Leadership and SEN

Meeting the Challenge in Special and Mainstream Settings

Nick Burnett, Burnett

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136774485
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

How can leaders turn their schools into outward looking centres of excellence? Answering that question, this book focuses upon the work of cutting edge leaders who are responding to the challenges of recent legislation and guidelines. It includes:

• thoughtful case studies examine school culture, restructuring and reorganization
• mind maps and chapter summaries to help readers get on top of crucial issues and ideas
• helpful pointers on how to avoid pitfalls and maximise successes.

For special school leaders and prospective leaders, those involved in making decisions about specialist provision and anyone delivering training and support to those professionals.

CHAPTER 1

Change

Figure 1.1 Change

Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there is no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.

(Rudolph Flesch, in McDermott 2002)

There continue to be many new and interesting initiatives that bombard school leaders in all settings in most countries across the world, but those working and leading in Special Education arenas — both special and mainstream — face a particularly radical shift in the challenges they face. With the continued debate around how to achieve inclusion and the roles, if any of special schools in the new educational landscape, the need to invent or re-invent new ways of working has probably never been more intense. The rest of this chapter will explore what recent research has identified as being key issues for leaders in SEN fields.

The majority of leaders within SEN now recognise that the philosophical argument for inclusion is the correct one, but it is the author's experience that there remain a number who do not accept that there is a need to change and that their SEN environment is inclusive. It appears, from the author's own research, that the pace of change shows no sign of slowing and that the most effective leaders have taken this on board fully and are ‘inventing the future’.

There have been numerous books and articles written about change, and elements of the mind map at the start of this chapter draw on work by a range of leading educationalists and researchers who are identified as appropriate throughout the rest of the chapter. The ideas identified will now be explored in greater detail.

Certain personal attributes are essential if the leader of SEN responsible for leading change within his/her educational establishment is to be successful. Brighouse (2002) identifies a number of qualities which, although relevant to all educational leaders, hold particular resonance for those leading in the field of SEN.

The need for unwarranted optimism is of great importance when faced with challenges such as: yet another review of SEN within your area; meeting the needs of a pupil with complex needs in a mainstream school; or facing a reorganisation of your school.

Also identified is the need for an attitude that sees crisis as the norm and complexity as fun. For those involved in leadership in an SEN environment this will not be particularly new and many may not see it as fun, but developing the skills, attitudes and knowledge to thrive in this environment is crucial in ensuring an efficient and effective service is provided and developed.

There has been a great deal written about the need to undertake lifelong learning and this remains crucial in an ever-changing environment. An endless supply of intellectual curiosity will help to ensure that decisions taken and discussions are founded on research and knowledge as well as on values and beliefs.

The last quality that Brighouse identifies as particularly relevant to those working in the special school environment is the absence of paranoia and self pity. There is a great danger that those working within special environments, particularly segregated provision, feel that within the worldwide inclusion agenda there is a great deal of these emotions. As will be seen through the case studies contained within this book, the most successful leaders do not subscribe to either of these, and in many cases are leading the inclusion debate and action within the local and national arenas.

CASE STUDY

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Blackfriars School

Headteacher Clive Lilley is developing Blackfriars School as a Key Learning Centre. He has produced a booklet which identifies clearly to staff, parents and professionals what this means in practice. Examples relevant to this section are as follows:

• To extend the knowledge and understanding of Blackfriars staff in inclusion and continue their professional development in this field through the DRIP (Developing a Resource for Inclusive Practice) Project.
• To provide a specialist outreach and support role to physically/medically impaired pupils in mainstream schools.
• To work to include all pupils for whom a place in mainstream is possible.

What has become clear is that for any leader within an SEN environment to successfully lead and create change there is the need to build capacity. Some of the key drivers to meeting this need are actively seeking to recruit staff who are energy creators rather than energy takers; ensuring opportunities to take on leadership challenges; and promoting staff welfare policies and practices. The issue of building capacity has been widely espoused within many sectors, both public and private, and key to achieving this is the ability to ensure that all stakeholders, including the teachers themselves, see teachers as leaders of change.

As was identified earlier, the quality of regarding crisis as the norm is seen as essential, and inextricably linked to this in building capacity to create change is the ability of leaders to demonstrate and build the skills of others in meeting and minimising crisis. Undoubtedly, many staff will feel threatened and challenged by crises, and therefore the really skilful leader ensures that the majority of staff feel supported and do not see issues arising as crises but are able to manage problems successfully.

The most successful leaders in SEN environments build capacity for change that:

• promotes sustained learning;
• lasts over time (involves effective succession planning);
• is supported by available resources and is achievable;
• does not impact negatively on the surrounding environment; and
• builds future capacities.

Educational change is like being on a rotten boat, with a mutinous crew, sailing into uncharted waters. Only the person not rowing has time to rock the boat.

