LEADERSHIP, SYSTEMS AND ACCOUNTABILITY MATTER!

I am confused that people keep telling us that schools in England are performing so poorly when compared to the best in Europe let alone the best in the world.

My visits to Helsinki, Stockholm and Singapore suggest that colleagues elsewhere are no cleverer, no more skilful or talented than our colleagues here in England. Their young people appear to be very much the same as our young people. Their parents and carers want the same for their children... as they do the world over! We can always learn from what people are doing elsewhere, and successful school systems in other countries do have some elements which are worth considering. It's interesting that whenever the going gets tough we always seem to think that going 'back to the basics' and ratcheting up inspection and testing must be the answer. Interesting, when we already have one of the most inspected, assessed, moderated and tested education system in the world and we all know that you don't improve the pig by continually weighing it.  The answer from the best performing systems seems to be  to focus on developing great teaching and learning in every classroom supported by learning leadership, beautiful systems and intelligent accountability.