GUERNSEY HEADTEACHERS!

I met a great group of headteachers from schools across Guernsey and Alderney this morning and talked to them about the keys to brilliant...

I have visited Finland, Singapore and Sweden and it's interesting and rewarding to know that headteachers from all over the world are having exactly the same conversations and want the same things... to build brilliant provision where their children and young people achieve brilliant outcomes. It's also true that the answers to the challenges we face do not lie in Finland, Singapore or Sweden and while we can learn from these education systems, the answers to the challenges we face are right here staring us in the face. We simply need to look for and find and then share the magic!

What is obvious from my conversations with headteachers is that we need a new approach... a different approach! One built on learning leadership, beautiful systems and intelligent accountability. My brief visits to Guernsey have shown me some brilliant stuff and I have met some great collegaues. They are all working hard to drive up standards and outcomes and have achieved great things and made real progress over the last couple of years. They are working to create a learning landscape and a learning community where they learn together, share their magic and develop centres of real excellence. 

John Hattie was right when he said that "too many teachers believe that the essence of our profession is autonomy. The essence of our profession is teamwork, communication, collaboration and learning what works and what doesn't." That is the culture on Guernsey and I am really looking forward to visiting some of the schools, getting to know more about education and learning and working with some brilliant colleagues to explore what works and how we can make that commonplace! There are some important messages here for all of us in England struggling with command and control, motivation, negativity, blame, distrust and our friends from OFSTED!