It’s a funny old thing learning! The number of times revolutions are made, we seldom realise that its just that revolving to bring us back where we started – or is it? Thinking about education systems moves apace but there are some approaches that are needed –

• Firstly – its all about learning and teaching – you can do many things but the system must have teaching and learning and its core – how it improves, how you know its is improving; keep a focus on how well the children are doing;
• Secondly its about professionals improving each other – schools, teachers, support staff working together and engaging children in the learning journey;
• Thirdly its about schools in the system being accountable to each other, next its about forming a partnership across the whole area (businesses public and private, politicians, community groups and others) being focussed on their learning to be successful; that is testing their impact on their people in terms of access, completion, achievement and progression. Sir Michael Barber writes very cogently on this.

Systems are complicated things so lastly  keep it simple and values driven – doing what you believe in for children

The election in the UK is over and one thing that is certain is that the future prosperity of the nation and each country within it will depend upon the skills and learning of its citizens.  The challenge is to ensure that every education system in the UK is successful – from the largest to the smallest, from urban to rural.

Much has been written about system leadership and improvement – the work from McKinseys is particularly influential. A further development of the work moving local education systems from good to great and outstanding is the idea of efficacy for every business private or public.  Sir Michael Barber, writing in the RSA Journal – issue 1 2015 sets out how the business Pearson is changing by placing efficacy – whether their products have a measurable impact on improving someone’s learning. This, Barber argues, requires greater rigour and emphasis on outcomes. Pearson is looking at its’ impact on learning in terms of access, completion, achievement and progression. Imagine – a whole local system – from early years, schools, colleges, higher education, businesses, public and private focusing together on these outcomes.

I am working with a small number of local systems looking to take this forward – developing powerful focussed partnerships

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