 Good evening everyone, welcome and thank you for your time this evening. I suppose if you were working with unreliable data collection on toilet rolls the danger is it would be a tissue of lies. Thank you very much for coming. Good night. What else can one say? But thank you Jane that was lovely because it really does reinforce the point that I want to work on with you this evening which is this relationship in education between the investigational process and the practitioner process and just how close or how far apart are they and pivotally that crucial question which certainly I love asking at doctoral vivas which may not occur so much at master's level but to actually ask the candidates at a viva has your research actually made any difference and I think that's a very fair question to ask because as you all know the amount of energy, intellectual energy, social energy, emotional energy that goes into research is massive. It's on top of so much and therefore is it enough just to finish the dissertation or should this lead somewhere, take us somewhere and make something happen and that's really what I want to explore with you and when I was reflecting on this I suppose that the tension that came into my mind because of my love of sorry my love of alliteration even though I can't say it is the notion of the relationship between analysis and action and it really is I suppose the subtitle for this evening is analysis into action and then immediately of course needs to all sorts of cliches doesn't it because one of the great cliches that's hurled at educational research particularly at professional researchers is this notion of paralysis by analysis in other words we get so concerned with the mechanics of monitoring the consumption of toilet runs that we forget why we're doing the research yeah and that's the issue isn't it but sometimes research becomes self legitimating self validating and we lose sight of its context its impact and so on. So we're going to explore the idea of how we translate the evidence that we generate the findings that we establish into something that makes a difference if that's appropriate because I'm not saying it necessarily always may be but again I want to raise with the issue that in education if one is professionally engaged in the research process then surely it must have some relevance to our core purpose whatever that might be and we'll come back to that issue. Now I'm not going to talk to you for an hour because I think at this time of day that's unfair and would push your tolerance to the absolute limit. So I'm going to raise questions with you and raise some ideas and then give you a chance to talk with a neighbour. So are you sitting next to somebody who's potentially interesting? If you're not sure and you wish to move then we will have opportunities several times one or two of you are now looking really worried I have to say and that's most unfortunate I'm sorry to raise the issue. So from time to time we'll stop have a conversation and then towards the end of the session towards the end of the hour then I'll open up to questions but if something really is significant emerges and you really want to question and debate and so on then please don't hesitate to do so. So let's have a look at how we understand this very complex relationship and I think there's no better starting point than Richard Pring and his study the philosophy of education research even though it's now 12 years old is actually still I think one of the most accessible powerful comprehensive studies of the methodological and epistemological issues surrounding research education and if you're not familiar with it I would urge you to really engage with it because it is the most lucid and most comprehensive study of how high quality research works in education that's where Pring is so good I think really making it work in the context of education and I think he captures in this quotation for me this the essential elements of this evening because on that second line research is of little use unless it is understood and internalised that's great that's what we've got to do it's not enough simply to produce the research it's got to be presented in such a way that it is firstly understood and that's a challenge in itself and then this process of internalisation in other words I begin to acknowledge the fact that this research may have implications for me and my practice and my understanding and that immediately moves us into the issue of change doesn't it in other words what I find in my research may have implications in terms of me changing but it also has implications perhaps of you changing as well and then secondly at the bottom of the quote there making it a practice of a certain sort and I find that again a very interesting concept the notion is that it may be as a result of research that one sort of practice has to be changed into another sort of practice because of the evidence that we've created because of the understandings that have emerged because of the sheer issues that we don't have any toilet paper left I'm going to go on about toilet paper all night that we really need to have a fundamental rethink so that for me gives us the challenge that research for its own sake if it ever exists in education which I doubt has to be really seriously questioned in the extent to which that every example of practice in education is based upon some sort of conceptual model isn't it you cannot practice without having a personal conceptual framework which informs that practice so every time we engage in research we are automatically looking at the theory but then it's the way in which we are able to link that into the practice that really does raise the challenge and that raises I think a fundamental issue about the context in which we're researching now this next slide