Using an Organisational Development Approach to School Improvement

The organisational development approach is for advisers and school leaders who wish to support high and low performing organisations to be self-managing and self-sustaining.

This training programme assumes the participant has expertise in supporting and advising schools, is a school improvement expert, and has a deep understanding of governance and leadership. We expect applicants to wish to develop high level skills and knowledge of how organisations are developed.

What is the problem we are trying to solve?

There are still too many schools and multi-academy trusts that become vulnerable, either in terms of standards, financial strength or governance. Increasingly, schools and trusts need support to be self-sustaining in their ability to develop and grow. They also need to be able to predict what is coming, rather than simply react to external forces.

The pace of change in education is probably faster than it has ever been. Keeping pace with it or, better still, anticipating change is a vital ingredient for a proactive leader. There is a need for advisers who have the specialist skills and resilience to help build capacity and, in the end, ‘be not necessary’.

What is an organisational development approach?

Organisational development is a planned, systematic approach to improving organisational effectiveness by:

• achieving the desired goals of high performance in an organisation through the involvement of its people

• aligning strategy, people and processes.

Who is delivering?

Les Walton CBE

Les has a national reputation for establishing and developing numerous organisations. He has founded, led or supported the development of Schools North East, Tyne Metropolitan College, the Young People’s Learning Agency, the Northern Education Trust and the Association of Education Advisers, building many of the organisations into highly regarded multi-million pound organisations.

Kevin McDermid

Kevin has over 25 years of senior leadership experience in secondary schools, including two headships of inner-city comprehensive schools and the headship of a sixth form college. He was Teaching Awards Head Teacher of the Year for the North-East & Cumbria in 2004-5. Kevin is also an accredited School Improvement Partner and National Challenge Adviser; over the last ten years he has gained extensive experience as an independent consultant working with five academy chains and several LA’s and multi-academy trusts across the North of England

What will I get from the programme?

Our model of organisational effectiveness provides an adviser or school leader with a framework to support developing organisations.

You will:

• learn how to apply PESTLE analysis and understand the impact of external factors on an organisation;

• critically evaluate the design of the curriculum and curriculum-led financial planning;

• address system weakness by applying organisational development tools;

• ensure roles and responsibilities are effectively focused;

• evaluate how values and leadership styles impact on performance;

• use the Context for Organisational Improvement (COI) evaluation framework;

• apply a variety of measurements of success and performance indicators.

Book your place on Eventbrite here.