Why collaboration is vital
In the latest of a series of pieces by head teachers from the Central South Consortium area Dave Jenkins, head teacher of Ysgol Tŷ Coch in Pontypridd, reflects on the benefits of collaborating with other schools
As a new head teacher I found out quite early on that I would need my peers a lot in my early years. Navigating the trials of headship is tough. Just getting by is tough. Moving the school forward at pace is very tough.
I quickly realised that the best way to improve our school would be to link with other schools and share best practice. I also knew that the Central South Consortium (the education improvement service for South Wales) would be an essential first port of call to connect the school with others.
I therefore sought to engage in two CSC projects: School Improvement SIG 17 and Peer Enquiry.
As a special school, Ysgol Tŷ Coch is an incredible place to work and learn. It provides first class education to our pupils, all of whom have a statement of special educational needs. I am passionate about the school but equally passionate about the sector. There is so much high quality work going on daily that I felt we needed to share it, learn from others and raise the profile of the school and the sector.
Our involvement in SIG 17 achieved all of these aims. For our first project we joined forces with Brynterion infants, y Bont Faen Primary and Darrenlas Primary.
Our focus was writing and improving teaching to achieve better results. We were introduced to CONTINUA and the Golden Spiral and quickly rolled this out to all of our teachers. This has now formed an integral part of our overall performance management policy and has added relevance for our teachers.
We identified three teachers who undertook lesson observations in each of the three partner schools. Our teachers gained invaluable ideas, expertise and resources and brought them all back to Tŷ Coch.
We also enjoyed visits to our school from teachers from the three schools. Once again, our teachers gained huge amounts of confidence as they were able to demonstrate high quality teaching and learning relating to the development of prewriting skills. I know that our mainstream colleagues thoroughly enjoyed their observations.
Our teachers have retained their links with their colleagues from other schools and still regularly share ideas. I have no doubts that our involvement in the SIG initiative resulted in significantly improved writing results, improved teaching standards and a mutual appreciation of the work of a special school.
The second project we engaged in was Peer Enquiry which we used to test the work of the school. I was keen to ensure that Ysgol Tŷ Coch was involved in the Peer Enquiry pilot and therefore attended all training prior to embarking on our first enquiry. Kevin Tansley from Tŷ Gwyn Special School and Wayne Murphy from Greenfield Special School, visited our school to test our performance in a number of areas over two days, Wayne and Kevin scrutinised our documentation, interviewed staff, observed lessons and spoke to a number of pupils. They gave us very clear and direct feedback which informed us what was working but more importantly, they helped us identify things that needed more work.
This external scrutiny informed a key part of our self-evaluation report and subsequent school improvement plan. The key to the success of this initiative was trust. We knew the peer enquirers would be constructive, honest and supportive and wouldn’t beat us with a stick.
Subsequently, myself and my deputy have undertaken three peer enquiries in other schools. This has helped us develop key analytical skills to apply in our school. We’ve also inevitably picked up on great things happening across the sector and, with permission, we have introduced into Ysgol Tŷ Coch. Whichever way you look at peer enquiry it’s a win win for school improvement.