Figure 4: NPQSL task: leading an improvement priority across the school

Name of participant:

Name of sponsor: Role of sponsor: Deputy Principal

Participant evidence

Background

Scope of the school Based on the SEF and 2011 Ofsted report,
improvement priority Teaching and Learning is to move from
Good to Outstanding. The targets are:
 80% of 2014 lesson observations to
be Good (embedded) or
Outstanding (enhanced)
 Sections re-Lesson Evaluation
Summary (LES) – scoring 5 or
below to improve
 Inadequate (emerging) practice to
be eliminated.
Reasons for selection The Academy's mission statement, 'All will
of the school Succeed’ is based on the belief that we
improvement priority remove barriers to learning so that our
students gain the qualifications and life skills
required for their next steps in life. I firmly
believe in the moral imperative to improve
the life chances of our students.
Forty-four languages are spoken at the
academy, with 77% of students having
English as a second language, a significant
number of our students have asylum or
refugee status and Pupil Premium is 57%.
Students are performing below national
levels. Considering the level of multi-
deprivation, high learning needs and
complex variations in attainment, I believe
the key to raising student attainment,
(particularly those receiving Pupil Premium)
lies in quality first teaching.
In my relatively new role, Director of
Professional Capital, I am responsible for
whole staff development; the improvement
priority would focus specifically on Teaching
and Learning. Dylan Wiliam, (2011) suggests
that if students are to thrive in the complex,
unpredictable world of the 21st century, the
quality of the teachers in our schools must
improve. Based on extensive evidence on a
global scale, variability at classroom level of
teachers is at least four times that at school
level showing that it is the effectiveness of
individual teachers, not schools, that has
most impact on outcomes. Furthermore,
students taught by the most effective
teachers from a group of 50 teachers will
learn in six months, what those taught by the
average teacher, learn in a year. Students
taught by the least effective teachers will
take two years to achieve the same learning
(Hanushek and Rivkin, 2006).
The successful outcome of my impact
initiative will have wide-ranging impact on
student outcomes. When students are
 positively challenged and stimulated by their
learning experiences they succeed; I believe
that quality first teaching is the catalyst for
such success.
Teams you worked During the year I worked with all teams at
with across the some stage but essentially SLT, Strand
school (curriculum) leaders, Social Capital Leaders,
other Achieve Together participants, new
staff including ITTs and the TLC groups.
Part 1 Planning for improvement Participant Sponsor verification, additional
document evidence and grade – Very Good /
references Good / Moderate / Poor
Outline of key actions The starting point was my self-development.
in Planning for To this end, I found the NPQSL modules and
improvement workshops informed some of my planning
and leadership. Hargreaves and Fullen’s
book ‘Professional Capital’, and their keynote
speech at the SSAT conference, were
informative and inspirational. The key
message, also reflected in the ‘Succeeding
in Senior Leadership’ module, was for
leaders to invest in staff by developing
human, social and decisional capital at all
levels; thus producing collective autonomy
and championing collective and distributed
leadership based on core values. It
broadened my view of leadership and
informed my leadership style, which I try to
flex with time, team and task, this is
something that I have strived to develop.
Additionally, Dylan Wiliam’s ‘Embedded
Formative Assessment’ book and
conferences helped me to create a vision for
the development of Teaching and Learning
at the academy. The Closing the Gap
module gave me clear direction for my
improvement priority, target setting and a
rigorous, systematic approach to data
interpretation.
Having analysed and compared the
academy’s results and the key data from
Lesson Evaluation Summaries (LES – Doc Doc. 2
2), I was able to define the specific areas of
literacy, stretching the higher attaining
students and assessment as key foci for
improving Teaching and Learning. This data,
alongside my personal knowledge of staff,
students, and our context, helped me
formulise an action plan (Doc.1). Doc. 1
What followed was a wide programme of
development working across all teams, so
that GCSE results hit 60% 5A*-C E/M 2014.
Competency: In order to set SMART targets I used RAISE,
