Glasgow City Council Secondary Learning and Teaching Network

There were three awardees from Glasgow City Council. Watch this video for more on the work that went towards achieving the awards.

Following a review of Learning and Teaching in secondary Broad General Education (BGE) in Glasgow, it was clear that improvement and related investment in Learning and Teaching across the City was both essential and a priority. As the largest local authority, Glasgow has 30 mainstream secondary schools, all of which differ in terms of size, staffing and profile, and it was recognised at an early stage in this professional learning journey, that no single approach to improvement would be desirable or appropriate. Headteachers in Glasgow value the autonomy they have in making the best decisions and implementing the change that will have the greatest impact on their young people. To achieve this, it was acknowledged that a supportive framework which promotes collaboration and joint learning, as well as robust challenge, would help individual schools to realise lasting improvement, and so a learning network for Depute Head Teachers (DHT) who hold the remit for Learning and Teaching was established.

This group was led by two secondary Headteachers who, over a three-year period, planned a comprehensive programme of investment in their DHT colleagues designed to develop their thinking around best practice in learning and teaching approaches, whilst giving them a framework to take forward this work in their individual establishments. Regular meetings allowed the group to build relationships, form connections, promote professional reading and increase understanding of current educational research.

Through workshops, external wisdom sessions and reading, the Deputes group explored the work of a range of educational professionals to develop an understanding in systems leadership and collaborative professionalism. Developing an ego-free approach to collaboration was an important feature of this work; if we wanted to improve the experience and outcomes for Glasgow’s young people, it was important that the whole system had a genuine desire to improve, without fear of highlighting what was not working well.

Schools in Glasgow are familiar with working in different groupings to support improvement, usually on a geographical basis. The DHT group were placed in trios, but in this case, the rationale was to ensure the schools were from across different areas of the City and had a range of profiles. Validated Self-Evaluation (VSE) visits took place and so the inclusion of Coaching as a tool to support deeper reflection was an intrinsic aspect of the DHT network programme. The VSE visits involved staff at all levels from each establishment and so the reflection and rich discussion on learning and teaching, leading to evaluation was shared amongst headteachers and senior leaders, middle leaders and classroom practitioners. Increasingly, young people across the trio schools became part of this evaluative approach, using the How Good Is OUR School framework to explore improvement.

Staff in Glasgow are well-versed in using the Professional Standards for reflection and to identify professional learning targets. Our Professional Review process is approached from a coaching context and is designed to focus the attention of the reviewee on the strands of their current and aspirational standards.

Training in coaching has made a significant contribution to our success across the city.  All learning and teaching Leads had Coaching training to support them in their role of having forward-thinking self-evaluation conversations with regard to learning and teaching.  A number of schools across the city have continued with this training across their school in light of the impact it has had to improve the quality of conversation.

The impact of our professional learning regarding learning and teaching is felt directly in the classroom as teachers across the city further develop their pedagogy to ensure they are meeting the needs of Glasgow’s learners.  Our young people are at the centre of our thinking and will continue to be involved in lesson observations and discussions, having already contributed to detailed discussions about their VSE observations.  Their voice is central to our continued development, learning and improvement.

We are very keen to continue to build on the success of the Depute Head Teacher Learning and Teaching group – both specifically related to learning and teaching, but also across other areas of a Senior Leaders remit – e.g. curriculum development.  Our focus moving forward is to build on the positives that have come from COVID – examples would include the increased confidence and skill of staff with regards to moderation work and to take learning and teaching forward with a focal point being on the effective use of digital technology within the classroom.  We are also very mindful of ensuring we maintain our city focus on Nurture and the importance of supporting staff and young people as we work towards recovery.  We have opened discussions to bring our Additional Support Needs colleagues on board with the planning and delivery of professional learning and to ensure we are meeting the needs of all establishments in our planning.  We plan to continue to invest in collaborative working across schools to support professional learning and also looking to work with other authorities to undertake reciprocal visits.  This will be further supported by the use of key speakers, when appropriate and further professional reading for critical discussions.