Developing a strong culture within any department or college can be a long and difficult task. It requires every policy, process or strategy to be aligned and for all staff to be aware of their accountabilities and responsibilities when enacting them. Individuals and teams must be as effective at working collaboratively as they are in isolation, and be fluid when moving between the two. There is no room for ego or arrogance - it is more about collectively making a system work for students by offering opportunities.
Having said this, to disrupt or even destroy a culture is relatively easy. All that is needed is inaction at any level and additional workload can mount. Where this workload is left, a strong culture can crumble; where the workload is picked up by others, resentment can set in and the culture similarly crumbles from within. And all of this only requires inaction from one member of staff. A single toxic member of staff can spread negativity like a virus throughout a department and, ultimately, potentially college-wide.
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To guard against this, leaders must be as passionate about their staff as they are about supporting students. It is not enough to appear to care. Leaders must genuinely care about their teams and build solid relationships on these foundations. Leaders and managers do not look to cut workload because Ofsted will be impressed, or to tick a wellbeing box. Leaders and managers cut workload to support staff - to give them more time to do the important things (again, whether this be inside or outside of college).
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Harbouring innovation and developing an environment where it is OK to fail is vital to finding the right culture. Staff and teams must feel it is OK to make mistakes, as long as they recognise and reflect on the steps that led to the eventual error. Leaders and managers must give staff the tools to recognise and evaluate these mistakes and make sure that processes are developed to mitigate similar mistakes in future.
To create and maintain the right culture, collaboration is also vital. With this in mind, high-quality, free CPD and training is necessary at all levels for all staff to ensure that adaptation and innovation thrives in the most diverse and ever-changing educational sector. If we are to strive for higher standards, we need higher quality, regular training and we need it on a consistent basis. Part of this is in setting up hubs for collaboration, but not simply limiting this to a gathering of like-minded further education professionals - open up further education to primary schools, secondary schools, sixth forms and all other providers.
It is the diversity of FE that makes it such a rich environment from which other providers can support, guide and benefit. Something as simple as the facilitation of placements or days shadowing colleagues in secondary, primary, sixth form and HE (who then shadow in FE) could provide a range of insights and learning opportunities for all concerned.
More rigorous (and free) qualifications and entry requirements for staff (with time and options to do this “on the job” for those who don’t have them) should also be made available, including the option to complete QTLS (Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills) for all staff.
To develop and maintain a great culture in English and maths within FE, amplification and simplification are also vital. For the strategies that are overwhelmingly effective and successful in further education, we need to identify the characteristics that provoke this success - the “why” - and amplify these characteristics: spread them into other areas, vocational and academic, and provide support to our colleagues so that they may also learn and amplify these characteristics.
What will then remain are the strategies that are less successful - those that have become overcomplicated or lost the initial qualities that made them so attractive. Here, we first need a simplification - strip out the ineffective. Simplify the process, the characteristics, and develop from there. When the process is effective, we begin to amplify once more, and continue to look for ways to simplify. And it is equally vital that all staff within FE complete this process.
After all, we are all teachers of English and maths.
Jonny Kay is the head of teaching and learning at a college in the North East. He tweets at @jonnykayteacher.T his blog is an extract from his new book, Improving Maths and English in Further Education: A Practical Guide. It is available from 4 June 2021