Information seeking FFT, Local Authority Data Pack and internal
data to determine gaps in student
attainment. By using the data analysis tool Sponsor grade:
provided in Closing the Gap, I was able to
cross-reference data as highlighted below in
the analytical thinking section.
I used the 2012/13 LES (Doc.2) to help Doc. 2
identify specific strengths and areas of
development along with the SEF. I sought
further information through conversations
with the Director of Personalisation and
Strand Leaders, who have strong knowledge
of the quality of teaching and learning across
their teams. As individual staff performance
 data remains confidential, I used other
means to help build information such as
informal learning walks involving key staff,
which made it possible to look at underlying
issues to create specific actions. An example
of this was the poor English results
compared to other core subjects, it was
necessary to consider the impact of EAL and
low literacy levels against the quality of
teaching across the subject, evidenced as
being one of the strongest strands in the
LES. This led to the conclusion, that the
development of literacy had to stretch
beyond the English strand and should be the
key responsibility of all teachers; this was a
further consideration in creating the Literacy
for Learning initiative.
Competency: Closing the gap required us to focus on rapid
Analytical thinking progress and personalisation. Stretching all Doc.1.2a
students but especially the highest prior
attaining would require re-focussing our Sponsor grade:
Productive Pedagogical approach,
emphasising the importance of the
Intellectual Quality pedagogy, to promote
cognitive acceleration. This became a focus
when planning the CPD programme.
Raise shows 2012/13 attainment:
 5A*-CE/M measure is 5% below NA
 English 9% significantly below NA
 Science 3% below NA
 Maths 2% above NA.
 First language English, GCSE only
students, and higher prior
attainment students with other
groups, significantly
underperformed.
The LES showed literacy to be one of the Doc. 1.2b &
lowest grades across the subjects yet 1.2c
progress in English is good. Through
conversations with other Achieve Together
participants and Strand Leaders in addition
to analysing data from English on SPaG and
reading grades, it was clear that low literacy
levels created a significant barrier to learning
for an increasing number of students.
Literacy, Stretch and Challenge were two key
factors for consideration when planning my
improvement priority.
Cross-referencing student data with lesson
evaluation data showed correlation in deficit
areas such as literacy (Doc.2). Self and peer Doc. 2
assessment alongside cognition were further
areas for development in the learning
section. Regular formative and summative
assessment of student progress was also in
need of development. In the teaching section
of the LES (Doc. 2) the productive Doc. 2
pedagogies, literacy and pace and phasing,
scored only 5, thus needing intervention.
Areas of strength from strand to strand were
identified and used to develop others. These
findings formed the programme for CPD
2013/14.
Competency: Based on the above analysis I developed a
Delivering continuous comprehensive annual CPD and Induction
improvement programme. To build distributed leadership
 at all levels, I planned to build a Teaching Sponsor grade:
and Learning Community with a core group
of aspirational and strong practitioners to
help share good practice and build
collegiality. The PLC section in the ‘Leading
Professional Development’ module and
Dylan Wiliam’s ‘Chapter X – TLCs’
influenced the development plan for the TLC.
In 2012, iTunesU was introduced as a key
tool for delivering ‘our curriculum’. Its
effectiveness was widely varied yet with
further development, this tool, used
consistently well, had excellent potential to
improve teaching and learning; this required
a long-term and would be supported by the
TLCs.
Achieve Together provided an opportunity for
a collective approach to developing literacy. I
scheduled and led monthly meetings on key
strategies such as ‘Literacy for Learning’. I
was determined to use this opportunity to
help co-ordinate a whole academy literacy
initiative towards continuous improvement
that could be sustained over time.
To help develop teaching practice directly, I
worked with Strand Leaders to create a
Strand Action Plan. Teachers were able to
focus on key areas of teaching and learning
in line with their 2013 lesson evaluation
outcomes. Stand Leaders were empowered
to drive this initiative forward including a plan
for half-termly, informal, peer observations to
support the process. In order to drive
