Consultancy
LCLL offers high quality, effective consultancy to support and develop professionals and organisations across the education, children's workforce and public sectors. We work with leadership teams, institution-wide groups, national and international governments and organisations as well as support for staff and individuals. With significant expertise in leadership, organisational change and development and with access to the major knowledge and research base of the IOE, we can work with you to do what you need to do, when and how you want to do it.
The Institute of Education has been working closely with heads and senior leaders in several Newham schools to design bespoke professional development opportunities tailored specifically to address school priorities. Innovative and flexible programmes have been developed which draw on latest research into what makes great professional development.
Examples of these exciting and innovative programmes include:
Stretch and Challenge – from A to A* (2010– 2011)
A group of five secondary schools (Cumberland, Langdon, Rokeby, Royal Docks and Little Ilford) worked together to explore how to ensure more able pupils reached and exceeded their potential in maths and English at key stage 4. The IOE provided subject experts to observe and coach individual teachers and facilitate subject-specific workshops. Crucially, the project was designed around a framework for evaluating impact devised by the London Centre for Leadership in Learning (LCLL). Specialist CPD facilitators used the framework to support senior leaders to track and evidence the difference the teaching interventions made to practice and outcomes for pupils, thereby maximising the impact of professional learning so that new knowledge and skills could be demonstrably embedded in classroom
practice.
Making a Difference Through Action Research (2012-2013)
The headteacher of St Luke’s School, Theresa Aanonson, understands the deep and sustained benefits to be gained from developing a research-engaged school community. Having undertaken action research herself in the past, she wanted to provide all teachers with an opportunity to further develop as reflective practitioners and take part in individual investigations designed to improve children’s learning. Staff have devised their own themes for enquiry,
asking questions such as:
- How can I create rapid and sustained progress for lower attaining children in maths?
- What strategies are most effective in enabling children to make progress in writing?
- How can we use out of school hours learning to increase parental involvement in reading at home?
The IOE provided a programme of support which makes action research manageable within the day-to-day life of the school. It combines enquiry methods with impact evaluation so that, once again, staff can articulate and demonstrate the difference their research makes to their own practice and to pupil learning. Interested staff have an opportunity to present their work for Masters accreditation through the IOE, should they wish to.
William Davies School: making a difference through peer coaching relating to whole school priority of oracy and communication skills
The headteacher, Marie Maher, and deputy head, Raminder Thamrat, wanted the staff at William Davies to develop an increased level of confidence by recognising what they already achieve and do well. She also wanted to introduce a coaching approach to professional development in order for colleagues to become more autonomous in making decisions and more reflective about their practice and eventually move towards a more structured approach to classroom based enquiry. The school have made communication and oracy a priority in this current academic year (2012-13)
Through engaging in peer observation and post–lesson coaching conversations, teachers have identified what is already working well in relation to teaching communication and oracy. They have then chosen a specific aspect of their practice that they would wish to improve further and so make a difference for identified pupils in their class. Colleagues will be using the LCLL approach to evaluating the impact of their focus on outcomes for pupils as well as on their own practice. Examples of the kinds of foci developed by colleagues are:
- For a group of four identified children to have the confidence to speak in front of an audience
e.g. as in assembly.
- An identified group of six girls in reception will ask questions and expect answers so that they
understand why things happen, solve problems and work with greater independence.
- For a group of identified children in Year 2 to develop their confidence and reasoning skills in
maths, such that they can explain their choices in maths lessons.
The head and deputy recognise that CPD needs to happen in a different way to that in the past and so have committed staff development days and twilight sessions to this work– including a structured timetable to support peer observations and a trio coaching session for every pair of teachers with an LCLL expert. This work is on-going until June 2014 when teachers will present to each other the outcomes of their work.
Calverton School: making a difference through peer coaching using a narrative approach and coaching to support post-lesson dialogue.
The headteacher, Shabana Khan, and deputy head, Sarah Fowle, both have experience of being coached and of being coaches themselves and so appreciated the power of the process to support change. They wanted to engage their staff in coaching as a way to enhance talk about learning and teaching and to encourage them in being more autonomous in identifying their professional development needs. This is with a view to developing classroom enquiry as a more formal approach to CPD in coming next academic year.
Working in pairs, colleagues have been focusing on a narrative approach to lesson observation, using coaching as a model for post-lesson dialogue. As a result, each member of staff has self-diagnosed an aspect of their own practice that they wish to improve / develop with a view to making a positive impact on pupils. They have briefly explored the LCLL impact evaluation approach as an option to use to support their thinking and identify impact. They will work until the end of this academic year on this before sharing their learning with each other.
More details about our consultancy activity can be found on our IOE webpages.
