Conventional wisdom says a lot of things. Growing up, I heard a number of ideas about my life and the world around me. They came form a variety of sources: my mom, my teachers, my grandparents. All people who, aside from some of these ‘convenient truths’, had a staunch track record of honesty and integrity in my life. As an inquisitive young man, some of my favourites were: cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis. Nope. Completely untrue. Cut a worm in half and you’ll get two worms. Unfortunately (for many, many worms in Canada), also incorrect. Dropping a penny off of a really tall building will kill people below. Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years and chameleons blend in to their surroundings. Nope. No way (don’t ask how I know that) and no (they do change colours, but mostly for temperature regulation or communication). How was it that some of the people I trusted most in my life came to promote such incorrect beliefs? Someone trusted told them? They are quick and easy answers to the inquisitive mind? It sounded plausible? The reality is, probably all of the above and more.

Unfortunately, primary schools are not free from promoted ignorance: beliefs that run deeply through them, driven by the way things have always been done, convenience or a lack of effective solutions. Having had the absolute privilege of doing advisory work in a variety of primary schools and having hosted hundreds of colleagues at Three Bridges in the last couple of years, it is hard to escape 2 myths that permeate almost every school: firstly, that the key to being a great primary teacher is strong subject knowledge and secondly, that school improvement is driven by frequent and measured teacher observation.

It sounds crazy. Surely you have to know what you’re teaching in order to be able to teach it effectively? But, to use a subject knowledge analogy, the order of operations is a crucial element here. Simply knowing how to add or subtract, multiply or divide, is not enough. In education, you need to know how to teach effectively before you know what to teach. This must be a shared responsibility between school leaders and teachers. It must be shaped and crafted intentionally over time in a culture of challenge and support, where everyone is learning and reflecting on their practice. There are millions of pounds spent every year on subject content resources – some incredible, some less so. But, how to teach – thats not something you can pick up off of a shelf. It takes years of discussion, challenge, support, reflection and practice. However, 2 + 2 will always be 4. The teachers I remember from primary school; the ones that sparked within me a life-long love of learning, were not the subject experts. They knew how to deliver the information in a way that engaged and inspired me. First they learned how to be great teachers, then they learned what was great to teach.

This is the age-old adage that the best players don’t make the best managers. Being specifically gifted in performing a task does not make you adept at facilitating or showing others how to do it. This has been shown to us time and time again. We don’t need to have a maths degree to be an effective primary school maths teacher. Schools do need to provide extensive training and support in how to deliver a successful maths curriculum – but more importantly, school should be providing a cracking maths programme. Long gone should be the days of trolling the internet for worksheets or lesson sequences. Leaders, in partnership with teams of teachers, need to take ownership for the programmes that lay the foundations of content. Let the maths experts design the maths. Let the teachers, leaders and pupils design the learning. There should be no confusion in a school about what great pedagogy looks or sounds like. Galvanising everyone towards common approaches and vision through collaboration is at the heart of all great schools.

Observing teaching is one of the most overrated ideas in primary education. ‘Well, how will we ever know whats going on if we don’t get in there and watch? If we don’t look through the books?’ Ask & Listen. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it. Successful leaders create cultures in which their staff feel comfortable asking for support and identifying areas to improve. This isn’t to say, don’t be in and out of classrooms or look in pupil books. It means that your first port of call should always be leading learning in a culture of trust and development, not evaluating teaching in a culture of scrutiny and fear. Get rid of monitoring cycles and create development cycles.

As a school leader, I take significant responsibility for the development and leadership of subject specific pedagogy across the school. I deeply involve myself in reading and research. I lead staff meetings that involve cycles of read & reflect, go away and have a play and review & design. Surely, if the train is derailing in a classroom, I must have some responsibility for that? Where have I not supported? What was unclear? Is our induction programme effective? How can I support in a better way? At Three Bridges, we constantly discuss and improve our practice together. Most recently, we looked at our maths journals. We compared ours to journals in Singapore primary schools and identified strengths from both approaches. We are currently in the ‘go away and have a play’ phase, whereby teachers are trialling different approaches to journalling to enhance our own practice bases on this interrogation. In the summer, we will reconvene and see what worked, when it worked, when it didn’t, what we consider ‘working’ to look like and discuss how to move forward together. We will support one another in a culture of improvement, not scrutiny. A culture of interaction, not evaluation.

Interactive and focussed processes like Lesson Study, or team planning and teaching, have far greater impact on school improvement than subject knowledge or teaching observation. Will every teacher get it straight away – no. But, we know about schools what we know about times tables: rote learning is short term, instrumental only. Schools where the leader swoops in, staff turnover is high and results improve quickly: they don’t last. Productive failure, which takes well crafted challenge, intelligent practice and time – that is where the long term learning is. Those are the schools that remain great. The inconvenient truth is that if we want our schools to flourish and our teachers to flourish, there is no quick fix, no box to tick. Schools that don’t change will find themselves bereft of incredible staff, stuck in a recruitment crisis. Leaders that don’t change will be driving it.

1 – Passionate commitment that every child can and will achieve

2 – A love of children enacted through caring professional relationships

3 – Pedagogical content knowledge (how to identify, present, explain key concepts for retention beyond tests)

4 – Collaborative working systems with other teachers involving shared planning, observation and discourse

5 – Constant questioning of, reflecting on and modifications of their own practice

1 – Galvanise consensus on Vision & Values

2 – Organise systems of Teaching and Learning

3 – Opportunity for Formal and Informal Leadership

4 – Buffer teachers from distractions to work (marking, Ofsted, unnecessary workload)

5 – Build strong relationships within and between staff