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In the panel discussion at the launch of the @NAHTnews #ImprovingSchools report, @nick_brook asked me what we can do to unleash greatness in schools. Summarising my response as a thread 
. https://twitter.com/NAHTnews/status/1328958629031112705
. https://twitter.com/NAHTnews/status/1328958629031112705
The report focuses on staff development as a key driver of improvement and that is really important. The quality of experience students have in classrooms is critical. But if we want all schools to always be improving on their previous best, we need systems thinking too.
As report says, school improvement should be a "collaborative, collective endeavour" and based on evidence the commission heard from @TheNFER about #opportunityareas and from Christine Gilbert and Estelle Morris about local partnerships, it also emphasises importance of place.
Place IS important, but, while school improvement can be rooted in localities, it must not be bounded by them. This would risk further entrenching the regional inequalities that have blighted us for too long.
As a profession, we should care as much about the children at the other end of the country as we do about those at the other end of the road. We should #collaborate to get the best for all of them. Robust, #PeerReview has an important role to play here in three ways:
1. At school level - by providing rigorous peer accountability for how schools are doing in improving life chances of all children.
2. #PeerReview is excellent #CPD for visiting reviewers, esp when they get coaching in evaluation & challenge from an expert Lead Reviewer as in @ChallengePartnr #QAReview. Really getting beneath skin of what works, why & how can provide ideas to implement in their own school.
3. At system level, process of systematically accrediting leading practice ensures we can share practice without risking recycling mediocrity. @ChallengePartnr free #SharingLeadingPractice events give teachers everywhere access to accredited #excellence. https://challengepartners.whitefuse.net/pages/23-join-us-at-events
One of the great opportunities of the pandemic and switch to digital is that it is now easier than ever to share leading practice from Cornwall to County Durham without spending hour on planes and trains. Let's seize it!
