Questions with Ross Gallacher
Deputy Headteacher at The Sele School, in Hertfordshire @TheSeleSchool
How has your career path led you to your current role?
I enrolled in a four-year QTS pathway at university which provided me with in-school experiences from 18 years old. I have since worked in six different schools, three of which in a senior leadership role. I worked as a Head of Year for four years providing me with a grounding in behaviour and pastoral. I completed a NPQSL which enabled me to successfully apply for an AHT position. I worked in a new school under the Quality of Education team focused on CPD and trainee teachers. I completed my MEd this year which has developed my understanding of leadership and management. I have now begun a new role as Deputy Headteacher for Behaviour and Personal Development.
How do you develop consistency of good teaching throughout the school?
Consistency is about repetition, repeating the same key messages, and keeping it simple. Setting out a number of agreed principles or expectations that all teachers follow will lead to that consistency. School leaders need to be careful to not fall into the trap of grading lesson observations or implementing a top-down model for quality assurance. Research shows that there is no consistent approach to lesson observations and therefore this is not an appropriate tool for developing consistently good teaching.
I would advocate the use of coaching, empower teachers to lead the lesson observations themselves and use this to develop good practice. Senior leaders can use other means for quality assurance. When you design a model that tries to develop and quality assurance it creates a climate of fear and teachers begin to play the system. This way you have no accurate measure of quality or consistency.
What is your current behaviour policy? How do you know that the school’s pastoral systems and behaviour policies are working well?
Having just started in a new position the behaviour policy is currently under review. Good pastoral and behaviour systems however need to be simple and understood by all. A lengthy policy that must be referred to, to make decisions, will lead to inconsistency and a lack of understanding for parents, pupils, and teachers. When the new policy is shared it will be shared with all stakeholders in a clear format that is relevant to all parties. Giving all stakeholders a voice in this process is important and should reflect the needs of the community.
What do you see as the key issues facing school leaders in schools today?
I see three major issues facing schools at the moment.
Firstly, and is widely reported, financial. The budgets in schools has for some time been tight (not just because of the growing inequality caused by Covid) and leaders have had to deliver more for less which has delivered some real innovation. Sadly, this comes at a cost with a number of schools undergoing restructures which save costs but damage school culture, and the implications of this are felt for a number of years.
Another major issue facing schools is exclusions. Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is a pressure wave building in the use of exclusions. Exclusions have dominated part of the national conversation around schools. Exclusions have received a lot of bad press in recent years and I believe this trend is going to continue. Exclusions are seen as one of the only tools in the school’s “arsenal” when dealing with poor behaviour but it is becoming the “atomic bomb” in the eyes of society. Other forms of action such as mentoring are seen as much more palatable. School leaders use exclusions as a last resort and have them in place as a deterrent.
The growing concern around exclusions, I believe, will continue to damage the brand and reputation of schools. It will take a disruptive change and innovation like that seen with online learning in order to overcome this challenge. Schools will have to work together to develop new strategies to manage and tackle poor behaviour which does not result in pupils missing out on their education or removing them from the building which in some cases makes the pupil more vulnerable.
By far the biggest issue for school leaders is serving the local community. Schools have and always will be faced with external pressures, such as increasing the EBACC. This, as an example, may not be what your local community needs. Working with your local community and making the school a pillar of that community will help school leaders alleviate the issues I have discussed and other issues facing other schools. Whilst there is a free market in parents selecting where they can send their children to school, leaders must engage with the community. We all know that great relationships in the classroom lead to successful pupils, great relationships with the community lead to successful schools.
HeadStart aims to interview Headteachers and Assistant Headteachers on how their schools deal with some of the most important areas of education. The idea is to share practices and opinions to increase transparency and inspire schools around the country. If you would like to be featured, please contact flavia@seneca.io