Leadership Pathways learning mindmap

This mind map (created using Bubbl.us) shows my main learning from my Leadership Pathways course.

Leadership Pathways: Final Thoughts

The final day of Leadership Pathways was my favourite, and when I finally began to realise the message of 'reflection' that the course has tried to foster throughout.


I have never felt like much of a reflective practitioner. Being reflective requires time and time is something I haven't got enough of. But by the end of the LP course, I was becoming more and more reflective and continuing to do this after the course is over is something I am looking forward to. I need to make time to be reflective. I guess this blog is becoming the perfect place to do that! (Actually, looking back, I have used the blog less and less as an outlet to report news affecting Year Six, but more as a place to reflect on and to share my school-based experiences.)


Core Day 3 of the programme is subtitled 'celebrating success'. It was the day to share learning with each other and our coaches. We were asked to share a presentation about our 'whole-school change project' that we had been working on. I had been worried about this, but some good advice from @deputymitchell, @dawnhallybone and @primarypete_ on Twitter calmed me down. As a result of their advice, I decided not to use any ICT in my presentation. This was definitely the right decision. It was actually great to be free of the constraints of a PowerPoint presentation. I did, however, use PowerPoint to prepare and structure what I wanted to say.

LP Presentaion

View more presentations from guest6a9520.

A lot of this, I understand, won't make sense without some context. So this is what my project was all about:
Through the process of taking the online units, I realised that the school is good at informing, collaborating with and involving the community in its work. We weren't, however, as good at consulting and empowering the community. I decided to set up a questionnaire to learn more about the community and their thoughts about our school. At the moment we are part way through this process. The surveys have been distributed and returned and the analysis process is underway right now. The project is enabling me to gain experience in using data, using influencing strategies and work with the community.

Overall, I believe that I have developed as a leader through the Pathways course and I am looking forward to seeing my learning have an impact throughout my work in school.

Leadership Pathways: Creative Resource Management

This online unit was suggested as part of my routemap analysis. With hindsight, I wish I'd chosen a different unit. C'est la vie...

The most important idea that I took away from this unit was that continuing professional development is important to keep a vibrant, happy workplace that is able to change and adapt.

I liked the idea of asking staff to 'bid' for resources - to encourage them to consider the value of their ideas, and the impact on the children and the school.

CPD should be integral to everybody's role - it should form part of job descriptions. This unit suggests that CPD should include developing skills as a teacher, but also different non-classroom related skills too. Provide a range of learning experiences for staff as well as pupils to promote creativity and a positive atmosphere.

Develop an ethos of learning - encourage people to 'have a go'. Find ways around a problem by exploring and inventing. Create an environment that is safe, comfortable and yet challenging so that creativity can develop.

Leadership Pathways: Data & Beyond

My final online unit was entitled 'Data & Beyond', reminding me of Buzz's catchphrase in Toy Story. However, that word 'data' made this unit just about as far removed from fantasy as possible! Actually, everything about this unit is to do with facts and evidence and using it to instigate changes. This is what I learned from the unit.

There are ten tips for making a difference with data. These are taken from the NCSL website:

1. It's your data - use it internally to improve standards.
2. Prior attainment - assemble as wide a range of data as you can.
3. Follow through on the data - collecting data is only as useful as the use that is made of it.
4. Review how your school uses data - does your school's use of data have a clear set of purposes or is it more of what we have always done?
5. Take the evidence seriously - examining the evidence can shed new light on things schools take for granted.
6. Use significant data - carefully identify the data items that your school needs to collect and analyse to inform its vision and strategy and to have impact.
7. Look beneath the data - looking beneath the data to understand the individual experiences of the children it represents is a key part of validating its usefulness.
8. Involve parents - parents can be essential allies in helping their children develop - if they have good information about how their children are developing and what targets they are working towards/
9. Involve pupils - if data is being used to improve individual pupils' performance, it's all the more effective if the pupils themselves are involved and given awareness and ownership of their own learning.
10. You're in charge - being familiar with your data and using it in a regular, planned way, within the context of your overall school's development, will ensure that the data serves you.

