RAISING STANDARDS

T&L Transformation at The Petchey Academy

The task at hand

When I became the headteacher of The Petchey Academy in April 2022, one of my key priorities was to review the Teaching and Learning framework that was in place. Despite the school's commitment to providing an ambitious and knowledge-rich curriculum based on research, there was no clearly defined model for delivering the school’s ambitious curriculum Coming from a school that had a well-established Teaching and Learning framework that was consistently upheld by all teachers, along with a comprehensive CPD programme to support the implementation of it, it was evident that the school would quickly benefit from adopting the CST EDI (Explicit Direct Instruction) Playbook which had a proven track record of delivering success

After only one year into our transformative journey, our GCSE Progress 8 results rocketed by half a grade. The correlation is clear: one of the key factors contributing to this was the introduction of the CST EDI playbook In the early days of adopting the playbook, our teachers found that visiting other schools within the Trust provided one of the most effective forms of CPD; an opportunity to see that researchbased pedagogy in practice These visits to these high-performing schools offered an insight into the scale of improvement needed in our school and also a sense of urgency and excitement about the change that we could make in the lives of our pupils

Open doors

One core change that helped our school adapt to this new approach is to have an open-door policy, allowing teachers to freely visit each other's classrooms I have a clear memory of distributing door stoppers to every teacher on a Monday morning following a staff briefing where one of our Teaching and Learning leads shared a great tip on ‘The best possible start to a lesson ’ This supportive and collegiate mentality soon became second nature, allowing for more learning visits, live coaching, and mentorship to take place, all with a T&L playbook in hand Subsequently, it led to teachers engaging in regular deliberate practice sessions with a determination to refine their practice and get better faster

A shared language

As a headteacher, one of my aspirations is to witness consistency throughout the school, where uniformity and a common language are implemented and embedded for the benefit of our students This consistency is vital for students as it provides them with the necessary stability that some only find during their hours with us When conducting learning visits, seeing teachers use the familiar language from our EDI glossary fills me with great joy. This does not happen accidentally; in our school, we plan meticulously to ensure that we have a clear CPD plan that is carefully planned throughout the year. Through weekly deliberate practice sessions, encouraging teachers to step out of their comfort zones, and maximising all T&L touch points throughout the week, we have significantly raised the standards and overall performance of our school

This transformative journey has laid the foundation for a bright and promising future at The Petchey Academy for years to come.