continuous improvement of teaching and
learning I urgently needed to develop my
own confidence, knowledge and practice to
secure credibility in my new role, seeking
advice from a range of colleagues.
Competency: “Passionate leaders articulate the vision,
Personal drive passionate leadership is about a deep rooted
belief in better opportunities and alternative
outcomes.” Davies and Brighouse (2008). Sponsor grade:
My strong personal drive and passion to
achieve the highest standards for our
students applies equally to staff. In my 360,
personal drive came out as my strongest
quality. My commitment to self-improvement
by developing new knowledge and skills
enabled me to build the confidence and
competence to develop others, such as the
TLC Leaders who now lead the Teaching
and Learning Community. I believe the
freedoms and trust afforded to me when I
first took up the role, provided me with the
confidence to be creative, to try new ideas
and initiatives as demonstrated through the
various threads of this project. As a
completer-finisher, I see projects through to
completion. With the Literacy for Learning
initiative I saw the opportunity to pull several
small, individual projects together and drive it
forward as one large initiative that had much
greater impact and longevity.
Part 2 Leading the implementation of the priority Participant Sponsor verification, additional
across the school document evidence and grade – Very Good /
references Good / Moderate / Poor
Outline of key actions Create a CPD and Induction Programme
in Leading the Build a TLC
implementation of the Create a Strand Action Plan with SLs
priority across the Achieve Together group to collaborate on
school literacy for learning
Wider staff development opportunities,
including teacher exchange to build a wider
teaching and learning community – audit.
iTunesU development via TLC group
Teacher exchange to further support
professional development of teaching
leaders and iTunes U development
Development of assessment
Competency: In planning and QAing CPD, I tried to involve
Delivering continuous a range of staff, including NQTs and RQTS,
improvement as leaders. I believe delivering CPD presents Doc. 1.2d
a great opportunity to develop professional Doc. 1.2e Sponsor grade:
practice and leadership skills; thus building Doc. 1.2i
capacity for leadership at all levels to secure
long-term improvement.
Moving to Strand Level, I devised the Strand Doc. 1.2f
Action Plan through consultation with Strand
Leaders. Teachers were provided with a
personal action plan, with specific teaching
and learning foci based on lesson evaluation Doc. 1.2k
findings. Strand Leaders were expected to
monitor and support the plans and help build
in capacity for informal peer observations to
take place. I monitored the progress of this
initiative through Strand Leader meetings
building towards the formal lesson evaluation
process but could see a number of flaws in
its development; it required intervention.
The ‘Literacy for Learning’ project (Doc.6), Doc. 1.2g
which had a series of threads, each
championed by staff across a variety of
subjects, was highly effective as it produced
artefacts such as the Literacy Toolkits.
I began to build the Teaching and Learning Doc. 1.2h
Community, which started with eight
members of staff, all early stage but strong
practitioners; I deliberately selected
individuals without middle or senior
management roles. By the end of the year,
the group had thirty teachers; it was highly
impactful in terms of teaching and learning
development. The TLC currently comprises
three groups; induction TLCs, Teaching and
Learning Leaders and iTunesU TLCs. Each
group has a different focus and elements are
now functioning independently; my input
tends now to be more strategic than
operational. Going forward, these groups are
set up to operate wholly independently.
Finally, iTunesU was in need of a relaunch Doc. 1.2j
as it had lost its way. The reconstruction
process would be complex and highly time
consuming; the re-launch of this effective
teaching and learning tool was left until the
end of the year and would help to align our
curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
When looking at assessment, research led Doc. 1.2l
me to Dylan Wiliam’s Embedding Formative
Assessment Programme, which I started to
embed into the CPD and Induction
programme. Having considered TEEP as a
development project, I decided the EFA
 programme was a better fit for our particular
pedagogical approach and curriculum. It also
provided a sense of purpose and strong
direction for our Teaching and Learning
Leaders (who now deliver this programme).

