HOW DO WE CREATE AND SUPPORT GREAT SCHOOLS?

Visiting schools in Sheffield over the last week has reminded me if I had ever forgotten that building great schools and great provision requires strong and highly effective learning leadership, powerful governance, an organisational infrastructure with beautiful systems, financial resources and autonomy, professional excellence at all levels, intelligent accountability and brilliant, responsive and flexible support... and most of all it requires teamwork.

We know that some schools have moved very successfully in this direction and already achieved great things by building great teams. We need to develop approaches based on practical advice and insightful reflections about the issues faced by our teachers in their classrooms; approaches built on research and evidence and rooted in the reality of effecting lasting change and adding to what the teachers already know. There are no quick fixes but we do know what works and what doesn't!

We must develop a "can do" team approach where there are only challenges and opportunities not problems. We know the task we all face in building brilliant provision and excellence for all but we know how to do this and we simply need to be break the challenges and opportunities down into bite-sized, manageable chunks and develop the strategies and activities and work with the people who are at the sharp end in classrooms to make a real difference.