All the best
Don Ledingham
SELKIRK HIGH SCHOOL
1998-2000
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Review of 1996 - 1998 Development Plan
During January and February 1998 a review of the 1996 -1998 Development
Plan was undertaken. As a consequence of that review it became apparent
that the development planning process was in need of revision if it was to
meet the needs of all those with a stake in Selkirk High School.
The main concerns expressed in that review were as follows:
7 lack of ownership;
7 too ambitious;
7 unrealistic in terms of funding or development time;
7 departmental development plans completed before school priorities had be
established;
7 a paper exercise with little positive impact upon the school;
7 aspects of the plan were discrete entities rather than being seen as parts
of a coherent whole;
7 not part of a longer term strategy for improving Selkirk High School;
7 lack of clearly defined and measurable criteria for success.
Rationale for 1998 -2000 Development Plan
The 1998 - 2000 Development Plan was devised by a working group composed
of a cross-section of the community with an interest in the welfare of
Selkirk High School. Throughout the planning process there was regular
communication and consultation with staff, parents and pupils. Members of
the planning group were:
Evelyn Bustard Sixth Year pupil
Ian Cooper Principal Teacher of Biology
Alasdair Forsyth Principal Teacher of English
Lillian Henry School Office
Atholl Innes Member of the School Board
Don Ledingham Depute Rector
Margaret McKinney Principal Teacher of Modern Languages
Yvonne McCracken School Adviser
Neil Purves Sixth Year pupil
Robin Ross Teacher of English
Catrina Steenberg Teacher of Modern Studies/History
The Development Planning Group established some guiding principles at the
outset of the planning process. These principles were:
7 all actions identified in the action plan should be connected with
enhancing teaching and learning;
7 to establish three or four well-judged and focused aims which can be
readily recalled and to which all aspect of the development plan can be
related;
7 define activities in ways which are free from jargon and accessible to
staff, parents and pupils;
7 attempt to reinforce the inter-connections between different parts of
the development plan;
7 keep the development plan realistic, in terms of the number of action
points; the cost (time and funding); and the targets which are
established;
7 link overall school plans with departmental plans as part of coherent
longer term strategy; and
7 to be explicit about all actions and reasons for action.
LONG TERM STRATEGY: A Starting Point
The planning group were concerned that the development plan for 1998 -2000
should be part of a longer term strategy in which Selkirk High School
develops. In recognising that there are no quick-fixes in education,
the group propose the following long term strategy for the school which
will shape development plans until 2004 and perhaps beyond.
A suitable starting point for describing the long term strategy for
Selkirk High School might be to describe what we want to create as a
consequence of our actions. Firstly, we recognise that the core activity
of Selkirk High School is to educate children. The professional
responsibility for that education lies with the staff, who work in close
partnership with pupils, parents and other organisations. However, this
long term strategy will focus upon those who follow their vocation in
Selkirk High School and the culture we wish to establish and promote
within the school.
Before describing the culture which we wish to engender in the future, it
is important to reflect upon the past and the present, in order to ensure
that we dont suffer from a "throwing the baby out with the bath water"
syndrome. As part of that review it is important here to recognise that
perceptions are as valid as facts, in that peoples attitudes and
behaviours are influenced by their perception of reality. In reading some
of the following identified strengths and weaknesses of Selkirk High
School it will be necessary to reflect upon that important distinction.
In an exercise led by Stewart Bell, Personnel Manager at Viasystems
(Selkirk), the following were identified as being the key strengths and
weaknesses of Selkirk High School. Additional data was collected by D.
Ledingham (Depute Rector) in a series of interviews with all heads of
department.
Strengths
( pupils
( staff/pupil relationships
( teachers
( sense of community
( commitment to the school
( resources
weaknesses
( team work
( negative attitudes
( lack of direction
( communication
( complacency
( fear of change
Our proposed strategy must therefore attempt to build upon our identified
strengths and address our identified weaknesses.
STRENGTHS
Pupils
As regards the strengths of Selkirk High School it is clear that we are
fortunate with the type of pupil whom we teach. They can be characterised
as being typically well-mannered and well-behaved. They generally respect
their teachers and show a willingness to complete tasks, although perhaps
not highly motivated to initiate work for themselves. In the learning
process they will interact well with teachers but once again can be said
to adopt a passive role in their own learning, with a tendency to expect
their teacher to spoon feed. Pupils care about the school and have a
pride in belonging the community.
