15-minute Feedback

Termly lesson observations can be too little, too late, whereas quick, weekly updates can help all staff to stay on top of their game, says Tracey Griffiths...

When our school was inspected in June 2013, it was given a Requires Improvement grading in all four areas. We had been working very hard during the previous 18 months, since I joined as deputy head, to improve the quality of teaching through lesson observations, but the inspection made me realise that it just wasn’t working.

In the same month as the school was inspected I joined the Future Leaders programme, becoming one of the first eight primary senior leaders to take part. My involvement began with a two-week residential course in the summer holidays, at which Annabel Bates (now Principal at ARK Elvin Academy) presented on teaching and learning. She shared with us a system of 15- minute weekly observations that had delivered incredible results at her previous school. The idea is taken from Paul Bambrick-Santoyo’s book, Leverage Leadership, and is based upon the principle of giving regular, specific feedback to teachers about their practice. I knew immediately this was what I had been waiting for.

Back from the residential, I got to work adapting Annabel’s system for our small, one-form entry school and introduced my ideas to staff on the first day of term. I explained that, each week, I would go into every class for 15 minutes and then feed back to staff – usually by the end of the day – mentioning three great things I had seen and one area for development. Then, at our weekly briefing on Friday, I would summarise the overall themes I had observed and talk about what we needed to work on as a school the following week.

At first, many people were very nervous about me walking into their room unannounced, but I ditched the clipboard and, over time, realised I was actually there not so much to observe the teacher but more to talk to the children about their learning and look at their books. The more I did this, the more at ease teachers felt, and the more I was able to observe everyday practice.

We introduced iPads to film specific areas of teaching and learning and then use the filmed evidence in the feedback sessions. For example, one teacher asked me to film her working with a small group of Year 2 pupils during maths in order to see if she was missing anything in their understanding of place value. What we picked up was the anxious looks on their faces when asked a question, followed by relief when they got it right, and so the teacher was able to focus on building positive learning behaviours and a growth mindset in those particular children.

As the year progressed, I noticed things that had been going really well at the start of the new term – growth mindsets, praise, classroom routines – began to tail off (we all let things slip in the busy world of teaching!). But through weekly observations I was able to remind people to go back to the start and reimbed these routines. Regular visits also helped me to notice if staff morale was low, or if an individual was having a hard time. By contrast, termly observations leave senior leaders prone to miss these things until it’s too late to ease the pressure off staff.

I was also able to direct teachers to ‘bright spots’, i.e. to other members of staff who were doing an aspect of teaching particularly well. Everyone excels at something and this encouraged staff to share good practice and open their doors to each other.

The biggest difficult with this way of working is time: time to ensure it is done every week; time to give meaningful feedback. We did not get this completely right in 2013/14, but this school year I am acting headteacher and without a class of my own to look after I can commit more time to the project. We will be timetabling feedback sessions and, having been to see Paul Bambrick- Santoyo speak in July, I am implementing the coaching model more fully, training two senior leaders to take on some of the observations each week.

The percentage of ‘good’ or better teaching rose from 40 per cent at the start of the year to 89 per cent by the end. An amazing achievement. This year we will do even better.

Future Leaders is a leadership development programme for aspiring headteachers of challenging schools. It offers a residency year, personalised coaching and peer-support through a network of more than 300 Future Leaders. To apply, nominate a colleague, or find out more about the programme, please visit future-leaders.org.uk/teachprimary

About the author

Future Leader Tracey Griffiths is acting headteacher at Barn Croft Primary School.