SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

PREPARED BY:

HENG YEE XIANTAN BEE QI

TANG LIH THIENTHIRUCHELVY MARIMUTHU

‘System leaders’ care about and work for the

success of other schools as well as their own.

They measure their success in terms of improving

student learning and increasing achievement, and

strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s).

Crucially they are willing to shoulder system

leadership roles in the belief that in order to

change the larger system you have to engage

with it in a meaningful way. (David Hopkins, 2007)

DEFINITION

CONTINUES..

Systems Leadership Theory provides a set of

coherent models to assist in understanding

culture and behaviour in organisations.

It provides insights into how  leaders can,

through an understanding of the tools of

leadership (systems, symbols and behaviour),

build cohesive organisations that can achieve

success and help the individuals within it

realise their own potential.

KNOWLEDGE

o A range of leadership models that will impact

on system change

o Strategies which bring about system

transformational, change and improvement

o How culture and context influence system

leadership

o The current political, social ,economic

infrastructure and education’s place within it.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGE, REFORM AND INNOVATION

CHANGE

REFORM INNOVATION

Every School a Great School

National Prescription

Schools Leading Reform

Building Capacity Prescription Professionalism

System Leadership

TOWARDS LARGE SCALE SUSTAINABLE REFORM

SYSTEM LEADERSHIP ROLES

A range of emerging roles, including:

o Executive Headship or partnering another school

facing difficulties i.e. run two or more schools (or

‘softer’ partnership)

o Lead in extremely challenging circumstances or

become an Academy Principal.

o Civic leadership to broker and shape partnerships

across local communities to support welfare and

potential.

o Change agent or school leader able to identify best

practice and then transfer and refine it to support

improvement elsewhere.

SYSTEM LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE

Five striking characteristics of system leaders are:

1. Measure success when working with other schools

in terms of improving student learning and

increasing achievement, in terms of both raising

the bar and narrowing the gap(s).

2. Are fundamentally committed to the improvement

of teaching and learning. They engage deeply with

the organisation of teaching, learning, curriculum

and assessment in order to ensure that learning is

increasingly personalised for students.

3. Develop schools as personal and professional learning

communities, with relationships built across and beyond

each school to provide a range of learning experiences and

professional development opportunities.

4. Strive for equity and inclusion through acting on context

and culture. This is not just about eradicating poverty, as

important as that is. It is also about giving communities a

sense of worth and empowerment.

5. Realise in a deep way that the classroom, school and

system levels all impact on each other. Crucially they

understand that in order to change the larger system you

have to engage with it in a meaningful way.

Personalised learning

Professional teaching

Intelligent accountability

Networks and collaboration

Systemleadership

FOUR KEY DRIVERS TO RAISE ACHIEVEMENT AND BUILD CAPACITY FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF REFORM

(I) PERSONALISING LEARNING ‘JOINED UP LEARNING AND TEACHING’

Learning to Learn Curriculum choice & entitlement Assessment for learning Co-production

My Tutor’ Interactive web-based learning resource enabling students to tailor support and challenge to their needs and interests.

(II) PROFESSIONALISING TEACHING ‘TEACHERS AS RESEARCHERS, SCHOOLS AS LEARNING COMMUNITIES’

Enhanced repertoire of learning & teaching strategies

Time for collective inquiry Evidence based practice Collegial & coaching relationships

Action research and peer learning in school to improve practice

(III)BUILDING INTELLIGENT ACCOUNTABILITY ‘BALANCING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND ASSESSMENT’ Moderated teacher assessment Targets for every child and use of pupil

performance data Value added data to help identify strengths /

weaknesses Rigorous self-evaluation to demonstrate good

management

Professional Learning Community (PLC) Program

(IV) NETWORKING AND COLLABORATION ‘DISCIPLINED INNOVATION, COLLABORATION AND BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL’

Best practice captured and highly specified

Capacity built to transfer and sustain innovation across system

Greater responsibility taken for neighbouring schools

Link between central and local policy initiatives Case study SISC+

A MODEL OF SYSTEM LEADERSHIP PRACTICE

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT – E.G. SERGIOVANNI ’ S MODEL

Technical – derived from sound management

techniques

Human – derived from harnessing available social and

interpersonal resources

Educational – derived from expert knowledge about

matters of education and schooling

Symbolic – derived from focusing the attention on

matters of importance to the school

Cultural – derived from building a unique school

culture

MANAGING TEACHING & LEARNING PROCESS: MODELS OF LEARNING TOOLS FOR TEACHING

Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually models for learning,

that simultaneously define the nature of the content, the learning

strategies, and the arrangements for social interaction that create

the learning contexts of our students.

