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Lewisham Learning

The school improvement partnership for Lewisham. What is Lewisham Learning's vision, values, role and function?

Posted: 07/10/2019

Category:Education Policy and Structures


Lewisham Learning is a schools’ led partnership established by school
leaders and the local authority to deliver high quality school
improvement to all Lewisham schools. It is rooted in successful
collaboration which has underpinned education in the borough for some
time. Our schools operate as a family to support, challenge and
encourage each other in their determination to do the very best for
every child.

All of our schools are members of Lewisham Learning
and have access to a developing membership core offer and a strong model
of school improvement. Lewisham Learning works closely with the Local
Authority and is supported by it. It also works closely with a range of
other local organisations who are determined to give our children and
young people the best possible start in life.

Read more about Lewisham Learning below and further information, their annual report and useful documents can be found here.

Why was Lewisham Learning established?

The Education Commission report from 2015/16
recommended that the authority and school leaders should create its own
school improvement partnership.

One of the key reasons for setting
up Lewisham Learning was that we recognised that a school-led
partnership is a mechanism for harnessing and developing
learning between teachers and school leaders. Staff and schools learn
from each other so that effective practice spreads. Many headteachers
and governors in Lewisham were already demonstrating system leadership
by taking responsibility for school improvement beyond their own
organisations and by organizing and providing school to school support. 

The council, with its statutory responsibilities for school
improvement, has a key role in the partnership.  Through the
partnership, the schools and the council are working together to provide
support and challenge to schools to improve outcomes for children and
young people in Lewisham.

It was also clear that stakeholders
wished there to be a sharp focus on the development of a clear school
improvement strategy during the initial phase of the partnership’s
development. Lewisham Learning, in the first instance, has focused
sharply on school improvement, including governor services, rather than
the broader range of support and business services for schools.

The vision of Lewisham Learning

Lewisham Learning is an overarching, cross-borough
partnership to ensure the very best education for all children and young
people.   It is a school-led system of improvement for Lewisham where
all schools, regardless of status, increasingly take on the primary
responsibility, collectively, for supporting improvement and raising
standards.
 
Lewisham Learning will operate as a family, sharing
strong roots and commitment to the local community with schools working
individually, in a variety of groupings and all together to add value
to the whole education system.
 
Lewisham Learning will improve
outcomes for children and young people by enabling schools to work
together across the borough, to draw on each other’s strengths and thus
complement improvement efforts within individual schools and groups of
schools.

Lewisham Learning Values

Children first
Put children first every time
 
Ambition
Have the highest aspiration and ambitions for children and young people
Expect continuous improvement in the quality of teaching and learning
Value and develop the best practice in our schools
 
Equality and inclusion
Make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people
Demonstrate moral purpose in promoting equality and inclusion and challenging inequality
Value all children
 
Trust and support
Mutual support as part of a local family of schools
Strong collaborative working within Lewisham Learning
 
Transparency
Work transparently and in a way that makes us accountable to each other and to our stakeholders

What are the key roles and functions of Lewisham Learning?

Whilst schools ultimately retain their overall
responsibility for school improvement, the key roles and
responsibilities of the partnership include:

• Ensuring strong and
productive relationships across all schools and the local authority in
pursuit of school improvement, benefiting children and young people in
Lewisham

• Using data and intelligence to identify schools that
may require support and may need to be challenged as well as supporting
those already identified as requiring support and challenge i.e. lead on
the development and implementation of a Lewisham School Improvement
Framework including categories for schools (to be updated from January
2018 to July 2018 ready for implementation from September 2018)

• Developing, supporting and monitoring the effectiveness of school to school improvement support

• Ensuring,
when it is necessary to commission school improvement support from
outside the borough, that it is coordinated and value for money

• Supporting the development and commissioning of systems for peer review

• Ensuring
schools have access and signposting to the support they need to remain
good or outstanding, move from good to outstanding and in particular
taking shared cross-borough approaches to new challenges and national
changes where this will be helpful

• Developing and recognizing
system leadership at all levels in our schools including identifying
strengths, good practice as well as schools and leaders who have the
ability and capacity to provide support to others

• Identifying
trends and CPD needs for schools and their Governing Bodies. Lewisham
Learning will liaise with the Standards and Inclusion Managers, SEND
team and LTSAP to coordinate commissioning or providing this.

• Take
the lead in liaising with Headteachers, Deputy and Assistant
Headteachers and School Business Managers to arrange annual conferences
for these groups

• Establishing a group of experienced
headteachers (School Improvement Board) to support the Director in
carrying out the above functions


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