is taken from a really interesting document the case for change this was published by the coalition alongside the white paper in November 2010 and the white paper the importance of teaching attracted a huge amount of attention but the case for change which was published alongside it attracted relatively limited attention which is really sad because it was one of the very few cases where a government department has actually published the research on which it claims to be building its policies now you want makes one's own judgments and you read about the you have a look at it and say is this really what was intended is this valid research and so on and so on but nevertheless there are certain assumptions in the case for change which have been directly and very dramatically the basis of a lot of what is happening in schools in this country and the starting point for the case for change is absolutely explicit and it's based upon again a range of evidence which is contestable and debatable but which seems to have fairly wide consensual acceptance which is basically that we in this country in terms of educational achievement and outcomes by very narrow definition have a gap and as you know that the secretary of state has made closing that gap the absolute central issue in his period in office and then this this ugly phrase which carries so many really powerful emotive connotations doesn't it this notion of the long tail of under achievement and even it I think I think I think this is non-partisan this is non-party political that by and large we as an education system do have an issue in that probably two-thirds and again the debate can rage but probably two-thirds of young people in England lead very very good lives by a whole range of criteria they have very very good quality of life they have a range of well-being and for many of them they enjoy excellent education in really remarkably good schools and they succeed and they have as I say wonderful life chances that leaves us with a third and that's the worry isn't it that really does seem to be in denial of virtually everything that one would aspire to for an education system two-thirds is good but and I was going to say in the fifth and then I remember of course we're not the fifth biggest economy in the world anymore we were the sixth until yesterday when Brazil overtook us so we're now the seventh biggest economy in the world and it goes down by the day I have to tell you but basically as the seventh largest economy on earth to have a third of children who by certain criteria are not achieving in the way that our society has deemed to be appropriate that does raise some fairly fundamental challenges and being somewhat naive perhaps can I just raise with you the issue that any professional activity including research which does not address that issue may be rather missing the point in the sense that if it's not informing practice so as to close the gap then why are we doing it something like that I'm not saying it has to do it but it's an interesting way of saying how do I justify the use of my time and energy and so what sort of purposes does research seem to focus on when do you recognize all of those and they're all valid aren't they I'm not sure that we will ever find out the truth about education probably just as well really certainly number two number three number four all of those absolutely valid in terms of why am I doing this research and of course the final one is the most valid of all isn't it and that's again I would say absolutely fundamentally right because personal learning personal growth personal development is essential but look at it that list and say yeah that all of that is valid and appropriate but actually shouldn't it be that isn't that what it's really about and that's the challenge I put to you that whilst we can go through all sorts of focal points about why are we doing this research what are we seeking to find and pivotally how are we looking to change practice isn't it the starting point for any notion of policy into practice though we should have some kind of understanding of the context in which we're working and also if you like and this can be the debate the moral purpose underpinning that context in other words how do we respond to the context and that raises some very very challenging issues doesn't it certainly there is an enormously rich literature particularly North America around the relationship between educational research and issues around ethnicity issues around gender and so on and saying fundamentally if this research is not in some way advancing social justice then why are we doing it and I think that there's a very very interesting debate to be had around the notion of is this research mine for my purposes in order to increase my understanding or is it to enable us as a profession to move forward in such a way as to diminish the number of young people who are not succeeding in our particular school or in our system and so on that's a massive debate to be had but again I would suggest to you that in some systems that that is almost axiomatic the reason why we engage in research is in order to improve our effectiveness in order to ensure that more young people succeed so there's some very very problematic issues there in why we are doing this research but there are equally problematic issues in the sense of how we perceive practice and this is taken from the lecture that some of you may remember that David Hargreaves gave in 1996 and this is the annual TTA lecture on the future of educational research where he compared educational research with medical research and basically said if if medical research was at the same status and level of practice as medical research then many of us would be dead now if medical research was at the same level as educational research then