Monday, March 23, 2009

'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.' It's all about attitude, determination and persistence. If you want to be successful in any aspect of your life you need to be persistent...

Persistence is the powerful force that keeps pushing you on when that little voice in your head is telling you to quit. Persistence is an intense desire to succeed. You either have it or you don’t but the good news is that persistence is a state of mind and you can develop persistence. Now is the time to be more persistent than ever. Now is the time for us all to step up. Persistence will reward us all for our efforts when we achieve our goals. It is one of the greatest feelings in life. Hang in there!
Chris

Sunday, March 22, 2009

I've been dealing with a lot of difficult things; difficult people and difficult issues. I am grateful to those colleagues and friends who have helped me manage my demons recently and helped me realise that there are seven steps which help us manage the impossible:

Step1
Remember that problems are what we make them.
Step2
Remember that you have a choice in how you handle things.
Step3
Remember to never give up or give in when faced with a challenge.
Step4
Remember to deal with your emotions.
Step5
Remember that problems and difficult situations help us to grow as individuals.
Step6
Remember to learn to laugh at your situation and mistakes no matter how bad they are.
Step7
Remember we all need help and support.

It's great to have someone to talk to when the going gets tough, so that the tough can get going.
Chris
To create a brilliant school, a brilliant team or a brilliant organisation you must...

Behave Equitably
Treat others in a way you would wish to be treated yourself.
Be Honest and Trustworthy

Understand what is important, be open, honest and keep your promises.
Care About People

Be caring and supportive and make sure you treat colleagues with respect.
Use Coaching and Feedback

Nurture growth and challenge, and recognise that colleagues just want to do well and enjoy the roles they have, and do a great job.
Recognise Success
Acknowledge good performance and recognise it every and any way we can... thank you's, hugs, letters, stickers, flowers and chocolate all help.
Communicate Well

Be truly interested in what colleagues have to say and ensure that they are appreciated, information is openly shared and everyone contributes fully.
Delegate Well

Help colleagues do what they are best at. We must all let go of the things we don't need to do and use delegation to develop colleagues skills and abilities.
Build Relationships

Develop great relationships where colleagues care, share and connect their ideas, successes and concerns.
Appreciate Differences

Understand that every colleague can contribute their particular and unique skills and abilities to build real success.
Have Finally Have Fun!

Ensure that every Friday, if not every day, we smile, laugh and eat chocolate.

Let me know what you think we can do to build brilliant.
Chris

Friday, March 06, 2009

We need to remember that we are all talented, brilliant, gorgeous and wonderful; all potential high achievers wherever we work in this crazy enterprise; in the school kitchen, the playground or the playing field, the classroom, the laboratory, the workshop, the office or at Education Leeds...

We all try out new recipes and approaches, we test assumptions, we experiment with new concepts and ideas, we look at data and outcomes and we constantly search for the magic ingredient that can lead to a breakthrough and help us make even more of a difference to the lives of our children and young people. In our constant search for brilliant; brilliant food, brilliant systems, briliant provision and brilliant outcomes, we must be creative, methodical, pragmatic and demanding and our personal standards have to be focused, relentless and uncompromising. Only our brilliant best is good enough for the children and young people, the families and the communities we serve. It is important that we all remember that achieving the outstanding, the brilliant, the magical comes from putting your heart and soul into your work. It is about being passionate and loving what you are doing to bring out your absolute incredible potential. The words 'passion' and 'love' are there because they are the secret to brilliant. If you don't love what you are doing with a real passion, you are wasting your life and you should take your magic and your potential and go and do something else!

It has been an incredibly difficult week full of meetings, challenge and frustration but interspersed as always with little interludes of real magic. I visited South Leeds High School as part of the Corporate Assessment tour we arranged fo the city's inspectors and auditors. We celebrated the achievements of yet another cohort of fantastic Higher Level Teaching Assistants. I attended the beginning of the RM/Education Leeds 'Demonstrating Transformation Conference where Professor Tim Brighouse gave the keynote address. I visited East Ardsley and Kirkstall St Stephen's CE Primary Schools. I had breakfast with some of the Templenewsam Halton Family of Schools headteachers and lunch with the Seacroft and Manston Family of Schools headteachers.

