East Renfrewshire Council
A team was established to take forward the initiative, led by Jacqui MacDonald and June Orr, Quality Improvement Officers.
The Motivated School material was adapted into three sections:
Introduction; Learner Needs; Showers; Drivers
Classroom Climate & Impact on Learners
Improving motivation
These were delivered as one half day CPD session + two twilight CPD sessions.
We also wrote a session for school managers on Leading the Motivated School. This considered the leadership styles, which would be suited to a motivated school and applied the theory of motivation to the whole school.
We used The Motivated School Pack to devise self-evaluation material for use by teachers, support staff and pupils. These focussed on:
- How motivating is our school?
- How motivating is our classroom?
- How motivating is our playground?
We also looked at ways to link The Motivated School materials and Framework for Intervention, which is used in all East Renfrewshire schools. A Support Pack has been prepared for schools.
Pupil materials have been developed for Primary 1-3; Primary 4-7 and Secondary. It is stressed that these should be used by teachers as a tool to involve pupils in evaluating the classroom climate and their learning stances, not as a stand-alone pack. They also link to Personal Learning Planning with pupils setting targets to improve their motivation.
The Motivated School was included on the Local Improvement Plan, under National Priority 3. All primary schools have now opted into the programme, over the next two years. One person from each primary school has been trained as a co-ordinator and they will act as a facilitator when the Motivated School is implemented in their school.
One cluster of primary schools was selected to pilot the materials. The CPD sessions were delivered to all staff, including support staff. One member of the Motivated School team was allocated to each school to provide on-going support during implementation.
Each school has decided to take forward the materials in different ways. One has integrated the pupil material into the Personal Learning Planning; another has used the material as a self-evaluation tool with the whole staff to identify whole school improvements; another is using the playground material; one school is developing materials for use with parents.
Two secondary schools are also piloting the material. A member of staff has been trained to support implementation. One school is introducing the material within one department; the other linked to Framework for Intervention.
Evaluations have been very positive. The key is to integrate the materials into school’s existing self-evaluation and quality assurance procedures. We are also advising schools to build time into their Collegiate agreement for teachers to work together on the self evaluation materials, including the gears or hooks to identify strategies.
The Motivated Leader run by Alan McLean is being offered to promoted staff as part of our Leadership Development Programme. This was also very successful and underlined our view that the Motivated School is not a one-off CPD, rather something that should be applied to different contexts within education.