When I started as headteacher of Berwickshire High School (BHS) in August 2020, the school wasn’t in great shape. There had been an inspection the year before that had resulted in the following ratings from Education Scotland:
- Leadership of change: “unsatisfactory”
- Learning, teaching and assessment: “weak”
- Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion: “weak”
- Raising attainment and achievement: “weak”
Being honest, this was one of the worst-ever inspection reports of any school in Scotland, and no one felt good about that.
Focusing on the wrong things
However, also being honest, I do not believe the ratings were indicative of the quality of teachers and support staff in the school. There were lots of great people who were working incredibly hard and trying their very best to get it right for students.
The main problem was that there was a lack of vision and direction. People were focusing on the wrong things. Everything stemmed back to the quality of leadership.
With the Covid-19 pandemic raging and a reinspection looming, my immediate priority as the new headteacher was to set a clear direction for everyone.
This meant reorientating people, time and resources to focus on what I would suggest should be seen as the core business of all schools: the continuous improvement of teaching and learning.
Being honest again, I am often surprised by how many schools across Scotland have lost sight of teaching and learning as the core business.
Often, this is because they are expected to focus on so many competing “priorities”, many of which aren’t nearly as important as some would have us believe. Moderation of achievement of a level in the Broad General Education and Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels data are good examples.
Importance of professional development
In Creating The Schools Our Children Need, Dylan Wiliam reminds us that of all the factors at play, it is the quality of our teaching that is likely to make the biggest difference in raising attainment for all and closing background-related attainment gaps.
He also makes clear that if the continuous improvement of teaching and learning is a school’s priority (as it should be), a key focus should be the professional development of teachers - not because teaching isn’t good enough, but because it can get even better.
By investing time and resources in high-quality professional learning for teachers - such as professional reading, workshops, discussion, peer observation and coaching - we build staff capacity, professional knowledge and skills.
As everyone’s teaching gets better, student learning and outcomes get better, too. This is teaching-centred leadership. BHS is a strong example of the impact this approach can have.
Staff feedback in the last annual improvement evaluation included the following:
- “There is a vast and excellent offer of pedagogy sessions, which we take full advantage of.”
- “This is the first school I have worked in where pedagogy is taken seriously.”
- “I found my lesson observations to be immensely useful.”
- “The professional learning offer is by far the best of any school. There is something for everyone.”
- “The best thing that’s happened to me as a teacher is to start doing professional reading. My teaching is so much better as a result. I now can’t believe some of the things I was doing - and not doing - previously.”
- “As a new member of staff, my pedagogy has improved more in the past five months than it has in the past three years.”
- “I am so proud to be a member of staff at BHS. This school has undergone a massive transformation over the past three years. It has been hard work and the improvement continues but I truly believe staff are improving because they want to be better, not because they have to.”
Impact on outcomes
The improvements BHS is making to teaching and learning are now coming through as improvements in student outcomes.
For example, in 2023, the percentage of students attaining 5-plus level 5 qualifications in S4 was 64 per cent (up from 44 per cent in 2018 and 45 per cent in 2019). In 2024, the percentage of students attaining 5-plus level 6 qualifications in S5 was 41 per cent (up from 21 per cent in 2018 and 29 per cent in 2019).
At its core, teaching-centred leadership is about investing in your staff to invest in your students. Every school can and should do this. BHS is a good example of how to go about it and what can be achieved.
With BHS now in such a good place, I have taken the decision to step away for a year to work with schools across the UK and beyond, focusing on teaching-centred leadership in their context.
Often, I set schools the challenge of putting in place a staff professional development offer that rivals the very best in the country. Invest in your staff to invest in your students - our school is a great example of what can be achieved when you do that.
Secondary headteacher Bruce Robertson is the director of Next Level Educational and author of Power Up Your Pedagogy and the three books in a series titled The Teaching Delusion
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