Competency: Over time, I have been judged to be a

Modelling excellence consistently outstanding teacher and
in leadership of therefore believe I have modelled excellence
teaching and learning as a practitioner. A leader of teaching and
learning, however, demands quite different
skills and knowledge. Using educational Sponsor grade:
research and the influence of strong
visioning from the Principal, I felt confident to
take a particular direction with the
development plan. As evidenced in my
action plan and the staff Professional Capital
Audit, I believe my drive to become
Outstanding is communicated through clear
visioning, creating exciting development
opportunities, leading events, providing
engaging CPD/Induction and coaching. Even
informal conversations with people, provide
an opportunity to be passionate about, and
promote, the language of learning. I try to be
a visible leader in line with the academy
ethos of transparency and community, this
helps me to be aware of where I need to
focus in terms of communicating my vision to
others and the next steps in development.
My personal journey demonstrates that being
open to new experiences, on-going learning
and continual improvement are desired
qualities of any outstanding practitioner.
Competency: The learner is at the heart of our approach to
Learning focus teaching and learning with the vast majority
of CPD opportunities, at all levels, being
learning focussed. The highly personalised Sponsor grade:
curriculum and our productive pedagogies,
help accelerate cognition by stretching and
challenging all students. Furthermore, our
pedagogical framework, the core of teaching
and learning, hits most of the top ten
influences on teaching and learning (Hattie
and Yates 2009) providing further credibility
to the approach used. A key focus has been
to work towards aligning curriculum,
pedagogy and assessment with the learner
at the centre. Through the teaching and
learning community, wider networking
opportunities with our Universities, LA cluster
groups and teacher exchange programme, I
believe I provided wide ranging opportunities
for internal, local and global collegiality.
Learning is at the centre of such networking.
Our literacy for learning CPD, ‘Whose Job is
it to Teach Literacy?’ ensured staff were
consulted via a survey, before focussed
literacy interventions were implemented
across all strands, the effectiveness of which Doc. 2
was evident in the learning walks and lesson
evaluation summary (Doc.2)
Competency: Through all my interactions with students and
Holding others to staff, I believe I communicate and model the
account vision and expectations around high
performance clearly and would explain the Sponsor grade:
consequences of poor performance if and
 when necessary. As a senior leader, I
believe I should challenge any poor
performance or practice via the correct
channels as necessary. However, I would
always try to conduct difficult conversations
with dignity, allowing staff to retain respect
for themselves and the people with whom
they work. The Literacy for Learning project
had multiple threads with a number of staff
involved in different initiatives. One of those
was a member of the English team who had
a paid responsible for interventions in
English. New to the role, the member of staff
had difficulties bringing together an action
plan for some key interventions identified by
the Achieve Together group. Her Strand
Leader approached me for help and
guidance. I arranged for all three of us to
meet, to discuss the concern and ascertain
the barriers causing the lack of progress. The
member of staff became very upset and felt
she couldn’t manage the workload. I felt that
she would have preferred a reduction of the
workload as an outcome of the meeting.
Instead, we had a discussion about her
responsibilities in this new role, resilience
and management of time and resources. I
then called a planning meeting where I
coached her, with the assistance of the
Strand Leader, to create an effective action
plan with realistic time scales and review
processes. I then gave her the responsibility
of creating an action plan and to report back
two weeks later, which she did. I ensured I
made the member of staff accountable, but
believe I did it in a supportive way achieving
a good outcome for all; the Strand Leader
also benefitted from participating in the
process.
Regarding implementation of the Strand
Action Plan, I found the Strand Leaders a
hard group to hold to account. Initially, their
response to the strategy was positive,
