Essential ingredients
a sense of community. The current movement towards standardization of teaching and learning – and testing to see if common standards have been met – is doing the opposite. Celebrating failure is one way schools can become more creative. Everyone should learn to think that success and failure are not opposites. Failure precedes success. Also, be sure that creativity is not something that is always linked to arts and music. We all have creative capacities and talents, but they manifest themselves differently.
1 great team There are four elements to a great team – good personal mastery of each individual, a sense of belonging, emotional bonds and diversity of personalities and skills. Team members should complement one another, rather than be too similar. Organizing schools into groups of teachers is the best way to practice team skills. There is no shortcut to a ‘team-based school’ with strong team dynamics and productive cooperative learning.
“An inspiring school mission statement can be a critical tool in moving the school forward”
a tin of professionalism Successful school leaders share similar qualities to great sports coaches. They know how to inspire the people they lead. This requires a shared vision or dream that everyone feels passionate about. Great leaders know how to get the best out of their colleagues, and sustainable leadership in school requires that they understand the power of collaborative and distributed leadership practices. Great leaders are those who are masters of collaboration and teamwork.
Pinch of equity Equity refers to fairness and inclusion, and the most successful education systems are equitable. When students’ family backgrounds say less about their performance in school, overall learning outcomes improve. Regardless of each child’s circumstances, they should have an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. However, schools also need adequate resources and system-level policies to enhance fairness and inclusion. Most equitable education systems, like that of Finland, for instance, systematically allocate more resources to those schools that have more demanding student populations, in terms of equity
outcomes, rather than relying on head count. These policies are sometimes labeled ‘positive discrimination’.
1 mission Everyone should own the school’s mission statement. Unfortunately, in many cases, a mission statement is there for bureaucratic purposes rather than as an inspiring beacon for bringing the school together to work for a common purpose. Mission statements should be prepared together with all stakeholders, be brief and easy to remember, and helpful in the daily work of teachers and others in school. An inspiring mission statement can be a critical tool in moving the school forward.
x2 diversity & inclusivity The world we live in is diverse and inclusive so education should prepare children for that. International mindedness encourages diversity and inclusivity in education, as well as open-mindedness and an appreciation of other cultures. Most young people today live in international social networks and diversity for them is much more natural. We must not let our schools become segregated in terms of social class, race or religion.