we would be dead simply because for most medical practitioners not all of course but for most researching their own practice is axiomatic to being a doctor being aware of research which influences their practice is axiomatic to being a doctor and crucially contributing to the knowledge that informs future practice is absolutely central to being a doctor I'm not sure that's the case in education even now what 16 years after Hargreaves speech I'm not sure we're still not there we're probably still not evidence based and if we were evidence based where would it take us well in the first place can we trust the evidence we'll come back to that point but for example just two very simple examples and then I'll give you a chance to have your first reflection for it's been known for about 25 years now according to some fairly robust research done by two American researchers Joyce and showers that by and large courses don't work going away for the day being put up in a hotel having a nice lunch and meeting interesting people may not actually make any difference to practice in the school you may you may have heard rumors to this effect it has all sorts of alternative positive outcomes it gives the teachers class arrest which is always good it actually gives people a bit of a day of indulgence which is good news but the work done by Joyce and showers seems to point to the fact that if you actually want to change somebody's classroom practice if you want to change their leadership behaviours then the only thing that will do it is coaching and that's been around for nearly 30 years now and the issue is the challenges the debate is it seems to be corroborated over and over and over again and yet it is still marginal to most people's practice and so there's a leadership challenge there for example one of the key implications is that if that's true then shouldn't leadership whether school leadership team leadership leadership in the classroom shouldn't that be fundamentally rooted in effective coaching because isn't every isn't it the function of every leader to enable change and if we're talking about enabling change then according to Joyce and showers coaching is the most powerful vehicle to do it but it's obviously not the case and then a further example which again many of you will be familiar with um the work done by tion hattie in his book invisible learning which is as you know the mega study of the mega studies of the mega studies of pedagogy it is encyclopedic it is detailed and yet believe it or not colleagues i have come across schools in the past year which do not have a copy of john hattie's book in the staff room can you imagine such a thing and again hattie having looked at with his team it has to be said 500 000 pieces of research on effective class from practice and synthesised and synthesised and synthesised and says the single most significant and effective example of practice is is um feedback then why don't we do it why isn't it absolutely fundamental to everything that we do in terms of the interaction between teacher and learner is the fundamental one and that raises all sorts of questions i'm sure you know again you're aware of the work done by carol dweck which reinforces hattie over and over again and yet we're still not really engaged so when we talk with colleagues then is it about this is the way that it's always been done like this yes with that that moment when you're doing a whole school inset day and you hear a voice weirdly from the back saying we tried this in 78 it didn't work down i see no reason why it should work now is it about prejudice that basically my classroom is my area to be comfortable and therefore irrespective of what you tell me i will not change my practice because that's the one part of my life in my world where i have a degree of control whether or not it works doesn't matter i'm comfortable thank you and i know that's a parody occasionally is it the case ladies and gentlemen that we have a just a hint of dogma in education it's for you to decide but in the final analysis we are often told it's often done from an ideological base isn't it the way that education policy works the way that school strategies work may often be based upon a particular ideological perspective so as an introductory conversation if you don't know the person next to you and you wish to be formally introduced let us know but just for a few minutes please to what extent in your experience is practice evidence based okay it's the practice in your school evidence based or is it based on one of those if we do research if we teach if we engage in educational activities then surely one of the inevitable components of that is change in one of the glories of being a school teacher isn't it to see your pupils change to see the growth and the magic process that sometimes takes place within the same day of the growth in terms of understanding and of course ladies and gentlemen within the new off-stead framework it should be able to be able to you should be able to demonstrate progress and change within a 20 minute period so you know no problems there at all in many ways change and learning are almost absolutely the same thing aren't they we know that when we learn something if we learn to ride a bicycle then essentially our neurological structures change if we understand this and that we change who we are in many ways and so i would suggest to you that one of the issues in looking at the relationship between research and practice is the extent to which we recognise that the process of research is essentially a change process and that in order to be effective in your research you may have to change personally but then if we look at the context in which that research has taken place nationally locally within particular institution within your own classroom then that