Approaching school development as a training project for all staff, this book will help schools to work towards collectively selected goals. Excitingly, it also shows how to involve parents, governors and, most importantly, the pupils. This is in sharp contrast to most of the material available for school development, which requires a top led mangement style. The book describes a school development process consisting of two inset days followed up by a series of staff meetings. A set of activities links the events and requires active participation by all staff, working with pupils to complete the tasks.
Photocopiable resources on a CD-ROM are included which will help you to use this process to reach an outcome suited to your own establishment and culture.
Although the example given is from a junior school the model could be used in any workplace where a unified team ethos is desired. It is equally useful to successful and to failing schools because it focuses on change and development towards an agreed goal.
Sarah Bainbridge is Deputy Head of Air Balloon Hill Junior School in Bristol.