What Makes a Good School Now? (2008) by Tim Brighouse and David Woods

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A book from another (pre-Tory austerity) era that offers insights into school improvement while understanding that each school is unique and there's no recipe for success.

Butterflies

Butterflies are "high leverage" interventions that have low effort/cost to implement but yield "extremely beneficial outcomes in terms of learning and ethos". They are small interventions that have a disproportionate effect.

Brighouse and Woods suggest these

  1. Seating plans (though not too tight).
  2. Proximal learning (eg. whole-school focus - with specific timings)
  3. Subject teachers and their subject associations (encourage subject staff to keep up with their learning in their specialism).
  4. Work shadowing key posts in the school.
  5. Making walls talk (displays)
  6. "Quid a quote"
  7. Improving staff meetings - sharing practice + collective review
  8. Student supervisors (adults from community to assist around school)
  9. Praise postcards / birthday cards
  10. Staffroom teaching and learning noticeboard
  11. improved communication between governors and staff
  12. Learning through action research and case-studies