Pastoral > curriculum?
The safety and happiness of your students is arguably more important than their academic outcomes.
That’s why you’ll be seeing more pastoral stuff, alongside the curriculum content, inside We Are In Beta over the coming weeks and months - research, resources, spaces and more. Keep your eyes peeled.
On that note, this week serves up:
two pastoral highlights - one of which is happening today - don’t miss it…
..and…
one curriculum highlight - well, actually it’s 10 highlights. Find out why below.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (especially when we take a holistic view of education).
This week.
📅🛡Pastoral leaders steering group.
💬💸 Cost of living: 6 things schools have done already.
📚 📝10 curriculum leadership resources.
PSA: If you’re wondering why this week’s edition is landing in your inbox on a Monday, my family I were hit with a stomach bug at the end of last week. Normal service resumes this week.
📅🛡Pastoral leaders steering group - monthly meeting.
Last term, I invited you to join a pastoral leaders steering group to help design and grow the most impactful community of pastoral leaders in the country.
Huge thanks to those who’ve joined and given your input on its direction so far.
Their first monthly meeting is happening this week:
📅 Thur 13th October
🕟 4.30pm
We’re limiting this to 10 seats to make sure everyone gets the time and space to:
Share wins and challenges.
Hear group recommendations and get offers of support.
Benefit from collective action to grow the impact of this supportive community.
Pastoral leadership is hard. Don’t do it alone.
💬💸 Cost of living: 6 things schools have done already.
You’ve probably seen we've been helping Ben Jane (DHT, Oak Wood School) pool strategies designed to help students and families with the cost of living.
But what you might not know are the exact questions he wanted find answers to:
What are you doing to support your families this winter?
What has your school done already to support those that need it?
How are you engaging with your parents/carers, with the aim of targeting those that may not reach out for help?
I’ve summarised the 6 things schools have said they’ve done to help already.
Join Ben to hear what he’s doing at his school and talk through your plans with other likeminded leaders.
2pm today 10/10. RSVP here.
📚 📝10 tip top curriculum leadership resources.
Curriculum leadership incredibly complex. As with anything complex, there’s a lot that needs writing down.
Codifying your leadership helps you make a clear plan. It helps you tell people what they need to know. It helps you get it done well.
Here are 10 examples of such documents - how many do you use at your school?
📝 Trust/school curriculum strategy and plan
📝 CLFP Excel model?
📝 SLT curriculum handbook.
📝 Whole school curriculum booklet.
📝 Departmental co-planning meetings 'what to do' guidance.
📝 101 of what teachers need to know about assessment.
📝 Whole school revision strategy.
📝 Curriculum explorations handbook.
📝 Ofsted checklist.
📝 Faculty improvement plan templates.
Missing some? Keen to see what they look like?
On a personal note.
How do you keep your eyes on the prize?
Since Jan 2021, we’ve had a laser focus on helping you learn how other schools lead curriculum. But it’s not been easy to keep that focus.
Here’s why.
When we ran the community (completely free of charge) between Mar and Dec 2020, everything we did about curriculum performed better than anything else. It was more watched, more shared, more liked, more talked about.
That’s why we started the Curriculum Thinkers Community, which 200+ schools, including several MATs, now subscribe to.
When schools join, I do a training session on how to get the most out if.
Senior and middle curriculum leaders are excited.
But pastoral leaders… less so.
They ask: “Do you have any pastoral stuff?”
The answer?
“Sadly not.”
My thoughts?
It’s so painful to tell someone, who’s asking for help, that you can’t.
It’s so hard to not get distracted by shiny new things when growing something from scratch.
It’s so hard to be patient when you have a vision you are working towards and you can’t yet make the next step.
But when you have limited resources you have to focus on doing fewer things, better.
When I have found myself getting tempted by other projects I’ve found these questions useful:
Do we have the capacity to do it?
If we did do it, what additional load will it put on me and my team?
Will it prevent us from solving the one problem we are solving right now?
We haven’t always answered these questions well, but it feels great to have got to a place where we can now start telling those disappointed pastoral leaders: “Yes, we do have some pastoral stuff. Let me show you where to find it.”
Thank you for helping us get here.
As a thank you for reading this far, I’d like to invite you to become one of the founding members of our brand new Pastoral Champions Community* for free.
*Working title - what do you think? Let me know. Reply to this email.
Sent this by a friend?
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team.
📱 Get 14,825 school leaders and teachers in your pocket - download We Are In Beta
🆕 New here? Catch up with previous editions, podcasts and webinars via the archive.