Chapter 3: The Stages Illustrated

Where is it?

An example of “Leading School Turnaround”The setting:Suburban area with high levels of social and economic disadvantagePupils eligible for free school meals is twice

national average, an indicator of significant disadvantage

Half pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds High turnover of students

The Inspector

“Special measures”

2004 – reached national average but then a downturn -by 2006 in “special measures” a category used in England to signal that the school is failing and needs improvement

“Highly variable” academic performanceTeaching was inadequateSchool was adding little valuePrincipal resigned

Rowlatts Hill PS

Other examples of “failing”High staff absenteeism – constant flow of

subsNeither children nor staff felt safe, physical

attacks on staff “were part of life”Ineffective leadership/poor moraleAggressive parents“Children used to hit the previous principal”School “in crisis and free fall”

What hope?

A real leader…

The change process has universal application.

If a school in Victoria was in a similar predicament, could a “real leader” turn the school around?

The turnaround

18 months later (November 2007) Rowlatts Hill was taken out of “special measures”

A 3-Stage Process1. Recognition/acknowledgement of a problem

2. Commitment (personal and collective) to do something about the problem

3. Action

Stopping the decline & creating conditions for early improvement“Some staff viewed socio-economic factors, not

the school itself, as the main problem.”Low staff morale – resented “special measures”

New principalFirst step: regular communicationImproved environmentIntroduced a uniform“Zero tolerance for (bad) behaviour”New climate of “trust, openness and honesty”Parents’ eveningsStaff-student committees, etc

Ensuring survival and realizing early performance improvements

High standards for teachingEffective leadership was about

capacity buildingPD encouraged (new learning

strategies)Creating learning

opportunities for staff and students

What changed?High achievement was a “shared expectation”Focus on improving teaching & learningFocus on developing and maintaining relationships

Achieving satisfactory performance and aspiring to much morePrincipal emphasised the importance of

school leaders connecting with the community

93% of parents attended Parents’ EveningMain driver was principalEmphasised developing positive relationships

Super-principal

Why isn’t she Secretary-General of the United Nations?

Further evidenceOfsted

Our questions to you...The case study presented in Chapter 3 draws our attention to the

involvement the principal had in leading the school’s turnaround.  It shows that principals are expected to act as leader/managers of a multi-layered system.

How do we identify “underperformance” in a school? What sort of strategies can a Principal use to get the staff

involved in the process of “school turnaround”?  If accountability for “school turnaround” is placed purely on

the Principal, will it work successfully?