While I was completing my NPQSL last year, I read a few case studies in which
leaders created a team of “Champions”: teachers who would lead and disseminate
ideas on a certain school improvement priority. I hated the idea. It seemed like a
buzzy name for giving staff an additional responsibility with no additional pay.
To an extent, I think this cynicism is useful. It would be lovely for every working adult
to be entirely intrinsically motivated, but even the most passionate educators can’t
ignore rising rents and bills. If we’re asking staff for more, we should be giving them
more – and I believe strongly that this should be a foundational principle for any new
school initiatives.
Having said this, when I was asked to take responsibility for improving EAL provision
across the secondary school, it turned out that many teachers were keen to be
involved. I’m Head of English at my school; in order to make sure that EAL was an
“everyone thing” (not just an “English thing”), I needed to know that discussions and
actions were being facilitated in every department. When I started asking HoDs
about this, the idea of a team of EAL and Literacy Champions was generally very
well-received.
The goal was to keep the workload manageable and focused for the Champions. We
met once per half term and, although I couldn’t negotiate a monetary allowance, the
school agreed to provide lunches. I made our short meetings structured, with a
reflection section, key focus and clear actions each time. I made sure that everything
I presented was rooted in research and genuinely practicable within our context. If
you’d like to see or use any of the slides from these meetings, we’ve uploaded them
Feedback was largely very positive, and we’re already starting to see the impact of
strategies that are working well in different departments. Having said this, I didn’t get
everything right. Here’s what I’d change next time:
Some of the sessions were much less relevant to certain departments (e.g.
the maths and PE Champions probably couldn’t use much from the session
on reading). Making the activities more flexible to allow Champions to reflect
more on what students need in different subject areas would have been a
better use of everyone’s time.
We held the sessions at lunchtimes because I was very wary of taking up
teachers’ time after school. We inevitably ran out of time for what I’d planned
however – either less content or a more relaxed time frame would have been
beneficial.
Some departments nominated Champions who weren’t best placed to enact
positive change in their subject areas (e.g lab assistants or NQTs). We
changed some of these as the year progressed, but I’d specify experienced
teachers next time.
Have you tried working with a team of Champions in your school? Tweet us if you
have – we’d love to read about your experiences.
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