●(Expectations of Formal Leadership Practice) Wales v England (Headteachers’ Standards)

There is nothing quite like a rugby match against England to bring out the patriotism and ‘hwyl’ in the Welsh.  Many of my good friends are English, I love many parts of England, my brother and my sister live in England, and nothing feels more exhilarating than beating the English.  Beating them at anything, but especially beating them at rugby.

I can’t help but wonder why.  Those far more learned than I may refer to deep cultural issues relating to the Welsh being governed by the English, or to the plundering of Welsh natural resources. Perhaps it’s all more simple; small verses big, David verses Goliath. Regardless, whist patriotism, healthy competition and good-natured banter are good, racism, stereotypes and ignorance are not.

Throughout my career I’ve known of many occasions when Welsh educators have looked around the world for inspiration: visits to Sweden, to Canada, to Hungary to learn more about the way they teach and to bring the absolute best back to Wales.  However, at times, it seems to me that there is almost an unspoken law that in Wales we just have to do it differently than in England.

My partial retirement and the setting up of my own business have both provided me the opportunity to work in England for the first time, though I did begin my love of the craft of teaching at teacher training college in Liverpool. I’ve crossed the second Severn crossing (Prince Of Wales Bridge) and ventured into the world of English education. Paradoxically so much is similar and yet at other times I feel as if I have travelled to a far and distant land with a language of its own. Things have different names and I am caught out by unfamiliar acronyms. Yet the craft of teaching is the craft of teaching and excellent/outstanding teaching has the same characteristics regardless of boundaries.

As much as it sticks in my Welsh throat, I have to say that I really like the headteachers’ standards published In England in October 2020. They have provided the basis of my bespoke coaching sessions with headteachers and senior members of staff.  I have used them to develop a simple tool for headteacher self-evaluation that can link to inspection, performance management and school improvement.  I have used them in helping someone prepare for a headteacher interview (He got the job!) and I can see how they could be used to support Governors and to facilitate the sharing of excellent practice. I am even using them in coaching sessions with a school based occupational therapist to help someone from the world of medicine understand those from the world of education with whom she works.

I understand the English headteachers’ standards.  Having successfully led three schools and worked preparing candidates for headship as an NPQH tutor for many years, they chime with me.  I can see how they cover the important aspects of being a leader of a school.  Further it’s easy to see how they relate to the national professional qualifications for middle leaders, senior leaders, headteachers and executive headteachers.  There is a system.  It’s coherent. It’s clear.

Given the great feedback I’ve received from the way I’ve used the English headteachers’ standards, I thought I would look closer to home to see if I could develop a similar tool and coaching programme for Welsh leaders. It’s then that I tried working with the Welsh ‘expectations of formal leadership practice’. Despite my wanting them to be better than the English equivalent, I found them much harder to access.  I struggled to see how it all fitted together. The language is different- it’s the language of education reform.

Like a Welsh rugby player, I dug deep.  I worked to build my understanding and I came to see that they have teaching and learning at their heart, something that educationalists everywhere would applaud. A school leader that keeps the focus on teaching and learning has to be a good one. The Welsh expectations of formal leadership practice ensure that research informed and research engaged practice flourishes, that school to school collaboration becomes the norm and they facilitate the formation of a workforce that can find its own way, rather than rely on others.  There is so much in these expectations that I like.

So, which are best?  Welsh or English? For me, it’s half time and all to play for.  I am still working on understanding the Welsh expectations of formal leadership practice.  I have yet to be convinced that starting from teaching and learning, whilst admirable, enables all vital roles that school leaders perform to be covered. For example:

‘Contribution to conferences, journals and research is carried out in partnership with others’ is included yet I am struggling to find reference to safeguarding children or to the many roles that leaders play in ensuring all health and safety requirements are met.

 I am concerned that academics have created something that makes sense to them but not to those that work in schools. For example:

‘Leadership is committed to structured use of pilot and prototype development in the most appropriate settings and to ensure continuous and sustained success as far as possible.’

Easily understood?  Clear?  Open to misinterpretation?

 It’s at this point that I reach for the expectation that begins ‘Optimism prevails…..’. 

I am Welsh through and through. My patriotism and hwyl will ensure that I drive through and make these workable but how I wish I could use the structure of the English standards. 

Perhaps I should…………take the best from both.  Now there’s a radical idea! A British Lions approach to education has appeal!