Written by For this month’s blog I want to return to a theme that I have explored on numerous occasions and a virtue that we highlight within and across our Trust: collegiality.
In a staff survey conducted a few months ago, respondents were asked to identify the three words which first came to them when considering John Taylor MAT. For our headteachers, the words that featured most prominently were “supportive” followed by “collaboration” and “child-centred”, with “collegiate” and “professional” not far behind. When collating responses across all our staff, the responses were distributed like this:
As you can see, whilst “supportive” and “professional” remain prominent, it is “collaborative” that was the single most recorded response. As a Trust, we always endeavour to be “listening to others, sharing with others, learning from others.” It is a key driver to our work, and as we move toward the construction of our latest three-year Strategic Plan we are beginning to share our priorities with school leaders and their senior teams, and will be sharing more widely prior to the plan’s implementation from September 2024.
Moreover, across a number of subject areas our schools are developing more closely aligned curricula through co-construction of programmes of study. We see clearly the value that comes from agreeing the “what” and the “when” of content. Our colleagues can draw upon expertise across our schools, they can share resources easily, construct shared assessments and monitor and standardise more accurately and effectively. However, we remain committed to the empowerment of teachers and subject leaders in the “how” of content delivery. Our teachers add value to the children and young people they teach, and to be overly-prescriptive will stifle creativity and innovation, and remove the direct connection and relationship that is at the heart of the teacher-learner relationship. Working together on curriculum planning can, at times, be challenging – but it is worthwhile and ultimately beneficial. The generosity and open-mindedness of colleagues engaging in our network meetings is always appreciated and never taken for granted.
As a Trust we always focus our recruitment on those individuals who, in addition to their own ambitions and passions, can see the value in working collegiately and embrace the opportunities we can offer.
As regular readers of my blogs know, I often draw from the well of sport when seeking inspiration. As you would expect, there is no shortage of stories and quotations from coaches and managers of successful teams on the benefits of working together. I thought I would close with a quotation that resonates with me, and which may be new to some readers. It comes from the US College Football Hall of Fame coach Knute Rockne, who wrote “the secret of winning football games is working more as a team and less as individuals. I play not my 11 best, but my best 11.”
At John Taylor MAT, we want to develop every individual to be their best, but also to ensure that the sum of those individuals is greater than its parts. Our school teams and our central team work consciously to create such synergies every day – and it is an inspiration and privilege for me to work alongside them, planning a new strategic vision for our Trust with them.
As always, thanks for reading.
Mike.
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