Research School Network: To lead is to collaborate: putting implementation into practice By Lauren Fabian-Miller, Science and Reading Lead at a two-form primary school in central Bristol

How do you engage a child with their learning? You explain the context and the reasons why it will help them. Successful implementation can be viewed the same. We are invested in changes when we understand the thought behind them and the impact they can have.

To have success over the long term, leadership needs to be collaborative and not directive. When people feel valued, they will work with you towards a shared goal.

The latest EEF Implementation guidance report (2024) highlights the power of collaboration and creating a culture where implementation is a shared responsibility across staff. It provides a framework for implementing change into four distinct stages: Explore, Prepare, Deliver and Sustain.

Explore: What is the need?

Step one is to identify the specific pupil challenges or needs and consider what intervention is required to address this. When reviewing reading practice, it became clear through discussions with children that they were using reading skills to engage with texts and could say the words ​‘retrieve’ or ​‘infer’ but could not articulate what these words meant, why they were important or how to do them. Teacher modelling of these skills was also not consistent across the school. We wanted the children to have a reading toolkit which they could use across subjects. I understood the importance of breaking learning into small, explicit steps (Rosenshine, 2012) and wanted to incorporate this.

Prepare: How will we address the need?

The next stage is to plan in detail how you will roll out the approach across the school. Firstly, I collaborated with the teachers who were explicitly modelling the skills in their lessons to identify the steps involved with each skill. I then designed a child-friendly definition and success criteria for each skill in a format teachers could use straight away. I trialled these in my class to ensure they supported children’s learning and were easily accessible for teachers. Once the impact was tested, I moved to the next stage.

Deliver: How do we roll it out?

The delivery phase is where the intervention is put into action. This began with collaborative staff CPD on the importance of explicit modelling of reading skills and making the steps visible to students. These would be helpful for all but particularly the lowest achieving pupils and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Monitoring and gathering feedback along the way is crucial to tailoring the approach to have the most impact.

Sustain: How can we make it last?

The final stage, and often the most challenging, is maintaining the effort to ensure the change lasts. It is important to support staff and regularly review the impact of the intervention. Have these reviews planned over the year and value staff voice to understand what may need to change. Be open to suggestions and prepared to adapt. This shows staff their opinions are valued and will be listened to as well as ensuring the intervention is the best it can be for the children.

A key summary of the guidance report is that implementation is a fundamentally collaborative and social process. As leaders, we need to empower people who enable change and understand this is not tied to their job role but their expertise.