them
Overview
Came up with a shared strategy for EOYT
If it looks like GCSE….
Example of one of my slides from SDD- I knew I needed to emphasise the research to get people to ‘buy in’. After this, I created the EBacc group consisting of strong teachers who I knew would help my drive continuous change and shared my vision. They were also ML so wanted a challenge and more of a whole school profile.
I was very interested in the Wasted Years and had been given the opportunity to present on the importance at SDD3. I was frustrated with the ‘plaster’ up of yr 11 every year and was aware that not every dept was teaching to KS3. OFSTED report supported my frustrations. My change in role gave me more scope to bring the issue of KS3 being pushed to the back and allowed it to be tabled at HST and SDT- this led to a discussion about mixed ability teaching. I thought this would have taken a lot longer for this to become a school discussion, it flew!!! Felt like there was real change and momentum. Asked the follow up meeting for staff to bring example of assessment to discuss.
Became ‘the enemy’ I had to become far more self aware and knew I was up against it to get people on side and also, achieve legitimacy in my AHT role.
Clipboard mentality had to go and be replaced by someone who got people on side.
Slow shift in school- ‘where is the evidence’- had never been challenged by my dept for this and knew I had to go in with the evidence on SDD3.
Become more whole school focused-Delivering continuous improvement outside Hums
Nowhere to hide- whole school profile- IE (self aware)
Become more evidence and researched driven (Information seeking)
Hold others to account- learning walks
Morals- my own children Serving others/Analytical thinking-close the gap
Blame mentality had to stop
More grey hair
BAD:Change in role took the emphasis away from me leading it and gave it to a fellow assistant head. I felt very demoralised but continued to meet with the group. I asked him to join and he took the meeting focus over and away. I became really concerned that my project would fail as I didn’t feel I was the natural leader anymore for it. Spoke to Lianne and she told me to speak to Sean. Showed self awareness, problem solving and ability to seek help in solving problems.
GOOD: Ofsted were supporting my comments. Led me to be able to look to the future to start discussions over bringing KS4 content into Yr 9 so we had no wasted time. Massive support from HST and T&L team. S2S also meant I was making links outside TAS and fidnding my own examples of what I wanted to introduce.
Used Roger’s adoption curve- how could I get people on board and the right people to support? Had to find my innovators- Ks3 Ebacc team.
Yr 11 such a focus in the school- I was looking for a collective change that would be measured over time and focused on the Wasted Years.
Moral leadership Burnham: I needed to get mixed ability on the table: impact on PP had been measured and we were predicting no gain: difficult yr 7 coming through with lots of challenges, could we change their culture?
Co-planning
Mixed ability for all teams
Developing Middle Leaders
Hold teachers to account
ETG
Whole staff buy in (book look) could only happen once SDT and HST were on board.
New Middle Leaders to come through and lead on KS3
Assessment to continue to develop and prepare students. Co-planning to identify to SL where coaching needs are required...link in with CPD.
HOW HAVE I CHANGED?