For example, in powerful classrooms students learn models for:

Extracting information and ideas from lectures and presentations

Memorising information

Building hypotheses and theories

Attaining concepts and how to invent them

Using metaphors to think creatively

Working effectively with other to initiate and carry out co-

operative tasks

DEVELOPING PEOPLE: STRUCTURING STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Workshop

1. Understanding of Key Ideas and Principles

2. Modelling and Demonstration

3. Practice in Non-threatening Situations

Workplace

1. Immediate and Sustained Practice

2. Collaboration and Peer

3. Reflection and Action Research

DEVELOPING THE ORGANISATION:THE SIX STEPS TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT1. A school sets itself a clear and unifying focus for its improvement

work.

2. Collect data on performance as precursor to initiating an

improvement strategy.

3. At an early stage identify a school improvement group.

4. The SIG subsequently receive specific training in the classroom

practices most crucial to achieving the school’s developmental

goals.

5. The range of staff development activities involved includes:

o workshops run inside the school on teaching strategies

o whole staff in-service days and ‘curriculum tours’

o inter-departmental meetings to discuss teaching strategies

o partnership teaching and peer coaching.

6. Whole school emphasis to ensure consistency of practice & high

expectations.

EVERY SCHOOL A GREAT SCHOOL FRAMEWORK

THE LOGIC OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Type of school Key strategies – responsive to context and need

Leading schools • Become leading practitioners• Formal federation with lower performing schools

Succeeding, self-improvingschools

• Regular local networking for school leaders• Between-school curriculum development

Succeeding schools withinternal variations

• Consistency interventions: such as assessment for learning• Subject specialist support to particular departments

Underperforming schools • Linked school support for underperforming departments• Underperforming pupil programmes: catch-up

Low attaining schools • Formal support in federation structure• Consultancy in core subjects and best practice

Failing schools • Intensive support programme• New provider such as an academy

SYSTEM LEADER’S ROLE1. Developing and leading a successful educational

improvement partnership between several schools.

2. Choosing to lead and improve a school in extremely challenging circumstances.

3. Partnering another school facing difficulties and improve it

4. Community leader.5. Change agent or expert leader within the system.

MORAL PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING

All these …. whatever my background, whatever my abilities, wherever I start from

I know how I am being assessed and what I need to do to improve my work

I know what my learning objectives are and feel in control of my learning

My parents are involved with the school and I feel I belong here

I enjoy using ICT and know how it can help my learning

I can get the job that I want

I know if I need extra help or to be challenged to do better I will get the right support

I know what good work looks like and can help myself to learn

I can work well with and learn from many others as well as my teacher

I can get a level 4 in English and Maths before I go to secondary school

I get to learn lots of interesting and different subjects

WHY THE SYSTEM LEADERSHIP PROCESS IS GOOD

o Raising leaders’ awareness & changing leaders’

perceptions

o Saving money

o Distributing leadership

o Identifying strategic leadership priorities

o Considering what is in the school’s environment

o Enabling to discuss things

o Revealing the source of most problems

BENEFITS OF SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

o Developing leadership capacity

o Rationalising resources

o Increased co-operation

o Distributed leadership

o Improving school outcomes

o Sustainability

BENEFITS OF CO-OPERATION THROUGH COMMUNITIES OF SCHOOLS

o creation of an internal market

o creating better student orientation and

guidance systems

o creating community-wide curricula

o creation of an internal labour market for

teachers

o reduced bureaucratic workload for principals

and new possibilities for pedagogical leadership

THE CONSTRAINTS

o communities cannot offer training or do not have

capacity and resources

o communities do not have significant budgetary control

o several boards within one community can create tensions

and may disagree as to vision, direction and strategy

o the decision making power of communities is

problematic

THE CHALLENGES

Sustainability

School leadership co-operation in an

environment of choice and competition

Recognising and supporting system leaders

Identifying and recruiting system leaders

Professional development of system leaders

How to move system leadership to scale

CONCLUSION

‘System leaders’ are those head teachers who are willing to shoulder system leadership roles: who care about and work for the success of other schools as well as their own.

Reforming is important to make changes and improvements.

REFERENCE

David Welbourn, Deborah Ghate, Jane Lewis, 2013, Systems Leadership: Exceptional leadership for exceptional times Synthesis Paper: The Virtual Staff College

Hopkins, D, 2007, Every School a Great School, Maidenhead, McGrawHill/Open University Press

 Hopkins, D & Higham R, 2007, System Leadership: Mapping the Landscape. In School Leadership and Management, Vol. 27, 2, pp.147–166

 Hopkins, D, 2009, The Emergence of System Leadership, National College for School Leadership.

Timmins Nicholas, 2015, The Practice of System Leadership: Being comfortable with chaos: The King’s Fund