Staff/pupil relationships
Pupils enjoy very good relationships with staff. Staff are able to
communicate with pupils an open and friendly manner which makes the
learning atmosphere in the majority of a classes a pleasant and productive
experience. Staff/pupil relationships are certainly enhanced by the
Exodus programme and the range of extra-curricular activities which are
available.
Sense of Community
Good relationships and a sense of belonging extend beyond the staff and
pupils and include non-teaching staff, parents and members of the wider
community who make use the courses and facilities available at the school.
Commitment
The teaching staff at Selkirk High School are very much committed to the
school and the welfare of the pupils. A great deal of work goes into
preparing and marking work to ensure that pupils experience success in
external examinations. There are many innovative and outstanding teachers
in the school who do not get the opportunity to share their expertise with
other teachers.
Resources
There is a recognition that resources have been well managed by the
Rector. The fabric of the building is conducive to high quality education
and innovative means of generating additional funding have ensured that
Selkirk High School is well resourced.
To summarise our strengths, many of which were noted by the Inspectorate
in 1995, Selkirk High School is a place to which people enjoy coming to
work and to learn. It is a comfortable environment, where people can
experience a sense of belonging, both within the school and within the
context of the wider community. Staff have a commitment to the school and
to the pupils in their charge.
WEAKNESSES
Bearing these significant strengths in mind, it is of value to consider
our perceived weaknesses with a view to formulating strategy.
( lack of direction
( team work
( negative attitudes
( complacency
( communication
Lack of Direction
If we take the first of these weaknesses as being a lack of direction. It
is difficult to immediately identify what is meant under this heading.
However, after discussion it became apparent that it was linked to
leadership at Head of Department level and ,more particularly, at Senior
Management level. It would appear that staff would welcome a clearly
articulated vision of the future of the school, by the Senior Management
Team, towards which staff could make contributions/amendments and share
eventual ownership.
There is no doubt that one of the biggest perceived problems has been the
number of Depute Rectors at Selkirk High school in the past ten years.
Each of these individuals has brought their own particular interests and
perspective to their role as development plan co-ordinator. There is now
a clear need to devise a strategy for the school which is not dependant
upon a single individual but which can be sustained by the staff and
supported by the Senior Management Team over a significant period of time,
e.g. 6 - 8 years.
The leadership function of the Senior Management Team must therefore take
on a more active supportive role to enable the agreed development plan to
be achieved. That role will be described in more detail later in this
document in relation to the management behaviours which the senior
management team will endeavour to live up to.
Teamwork
The notion of team work can be a difficult concept to define in terms of
the development of a school. However, teams involve people in working
towards achieving a common goal. The sporting analogy is perhaps the most
common one with which to exemplify our idea of teamwork as any successful
sporting team is composed of people who fulfil different roles and who
have different strengths. The collective strength of the team is greater
than sum of its parts. In schools there are many groups but few real
teams. We would contend that Selkirk High School has many groups but few
teams. If teams could be developed, whereby staff could learn from each
other, share experience and knowledge and generally share that common bond
of working toward a common goal, then Selkirk High School has much to
gain.
Negative Attitudes
Negative attitudes do not suddenly develop. They are often a consequence
of repeated negative experiences. These experiences could take many forms,
i.e. lack of promotion; poorly communicated reasons for decisions which
impinge upon the individual; lack of recognition/praise; lack of support
in discipline matters; lack of control; lack of professional development
opportunities; rate of externally imposed change; increased paper work.
Whatever the reason for individuals developing negative attitudes, there
can be no doubt that a negativity will be damaging to the school but, more
importantly, will be damaging for the individual. The management of the
school must endeavour to eliminate many of the reasons for teachers
feeling negative towards the school. However, if the school is to make
progress teachers themselves must adopt a new outlook towards the
development of the school and themselves. Such a shift in mind will
involve a significant degree of trust between the individual teacher and
the management team.
Complacency
Selkirk High School enjoys a good reputation within its immediate
community. Its examination results are above the national average and a
significant number of our pupils go on to further education. There is a
very low truancy rate and the exclusion rate is one of the lowest in the
Borders. The School Board gives strong support the school and have no
apparent concerns about the quality of education being provided by the
school. The High school Association work closely with the school and
supports a range of events. Our relationships with our primary schools
are excellent and we receive very few complaints from parents about the
quality of teaching or matters relating to the welfare of their children.