(Prashnig 1998)

Vision is another area about which much has been written throughout the years, but the key to building capacity to create change is extending the vision. This means ensuring that the vision does not just remain the property of the senior leadership team and governors, but that all stakeholders are part of the vision, and that change drivers are clearly identified. The most effective leaders in meeting the needs of pupils with SEN ensure that all staff — teaching and support, parents and pupils — are involved in consultation during the building of the vision. These leaders have a clear vision of the future but are keen to ensure that they are in touch with all stakeholders and that they build their thoughts into the vision. What they skilfully do is to paint a picture of or tell a story about what things could be like, and they are not afraid to take people out of their comfort zones. What has also been developed is the expectation that pupils are involved in the consultation through direct questionnaires and school councils. Including pupils with communication difficulties can be a challenge but successful leaders have begun to develop systems and approaches to achieving this.

Another task identified as being important in building the capacity to create change is that of securing the environment. This means that successful leaders in SEN environments ensure that the management side of things is well established: staff handbooks are up-to-date; and policies and procedures for learning, teaching and assessment are clearly articulated, shared and understood. Looking after staff through regularly reviewing meeting schedules and making the staffroom as welcoming as possible are vital. An additional issue in many SEN environments that successful leaders have tackled in order to address the task of securing the environment is the building of teams, both small and larger, that are supportive in nature to ensure coaching/mentoring is addressed successfully and staff debriefing can happen. This is a very important process that needs to take place following incidents between staff and pupils. If staff do not feel valued and supported the capacity to create change will be greatly diminished or even non-existent.

Seeking and charting improvement is inherent within all school environments and successful leaders ensure this task is achieved. The additional challenges for leaders in many SEN environments include developing appropriate benchmarking across phases and — more difficult for those working with pupils with complex learning difficulties — across schools.

The impact of culture on change will have a significant impact and the ability of leaders within SEN environments to build a culture of change is crucial if they are to become or remain successful. The dual tasks of building capacity and creating a culture of change are something of a ‘chicken-and-egg’ situation; neither can be done in isolation and each has a bearing on the success of the other.

CASE STUDY

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Addington School

• The school has developed its own Autumn Package that contains assessment information on all pupils in all subjects over the previous three years.
• This information is being used to chart and monitor individual progress.
• The school, with the LEA, is developing information to assess value added in the following way: pupils are baselined and then put together as cohorts as follows:

P1-P3; P4-P8; National Curriculum Levels

Effective leaders in SEN environments are able to successfully restructure and re-culture at the same time and hence rapidly develop schools and build capacity to re-invent themselves.

Michael Fullan (2001), in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, identifies articulately five common themes which leaders need to develop if they are to build a culture of change. These will now be explored along with their particular relevance to leadership and SEN.

The first issue identified by Fullan is that of moral purpose. It is clear that there needs to be a moral purpose defining the values and beliefs of leaders within all contexts, particularly during periods of rapid and extended change. This is of particular relevance for leaders in SEN environments as they need to make decisions and lead these environments during the challenge of developing inclusion. The author believes that there is a moral imperative to make a difference that has particular relevance to those leading within SEN environments and this is seen at four levels: the individual level; the school level; beyond school; and in society.

Most of those involved in leading, teaching or working with pupils within SEN environments have a strong desire to make a difference to the individual pupil. Leaders and staff have a strong desire to make a difference at a school level, but how many look beyond school and, still more challenging, to society?

Those working within SEN environments would claim to be strong advocates of the right of the child to high-quality provision, so who better to drive forward the inclusion agenda, ensuring individual needs are met?

Fight the change or grab hold and enjoy the ride.

(Peters 2003)

The second issue identified is that of understanding change. The key element here is that as leaders we need to tackle the obstacles to change, and we can only be successful if we understand how change works. In the educationalenvironment, where there can be an overload of initiatives, it is important that we play a filtering role, and in successful SEN environments leaders have achieved this through critical thinking, openness to new possibilities and an unwavering belief in what they know to be in the best interests of the pupils. They have also been assisted in that the majority of new initiatives coming forward do not have the needs of pupils with SEN at the forefront of their thinking, and therefore the successful leaders within SEN environments are able to argue effectively, even with Ofsted, for what they have, or have not, implemented. A cautionary note here is that this only tends to be successful when a robust and effective alternative has been put in place.

The next area is that of relationships (or as Fullan puts it, ‘relationships, relationships, relationships’). It is clear that the development of effective relationships at many levels is vital if you are to be successful in leading during periods of change. The need to look at building and sustaining strategic alliances with a whole range of people is vital if as a leader you are to chart a successful path through change. It is important to note at this stage that effective leaders within SEN environments recognise their locus of influence and that, if they are to be successful, they will need to develop relationships with stakeholders who are beyond the authority of the leaders, such as political figures. There is a useful acronym to remember when dealing with all people who are stakeholders but particularly those who are outside of your control. It is CIA (Change; Influence; Accept). There are certain stakeholders whose views you will be able to change, some you will be able to influence and some you will have to accept and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Change
• 2 Partnerships
• 3 ICT
• 4 Innovation
• 5 The additional leadership challenges of different settings
• 6 Current initiatives and possible impact
• 7 The leader of SEN in the future
• 8 SEN provision of the future
• References and further reading
• Index