also involves change now i have to tell you that some of our colleagues out there are not entirely enamored of change one secretary of state about 20 years ago plus actually came into office and one of her first announcements was to say there will be a moratorium on change and although i have great respect for her personally i did i never understood how you could actually stop change in education you must be fundamental to it but that means that we need to have some understanding don't we of the psychological constructs that we engage how we engage with change how are you about change how do you feel about change and changing what's your what's your emotional response to change because that's going to have a fundamental issue upon your ability to influence practice isn't it if if your research is going to influence practice then something's going to change now i have to confess i love change my working life is about change no two days ever the same i think this goes back to my childhood my father was in the raf between the ages of four and fourteen i went to about 11 different schools and lived in 13 different homes and at the moment i'm living in my 35th home but i'm thinking i'm going to stay there because next week we pay off the mortgage it's one of the things that happens when you get old you suddenly find you don't own as much as you thought you did and therefore my own construct of change is that this is how i live this is normal very rarely in my life do i have two days the same professionally i'm not going to talk about things personally that's for another evening but your personal engagement with change how comfortable are you with change to what extent are you somebody who's open to innovation are you are you a risk taker in certain senses are you somebody who is willing to consider alternative perceptions or are you somebody who needs who needs to be in control somebody who needs to be very conscious of exactly what's happening and by and large the status quo is a good place to be perhaps you'd like to talk to your other neighbour now if i'm going to change i need to be confident in why i'm changing and who are you to ask me to change anyway and that's the integrity of research isn't it and that's when the the rigour of your research becomes so important and i think that the increasing way that we talk about the trustworthiness of research is so powerful isn't it can i trust these findings because if they're true then i might have to change and that is an enormous demand that's a huge issue to raise in a in professional practice well can i trust a journalist how about polytoin b in this morning's guardian on international women's day women do twice as much unpaid caring as men so when the safety nets go so does their independence of the 710 000 public employees cut 65 percent of women since women progress higher in the public sector expect their overall professional status to fall etc etc can we trust that i think so so journalist yes sometimes but not always and so on through the list i'll accept the research evidence to the extent to which it confirms my personal experience yeah and so i've had some fun recently and i'm sure many of you are familiar with it with the Sutton trust report on highly effective strategies that raise pupil achievement and as you may remember one of the key findings of the Sutton trust report which corroborates a great deal of other research is that by and large class size makes no difference to achievement in fact by certain criteria reducing class size would actually lead to a fall in standards and one or two of you are now looking at me and saying what planet is he on and people say to me well yeah that may be the research but when my class is smaller i'm a better teacher that's maybe true madam but it doesn't mean that your class's achievement is going to rise the number of the nurse contingent's issue in the Sutton trust report teaching assistants have made virtually no impact on achievement and we know some of them are awe-inspiringly good but by and large they make impact on all sorts of things but not on achievement in many schools so counterintuitive isn't it if my classes were smaller and i had more adults in i could be a brilliant teacher in fact take away the children and i would be absolutely fabulous the advice of a trusted friend always powerful the advice of a gp it's it never pays to become friends with the gp does it i had one once had a gp became very good friend and one evening after a couple of bottles of very good wine he turned to me and said john do you realise that in my final exams of the first part of the medical training i got a third i said well by most university criteria that means you scored about 55 percent he said yeah that sounds about right i said which 45 percent did you fail on because i need to know to speak to one of your colleagues so even when we have the badge even when we have the status it may be we still can't be trusted on what basis are you prepared to accept evidence in order to change please back to your neighbour if we're really going to become evidence based if we're really saying that the purpose of research is to inform practice then one of the things we really got to challenge is this issue of personal intuition common sense yeah um more than one secretary of state has rubbish to research in education simply saying well it doesn't coincide with common sense and whose common sense are we talking about here please sir and there's all sorts of issues around the notion of you know the common sense view is and it's massive isn't it it's huge challenge for us maybe because we're not used to talking about evidence one of the great privileges of my working life has been to work with schools where a substantial proportion of staff are doing some form of school based research and