School improvement update - October 2023

Sensible stuff, no quick fixes

Dear colleague

I hope things are well with you.

Finding My Voice, a whole school personal development and oracy approach for secondary schools and FE settings is now open for bookings. It provides a curriculum axis to support pupils navigating their education journey and their lives in the modern world. Rachel Higginson is joined by Emmanuel Awoyelu, Christian Foley and me for this exciting programme. It starts on Thursday 7th December and the early bird rate is until Tuesday 31st October.

Hear Dr Emma Kell in conversation with me about the new course, Being Your Best, Doing Your Best. It’s a practical, research-based programme with coaching tools for school staff to promote and enhance self-efficacy, success and job-satisfaction. A blend of live and self-paced sessions.

Cohort 2 of the Leadership Lobby is now open. I’m running this with Andrew Morrish and it’s suitable for new and experienced leaders: ‘Wow there is SO much leadership gold here. Loved the session on leading trustfully and hearing Mary and Andrew discuss the ‘messy middle’ of getting this right.’

If you have colleagues new to curriculum leadership, we’ve created the Curriculum Leaders self-paced course. We cover the principles of curriculum design, draw on some of the insights from research and follow the curriculum journey from intent through to impact. There’s 8 hours of recordings and resources, live check-ins with John Tomsett and me plus 5 subscriptions to the Myatt & Co platform.

Oak National Academy have launched new curriculum plans for primary and secondary English, history, maths and science, primary geography and secondary music. Over this year, they’ll release all-new slide decks, worksheets and quizzes for every unit and lesson in the plans. More subjects will follow next year. You can view the plans now, download resources from their early-release units and sign up for updates.

The DiverseEd annual Leading the Diverse Curriculum virtual conference on Friday 10th November 2023 and also Proud to be parents, an online free webinar for LGBTQ+ parents and carers and their children, Wednesday 8th November 4-5pm

The leads for the latest three Ofsted subject reports for geography, music and PE talk about the headlines of the reports and what teachers can take away from them.

The RE Council of England and Wales has published a National Content Standard to provide clarification and a benchmark for excellence in religion and worldviews/religious education (RE) in England. There will be an REC webinar for senior leaders on Tuesday 5th December 2-3pm, more details here.

The largest RE conference organised by NATRE is Saturday 27th – Sunday 28th January 2024. It’s online and the early bird offer ends Tuesday 31st October.

If you work for a school that is part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT), then Eleanor Barnardes would appreciate your help by completing a survey to help with her research for her PhD. The survey is for all staff working in MATs, TAs, classroom teachers or the CEO. It should take no more than 10 minutes, and by completing it you will be adding to the sector’s understanding of how MAT leadership works and why it matters.

I’m looking forward to working with Tom Sherrington and John Tomsett for the Christmas Curriculum Celebration conference on Thursday 14th December 9am – 3:30pm London.

The IncludEd Conference 2024 organised by The Difference is returning after a sell-out affair in January 2023. The biggest conference for school inclusion, Saturday 13th January IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society. I’ll be speaking and further details here.

I’ll also be speaking about the curriculum and school improvement at the Teacher Development Trust conference on Tuesday 30th January in London.

NACE are offering a free live webinar: Radical Revision with Claire Gadsby. Wednesday 8th November 2023 3:45-5:00pm

The Teachers’ Collection is going from strength to strength! The team have uploaded more resources to the library with texts, draft plans and vocabulary lists as a way to support curriculum planning with high quality texts. It now has its own Twitter page, where we’re updating new book suggestions and planning resources.

We are continuing to add to the faster reading collection and the impact that just reading can have on reading progress for all pupils and students and particularly those with lower starting points. You can find out how colleagues at Nene Park Academy went about improving reading ages for Years 7 and 8. And primary impact can be found here.

If you think there’s someone who would appreciate this update, you can forward the link here.

Until next time

Mary