Image: Tooley CC)

There have been many articles in the UK press covering the postal strike from the postie’s point of view, and one thing aspect they re protesting against is excessive innovation by the management – something that is conversely quite rare in the education sector.

The difficulty with innovation is that has an element of ‘cost’ (not only financial) that can be perceived as risk; risk to reputation, quality of learning or of the general status quo within a school. The difficulty with a lack of innovation in any organisation is that there is a lack or progress. It’s rather like using the same road to go to the same destination without exploring other possible routes. Some might be longer, some might have diversions you won’t expecting, but with the right planning, destinaions can always be reached – it just takes a leader to swallow their pride and say ‘we went the wrong route, how can we find our way back?’

So what are the solutions? Do most schools stay watching at the sidelines, studying what the early adopters are up to, and perhaps taking on what they see as is best to them, or do they resist change until it is enforced by their Governors, LA or Government?

Clearly, I believe that there is a very comfortable space somewhere between the two. A progressive SMT, willing to accept that innovation is a necessity in the marketplace, should encourage imaginative ideas, thinking and teaching techniques, examining the risk involved with each scheme, and easing the risk by staggering it. Trials at pupil, group, form, year, department or cluster levels can all benefit the measure of risk involved in a new idea or technique, and can reap benefits schoolwide if successful. It is this kind of thinking that allowed a school in Kent to experiment with Maths Seminars – lessons taught to up to 200 pupils at once in the whole, solving problems and being led by a range of Maths Teachers. The result – an increase in pass rate, but also a measured increase in understanding of problem-solving.