The Learning and Teaching Committee at Brechin High School has been meeting regularly for the past year at lunchtime on Thursdays to discuss issues of professional interest. The group of approximately 25 teachers started out with a mutual interest in behaviour management and progressed to discussing their experiences in implementing cooperative learning strategies. The meetings were so successful that the group decided to develop ways of supporting each other through peer observation. An early focus for this work was the area of listening skills which was adopted as a learning focus for teachers throughout the school.

 The group’s experience make it an ideal context in which to pilot Learning Rounds, an innovative process intended to bring system wide improvement across schools and authorities. The Brechin colleagues are now going to take their learning to the next level by using the Learning Rounds model as a tool to develop skills of observation and feedback. As Jimmy Thomson, PT Schools of Ambition in Brechin, commented, “you learn more by observing then by being observed”.

With the support of Angus Council and the Headteacher at Brechin HS, Steve Dempsey, the Learning and Teaching Committee will take on the client role and invite an observation group into their classrooms to collect data on a specific focus chosen by the group themselves. The observation group will consist of teachers from Brechin HS, along with PTs from other Angus Secondaries and SCSSA and National CPD Team colleagues.

Learning Rounds derives from a model developed by Professor Richard Elmore in the USA which derived originally from medical training. In the medical rounds model, a senior hospital consultant mediates discussion with trainee doctors to agree a consensus on data and develop a descriptive voice before proceeding to diagnostic and intervention stages. The medical analogy is not perfect however, as no “illness” is assumed in the educational version. Learning Rounds is based on a partnership model where the client most certainly has a voice and the “consultants’” role is to produce high quality data about an agreed focus and to feed it back to the clients who will then take ownership and determine any next steps. The client group and the observation group can then proceed to engage in a joint enquiry if required.

The Brechin HS project is one of four current projects within the national Learning Rounds pilot:

• six Directors of Education are participating in a project looking at system wide improvement at directorate level.
• North Ayrshire Council is hosting a project involving HTs and DHTs in several schools who will be investigating school effectiveness in teaching.
• Lastly, candidates on the Flexi Route to the Standard for Headship will visit each other’s schools to observe colleagues’ leadership practice.

It is anticipated that the learning within the LR project will be on various levels. The client group will receive objective, non-judgemental feedback about issues identified by them. The observation group will hopefully gain confidence and learn the skills of focussed observation, achieving consensus on evidence, giving feedback, facilitating productive discussion and developing professional dialogue about learning and teaching. There will be learning generated by undertaking a joint enquiry and lastly, learning will be identified and shared across the four different contexts of the project and a model will be developed which can be adapted to suit any future context.

For more information on Learning Rounds, please contact Graham Thomson at SCSSA or Sheila.Smith@cosla.gov.uk.

(graham.thomson@ed.ac.uk)

For more information on the Learning and Teaching Committee at Brechin High School, please contact Jimmy Thomson at the school.

Categories: Learning rounds
Tags: Brechin, Learning rounds