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The English schools’ system is at a crossroads. This landmark collection of essays brings together some of the country’s leading education thinkers and practitioners. Their polemic is intended to help teachers, school leaders, governors and policy makers think deeply about future directions.

• Can a school-led system truly become self-improving?
• What is the difference between good and great schools?
• Who should inspect and regulate?
• How should local authorities change?
• Is the landscape ahead one of all schools in partnerships?

Featuring chapters written by: Dr Penny Barratt, Roy Blatchford, Matt Butler, Sir David Carter, Rebecca Clark, Dr Tim Coulson, Professor Deborah Eyre, Kiran Gill, Carl Hendrick, Russell Hobby, Guy Holloway, Peter Hyman, Clare Kershaw, David Laws, Brian Lightman, Rachel Macfarlane, Helena Mills, Dr Dan Nicholls, Sir John Rowling, Melanie Saunders, Steve Taylor

‘This is a time of great possibility. Teachers are doing extraordinary things. If we had more courage to shape our schools around what we believe to be a good education, then we could make life so much better not just for teachers but for the students we serve.’ Peter Hyman

‘For a self-improving system to be truly successful and to have a significant impact, it requires the highest performing schools to be outward reaching and to establish deep partnerships.’ Rachel Macfarlane

‘A self-improving school system must not become a self-regarding or, worse, a self-protecting school system. The role of external challenge is key to this.’ Russell Hobby

Contents

About the contributors
Introduction, Roy Blatchford and Rebecca Clark
   
Part One: Teachers’ and Headteachers’ Voices
1.    The courage of our convictions, Peter Hyman    
2.    The self-improving ambition and the school-led fallacy, Kiran Gill
3.    Creating great schools, Rachel Macfarlane
4.    An independent perspective: trusting teachers, Guy Holloway
5.    Self-diagnoses: the way to school improvement, Helena Mills
6.    Research informed schools: a grassroots movement, Carl Hendrick
7.    Making sure it works for all, Penny Barratt
8.    System leaderships: within and between multi-academy trusts, Steve Taylor and Dr Dan Nicholls
9.    Schumpeter’s Gale, Matt Butler

Part Two: Local, Regional and National Voices
10.    A school-led system: from rhetoric to reality, David Laws
11.    Seizing the system, Tim Coulson
12.    ‘We are doing all that can be done’, John Rowling
13.    High performance learning: creating a world class school, Deborah Eyre
14.    Leading change and collaboration, David Carter
15.    Schools are not islands, Clare Kershaw
16.    The hurricane of reform, Melanie Saunders
17.    Inspecting the future, not the past, Russell Hobby
18.    ‘We need to do this because’, Brian Lightman
19.    The inspectorate, past, passing and to come, Roy Blatchford
20.    ‘Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia’, Rebecca Clark

Part Three: Practice Shapes Policy
21.    Essex School-led Improvement System
22.    Characteristics of successful multi-academy trusts    
23.    Architechture of a self-improving system
24.    Peer reviews: Do you see what I see?