Research School Network: EEF Implementation Guidance: It’s a Journey By Victoria Begley, Assistant Headteacher, Dulwich Hamlet Junior School

Fresh from completing my NPQSL in July 2024, I was delighted to be appointed one of three new Assistant Headteachers at Dulwich Hamlet Junior School. After a long 18 months of asynchronous learning, online seminars and self-reflection, I was ready to put my understanding of change management into practice and make… well… some changes. That was until the unthinkable happened. The EEF, I discovered, had published an updated version of their School’s Guide to Implementation. How could they do this to me? And what kind of leader would I be without the familiar comfort blanket of the four phases of implementation: explore, prepare, deliver and sustain?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to find out. Despite my initial panic, the phases of change remain intact and implementation is still, mercifully, a process. The updates to the guidance, though significant, are less about ​‘what to do’ and more about ​‘how to do it well’ – armed with an understanding of implementation as a ​‘collaborative and social process’. Somewhat relieved, I took a closer look at the changes to find out how they were likely to impact me as a brand-new school leader.

The main thrust of the updated guidance is around behaviours to promote effective implementation, specifically engage, unite and reflect. So, I took a moment to consider those in turn.

Engage: I am fortunate to work with an incredibly enthusiastic and open-minded group of educators, who are always ready to collaborate and professionally challenge, so team engagement is something I confess I’ve taken for granted in the past. What I’ve realised in the last five weeks, is that it is now my job to actively steer this engagement in the right direction. This forces me to find a new balance as a leader who seeks input and listens, while maintaining oversight and drive towards agreed objectives that improve outcomes. It’s difficult to get right, and I’m still working on ways to explain difficult decisions and gently redirect professional energies.

Unite: Uniting colleagues around the ​‘what, how and why’ of an implementation was certainly covered in the previous version of the EEF guidance. The prominence given in this new iteration, however, reflects its undeniable importance. Shared values, goals and understanding are essential to effective change management, and no doubt contribute to the ​‘positive implementation climate’ introduced in the guidance. It’s really very simple: if people fear change based on prior experiences, they will resist it. And it’s our job to change that, not theirs.

Reflect: Again, reflective practice was a huge part of the EEF guidance I knew (and loved) during my NPQ. In simple terms, you can’t fix problems if you don’t know what they are, and you can’t improve practice if you don’t know what you’re already doing. But the message from the updated guidance is even simpler: do less, better. When we reflect on existing practice and new initiatives, we have to remember that, frankly, they don’t always work. De-implementation has its place alongside implementation. Every time we do something new, we need to consider what we can stop doing to make space for it. Otherwise, we are playing Buckaroo with teacher workload.

Finally, reading the updated guidance reminded me that implementation takes time. It’s easy as a new leader to feel pressure to ​‘make an impact’ early on. I certainly feel it. But before I get ahead of myself, I am reminded to focus on the journey (or, indeed, the four phases of implementation) rather than the destination, and embrace the challenges along the way. Wish me luck.