I have to admit that I have struggled over the last three weeks and I am sorry to say that on occasions I have lost the plot. I have become very tired, depressed and negative and I recognise that I have started to undermine the very special culture, values and relationships we have all worked so hard to nurture and develop here at Education Leeds. However, thanks to some friends and colleagues, I am pleased to say that at the end of the week and over the weekend I have readjusted the volume and the balance. I have managed to relax, unwind, refocus and re-read Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. It’s a great book, first published in 1937, and things don’t get any clearer than this:
  • Don’t criticise, condemn or complain;
  • Give honest and sincere feedback;
  • Be genuinely interested;
  • Smile and laugh;
  • Remember colleagues names;
  • Be a good listener;
  • Make colleagues feel valued;
  • Avoid arguments;
  • Respect colleagues opinions;
  • Admit it when you are wrong;
  • Be friendly and supportive;
  • Get colleagues to agree with you;
  • Let colleagues do the talking;
  • Let others feel that ideas are theirs;
  • See things from colleagues’s viewpoints;
  • Be sympathetic to other ideas;
  • Appeal to the moral purpose;
  • Tell powerful stories;
  • Set colleagues challenges;
  • Begin with praise and appreciation;
  • Identify mistakes indirectly;
  • Talk about your own mistakes;
  • Ask questions;
  • Help colleagues save face;
  • Praise every little thing;
  • Talk colleagues up;
  • Use encouragement;
  • Encourage people to be happy at work;
  • Keep it simple.

'Whatever you do keep it simple' should be etched on the wall in every staff room, every office and every room at Education Leeds. Complexity is the curse of the digital age. It is a type of intellectual pollution that drives out clarity of purpose, smothers thinking and common sense and impacts negatively and destructively on colleagues happiness, productivity and engagement. We all know that achieving absolute simplicity is something none of us will ever achieve but if we don't make some real effort, if we don't train ourselves to look for ways to simplify, we can guarantee our lives will become more complex, busier, less efficient and even more stressful and destructive.

Keep the faith.

Chris

Monday, March 02, 2009

I received a wonderful letter from Steve Grigg who is Head of SEN and Principal Educational Psychologist in the City of York...

Steve had visited Rodillian School, with a delegation from York, to look at the Rodillian/Broomfield Partnership. He and the group were bowled over by the building and the fantastic provision available for children with special educational needs. Steve highlighted how impressed everyone was by the drive and commitment of Sharon Cooper's team and the flexible approach the school has developed to the challenges this sort of provision faces. They were also impressed by the general atmosphere and behaviour around the school which is a real tribute to Andy Goulty who is doing a great job.

It is fantastic to get this sort of independent and objective feedback on the impact our SILC partnership working is having and how we are changing the culture in our secondary schools to make them happier, healthier and more inclusive places.
Chris

Sunday, March 01, 2009

It has been a very hard couple of weeks..

We all face relentless and uncompromising pressure and higher and higher expectations. The real challenge is how do we continue to improve learning and outcomes for all our students? And how do we create provision that delivers significantly better learning outcomes? The challenges remain driving up secondary standards, improving the very low secondary contextual value added, improving attendance and improving behaviour. We must work even harder to address the needs of young people achieving very little after eleven years of statutory education, tackling those not in education, employment and training and we must ensure that no schools in Leeds achieve below the floor targets; whatever they are!

I often wonder why some of our provision is so fragile, so prone to failure, so limited in its effectiveness and so poorly performing when compared to the best in Leeds let alone the best in the country. Wherever we are not achieving brilliant outcomes we must do something. We must re-imagine our systems, processes and provision and be brave enough to ask ourselves what we can do to ensure that there is step change in outcomes for all young people here in Leeds... and then get on and do it!

I have been to some incredible learning places recently. Across the city, brilliant colleagues working in schools and classrooms are releasing the magic and delivering world class outcomes, often against the odds. We know what it takes to build brilliant... it's alive and well here in Leeds.
  • leadership matters;
  • attendance is crucial;
  • managing behaviour vital;
  • enthusiasm is contagious;
  • small is beautiful;
  • relationships are key;
  • passion creates ownership;
  • coaching counts;
  • persistence and determination go a long way; and
  • you tend to get what you expect.

This job we do is too important for any of us to be ordinary. We must all strive. each and every day to be extra-ordinary, to be outstanding and to be brilliant.

Chris