The Impact of my NPQSL- On Me, my Career, and my Academy!
By Joe Morrin
ATTI Fellow & Assistant Principal at The Dukeries Academy
A little bit about me
My name is Joe Morrin, an Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning at the Dukeries Academy. Additionally, I am an evidence leader in Education for Derby Research School and an Early Career Visiting Fellow for ATT. In this role, I work with other leaders to bring about rapid change within their contexts while developing supporting material and coaching opportunities to support change.
Reasons why I chose the NPQSL
Having done various leadership roles in my previous and current positions, I wanted to develop my critical thinking skills to develop my leadership decisions further. I’ve always enjoyed being a bit ‘joyfully nerdy,’ so in 2016, I completed a Master of Education in Leadership and Management with the Open University, which provided me with an opportunity to work with experienced leaders across different contexts to develop my understanding of leading change through the development of a small-scale leadership project. However, my role was more significant than in 2016, and the need to broaden my understanding of school leadership through practical examples was becoming increasingly important. For instance, I was becoming increasingly involved with the link governor for Teaching and Learning and participating in Local Governing Body meetings, and I needed to develop my knowledge of the importance of governance. Moreover, much of my role has involved overseeing professional development at my school, and the National Professional Qualification in Senior Leadership looked like an excellent opportunity to develop my leadership skills using the “learn that…” and “learn how to…” approaches.
My experiences with the NPQSL
The format of the NQPSL was great; a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous material provided opportunities for flexible study around my busy schedule. I found the reading material structured with helpful vignettes outlining practical examples, helping me apply theory to practice. During the course, there are opportunities for face-to-face local and online meetings. I thoroughly enjoyed the face-to-face meetings, as it was a chance to discuss the reading with leaders who work in different contexts and to see how they have been applying the reading to their practice. This was also an opportunity to undertake coaching-on-coaching to develop our leadership skills.
Applying the knowledge from the NQPSL to my practice
The NPQSL focused heavily on the Educational Endowment Foundation’s (2021) Implementation Framework: Explore, Prepare, Deliver and Sustain. This was extremely useful in shaping my leadership thinking and helped me to successfully implement three teaching and learning initiatives at my Academy, namely live modelling, tracking, and cold calling. As a result of this course, I developed the Academy version of an implementation framework to support staff at all levels to implement changes successfully at our school. This has helped to create a culture of ownership and clarity over expectations linked to implementation. The face-to-face meetings also provided an opportunity to discuss my implementation plans with other school leaders to gain fresh perspectives and look at potential implementation issues.
Key Takeaways
Treat implementation as a process, not an event; plan and execute it in stages. (EEF, 2019). When implementing change, consider what activities may need to stop to implement change successfully. Explore all avenues when identifying the issue and identify a tight area for improvement. Ensure you have the active ingredients for the change and communicate this this staff throughout the whole process to ensure fidelity to the intended strategy and don’t be afraid to revisit the intial idea if lethal mutations arise.
How My NPQ Supercharged My Career
By Bev Brazier
ATTI Fellow & Associate Assistant Principal at Pool Hayes Academy
Why the NPQLTD Course?
I was working as a Lead Practitioner for MFL when I was offered the opportunity to complete an NPQ course with ATTI. I especially enjoyed the instructional coaching aspect of my Lead Practitioner role and felt that this was an area in which I’d like to further develop my skills and expertise and so the specialist ‘NPQLTD’ course seemed to be a very appropriate choice for me, given its focus on developing teachers and designing effective professional development that makes a genuine difference to pupil outcomes.
Highlights of the NPQLTD Course
I found the asynchronous learning with its in-built ‘Cases Studies’ to be really interesting and continually relevant to my day-to-day practice in school. I also really benefitted from the opportunities to discuss this learning in the local seminars that form a key part of the course. The fact that my cohort was made up of a range staff in differing roles and contexts and with a variety of different levels of experience really added to my overall experience, making for really rich and valuable discussions. A key idea that I have taken from this course is the importance of checking the perspectives of other stakeholders, and my interesting discussions with staff from different contexts and with differing roles and levels of experience has really supported me in taking this idea forwards into my leadership practice.
Becoming an ATT Institute Fellow
Following the successful completion of the NPQLTD course, I am privileged to have had my passion for the cognitive science of teaching recognised and to have become an ATT Institute Fellow for the 2022-23 academic year. My NPQLTD course certainly boosted my confidence in this application and has opened the door to this fantastic opportunity for me to co-facilitate the delivery of the NPQLTD course to the Autumn 2022 cohort of participants. I am grateful for this opportunity to lead discussions for my cohort as well to support them by drawing upon my own range of experience and expertise. The ‘face to face’ days are my favourite aspect of this role as its where the learning really comes to life. It’s so rewarding and also a real privilege to hear all about how the participants are developing their confidence as leaders as the course progresses. It is very humbling to have this opportunity to support the NPQLTD cohort in improving the quality of teaching in their respective schools.
Career Progression
My NPQLTD course has also boosted my professional career in terms of my role. In the summer term of my course I applied for a secondment position to the Senior Leadership Team at my academy and was successfully appointed. I’m confident that the NPQLTD course really supported me through this process, as in addition to giving me increased knowledge and professional confidence, it also allowed me the time reflect on the type of leader that I want to be. During my secondment to SLT I have had wonderful opportunities to put my learning from the course into practice, for example as the strategic lead for ‘Assessment’ my approach was to firstly prioritise one key area to develop – how misconceptions are identified and addressed – a key area for improvement as identified in our most recent Ofsted report. I then led weekly meetings with middle leaders in which I explored and planned for an appropriate strategy, ensuring that the perspectives of a wide variety of subject areas were thoughtfully considered and that I gained the trust and support of middle leaders. Having worked with this team and gained their ‘buy in’ for the strategy, I then delivered whole school PD on this strategy, thus commencing the academy-wide roll out of my ‘Hinge Questions’ strategy. My next steps were then to ensure that all staff across the academy, with the support of the expert team of staff from a variety of subject areas, felt confident to explore this strategy in their own subject areas, developing their expertise in actively planning for and identifying misconceptions to maximise the outcomes of our students. As staff become more confident in using this strategy to check student understanding I am now developing opportunities to monitor its use and effectiveness, offering supporting and adaptations to staff as necessary. My approach here has heavily drawn upon the EEF’s guidance on Implementation, which forms an integral part of the NPQLTD course. I have very recently been appointed to a permanent position as Assistant Principal in my academy and I am excited for the opportunities that this will undoubtedly bring for me to continue to put my learning from the NPQLTD course into practice.
