Making sure that every school matters: some lessons from the Greater Manchester Challenge Mel Ainscow The Centre for Equity in The Centre for Equity in Education Education
Mar 27, 2015
Making sure that every school matters: some
lessons from the Greater Manchester Challenge
Mel Ainscow
The Centre for Equity in EducationThe Centre for Equity in Education
Our children and young people:
• Bottom of well-being ‘league’
• High numbers of exclusions
• Poor levels of school attendance
• Early drop out from education
And home background still the best predictor of school performance
Intended outcomes
• Staying safe
• Being healthy
• Enjoying and achieving
• Making a positive contribution
• Economic well-being
Responding to ‘the challenge’• The system has untapped capacity to improve
itself• National strategies have focused minds but
blocked innovation• There is a need to strengthen collaboration
within and between institutions• Evidence can be used to bring a critical edge to
such arrangements• Improvement efforts have to be linked to
community development• This requires new forms of leadership based
on the principle of shared responsibility
Rethinking and strengthening the roles
of local authorities
Workstrands
Keys to Success Schools
Families of Schools
Leadership Strategy
Key ideas
• Education systems have further untapped potential to improve themselves but new working relationships are needed to mobilise this potential
• A sharp analysis of evidence is needed to identify areas of concern and the human resources that can be used to support improvement efforts in relation to these issues but this needs to be responsive to changing circumstances
• School-to-school collaboration is the most powerful means of fostering improvements, particularly in challenging circumstances, but this has to be coordinated
• Many successful head teachers are motivated by the idea of taking on system leadership roles but their involvement has to be supported
• Local authority staff have a crucial role in monitoring developments, identifying priorities for action and brokering collaboration but this requires new thinking and practices
And don’t forget…..
‘What Manchester does today the world
does tomorrow’
Disraeli