Work on the curriculum doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes place in complex educational settings. This means it’s important to cultivate and foster great relationships as a pre-requisite for any kind of development in schools, whether we are working on inclusion, curriculum or any other aspect of school provision.
I explored the aspects of culture and collaboration that have an impact on the way we approach our work in my conversation with Lekha Sharma and Sam Crome. Their new course Building Teams has been designed to go through what the research currently says about great places to work, and based on their own experiences, offers tools and resources to help develop great teams.
The challenges with recruitment and retention mean it’s important for leaders to step back and consider whether they are getting things right for their teams. Then to consider what kind of thinking might support the very complex work that leaders are engaged in. What they need to help them in this work are practical strategies that are likely to make a difference and Lekha has road tested these from her own research, reflection and experience.
Lekha is a senior leader in primary schools. After writing ‘Curriculum to Classroom’, she came to the insight that it’s important to cultivate and foster great relationships as a pre-requisite for any kind of development in schools.
In researching the findings of what elements have an impact on culture, I’ve deliberately looked for ways in which leaders can really consider how they're shaping their teams and the influences on school improvement efforts within schools.’
Sam explained how he came to be interested in the importance of building teams.
I’d been on too many leadership courses that got me to fill in a survey to find out my leadership style. The problem, it seemed to me, was this was more about the individual and the narrative was often related to the ‘hero’ leader. What I was interested in was how people get to work together in a way that is both satisfying and accountable.
This led me to researching and writing about the factors that appear to make a difference. The blogs where I started to explore these ideas were well received, colleagues found them helpful. And so my book The Power of Teams was the result of the the insights that I’d gained from the research together with how these had had an impact on my own work.
With Sam from secondary and Lekha working on culture from a primary perspective, they found many similarities: we all enjoy working in settings where the purpose is clear, where we all understand why we are doing the work we do; that the vision is not something aired just at the beginning of a year, but is revisited regularly, and is evident in the way people feel and talk about their work.
So Lekha and Sam have come together to create Building Teams on the Huh Academy and you can watch my conversation with them here.
Until next time
Mary
Leading the Diverse Curriculum 6-part programme is now live. It will support you throughout an academic year, through a half-termly virtual session. We also provide two places on the course as we believe curriculum development is not a one-person piece of work!
You can watch the introductory webinar with Bennie, Hannah and me here.