Our Exodus programme is renowned throughout the Borders and is the envy of
many other schools.
All in all, it could be said that Selkirk High School does not need a
strategy for change but a strategy for stability. However, that would be
to ignore three key questions for facing any school:
1. Have we reached our optimum potential as a school? (if the answer is no
then we have an obligation to our pupils to find ways of improving).
2. Does Selkirk High School exist within a vacuum? (or are there external
forces and initiatives in force which will place new demands upon
schools?).
3. Have we reached our potential as professional educators? (if not then
we have to find ways in which that development can continue throughout our
careers).
In our deliberations as a planning group we were unanimous that our answer
to each of the above questions was an unequivocal "no".
We therefore have to recognise that although much of what we currently do
is very good, we can improve and that we must change to keep up with many
of the external changes taking place in society.
The "boiled frog syndrome" is a useful analogy to bear in mind when
considering the dangers of complacency. If one places a frog in a pan of
cold water and sets the pan on a slow heat of a cooker, the frog feels
safe and makes no attempt to escape from the pan. As the temperature
increases slowly the frog doesnt notice the change until it is too late
by which time it is unable to escape from the pan. However, if you put a
frog into a pan of boiling water it jumps out immediately. The moral of
the tale being that gradual deterioration of an environment is not
immediately recognised by those who inhabit the environment. We are not
suggesting here that Selkirk High School is a dangerous environment but
that we must guard against complacency or the "heres tae us whas like
us" attitude.
Communication
Concerns about communication within the school have been a major issue of
development over the past eighteen months as a consequence of the
inspection. A range of steps have been taken to improve the quality and
efficacy of communication within the school. However, the perception
still exists that communication is an area in need of improvement,
particularly between senior management and the staff.
LONG TERM STRATEGY: a vision of the future
It is clear that the most important resource in the school are the
teaching staff, for it is the quality of interaction between teachers and
pupils which defines the success of the school. With a total annual salary
bill of nearly #1 million the investment in teaching staff dwarfs any
other budget heading at Selkirk High School. It is therefore the key
responsibility of Senior Management to ensure that staff are effectively
deployed and that the conditions for teaching are as conducive as possible
for consequent pupil learning. Similarly the non-teaching staff play a
vital role in supporting the teacher to practice their professional craft
to greatest effect and management have an important role to play in
ensuring that non-teaching staff support roles are as effective as
possible.
The Senior Management Team have two extreme alternatives open to them in
respect of managing the school. In the first model the Senior Management
Team could operate on the premise that teaching staff basically dont like
their work and that they consequently require a rigid form of management
hierarchy to oversee their work. Without this active intervention by
management, teachers would be passive - even resistant - to whole school
needs. Such a model perceives the school as a machine which is dependant
upon structures and mechanisms for persuading, controlling, monitoring and
checking staff, who, if left to their own devices, would find ways of
avoiding work. This model also perceives the teacher to be someone who
dislikes responsibility, is inherently self-centred and indifferent, or
even antagonistic, to whole school needs.
In the second model, the Senior Management Team believes that teachers
have a professional commitment to their role as a teacher of children and
that they fundamentally enjoy their work. Within such a culture, teachers
are not seen to be passive or resistant to whole school needs (but that
they may have become so because of experience in schools). Teachers are
therefore perceived to have the motivation, the potential for development,
the capacity for assuming responsibility and a desire to support the needs
of the school. In such a culture it is the responsibility of management
to make it possible for teachers to recognise and develop these human
characteristics for themselves. This is a process of creating
opportunities, releasing potential, removing obstacles, encouraging
learning and growth and providing guidance.
The practice at Selkirk High School would, in common with all other
schools, be somewhere on the continuum between these two alternative
approaches to managing the school. Depending on ones personal experience
and role within the school, the actual placing of Selkirk High School on
that continuum may differ.
However, there can be no doubt that the Senior Management Team wish to
promote such a culture within Selkirk High School.
The key strategic statement for the future of Selkirk High School is
therefore:
"It is not a matter of making people become something, it is about
creating an environment where people can learn and grow."
Such a perspective sees the school as being a place in which a culture of
trust, mutual respect, collaboration and professional reflection take
precedence over rigid and mechanistic structures which are designed to
control and monitor behaviour. It is recognised that movement towards
such a culture will be slow and will require some modification of
attitudes by management and staff.