they are magical institutions to work with quite different because the level of discourse is totally different because we are people are talking about evidence in a way that links it into practice in a way that relates it to what is it we're here to do and then I think we begin to see something very important very powerful happening but again it's about the trustworthiness of evidence it's about the integrity of the researcher it's about the appropriateness of what's been found and but pivotly it's persuadability it's stickiness yeah that seems to be one of the privileges is this going to really make a difference will people buy into it so let's have a look at a couple of examples I'm sorry this is a fairly busy sheet I apologize for that the next one's even worse and I apologize in advance let's take up those a couple of examples of what for me are some really compelling pieces of research and I use them a greatly in my own work with schools the work done by Carol Dweck on self-theorists basically saying the way the teachers interact with pupils in terms of feedback on their work has got this most enormous potential impact for good or ill and in fact the well-meaning teacher says what a clever boy you are you've tried so hard you really have achieved well this is a lovely piece of work may actually be damning that child to a life of delusion rather than saying why didn't you try this have you thought about that if you did more of this in other words the notion of challenge the work of John Hattie which again I mean the book is encyclopedic and it's vastly detailed and no human being could ever read it from cover to cover I don't think but its authority is amazing in terms of the way in which it presents us with very very detailed systematic consistent evidence which demonstrates how certain strategies are more effective than others and then if you want perfect piece of triangulation the work done by Higgins and his colleagues at the University of Durham which says let's look at the impact that certain strategies make in terms of the achievement of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and lo and behold the same story comes through again over and over and over the challenges I see it ladies and gentlemen is basically how much evidence do we need before we begin to contemplate changing practice and I think it's a very real issue because that personal idiosyncratic approach that habituated personal practice that really is at the heart of a lot of what goes on in education isn't it the fact that we are so deferential to personality in the classroom aren't we here am I in my classroom my teaching is an extension of myself that's why you better not challenge my teaching because in doing so you're challenging me that's really hard isn't it working with new heads they've said the one thing that in the job which they found the most challenging was to talk to a colleague about their practice simply because you don't understand you don't know it works for me etc etc and I'll confess immediately that when I first started teaching an A level and you're looking around from model how do I do this as a teacher compare you go back five years to when you were a student and you say oh yes and in the 1960s believe it or not teaching A level was dictating notes day after day after day and don't worry ladies and gentlemen that will be returning soon so we have some very compelling by most criteria evidence but that which may require significant change in order to respond to it and there I think is where your research if you're looking at issues around classroom practice say my research surely it your John Hattie's work is so far removed from the day to day life of my school that but you know the Carol Dweck her work is so rooted in a different culture to ours but then isn't the purpose of your research to bridge the gap and isn't that why practitioner research is so powerful and so important because you take the generic and make it specific and that I think is something really compelling so and then also let's think about trust simply because it's one of the most powerfully emotive concepts isn't it and the work that's been done on trust in the context of educational leadership in particular is awesome I think and again powerful but how on earth do we get to the point where we can take a piece of research on something as elusive a human quality as trust and say I'm prepared to change let's think here's what I do apologize for this but basically I just wanted you to have that taken from Carol Dweck's website just because it makes the point so compellingly that over and over again there are there are there is evidence which points to change the practice and student achievement changes and that that takes us back precisely to where I started we have a tale that tale is the product of one mode of practice which works well for some but not for all and therefore surely practitioner research has to actually engage with those areas where it doesn't work and if you have a chance to look at that then you see that there are things in there which are based upon hard hardly very very challenging detail of what happens in highly effective classrooms the Sutton Trust report focuses specifically on disadvantaged children and says use this strategy and and if you haven't had a chance to look at the report it's on the Sutton Trust website it's powerful stuff and they say basically number one feedback like that number two cognitive development and challenge teaching children to think giving them a cognitive toolkit and thirdly getting peer learning going those three are high impact low cost now what would it take to get them working in your school so they're all sorts of issues around classroom practice equally the work done sorry the work done by Tony Brick and his colleagues first