Raising standards of teaching and learning

Case study

Coaching enabled Bedford Education Action Zone (EAZ) to improve standards in two of its schools, including one which was in special measures.

Summary

Bedford Education Action Zone used coaching to help move one school out of special measures and ensure another school got a satisfactory Ofsted report.

Key learning/outcomes

Coaching helped the headteacher and staff at the school in special measures to feel supported by their EAZ colleagues in a non-threatening way.
In a subsequent Ofsted visit, the school in special measures was found to be making good progress and the headteacher cited mentoring as one of the key reasons for this.
Coaching helped the ‘at risk’ school to achieve a ‘satisfactory with good features’ grading in its November 2004 Ofsted report.

Background

The Bedford Education Action Zone (EAZ) was created in 2000. In 2005 the EAZ evolved into the Bedford Excellence Cluster and then under local authority reorganisation it became the Bedford Learning Community, comprising 22 schools – 2 upper, 5 middle and 13 lower, plus a special school and a nursery school.

In 2003 one of the middle schools in the EAZ was placed into special measures and the following year, a group of senior leaders from across the community of schools began to mentor and coach individual teachers within that school who were seen as being at risk of continued underperformance. In September 2004 it became clear that a second middle school was at serious risk of going into special measures if it were to be inspected. When an Ofsted inspection was announced, the EAZ decided to take a more systematic approach and establish a cross-school coaching team.

Key challenges and issues

Improving classroom practice

The school in special measures needed to make significant improvements in classroom practice. One-to-one coaching within the classroom context was seen as the key way of achieving this.

Avoiding special measures

The EAZ recognised that in order to avoid special measures, a second middle school also needed to achieve significant improvements in teaching and learning practice.

Solution or approach

Coaching within the classroom context

For the school in special measures, coaching took place at the point of professional practice - within the classroom. Coaching took place over a sustained period of time in order to bring about lasting change.

Training for coaches

Ten teachers from across the EAZ volunteered to be trained as mentors for staff in the ‘at risk’ school. The teachers were all members of the EAZ Teaching and Learning Tutors team who were given free time to develop teaching and learning practice.

Establishing a culture of coaching

Following the successful implementation of coaching in the two middle schools, Bedford Learning Community decided to systematically establish a culture of coaching across all of its schools, with training starting in summer 2005.

Defining coaching

The learning community agreed a definition of coaching in order to achieve clarity and consistency across the different schools and coaches. Its ‘mentoring-coaching’ approach includes short-term coaching and longer-term mentoring.

Identifying coaching skills and qualities

The learning community identified a number of core qualities and skills for a successful mentor-coach. These included emotional intelligence, active listening and being able to model and demonstrate successful practice.

Next steps

The learning community will continue to develop its approach to mentoring-coaching, with coaches attending one-day introductory training workshops and then establishing small communities of practice to further their skills.