It is clearly the intention of the government and the DFE that school to school support should be brokered through teaching schools and the CLF supports this vision for school improvement. Our experience shows us that peer to peer support where both the giver and receiver of the support are based in school setting has more credibility and more immediate impact than when the provider of support no longer has the cutting edge experience of the classroom.
The CLF has been working as a provider of school to school support for the past five years. David Carter the Executive Principal is a NLE and in this capacity has built a team of CLF colleagues who provide support to schools both within the CLF and outside it. The introduction of the Specialist Leader in Education role (SLE) has resulted in a rapid increase in the quality and capacity of the support that is available from the teaching school to school partners across the region.
We have 29 SLE designated within our Teaching School and we have focused our recruitment on the following school improvement areas where we believe based on the needs of our own schools, many schools across our region would value the support. In summary, the areas where we are well placed to offer support are below.
The OFSTED Healthcheck-using our own senior leaders who have experienced the new OFSTED framework, as well as a team of trained Inspectors who regularly provide external evaluation of our CLF Academies, we can offer schools a one or two day review ahead of an impending inspection
Supporting leaders and teachers in English, Maths and Science to raise standards
Support for teachers moving from Satisfactory to Good in all aspects of the curriculum
Developing the middle leader as a coach
Improving the quality of middle leadership to raise standards across the school
Improving the quality of post 16 teaching and learning
Strategies to improve Behaviour and Engagement
Curriculum Design in the Primary School
How to become an SLE within the CLF Teaching School
If you would like to become a SLE within our Teaching School, please download this document that will give you the information you need to make an application To see our SLE team at a glance, showing the schools they work in and the expertise they bring, click on the ebook below
A map showing the SLEs trained by CLF in the first cohort.
The role of the Specialist Leader in Education in the CLF Teaching School
Establishing the Teaching School
1. Sharing information about the opportunities available within the CLF Teaching School to other leaders in the home school of the SLE including the SLT
2. Providing feedback on the main teaching school activities to the SLT and governing body of the SLE school
3. To be an active contributor to the social networking and on line presence of the Teaching School
4. To make sure that any staff who are leaving the SLE home school are made aware of the Teaching School Alumni opportunities
5. Keeping personal records of all aspects of support that you have been engaged in as a SLE so that the Teaching School has access to the core activity taking place
School to School Support
6. To provide support for teachers consistently satisfactory or weak
7. To host visits from teachers in need of support to your classroom to see you teach
8. To provide support for middle leaders in their own school and in yours
9. To work as part of a SLE team who can lead and disseminate a subject, departmental or whole school review
Research and Development
10. To contribute one piece of completed action research for the VTS
11. To support the delivery of the 2012-2014 research project that the CLF Teaching School is leading with the National College on how outstanding leadership leads to outstanding pedagogy
New model of ITT
12. To support as needed the recruitment and selection of our PGCE cohorts
13. To deliver a seminar or workshop to the PGCE cohort
14. To mentor one of our PGCE/SD Trainees
15. To work with and host visits when appropriate with the Teachers for Tomorrow students from the CLF post 16 cohorts
CPD and Leadership Development
16. To design and deliver workshops at CLF Conferences
17. To design and lead as part of a team or as an individual one of the CLF Learning Seminars in 2012-13
18. To agree to be filmed teaching a lesson with a specific focus in mind to help build the digital library of the Teaching School
19. To take responsibility for your own leadership development by applying to join one of the National College L1 to L3 programmes that are most appropriate for your development needs