published in 2002 and then wonderfully revisited in 2010 in terms of publication saying that if you look at schools which are disproportionately successful in certain contexts it's trust that makes the difference and the really powerful thing in the 2010 study is you take all of the components that we know about in terms of school improvement but as he says here if you lack the social energy of trust it won't work and so expect any day now a missive from the department saying you will be required to trust each other more we will have a national standard for trust trust me it'll work and there's the challenge isn't it because how on earth do we corroborate that kind of evidence how on earth do we begin to come to terms with the notion of we if we're really going to be successful we change our practicing classrooms in certain ways and then we change the way that we perceive the work of leaders into basically creating a high trust community and that's very challenging well it is challenging because maybe we don't spend enough time talking about it it is challenging maybe because we are not actually exploring implications of talking about a trust-based community in a way that we give us confidence to see how it would work in practice so I would argue that and of course there are multiple other examples those are just two of my favourite areas at the moment whereby you have meta research global research which by and large it's why we do our literature reviews is it not to demonstrate that we are aware of that context that's the context that's the conceptual context and then we show how it applies within our own situation that for me begins to help us bridge the gap between the the theory the principle and the actual practice but only if researchers are actively engaged with colleagues in dialogue around those key issues so I return to my basic question how how evidence-based is what we do to what extent are we using the vocabulary to what extent are we embedding these concepts into the way in which we perceive practice roles and so on in other words to what extent is it actually becoming part of the way the school functions and the only way to do that of course is to change the discourse to have a new vocabulary so just reflect for a few minutes if you would on any examples any evidence you have of how the generic the broad the global becomes funneled down into your school or alternatively what is the basis on how your school functions now where does it come from what's what's the conceptual framework that underpins the way that your school operates please so the notion is that as researchers one of the most compelling things you can do is to make sense of and then apply and then where appropriate change practice within an area in which you have significant influence and that must be I think one of the highest levels of professional practice but it does raise the issue doesn't it because you know teachers are very properly very cautious and often very cynical people about here's another new idea and this raises the issue really of what constitutes evidence and I think for me the best way that I find to think about it is that at the one hand you've got the hard scientific DNA type evidence although now of course that's been questioned as well and over here you've got the circumstantial evidence and in between you've got varying degrees of confidence and I think for me that the real issue about evidence is a it's trustworthiness and on the basis of that b the level of confidence that I have in order to inform my capacity my propensity my willingness to act and so if you think of it the vast majority of in this room sorry of us in the room when we go to see our doctor and the doctor says here's a prescription we're pathetically grateful aren't we not many of us actually say right side effects now please how was the trial who conducted the trial you know and so on we just say thank you for taking away my pain so it's very much about credibility isn't it it's very much about confidence evidence is based upon sometimes hard data and there is always this aspirational this aspiration to be objective isn't that I really am not convinced about the notion that we can ever be objective about a classroom it's such a complex place isn't it schools are extraordinary complex so let's not kid ourselves that by doing lots of number counting we're going to be objective but it may help us to be less subjective is that acceptable so we have one more piece in the jigsaw which helps us make up our mind which shows us that certain bits of quantitative data actually do give us confidence in a particular strategy and that's the issue for example about the class size debate yeah if we're going to reduce class sizes from an average of 30 down to 20 how many more teachers would we require about 150 000 are they all going to be outstanding probably not therefore will they raise standards no the numbers are there aren't they we can explore their implications and meaning and then we go over to the other side and for example nothing is compelling in education often as seeing another teacher doing something is the modeling the case study and if I see it working in another school that's why movement between schools is so powerful and important isn't it if I can come into your classroom and watch you use this this feedback approach then I'm more likely to change than reading parallel Dweck aren't I and that's again I think has to inform how we approach this issue that not only do I gather the data but I also demonstrate the the confidence level in that data and then on the basis of that confidence level suggest that here are ways forward in terms of making it actually work in practice because that makes sense I've been sitting still for a long time excuse me so if we can get enough evidence then maybe when