What are we working towards?
If we are successful in creating such a culture we would see Selkirk High
School as being a place where we:
7 recognise that the development of the school depends on the development
of the individual.
7 recognise that learning means changes in behaviour;
7 see learning as a continuous process;
7 provide people with and encouraged them to seek, new experiences from
which they can learn;
7 encourage people to question the schools underlying norms, policies and
procedures - from which the school can learn;
7 encourage people to question their own practice - from which they and
others can learn;
7 promote a high level of personal feedback to aid learning (up, down and
across the school);
7 encourage creativity, innovation and the use of initiative;
7 accept that some mistakes will occur but that we will learn from them;
7 avoid blaming others for problems;
7 encourage people to share their ideas and experience in a spirit of
professional teamwork.
Once again it is important to reinforce that any change in culture must be
done with a clear eye on the bottom-line, i.e. all this should result in
an improvement in pupil learning!
Devising a Strategic Framework
In recognising that the school is a place which inhabited by human beings
,as opposed to machines, we can begin to appreciate the complexity of the
development planning process. For too long development plans have been
devised as if schools were rational places where all the variables can be
controlled and outcomes predicted. Unfortunately schools are very complex
places in which there are a multitude of conflicting pressures and
expectations.
The Development Plan Group would therefore like to promote a more
realistic view of the development planning process which sees change to be
an organic process. This differs from the pseudo-scientific approach which
treats various parts of the plan as discrete entities which can be
sorted. In order to give that organic growth some shape it will be
necessary to identify four key elements which can be used as a supportive
framework for the development of a learning culture.
The first element of the proposed strategic framework is:
SEEING THE INTERCONNECTIONS
The organic approach promotes a view that all the parts of the school
(possible elements of an action plan) are interconnected and that growth
in one part affects and is affected by other parts. If we can begin to
identify these interconnections and understand how change in one part of
the school can have an impact upon another part of the school, then we are
more likely to have a more realistic and permanent impact upon the school,
as opposed to the alternative approach which often results in temporary
and superficial changes.
The second element of the strategic framework is:
PERSONAL GROWTH
As was made clear in the description of the proposed culture we intend to
work towards, a key element is the development of the individual. This
obviously relates to a coherent staff development programme but we would
also like to suggest that it goes far beyond a formalised programme of
staff development activities. As we indicated earlier learning means that
behaviour must change. We would like to focus very much on our behaviour
as teachers (It is important to reinforce that we are not using the word
behaviour here in connection with notions of discipline) and managers. If
we can promote a culture which encourages us all to examine and reflect
upon our behaviour then we can translate that knowledge into new ways of
behaving. We recognise that many of us have developed particular ways of
behaving in schools with which we feel comfortable. However, whilst
change may be threatening in the first instance it has the potential to
allow us to improve our effectiveness as teachers and managers and to make
our lives in school more fulfilling and professionally rewarding.
The third element of the strategic framework is:
A SHARED UNDERSTANDING
Earlier in the description of the alternatives facing the management of
the school we indicated that there existed a continuum from a tightly
controlled culture to an open culture in which people were valued and
trusted. As we suggested, people might have very different perspectives
about where they might place the current culture at Selkirk High School
depending on their experience and role within the school. By promoting a
shared understanding of what the school is and where it is going we hope
to ensure that staff and management are pulling together in the same
direction towards a common goal. An important aspect of promoting a
shared understanding will be the effective identification of
issues/policies/practice in which there is not a shared understanding of
either the present or the future.
The fourth and final element of the strategic framework will be:
TEAM BUILDING
By team building we mean that we will take every opportunity to learn as
teams. These teams may be departments, faculties, groups of teachers with
a common interest or task, management team or non -teaching staff. Team
building is very closely related to the development of a shared
understanding , in that without a shared understanding of where a group
is, and where it is going, there is little likelihood of it ever being
effective. It will be a major responsibility for all team leaders to
attempt to promote a shared understanding and to encourage members of the
team to contribute their particular strengths towards their common goal.
It should be borne in mind that all teams within the school are members of
the larger team which is the school itself. Similarly, the school is part
of a community and local authority and should not attempt to isolate
itself from its wider context in pursuit of its central purpose.
--DLedingham <DLedingham@aol.com>
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