Data collection and analysis does not really form part of my role (my colleague leads this process) but reading this got me thinking that maybe it should be! We are constantly told that Ofsted want 'evidence, evidence, evidence' yet this doesn't seem to be something I have been gaining experience in using. From the very beginning of the unit I realised that data is a process that I need to find opportunities to develop my own practice.

I learned some practical advice for data collection:

• Look for the right type of data - will it help you to show what you want?
• Often, the data produced for external reasons is not the data you need. It might be more effective to produce your own data.
• Data can be quantitative - in lists, tables, charts or numbers.
• But data can also be qualitative - opinions, feelings, pictoral, words. It must be rich in value.
• Find the right bits of information which will help us to teach better and, more importantly, the right kind of data to help my pupils learn better.
• A representative sample can be identified.
• Sensitivity must be used when monitoring practice.
• Surveys must be planned and organised thoroughly.
• Note the current model so that the impact of changes can be compared.

Practical advice for data analysis:

• Evaluate the impact of changes regularly.
• Data hasn't got to show what has gone wrong - try to discover what works best, or what will work better.

Advice for acting on the data:

• Data should be acted on in a positive way - make changes which are for the better which will benefit the pupils, the staff and the wider community.

When giving feedback regarding data:

• When giving feedback about data explain why you are saying things - be specific.
• Use data to support anything difficult that you want to say.
• Don't just deliver a monologue - create a dialogue.
• Empathise, but don't sympathise. Don't back down - make it clear that support will be given to help people move forward.
• Make sure your message is clear.
• Consider how you want to open the feedback, and also the effect of how you want them to be at the end.

Learning to collect, analyse and act on data must form part of my next steps in my career.

Leadership Pathways: Effective Influencing Skills Workshop

For me, the Effective Influencing skills workshop was the best part of the whole course so far. It's just a shame that I only had the chance to take it two weeks before the whole course finishes!

The idea that there are many different ways to influence others is something that I just hadn't even considered before.


The workshop made me aware of the different ways that I work currently and the ways that I want to work in the future.


We began by hearing about the three different levels of influence - rational, emotional and political. These different influences have different effects on different people and do not necessarily work on every person and in every situation. But, in an ideal work, to have complete influence over everybody, you need to be in to middle, using all three levels of influence.


We were introduce to nine different styles of influencing.

• Value-driven style
• Goal-driven style
• Need-fulfilment style
• Visioning style
• Rational style
• Pushing style
• Institutionalising style
• Educating style
• Supporting style

These are all push or pull (or both) styles of influencing. Push behaviours are rational, assertive and explicit.  (Energy comes from you to make others have to change.) Pull behaviours are emtional, involve listening to others and being open. (Energy comes from others because you have made them want to change.) Overuse of each type can be counter-productive so it is important to find a balance.


I have always believed myself to be a 'puller' - someone who makes people want to change, but after taking an auditing exercise I believe I have become more of a 'pusher'. Whilst this is not necessarily a bad thing, I know now that I need to be more aware of the influences I use.


Force-field analysis is 'a strategic approach to influencing situations at work'. It analyses and prioritises the driving and restraining forces. More information is available here.


There are always pros and cons to a decision – nothing is ever that simple! The secret of good decision-making is figuring out whether the pros outweigh the cons BEFORE you take action. With force field analysis, you list and score the factors for and against a decision, total the scores and see which comes up best.

If it's a close call and the decision for or against is not clear, you can add an extra step. Review the factors affecting the decision and create an action plan to increase the “fors” and decrease the “againsts”. Simply repeat the force field analysis with the new conditions and your decision will be clear.
 
I found the idea fascinating. I can use this idea to consider any change I wish to make before I introduce it to staff to see how successful it could be. At any stage in the change process it can be used to evaluate the success of the project.
 