the confidence is relatively low it may simply help me understand better and I think that's perfectly valid and appropriate but surely we can go one step further I can engage with my colleagues and that's where this notion of the school as a learning community I think is so compelling and so powerful we start having conversations we engage in dialogue and immediately we begin to influence policy and practice don't we the very fact that we're talking about what works the fact that we're sharing practice the fact that we are comparing experience the fact that we're modeling feedback for each other that makes the difference at some point somebody will change the basic laws of evolution tell us that and therefore we are looking to then capture that consolidate that and then we can begin to I believe to really bring in new practices whether in terms of classroom practice or leadership practice and so on we then evaluate and consolidate and then we embed it through conceptual practice that's a very challenging list but I think that that's really what we're about the more we move from personal understanding into this notion of embedding consensual practice the more likely it is that we'll see a real difference is being achieved in schools of course there are problems the context is a key issue isn't it what's the history of this school how open is the school what's the level of dialogue like in this school one of the things again from new head teachers reporting often is that one of the first things they do is simply as a new head is have to make a school safe get certain basic things in place get the fundamental systems and structures right and then start work on the culture and the context is absolutely paramount is this research relevant to our needs in other words is it is it way out in the academic left field where it is undoubtedly intellectually satisfying and personally fulfilling but whether in fact it is professionally relevant is another matter altogether and that relevance of course is an enormous factor in credibility isn't it what are the drivers behind this research well at the moment for example one of the key imperatives with a research is the way that ofsted is reformulating accountability in this country you know the notion of progress in lessons is now becoming fundamental that's a key driver i would suggest to you you know that schools which were outstanding are now in you know are now satisfactory simply on the basis of progress you know the first month or so of ofsted is demonstrating that that gives us a real imperative doesn't it to say it's relevant it's it's about improving the practice so that we can demonstrate progress there may be one or two blockers in the system ladies and gentlemen i just hesitate to mention this is a fact and one of the great challenges and again it's true in medicine it's true in education it's true in almost any professional practice is to say have you anticipated with the people who will not accept your word you know how do you engage with those people because it's so easy to become euphoric about what i have found and what we can do and then you said is there just the possibility that this might not be as compelling to all of your colleagues and then inevitably a resource issue how do we make this happen how do we make this work if we're talking about really informing practice then i think something like that checklist your version on it is absolutely fundamental i've gone slightly over time and i think the final slide is pretty much self-explanatory because i just want to give you a couple of minutes just to pull any ideas together and then if appropriate some questions and comments hopefully more comments than questions but i do think that in essence the architecture of learning is the notion that learning is not bounded by periods and days and so on it's the constant dialogue how many meetings that take place in school have learning on the agenda because that's a real giveaway isn't it now to what extent is there evidence that we have sustained professional dialogue around the quality of learning across the school do we as a school understand that teaching may not necessarily lead to learning because that's a real challenge isn't it really is hard i was in the staff room young man came in high fives punching there absolutely delighted just taught the best lesson i've ever taught it's just to pity the children weren't ready for it that's the gap between policy and practice isn't it that's when the challenge comes in how do we work in this very complex network schools are incredibly complex places there are so many territorial issues how do we get them resolved in order to build this one thing which is going to make all the difference in totally pragmatic terms which is the consistency of a child's experience in terms of good and outstanding teaching and learning because that's the that's the the bottom line of accountability now isn't it consent consensus and alignment around values and effective practice do we believe because if you if you look at the best practice in any organisation whether it's a hoat in a restaurant kitchen in any context you go airline whatever that's what makes the difference isn't it and then we're only going to do this if we like each other if we care about each other and if we can work together well that means that if i'm going to change my practice after 30 40 years of the practitioner i've really got to trust you you've got to be credible and therefore hopefully we can say that this is about working to make our school a microcosm of a just society where children have some hope because anything else is unacceptable isn't it so take a moment or two if you were just too reflective there are any issues that are burning in order to end the day of comment and question and debate thank you you