however, the implementation of the plan was
varied. My monitoring of this was also
problematic; it became clear there was a lack
of rigour in tracking strand progress and
action plans; a small number of SLs had not
adhered to the agreed programme. A lesson
learnt! I met with three SLs who had not
successfully implemented the action plan;
discussions were held but the meetings were
too late in the year to have any real impact.
Moving forward, I would ensure a future
programme had greater rigour and
accountability.
Part 3 Evaluating the impact Participant Sponsor verification, additional
document evidence and grade – Very Good /
references Good / Moderate / Poor
Outline of key actions Reference
in Evaluating the report
impact of your Comparison of Teaching and Learning Doc – 2a, 2b
leadership Lesson Evaluation Framework 2012 v 13 v
14 Doc - 1.3a –
Development and impact of TLC. 1.3h
Strand Action Plan – impact on T&L LEF and
next steps.
 Literacy for Learning Strategy impact on
Literacy development LEF
Wider staff development opportunities - audit
(too large to include in the submission but
shown to sponsor).
iTunesU evaluation and development via
TLC group . Doc. 3a
Report to Principal (part of PMR) Doc. 3b
Comparison of 13/14 GCSE/equivalent result
Competency: In order to fully test the impact of the specific
Analytical thinking teaching and learning development
initiatives, the lesson evaluation framework
13/14 was modified to reflect the specific Sponsor grade:
areas of focus - literacy, pedagogy and
assessment; these changes are evident in
the grading matrix in Doc.2b. Doc. 2b
The first target, to achieve 80% Good or
better T&L, was narrowly missed with 79%
Good or better achieved (Doc.2a) this was a Doc. 2a
significant improvement on the previous
year. The second part of this target to
achieve 20% outstanding practice was not
met, with only 14% Outstanding. Analysis
shows that assessment, although a focus,
was still not sufficiently developed. However,
overall, I believe that Induction/ CPD
programmes and development opportunities
were impactful. Going forward, the teachers
who achieved a solid Good, would benefit
from a more bespoke programme of
development.
The second target, to improve all grades
scoring 5 or below, was met, other than
numeracy, which had not been a focus area.
In the LES (Doc.2c) Literacy and Use of
Productive Pedagogies had improved from
grade 5 to grade 7 (out of 10); Pace and
Phasing with Self and Peer Assessment
improved from grade 5 to 6. Grading for
other areas of assessment had remained the
same, however, the breakdown of these into
component parts made it easier to assess
the overall impact of the various literacy and
assessment initiatives. Ultimately these
improvements in teaching and learning have
impacted results; in a year with significant
and challenging changes in GCSEs, our
results were closer than ever to National
Averages – Doc.3b Doc. 3b
Moving forward, CPD should continue to
focus on assessment, whilst developing ‘use
of creative technologies’ and ‘quality of
written responses’. In our workshops we
learned that successful schools are when the
following four things happen: teachers talk
about teaching; teachers observe each other
teach; teachers plan, organise, monitor and
evaluate their teaching together and when
teachers teach each other. To this end, I
selected Dylan Wiliam’s two-year
‘Embedding Formative Assessment’
programme for implementation during 2014 –
16. This comprehensive, programme, hits all
four of the above areas and so replaced the
failing Stand Action Plan. For it to be
delivered effectively, I needed a larger team
of TLC Leaders, (one per strand).
 With regard to creative technologies, an
evaluation of iTunesU during the summer
term, showed it to be widely variable in
presentation, quality and usage. Under my
leadership, the iTunesU TLC group devised
a new format to embed prior learning, clear
objectives, pedagogy and assessment; a
long term and on-going development plan is
now in place to drive this forward.
Competency: The ultimate goal for the academy to become
Personal drive Outstanding, will be achieved through
outstanding teaching and learning. I set
myself aspirational targets as a first step Sponsor grade:
towards achieving this goal. Given a
relatively blank canvas, I aimed to develop a
learning culture and did this by gradually
building a teaching and learning community
and an effective CPD programme where all
staff are aware of T&L practice using a
common pedagogical framework and shared
language. Being new to the Professional
