Research School Network: The mundanity of excellence How do we maintain consistency over intensity when making change in our schools?

The honeymoon period is over…

Teachers and leaders know that the start of October is a critical time in schools. The often discussed ​‘honeymoon period’ is over, and all staff need to work hard to sustain a successful start to the year.

It is now that the cracks can start to show if we allow our focus to drift from our (hopefully de-pluralised) priority. Are we sure that the core components of our plans for improvement are still being implemented as planned?

• Is everyone still focused on consistent application of that teaching and learning strategy we discussed in September?
• Are our agreed routines still being implemented in the way that we hoped?
• Is the intervention we are using to develop pupils’ reading skills still being delivered with fidelity?

Without this tight and sustained focus, we can be guilty of seeing implementation as a September launch, rather than an ongoing process. And we might see the intensity that we started the academic year with fading out as the weeks go by.

The mundanity of excellence

In his paper ​‘The mundanity of excellence’, Daniel F Chambliss considered the nature of excellence by studying the habits of competitive swimmers.

Great athletes, we seem to believe, are born with a special gift, almost a ​“thing” inside of them, denied to the rest of us — perhaps physical, genetic, psychological, or physiological. Some have ​“it,” and some don’t. Some are ​“natural athletes,” and some aren’t.

Chambliss’ research did not find this to be the case. Rather, he found that superlative performance is really ​“a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesised whole.“

There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.

What does this mean for schools?

EEF’s ​‘Schools Guide to Implementation’ report, which was rewritten last year, encourages us to be reflective about our implementation to mitigate against implementation drift – prioritising consistency over intensity.

It suggests we should reflect on implementation progress, a process which helps people understand what’s working, for whom, in what circumstances, and why. If things aren’t going as planned, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on why this might be, and what we could do to get things back on track. This should be ongoing, but the start of October and the end of the ​‘honeymoon period’ seems a good time to take stock of this.

Of course, there’s always the danger that we get distracted by the latest shiny idea or new initiative, which diverts our attention from the priority in hand. This is the danger of ​‘the mundanity of excellence’: we cannot let ourselves be anything other than rigorous in our determination to enact those strategies which we have carefully identified as being the ones which are most likely to make the biggest difference for our pupils.

In both swimming and schools, doing more does not equal doing better. And just like great swimmers, great school leaders are not born with a special gift, denied to the rest of us. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in their actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.