Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

Relieving the burden In February 2022, Welling School in Kent was rated Inadequate. Headteacher Brian Griffen and director of maths Dominic Roberts give their accounts of what happened next... BrianGriffen, headteacher Trained as a PE teacher, before later becoming a trust deputy specialising in school improvement; subsequently appointed as headteacher of Welling School in April 2023 I spent the first three years of my teaching career in quite a challenging school, and from there, started to actively seek out challenges involving school improvement. As well as improving standards and outcomes, this has previously involved rebuilding that sense of connectivity between children and the school they attend – I’ve always got a real buzz from that kind of work. Unstructured time When entering a school in difficult circumstances, it’s important to quickly gain an understanding of its unique context. The precise nature of the challenges it faces will be very specific, and the stakeholders will be markedly different from those youmay have dealt with previously. During my first visit toWelling School, I sought to understand where the school was by entering classrooms, walking the corridors and paying particular attention to unstructured time – breaks, lunchtimes, how students entered and exited the school. When you're formulating an initial plan in your head as to how you’re going to approach the improvement process, those are the key indicators. Prior to my arrival, Daniel Hatley (executive headteacher) and his colleagues had got the school to a place where we were ready to take the next leap. Things were calm, but what was needed was drive . Early on, I made a point of arranging 10- to 15-minute one-to-one meetings with every member of staff, in which I asked them to tell me something about the school that was great, and something that needed to improve. I then fed these views into an action plan I presented to SLT during that first week. The next step was to expand the capacity of the school’s pastoral team, and then sharpen up habits around classroom life 55 teachwire.net/secondary C L A S S R O OM L I F E