9. Do establishments and services have a clear sense of direction?

• The OECD report Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland raises challenges for Scottish education – the need to address underachievement and to provide more choices and more chances for all our children and young people, particularly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. This framework challenges all those involved in planning the curriculum to work as partners to provide more opportunities for vocational education and the need to promote greater flexibility and creativity. These are the challenges and opportunities that those planning the curriculum will have to meet. There will be implications for leadership at all levels and for continuing professional development.
• Leaders at all levels need to develop a shared understanding of the purposes and practices within Curriculum for Excellence and the concept of inclusion and equality, and success for all.
• Children and young people should actively contribute to the life and work of the school and, from the earliest stages, to exercise their responsibilities as members of a community. This includes opportunities to participate responsibly in decision-making, to contribute as leaders and role models, offer support and service to others and play an active part in putting the values of the school community into practice.

• Equality of opportunity for all learners.
• Education authorities who set a clear tone for expectations across all establishments and services in their area, and ensure a collective understanding of success for all.
• Leaders at all levels who set clear expectations of the best possible outcomes for all children, young people and adult learners, and build a climate that supports the realisation of those expectations.
• Staff who show commitment to improving their practice through professional engagement and personal development.

Leadership is a continuing strength in most establishments and sectors in Scottish education. In the best practice, leadership roles are taken on by most staff and many learners.

Through HMIE’s work on “Better behaviour, better learning” it became clear that the impact of leadership can be quite subtle. There was a strong link between the perceptions of staff about behaviour and how well this was managed in a school, and the quality of leadership. Similarly, where heads of establishments or services give strong leadership on inclusion and equality issues, staff understand them better and improve outcomes for learners. Conversely, where staff have a limited or poorly understood view of inclusion and equality, they do not engage well with learners who face barriers to progress.

Leaders at all levels need to set out clear expectations of success for all, support staff with high quality CPD, and deploy staff and resources effectively to bring those expectations to fruition. In too many cases, staff do not understand the principles behind the promotion of inclusion and equality, and what “success for all” means, and do not understand the consequences of failing to fully engage with learners.

Greater consistency of approaches and delivery is needed across councils and their planning partners. Improved merging of community plans and integrated children’s services plans offer opportunities to bring together health, education, social work, housing, the voluntary sector and economic development. Leadership skills of people and partnerships are critical to manage successful partnership working.

Below are links to video clips from Journey to Excellence and other good practice resources. Each clip will lead you to related clips. Feel free to explore as much as you have time for, but do try to look at clips from areas you may not be entirely familiar with.

1. How strong and consistent is the commitment amongst all managers, staff, pupils, parents and the wider community to high achievement and high quality learning? How well is inclusion and equality promoted and explained, and discrimination challenged and tackled?

2. How well do our leaders motivate and inspire others to sustain this commitment through their daily interactions? Do they help to continuously reinforce an atmosphere of collective responsibility and mutual support between staff and staff, pupils and pupils and staff and pupils? Do we create, review and improve structures for formal management, learning and support, in order to secure these relationships?

3. To what extent do leaders at all levels demonstrate a collective responsibility for positive experience and outcomes for all, including the children and young people who face personal circumstances which may give rise to barriers?

4. How well does staff development focus on learning, teaching and meeting needs and their impact on pupils’ achievement? Is this professional development collaborative and collegiate, and led by valued and respected professionals? Are staff clear on the difference that classroom practice can make to the lives of children and young people?

5. How strong is the personal commitment of staff to furthering their own learning and to modelling learning for pupils? To what extent are children and young people developing leadership skills and taking on genuine leadership roles?