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Practical steps: How to... tackle variation

Practical steps: how to tackle variation

In a new ldr feature, Heather Ditch and Ray Tarleton take you through a series of practical steps that will help you reduce variation in your school.

You know that somewhere in your school, there’s exceptional work. How do you turn the best into the standard throughout your organisation?

Research gathered from schools practising strategies to reduce in-school variation (ISV) – the variation in performance between departments in the same school – suggests that these strategies have a real impact when focused on five key areas: data collection and use, effectiveness of middle leaders, teaching and learning quality, responding to student voice and standardising procedures.

A new practical guide to tackling this challenge – Reducing in-school variation: making effective practice standard practice – has just been published. It’s the result of a National College and TDA research with secondary schools around the country. With examples taken from that publication, here are the steps you can take to reduce variation in your school.

Before you start...

Be strategic – a data audit will identify key variations, but you won’t be able to address everything at once – know the capacity of your school to manage and sustain change, balance ambition with realism and plan accordingly.

Prioritise some quick wins – support for your programme can be encouraged by proving its power. Address something that evidences how simple adjustments can have a big impact, like standardising procedures.

Ensure buy in – introduce the programme with both enthusiasm and sensitivity. Set it in the context of the national picture to encourage support, and ensure staff get a sense of what’s ‘in it for them’.

"We wanted to raise achievements in core GCSE subjects to match students’ options choices, where we identified a gap of 22 per cent. A staff ‘data day’ where we agreed a shared way of describing student achievements was a great way of cementing a strong start"

Data collection

An effective system for measuring ISV and collecting data is key, giving you an understanding of issues as they evolve. Most important in data analysis is willingness among leaders to share, compare and use data constructively. Remember students too – their understanding of their achievements ensures they can participate in generating statements and making sense of their own performance.

"We tried to envisage data analysis as an x-ray of the school – something that would give us a real insight into why and how we were seeing the variations we had identified"

Middle leaders

Research reveals the middle leaders can have the best impact on ISV when they are focused on addressing student and teacher performance, operating, in effect, as ‘monitors’ of standards across the school. To do this, they’ll need the opportunity, and skills, to effectively analyse, observe and share, offering their best and learning from the best.

Middle leaders also need to ensure consistency in planning, delivering and assessing learning. They could do this through establishing coaching pairs or triads in their subject, allowing them time to plan together and observe each other, effectively disseminating best practice.

"In trial schools, ISV reduction relies heavily on a collaborative culture, with middle leaders acting as a conduit for increased collaborations across the school."

Teaching and learning quality

Creating consistently high quality teaching and learning depends on a school-wide aspiration to improve and the means to make those improvements. Successful ‘lead departments’ can influence others, using non-judgemental peer observations and forums for sharing the best in teaching and learning.

Trial schools also found that reducing the distinction between pastoral and academic responsibilities helped, developing new attainment-focused roles for pastoral staff to encourage a focus on teaching and learning across all school functions.

"We have curriculum team meetings specifically to share classroom practice and that helps identify approaches and technology that can build consistent, high-quality delivery. One teacher introduced the concept of ‘dialogic talk’, which has been adopted by several others, and students are finding those lessons more engaging"

Student voice

Students can provide insights into school variation and the reasons for it – informally, they compare their experiences across the school everyday. It’s worth developing systematic ways to gather this data – showing that the school is listening and responding can be highly motivating to students as well as offering up ways to significantly reduce variation.

"In one school, middle leaders commission trained members of the Student Learning Council to provide subject reports, with a focus on learning. Students describe their perceptions of the learning environment, and what learning ‘looks like’ from their perspective"

Standardising procedures

Data will help to identify the effective practice that you should consider building into school policy and core procedures. The procedures used in lessons can be a highly effective means of ensuring a systematic approach that covers lesson objectives, learning objectives and the assessment of individual progress. Standardising procedures shouldn’t occur to the detriment of creativity or flexibility where these have clear advantages.

"One school collected middle leaders together to design a form for recording lesson observations. That form operates as a ‘bottom line’ expectation across the school, and clearly sets out the criteria for a successful lesson"

Finally...

Remember leadership is all – your programme of ISV reduction can only succeed, be sustained and serve your school well with strong leadership. You have to make change happen... ldr logo full stop

Ray Tarleton is Principal at South Dartmoor Community College.

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