: It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it…and that’s what gets results! The value of engaging and empowering colleagues whilst driving the successful implementation of a trust-wide phonics strategy.

Roxy Grant, Early Reading Director, and Donna Brown, Associate Executive Principal, of Delta Academies Trust, reflect on the value of engaging and empowering colleagues whilst driving the successful implementation of a trust-wide phonics strategy.

Treating implementation as an ongoing process of learning and improvement has always been a key message in the EEF’s ​‘A School’s Guide to Implementation’. The latest version promotes a structured and flexible approach, placing a much sharper focus on how to do this process well. This can be achieved by applying behaviours and contextual factors to the day-to-day management of school improvement across all the phases of implementation.

Adopting collaborative behaviours that drive implementation by enacting them at every phase of the process will reap great benefits. Fostering strong relationships in a team by creating authentic opportunities to engage and unite towards a shared goal inevitably leads to much greater buy-in from colleagues. For change to take place, we are far more likely to succeed in a climate where practitioners and leaders are consulted every step of the way, where they are involved in decision-making and professional debate is encouraged.

Three years ago, our goal was crystal clear – to establish a sustainable and consistent approach to teaching high-quality phonics across 33 primary academies.

What? Provide every child, regardless of background, with the highest quality phonics teaching.

Why? To ensure every child has the word reading skills to become a competent early reader, thereby opening opportunities to learn and achieve across the curriculum.

How? Through the effective implementation of a validated systematic synthetic phonics programme.

At first, this sounded relatively straightforward to achieve but with almost 1000 teaching staff and leaders to engage and unite, it proved to be no simple task.

Throughout our ongoing journey, we continue to discover the huge benefits of engaging and empowering practitioners and leaders at every phase of the implementation process. The new EEF guidance emphasises the behaviours: engage, unite, reflect, and offers very welcome advice. Our experience proves time and time again that these behaviours are truly at the heart of effective implementation.

Alongside the development of systems and structures that were implemented consistently across the Trust, we adopted a range of collaborative practices to unite, engage and ultimately empower all staff. Here are just a few of reflections on what went well and the lessons we learnt…and are continuing to learn.

ENGAGE:

• Practitioners and leaders were actively involved in decision making from the earliest stages of selecting an SSP (Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme) from a range of validated programmes. The decision had not already been made by senior leaders. Valuing staff voice, including concerns and professional challenges received from a diverse group, increased staff investment and supported us in making the right decision for everyone.

• At the early stages of delivery, we focussed on increasing staff confidence and developing expertise. Consistent teaching techniques and the shared pace of our programme really helped us to maximise collaborative opportunities, including access to continuous high-quality CPD for every single primary practitioner and leader. This continues to include 1:1 coaching, open classrooms, in-house support, networking events and whole trust training for different groups. Through this model, trust leaders have been able to identify strong practitioners and phonics leaders who are ready for development and could support colleagues regionally and across the Trust. As a result, we quickly saw a rapid increase in staff confidence in terms of delivery of the programme and leadership of it.

UNITE:

• Supporting practitioners in school through the explicit modelling of teaching techniques by school leaders and the core curriculum team has ensured great consistency of our new approach. This has been fundamental to its success across the Trust.

• Once leaders in schools were confident in their own delivery of the new approach, this empowered them to coach their own staff, enabling high-quality teaching and learning to be sustainable. This includes the effective induction of new staff who are swiftly inducted into the programme.

REFLECT:

• Whilst celebrating many successes we continue to identify barriers to learning for every one of our pupils. Ensuring positive relationships between leaders and the whole school community and supporting a culture where staff actively seek help and guidance and identify their own areas for development without fear of judgement is essential.

• Within the first year of implementation staff voice was approving. Some colleagues who had initially voiced their concerns were feeding back on the positive impact the new approach had on their children’s learning. There is nothing more powerful than seeing the impact on pupil’s learning and outcomes and how this, in turn, continues to engage, unite and empower teachers.

Earlier, we talked about reaping the benefits of engaging and uniting a team for successful implementation to take place. In terms of staff, there is plenty to reap, including the increased confidence, knowledge, expertise and full commitment of our team in delivering a consistently high standard of phonics across every school. Regarding pupil outcomes, we have plenty to celebrate; more children are leaving Year One as confident early readers with the word reading skills and enjoyment of reading essential to the next phase of their learning. As these young children continue their exciting journey, so do we. The collaborative process of implementation continues, and it has never been more important to engage and unite the team.