Bleasdale has built a culture of coaching, action leadership and guiding principles that underpin every member of staff’s development at Bleasdale school. The principles foster a culture of continuous improvement, inclusivity, diversity, flexibility and excellence. Using the below concept maximises on how we lead and focus on team, individual and task, keeping our central WHY on pupils and their learning, curiosity and how we can be best SEN provider in the area.
The Bleasdale Leader (Overall Guiding Principles):
1. Servant Leadership:
- Prioritise the needs of students, staff, and the community.
- Foster a collaborative and inclusive environment that respects cultural diversity.
- Empower staff to take initiative and contribute to decision-making processes.
2. Effective Coaching:
- Implement time-efficient coaching strategies to support the professional development of teachers and staff.
- Use coaching to enhance teaching practices and improve student outcomes.
3. Learning from Mistakes:
- Encourage a culture where mistakes are viewed as opportunities for growth and learning.
- Implement systems for analysing errors and developing strategies for improvement.
4. Disciplined Approach:
- Ensure that leadership practices are consistent, focused, and aligned with the school’s mission and values.
- Place the right people in the right roles to maximise their strengths and contributions.
Implementation into Practice:
Very much like our pupils we have a structured of pathways that are encompassing of one another of TO BE, TO DO and TO KNOW (please see diagram at the end for a summary).
TO BE (Intent): To confront complexities by being our best selves is central to Bleasdale’s TO BE leadership. Staff are asked TO BE: Honest, loving, good, successful, thoughtful, supportive, community-focused, and part of the 1% club. They should recognise failure’s value and be trained as advanced education coaches. The school aims to eliminate dependency by avoiding problem-focus, spoon-feeding, and extrinsic motivation. Instead, it promotes a coaching culture that encourages positivity, self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, and resilience, empowering everyone to find their own solutions and achieve their goals.
Bleasdale staff serve and lead for the pupils, aligning through results and momentum from unity and humanity. Differences are celebrated, turning disadvantages into advantages.
The Coaching culture is at the heart of every decision and leadership action we take as set out in the principles of the Bleasdale Leader:
- adopting a more positive, solution-focused approach
- empowering adults and pupils to be more confident in their own creative abilities
- trusting them to find their own solutions to challenges
- encouraging intrinsic motivation to make changes & improvements (individuals take action to improve through confidence & being accountable to themselves)
- enabling them to take positive action to achieve their goals
- making everyone more resilient & increasing their wellbeing
- linking with a range of other providers for best practice and humility
These philosophies support the school in the guiding principles of 1. Servant Leadership and 2. The Coaching Culture, linking strong with Disciplined thought, action and people and the overall TEAM part of our hedgehog concept. These guiding principles supports Bleasdale in enabling a forward thinking, outward looking leadership school.
TO DO – Implementation – is how the above philosophy is thought through and executed.
TO KNOW: Outlines outcomes and IMPACT of the work. Understanding and working towards this means we will reach the following key elements of successful leadership:
Ambition first and foremost for the pupils of Bleasdale School
Personal humility
Professional will
Approaches and Outcomes:
Modest and self-effacing
Finically sustainable
Sustained results – with whatever it takes
A work-person-like diligence
Known to use the mirror and the window analogy
Right people on the bus in the right seats
Decisions before vision
Rigorous not ruthless
Unify under decision making through rigorous debate
Linking and supporting local and national groups
People with: Innate capabilities, specific knowledge, background and skills will develop into the Bleasdale Way
Outcomes and Succession planning: We care about people. This starts within induction into Bleasdale and is of a cyclic nature. You will see:
SLT on a rotation basis of Bleasdale buildings
Class to Class Support
School to school support,
Professionals being able to do and step in to all of our roles and responsibilities
Staff members have humility and an open door ready
Supporting individuals to find their own answers
Coaching at the core of the approach
We would never “Swoop-in like Superman” as each individual has their own answers. The most we would need to do is “moor alongside”. Giving the answer to the person especially disempowers people and stops any succession within the school. Coaching is the answer. We will achieve “Learning Together, Achieving Together” through pleasure of pedagogy with curiosity, compassion and creativity. Leaders succeed and support others within this approach.
Discover our evolution over time so far:
Implementation of guiding principles into practice diagram: Developing organised leadership happens int in the following ways :
