Let us avoid the potentially contentious headings of Transformation and Systemic Change for the time being, but instead consider how we can support the process of Change in an education context.
There are various Change scenarios that occur regularly within education. E.g. Timetabling, staffing, national curriculum directives, examination requirements etc. But consider also, changes you choose to make to classroom accommodation, a key stage 3 curriculum model, the school day, new ICT purchases and even status changes to the whole school. Before you can even begin to embark on changing, implementing or adopting anything new, there needs to be a clear reason for changing it and a shared view of what the newly reformed outcome should look like and of course a plan to make it happen.
We have been supporting Schools, Academies and Local Authorities with their successful management of change for a number of years. As with every project we get asked to support, we begin and end with Teaching and Learning as the focus. By adding capacity to your existing Leadership Team, meaning you are able to remain focused on your existing school management tasks whilst being supported internally to develop a strategy that works for your School, we have adopted a Change Management model that uses a 3 dimensional equation to support the process of implementing any change. This consistently ensures successful change journeys
Academy Status Conversion
- Are you considering converting your school to Academy Status this year?
- Have you already been inundated with offers of support, advice, legal processing, and financial auditing services from an array of different providers?
- Are you still undecided about the whole ordeal: The devolved budget; procurement of services that were previously provided from the Local Authority; VAT; Charities registration processes
Not to mention that you are already busy running your successful school. The government DFE Impact Assessment report estimates the cost of converting to Academy status at £78,000, which means that the £25,000 grant needs to stretch a very long way.
We have partnered with Devonshires Solicitors, Grant Thornton and Metia to provide a support programme that helps you understand the process, identify the benefits specifically for your school and add capacity to your Leadership Team to support the application process from within your school so that you don’t have to take your eye off running your school.
There is a broad range of options that we are ready to support with. There are some core fundamental options that you do need to follow, like Staff Consultation, the legal transfer of land for example but others can be selected, as if from a menu. Our whole team are experts in this process and have supported many Academy and larger Local Authority staff consultations, engagement sessions, land and contract transfers with programme management built in. This is a very personal service that is carried out with you and because it is project managed it will be completed on time and within budget. As you would expect from us by now, we will also apply our 3 dimensional approach to this School status Change. The 3 dimensional Change model can be used as part of the consultation process with your Governing Body and staff as you see fit. Needless to say, we begin and end with the focus being on Teaching and Learning and the benefits that this conversion will provide to learners.
If you would like to discuss your requirements and discover which of the services from the menu below would benefit your school then please do call Neil on 0790 330 333 in the first instance to arrange a consultation.
We are confident that the legal services will cost less than £15,000, leaving the grant budget with a balance to be able to carry out the financial and recommended ICT audit services, maybe some rebranding work supported by our partner Metia and one of our education project managers who can add capacity to your existing Leadership Team to ensure that the whole conversion follows the required process and completes on time and within the agreed budget.
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(*) Are considered to be essential services you require in order to legally complete the Academy status conversion process |
As the number of Academy conversions increases, we would encourage you to book your consultation sooner rather than later. Maybe we can support you with your feasibility study to determine whether Academy Status will work for your school. Please call Neil on 0790 330 333 in the first instance to arrange a suitable time to chat about your requirements.
New ICT, Classrooms & Curriculum
The 3 dimensional Change model works extremely well with any project you are considering in your school. While the focus definitely should remaining on Teaching and Learning, any new purchase, implementation or development will affect your school, your staff, your learners and potentially learning outcomes. The outcomes of any Change should certainly be measured against its impact on and benefit to learning but also be the support of those whom it impacts.
While it may seem overly process driven to apply the Change model to every aspect of change in a school, for major projects or those that need to have or will undoubtedly have an impact on staff, established processes or learners and learning then following a process that ensures a successful change is implemented is essential.
Consider how you approach ICT developments, like Learning Platforms, equipment refresh purchases, taking measures to reduce the lifecycle costs of ICT, remodelling or building additional classroom space or taking on a major curriculum change – KS3 Project Based Learning or accommodating the new English Baccalaurea proposals perhaps. By adopting our Change model and experienced support you are ensuring that you will conduct a successful Change but also one that is specific to you. It addresses the fears of change and helps win hearts and minds and therefore commitment by all members of your school. It will also be based on a sustainable and long-lasting plan for delivering continued positive outputs and impacts on learning.
Projects we have supported include:
- Learning Gateway development as a whole school information and reporting tool
- ICT Supplier contract procurement
- Immersive Learning Environment development (Learning Plazas)
- New ICT Suites
- Project based learning curriculums & team teaching
- Additional classroom accommodation
If you are planning a new purchase, need to ensure you are getting best value out of your existing services and resources or want to ensure that any Change is implemented successfully, wins the hearts and minds of your school community and measures its effectiveness and impact on learning, then contact our Change experts who will arrange a time to come and discuss your requirements. Remember, if you keep doing the same things in the same way, you will keep getting the same results.
“The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart.”John Welwood
(Psychotherapist, teacher, and author, and pioneer in integrating psychological and spiritual work)
Approach to Change
Whether you are trying to procure a new ICT suite, build or modify classroom design and capacity into your over-stretched school, refresh your worn out PC’s, convert the whole school to Academy status – now is the time to allow yourself the chance to think about how you can do that more successfully, more cost effectively, with the support of all the stakeholders it impacts and ensure you get more outputs from your time and money inputs.
By adding capacity to your existing Leadership Team you are able to remain focused on your existing school management tasks whilst being supported internally to develop a strategy that works for your School. There is little benefit of a 3rd Party process or programme being applied to your unique requirements – it has to be developed, adopted and managed from within. After all, it’s your project, your school, your community and your students’ learning outcomes that are at stake – would you entrust that to someone ‘doing Change to you!’?
By adopting our Change Support strategy you are ensuring that not only will you conduct a successful change but also one that is committed to by all members of your school and has a sustainable and long-lasting plan for delivering continued success and outputs.
The journey starts by discussing and prioritising the options to change. With experienced support and coaching from within your own Leadership Team you can then build a vision for how the impact of the change will benefit Teaching and Learning. Support this with a robust set of rationale and a well thought out implementation plan and you are on a solid pathway to be able to implement your change, with full support from your staff, on time, to budget and with measurable outputs and impact on learning.
Change = Rationale + Vision + Plan
(C=RVP)
To ensure that any change is implemented successfully,
is fully supported and establishes measures of effectiveness and impact on learning, then contact our Change experts who will arrange a time to come and discuss your support requirements.
Contact us at +44 (0)790 330 3333 or send us an email