Inclusive Instructional Coaching:
Working with TAs to impact SEND learners
Nikki Sullivan becnls@beckfoot.org @Nikki__Sullivan @BeckfootTL
www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-sullivan-tandl/
11.30am – 1pm
5th NOVEMBER 2022
Coaching logistics & active ingredients…
1) Intended for all, but never managing to be for everyone.
2) Cycling round the same knowledge about teaching and learning.
Ambitions
Strong foundations
Active Ingredients
Core and Culture
Know thy impact
1) It starts with an ambition…�What are our ambitions for staff professional development?
Dream it…
In terms of professional development, what do we want for our staff or ourselves?
Source: Robinson (2007)
Source: Sutton Trust (2011)
Firstly… transformative for students
Secondly but not second place…
Transformative for staff
Best for our students… Best for and from our staff.
We need to provide prioritised and protected time and resources.
Not only this, our staff as individuals, as professionals,
deserve and are entitled to this investment.
What is Instructional Coaching?
‘GROW Model’ or ‘Executive Coaching’
‘Mentoring?’
With the ability to ‘flex’
Kolb plus Korthagen
Kolb from: Enser, M., Enser, Z. (2021). The CPD Curriculum: Creating Conditions for Growth. United Kingdom: Crown House Publishing.
Not full-time coaches…
Resources to support
It starts with an ambition…�What are our ambitions for staff professional development?
Equitability
Cost
Impact
Human-centred
2) It builds with a contextual foundation…�What needs to be in place to enable successful coaching for all?
Explore and prepare…
What needs to be in place to enable successful coaching for all?
Professional Culture
“Implementation Challenges…”
How can we develop a culture of openness to feedback and commitment to ongoing development?
1) Professional Culture
“Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better.”
teaching assistant
Source: Dylan Wiliam
1) Professional Culture
“What did questioning look like at Beckfoot School?”
1) Professional Culture
Professional Culture
Training
“Implementation Challenges…”
How can we develop a culture of openness to feedback and commitment to ongoing development?
How can we recruit and train a team of skilled, knowledgeable coaches?
2) Training
SENDCo
Assistant SENDCo
3 x HLTAs
Who?
2) Training
SENDCo
Assistant SENDCo
3 x HLTAs
Who?
What?
2) Training
SENDCo
Assistant SENDCo
3 x HLTAs
Who?
What?
2) Training
SENDCo
Assistant SENDCo
3 x HLTAs
Who?
What?
How?
Professional Culture
Training
Systems design
“Implementation Challenges…”
How should we structure our programme so that it delivers results in a way that balances with other school systems, and delivers efficiency?
How can we develop a culture of openness to feedback and commitment to ongoing development?
How can we recruit and train a team of skilled, knowledgeable coaches?
3) Systems Design
Teachers
Teaching Assistants
3-weekly cycle
2-weekly cycle
Collaborative Planning Time
Best Practice Time
Policy first leverage points
Policy only leverage points
Teacher informed
Team informed
Pairs
Trios
In the teacher’s classroom
In one room together
Professional Culture
Training
Responsive Leadership
Systems design
“Implementation Challenges…”
How should we structure our programme so that it delivers results in a way that balances with other school systems, and delivers efficiency?
How can we gather information about what’s happening when our programme is up and running?
How can we develop a culture of openness to feedback and commitment to ongoing development?
How can we recruit and train a team of skilled, knowledgeable coaches?
4) Responsive Leadership
Quantity, Quality
4) Responsive Leadership
4) Responsive Leadership
Quantity, Quality, Buy-in, Impact
3) It’s successful when we focus on active ingredients…�What does coaching need to include in order to have impact?
It’s all in the mechanisms…
Map it…
Which mechanisms do we see in a coaching model?
Zooming in… 3 areas to consider
Evaluate and Identify
What are the most common ‘learning problems’ we come across?
Evaluate and Identify
The importance of a common language
“Creating a common language and vocabulary for key teaching and leadership practices is of fundamental importance in making the most of professional development. […] if framing is not used correctly, there can be multiple understandings of a single topic. Moreover, we cannot talk to each other effectively.”
Bambrick-Santoyo, Leverage Leadership, 2012, p. 148
Instructional coaches run the risk of being inefficient if they don’t have a repertoire of effective practices to share with teachers.
INSTRUCTIONAL COACHING, P.177
JIM KNIGHT
Playbook | Necessary – additions and adaptations to match your policy
Creating our own ‘playbook’
Adapt and Plan
Why is it so important that teachers and TAs get to consider practices in context?
Adapt and Plan
Target Performance
The first step is to identify a destination or outcome, often called the target performance.
Teachers can move from their current performance towards this target performance by practising a sequence of sub-goals with the aid of a coach. This allows them to overcome existing ingrained habits and adopt new behaviours.
Steve Farnden, What is Instructional Coaching? | Ambition Institute
Jim Knight | Scaling – fine-tuning existing practices, e.g. Show Me Boards
Action Steps
“The heart of this model is the action step, a specific, 'granular' change to a teacher's practice. This is influenced by the popularity of the Teach Like a Champion approach, where the 'moves' of teaching are front and center in teacher development (Lemov, 2015)”
“"The most successful leaders I've worked with give feedback in this way: they observe teachers frequently and assign them just one or two action steps per week. It feels excruciatingly slow at first...but little by little, the steps build momentum..." (Bambrick-Santoyo, 2016)”
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Instructional Coaching? | Steplab
Model and Practice
Why are modelling and practice, outside of the classroom environment, active ingredients?
Model and Practice
Modelling (not always performative) & Practice
“Great teaching is not learned through discussion. It’s learned by doing – or, more specifically, by practicing doing things well. Supervised practice, then, is the fastest way to make sure all teachers are doing the right things”
Bambrick-Santoyo, Leverage Leadership, 2012, p. 86
“If a surgeon simply tells a resident how to perform an operation, the resident will be less effective than if she practices with the surgeon's guidance. Teaching is the same: practicing implementation of the feedback with the leader is at the heart of speeding up the improvement cycle.”
Bambrick-Santoyo, Leverage Leadership, 2012, p. 79
4) This might be our core, but what more about culture?�How else do we build a culture of professional learning?
Enrich it…
How else can we build a culture of professional learning?
Culture, culture, culture
Evidence-informed
Collegiate
Celebration
Leadership
5) “Know thy impact”�What have we learnt along the way? What are our next steps?
Source: John Hattie
Zooming in…
Strengthening Coaching
Broadening Coaching
Coaching for all
Vulnerable Learners at the heart of what we do
Teacher / TA relationships
Shoots of impact
Staff Voice
95% of staff believe that leaders make appropriate provision for their PD.
Retention
100% of staff are proud to work at Beckfoot School.
Outcomes for students
Best ever outcomes, including for students with SEND, 2022.
Next Steps
Nikki Sullivan