Research School Network: Establishing Priorities We need to dedicating time carefully exploring and defining a priority that need addressing.

‘There’s time for everything except the things worth doing’
George Orwell – Coming up for air

At this time of the year teachers’ and leaders’ thoughts may turn to their gardens in the summer light evenings. We all want to have a ​‘good’ garden ready for the summer. We head off to the garden centre, buy plants which look good, construct some cheap garden furniture and fire up the lawnmower. We may even succeed in having a good garden for a few days in summer possibly even the envy of our friends but what happens after those few days? The flowers die, the furniture rusts, the weeds grow and the lawnmower packs in. This is gardening as an event. As all good gardeners know, gardening is a process, the preparation for this Summer’s garden is done in the previous year with the digging of drains, tending of the soil and maintenance of the furniture.

Is this Gardeners World or a Research School blog, I hear you cry? In the same way that gardeners would like a ​‘good’ garden School leaders may want a ​‘good’ school. This is often the starting point of discussions around school improvement priorities. In the same way that some gardeners throw shiny new plants into unprepared soils the temptation can be to take the latest ideas and placed directly into schools. The new Ofsted framework is full of research and evidence-based strategies for school improvement these are many and varied including Cognitive Load Theory, Rosenshine’s principles of instruction, spacing, interleaving and retrieval practice. Is your experience in school an extensive collection of ideas without adequate preparation and sustenance or is it a beautiful garden? Implementation is key and the EEF implementation guide is essential reading.

Thinking about implementation as a process, this comes with consequences (according to Stu Mathers of EEF). It means there is a limit to how much implementation you can do at any time. This can feel very risky especially if the schools in Ofsted categories. Defining the problem is something teachers find hardest and forms the first part of an explore phase. It’s about choosing priorities that are important, specific and have knock on effects for other things and are pupil outcome driven.

A bad example of establishing priorities which could apply to the classroom year group or School:
​“From internal data we have established that our pupil Premium pupils have low literacy levels”

There are two main issues with identifying an issue this way:

Firstly, identifying PP students as a homogenous group with the same needs and issues.
Secondly the use of literacy is too wide in this example. Even if we just looked at reading we would need to be more specific about which aspects of reading to start to be able to find out appropriate solutions.

This stage is vital as good implementation means that a bad idea could be implemented well and this must be avoided.

The second part of the explore stage is identifying possible solutions using your clear identification of problems to ask good questions. This is where research evidence often comes into its own. Why would you not look to learn from a high-quality and rigorous look at what people have done before? Key places to look or guidance reports teaching and learning toolkit and the evidence for impact website

The third and most important challenge is considering the fit and feasibility for your school. The classic challenge is to avoid jumping into the solution first. I am a regular visitor to garden shows as a Biologist and seeing plants thriving magnificently in Chelsea, the temptation to invest and transfer them to my developing garden is overwhelming. Teachers and leaders should carefully check that any idea fix their context and ethos, addressing the challenges or problems their school faces. A 6‑ft palm tree may look slightly out of place in a 10 by 5 plot and may affect the growth of other plants.

In school and in our extended gardening analogy having defined the problem and identify solutions thoughts now turn to our behaviour in the implementation process. In gardening as a process, it is vital to care for plants as they grow to maintain and nourish them into the next season. Without this fast forward 8 and 9 months from that good summer, the whole process has to start again, another trip to the garden centre, more shiny expensive flowers and furniture purchased. This is expensive and also slightly demoralising possibly resulting in this year’s garden not being quite as nice as last year’s. The collateral damage to schools of endless poorly implemented initiatives can be severe. In schools implementing priorities as a process, we must consider (according to Susan Michie and colleagues) that behaviour is a result of the interaction of three conditions.

Capability- knowledge and skills

Opportunity- time and space and social acceptability

Motivation- mechanisms that encourage or inhibit behaviours

Is the priority for the school in literacy where is your expertise? Is their skill set suited to delivering to staff? Do you need external expertise? Remember a good idea implemented badly will undermine teacher’s confidence. Consider carefully what capacity you have and use it effectively.

A school deciding to implement drop everything and read to address their priority low literacy levels must consider opportunity. The sessions are planned during form time on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. That is of course dependent on whether it is form assembly, year assembly, whole school assembly, PSHE or homework diary checking. This lack of opportunity for priorities to take hold reduces their success and undermines teacher’s confidence.

Correct identification of priorities will ensure buy in and consequent motivation from teachers and pupils. The culture of doing less better with its incremental improvements will ensure that even higher levels of trust will be evident. This positive forward momentum will carry everyone forward. My gardening plan relies on my small amount of knowledge and could fail without opportunity being built into my already busy schedule. My motivation will increase safe in the knowledge that my small incremental priorities will lead to a sustained beautiful garden year-on-year.

In conclusion rather than chasing the event of a good garden or a good Ofsted grading, we need to treat improvement and implementation as processes, dedicating time carefully exploring and defining a priority that need addressing. We need to create clear implementation plans and practically prepare for their delivery. This process will lead to not just one summer of a nice garden or one set of good results but to sustained improvements year on year with their inherent benefits for all concerned.

Now about that palm tree…