Capital role, I was driven to find more
effective and sustainable ways to improve
teaching and learning, to this end my
commitment to developing others has been
relentless. I have implemented significant
change during this project but more
importantly, I have learned about effective
Senior Leadership and believe I now have a
clear sense of direction for the future. My
strong character, resilience and drive have
helped me overcome my initial lack of
confidence in this role, in my PMR feedback
2014 the overview statement written by the
Principal stated: Particularly strong
development of people through an
unrelenting focus on learning has resulted in
significant gains in good or better teaching.
Professional Capital is a real strength of the
academy and is outstandingly well led.
Competency: Having responsibility for whole staff
Impact and influence development and the opportunity to work
across all teams enabled me to have wide-
ranging impact and influence. I have Sponsor grade:
presented to a variety of groups such as
overseas visitors, SLT, Governors and
cluster networks within the Local Authority,
but more importantly, I have developed
others to do so too, including ITTs, NQTs
and RQTs. I work hard at building
relationships with staff and believe the
growth of the TLC is testament to this. It has
created a strong platform for others with two
of the original team members now appointed
as strand leaders. I have grown to believe in
empowering others at every opportunity and
am getting better at letting go. Through
strong relationships and knowing the staff
well, I have been able to use TLCs to
influence third parties on a broad scale, in
order to achieve change; an example of this
was when there was some resistance
regarding the proposed changes to the
iTunesU format. The TLCs were, and still
are, instrumental in persuading, coaching
and supporting staff to make the required
changes.
Competency: In my new role as a senior leader, I felt that I
Self awareness lacked the necessary knowledge and
confidence to effectively lead Professional
Capital, including Teaching and Learning. It Sponsor grade:
was important for me to retain credibility and
respect in my new role and I knew I had a
challenge ahead; my resilience, drive and
passion helped me to forge a vision for
teaching and learning and gradually, my
confidence grew. In the early stages of my
development, the Jahari window struck a
cord and helped me to reflect on my stage of
development, feelings and potential growth.
My confidence grew and my existing skills as
a strong communicator and organiser
transferred well to developing and leading
others. I used the Navigator tool and Doc 1.1a –
guidance (Doc.1) to help with initial planning, 1.1k
this, alongside other research materials,
created a vision for teaching and learning. I
consulted with the teaching and learning
coach as a trusted colleague knowing he
would give me honest advice and feedback
about how programmes, ideas and
development plans had been received (he
achieved this without compromising
confidentiality of the staff he works with); I
used the Management tool to help plan and
implement the aforementioned initiatives.
Holding others to account’, still creates
conflict for me because I see my role as
uplifting rather than challenging. However,
when there is a need to challenge, I use the
moral imperative and the importance of
collegiality as levers to use to influence staff.
With the advice of a Professional Coach and
my Sponsor, I tried hard to take advice on Doc. 1.2a –
board (leaving my emotions to one side) and 1.2q
I used the Manager tool (Doc.1) and
guidance, to develop an effective action plan.
I have learned that a flexible leadership style
is important. I am realising, through my own
journey, that visioning via clear frameworks
and networks whilst ensuring enough space, Doc. 1.3a –
freedom and opportunity through Partnership 1.3h
working (Professional Capital) (Doc. 1) is
provided for staff growth. I am learning to talk
less and listen more, and provide leadership
opportunities for others. Ultimately, my aim
for Professional Capital is “to meet the needs
of the present without compromising the
ability of the future generations to meet their
own needs” (Hargreaves, Boyle and Harris).

Participant’s signature…………………………. Date………………………….

Sponsor’s signature……………………………… Date…………………………..

I confirm this submission (form and supporting documents) is accurate and

verify all the evidence it contains
Headteacher’s signature………………………… Date…………………………..