The ideas in this workshop actually link up well with the stakeholder analysis in the Leading Through Influence online unit.

Leadership Pathways: Revisiting Community

The second online unit I completed for this course was Revisiting Community. I found this rather a odd title for the unit. I mean, I hadn't actually 'visited' the commuity yet on the course. Ah well.

Overall I much preferred this unit to the last one as I found it contained practical advice and strategies for developing as a leader making clear references to the standards for headship.

The unit begins with a rather deep notion - that the school and its head should be entirely accountable to the community. Blimey; is this unit really going to suggest that the school should be accountable to the local community as well as being accountable to its pupils, parents, governors, LA and DCSF? The thinkpiece article even goes as far as to suggest that the community owns the school. Luckily I realise that this is very theoretical and is not being promoted as fact. I strongly agreed with the idea that the school should be a hub for the community. Hmm... could this be a possibility for my change project?

There was an exemplar of a brilliant ICT project from a school that refurbished and redistributed computer equipment to its parents to enable home learning.

Later in the unit I considered the ways that our school informs, consults with, involves, collaborates with and empowers the community. I realised that we are very good at informing, involving and collaborating with the community. Perhaps my change project could look into ways that we consult and empower the community.

After completing this unit I finally feel like I'm making some headway in selecting the change project which I must begin in order to complete the course. I want my project to be about involving the community, and I could use some of the learning conversation skills that I learned in the previous unit.

So after nearly 9 hours of online work I've completed 2 online units. Only three more to go!

Leadership Pathways: Leading Through Influence

The first online unit I completed in the course was Leading Through Influence. I wish I'd began with a different unit as this one wasn't exactly inspiring. But it did include some good practical advice.

The first part of the unit looked at learning conversations and made you think about how to get the most out of a conversation so that a conclusion is reached and each party can be satisfied.

Next I looked at communication and the way that communication should always be two-way. This was hardly groundbreaking stuff.

The next part was a bit more interesting. It was about psychological contracts. "What on earth are they?" I hear you ask! Well these are unwritten agreements that a member of staff has with the school. This might include leading an after school club, for example. The unit explored the effects of breaking psychological contracts on staff morale. It made me realise that we need to be aware of the psychological contracts in school so that I am aware of the efforts from every member of staff. At the same time I wouldn't want to turn them into written or spoken about contracts. When wanting to make changes I must consider the mutual trust between school and its staff.

I learned that staff meetings should begin with a 'checking in' where staff share ideas and thoughts from the week. They should end with 'checking out' where the main points of the meeting are reviewed.

There were different 'frames' suggested for conversations which could apply to different situations. Workshops are used when the conversation group comes together to share resources and create new ideas and solutions. Consultations are used when the group comes together to share knowledge about the focus and receive feedback. A forum is used to problem solve and debate and challenge. Hotseating is used when a member of the group needs to share their personal learning journey and so the group learns by asking questions.

The process of stakeholder analysis was a brilliant concept. When introducing change it makes sense to prioritise the stakeholders. You consider each person for their power and influence and for their interest in the change. You then decide where best to channel your efforts.

Overall I gained some good ideas about how to organise staff meetings and departmental meetings etc.

Diagram from 'Stakeholder Analysis and Management: Winning support for your projects' by R Manktelow.

Leadership Pathways

Over the last few months one of the things I have been busy with is this interesting course from the NCSL.

The course involves several processes through which you make changes and improvements to your leadership skills.

It began with a questionnaire which needed 10 people to complete some really awkward questions about you and the way you work. I also had to answer the questions about myself. The results were then amalgamated and I received a printout showing the average results with a comparison of my own answers. This all revealled that I actually had quite a good understanding of what people thought of my skills. It also highlighted areas that I could develop as a leader.

The areas were then used to help me choose online units and skills workshops which will help me to improve skills.

I am midway through the whole process now, so it's time I recorded some of my thoughts. Over the next few weeks I'll try to post these.