Effective School Management

Figure 11.3
The purposeful organization

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183
about the curriculum (but do not take decisions relating to methods of teaching
and learning). Suggestions can be invited, recorded and used. Education is
not alone in having to adapt to the pressures of economic, technical, social
and political change. Some widely accepted structures have evolved for
‘corporate planning’ and these can be adapted as well to education as to any
other profession, to government or to industry. They provide a sound
framework for thought, and discussion at meetings with staff and others.
CORPORATE PLANNING
The main questions to which stakeholders should be invited to respond are
as follows:
(1) What are our aims and values as a school or college?
(2) In what order of priority do we rank our aims?
(3) What economic, technical and social changes do we anticipate over the
coming years?
(4) What are the implications for the lives of the children in our schools?
What are the threats and what are the opportunities? (The mark of a
healthy organization or individual is a focus on the opportunities in
change rather than the threats.)
(5) How do we need to adapt the curriculum?
(6) Given the needs which we have identified, how do our resources match
these? What are the strengths and weaknesses of our resources?
(7) How do we need to develop or adapt our resources?
(8) What should be our action plan?
While it is useful to begin by discussing the questions in sequence, we should
be prepared to amend our response to an earlier question (e.g. question 1) as
a result of our analysis in response to a later question (e.g. question 3 or 4).
AIMS AND VALUE SYSTEMS
Few would disagree that the overall purpose of an educational institution is
to prepare its pupils for life. However, as soon as we ask what this entails we
find a variety of deeply held convictions, including our own. These convictions
are the product of ‘values’, i.e. our perception of what is important, right or
good. People do not justify their values in logical terms; they are the
fundamental beliefs or premisses from which other arguments are deduced.
Our values are conditioned by upbringing and by the group or groups to
which we belong; many teachers are therefore likely to have certain values in
common which will be different from the common values of many in-
dustrialists or pupils. However, while there may on occasion be fundamental
disagreement about a particular value (some will believe that children should
be taught to conform; others will not), the real problem comes with priorities.
How do we rank in order of importance, for example, the ability to get

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employment, the ability to set up and run one’s own business, the
achievement of an academic qualification, a career in a profession, the use of
leisure, an appreciation of the arts, the acquisition of knowledge, the
acquisition of skills? The question is less one of individual educational values
than of value systems.
Reconciliation of value systems is a need which is specially important to
the educational and training role. Schools and colleges share the problem
with churches, industrial training organizations and political parties.
However, in the last three cases, a ‘client’ who is troubled by incompatibilities
has the option of going elsewhere. Despite parental choice, this may not be
such an easy option with schools.
For educational managers, particularly headteachers, an understanding of
the value systems which affect their school is fundamental. How do staff see
their priorities, how do pupils see priorities, how do parents see priorities,
how do local industrialists see priorities? Are there important discrepancies
which will produce tensions, a feeling that what the school is doing may not
be  ‘relevant’ and, consequently, discontent and misbehaviour in pupils,
whose lack of faith may be reinforced by parental attitudes?
Though value systems are the underlying ‘beliefs’ on which arguments
and actions are based, this does not mean that they are incapable of
modification or even radical change. People are converted to and from
religions, change philosophies radically, can move from idealistic to cynical
systems, from spiritually based to materially based attitudes, and vice versa.
Such shifts often occur because experience of life calls one’s assumptions into
question.
The important task for the educational institution is the reconciliation of
value systems so as to achieve a clear statement of aims and beliefs to which
a large majority of the stakeholders can subscribe and to which they feel
commitment because they are satisfied that the process through which the
aims have been defined has taken account of the main streams of fact and
opinion. The statement of aims and beliefs should not of course be a watered-
down compromise trying to be all things to all people, but one which clearly
states priorities and commits itself to behavioural objectives of the form: ‘A
person who has been educated at this school should…’
One of us (Everard, 1993) has written a short practical guide to handling
values issues, based on the work of Beck (1990). It is important in curriculum
management to steer clear of indoctrination, but to enable students’ values to
be shaped in such a way as to prepare them for life after school.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
List the stakeholders in your school’s curriculum. What do you believe to be the
most important values or expectations of each in regard to the school? How do
these relate to the government’s requirements?

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185
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN PRACTICE
As in all decision-making processes the objective in curriculum development
is to collect and use positive inputs while reserving the right to decide.
As we have indicated, the sequence of input will normally begin with the
staff and should probably end with the staff. Useful techniques which can be
used with the staff or any other of the interested groups are as follows:
(1) Brainstorming on each of the first five corporate planning questions
followed by a period in which subgroups respond to questions 1, 2
and 5.
(2) A curriculum representative committee to include representatives of
staff, governors, parents and older pupils. Such a committee can
stimulate, co-ordinate and use the findings of a wider circle of meetings.
(3) Questionnaires (possibly based on ‘ideas’ meetings) which contain a
mixture of structured questions (e.g. the request to list a number of
possibilities in order of priority) and open questions. These can be sent to
staff, parents, governors, pupils and possibly a local employers’ panel.
They are particularly valuable in ensuring that a proper sample is taken,
and the analysed answers show the weight of opinion in various
directions.
(4) Classroom discussions with pupils from which the results are
systematically collected. Such discussions are usually very fruitful and
are motivating for the pupils, who may arrive at a better understanding
of the possible purposes of education.
Whatever the method, it is important that results and findings are openly
available to those who contribute. Transparency is the name of the game.
At the end of the process, it is up to the head, with the help of the staff
curriculum group, to put together a final document for the consideration of
the governors, which summarizes
(1) the aims, values and priorities of the school;
(2) the curriculum towards which the school will move; and
(3) the rationale behind these.
Though the head is the final arbiter, it goes without saying that the decisions
should reflect the inputs rather than personal or staff prejudices. If this is not
the case, credibility and motivation will be lost.
The whole process should have been carried out in the framework of the
resource constraints and legislative requirements of which the school is
aware. The force field, it is hoped, has now changed shape to Figure 11.4.
The procedure should have lined up the attitudes of a majority of
stakeholders, though some will always remain opposed. However, the
problem which still remains is that of adapting our resources. (See Chapter
13.)

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MANAGEMENT OF EARLY YEARS EDUCATION,
CHILDCARE AND PLAYWORK
Since this book was first published, there has been a huge growth throughout
the UK in the provision of early years education (i.e. up to 8), including
childcare (a term often used generically), playwork, nurseries, after-school
clubs and holiday schemes. This has been driven by the government’s national
childcare strategy, designed to encourage more parents of young children into
employment, but it has also presented a golden opportunity for purposeful
child development (as distinct from child-minding). About £1.5 billion per
annum of public and lottery funds are currently being allocated to this sector.
Many primary schools have opened up pre-school nurseries and after-
school and holiday clubs, often outsourcing their management. The private
sector (both commercial and charitable organizations) is a major provider.
Primary school heads need to understand the likely influence of this growth
industry on curriculum strategy, and those who establish and manage child-
care centres need to meet acceptable standards of effectiveness.
The prevailing pedagogical approach of most proponents and providers
of childcare (but excepting nursery school education, which is more
curriculum-oriented) is significantly different from that of mainstream
education. It is more child-centred and less subject-centred, relying more on
creating a rich and supportive learning environment and leaving the rest to
children’s natural curiosity and resourcefulness, than on teaching to a
curriculum or to standard attainment tests. The key principle is that children
are inherently active learners who learn best from activities that they plan
and carry out themselves, and then reflect on. The emphasis is on the
development of personal and social skills, including learning and problem-