Author: Sarah Beebee
Company: ESTYN

Arweinyddiaeth / Leadership

Yn yr ysgolion mwyaf llwyddiannus, mae arweinwyr y cyfnod sylfaen yn chwarae rôl strategol allweddol yn yr uwch dîm arwain.  Maent yn canolbwyntio’n rheolaidd ar wella’r ddarpariaeth a chodi deilliannau disgyblion, gan fod yn fodelau rôl medrus i arddangos pedagogeg ac arfer effeithiol y cyfnod sylfaen i gydweithwyr 
-	Well, we’ve been on a very exciting leadership journey which began with the amalgamation of three schools back in 2011. They were three very different schools with a range of skills and expertise and practice. We were then tasked with the journey as a governing body to ensure that we provided a staffing structure that was fit for purpose and obviously ensuring that we held in high regard the provision of the Foundation phase in that journey. Over time we worked hard to build to capacity to ensure that all staff understand and share the same vision to ensure that we deliver consistent Foundation phase pedagogy that’s underpinned by good play and active learning to ensure that all staff are producing high-quality Foundation phase provision. 
-	Staff development and CPD has certainly helped us to ensure that we’ve got highly trained confident staff who are able to instil confidence and a sense of investigation and wanting to learn in our pupils and I think that by training our staff to a high standard it has impacted on the standards our children have attained. In terms of the Donaldson report and the new curriculum I think most Foundation phase practitioners, as we are, are probably quite ready for the new curriculum I don’t think there are many aspects that we’re not already doing in that we’re trying to make our children capable, confident learners by the time they leave us and on the whole most of our children are very confident by the time they get to Year 7. 
-	We’ve used lots of examples to strengthen leadership across the school. We feel that that’s a key feature of our school improvement journey. Staff have developed their leadership skills in terms of Foundation Phase leadership, we’ve worked with our local consortia and obviously many of our local schools to provide opportunities to mentor and coach one another both within our own setting and across a range of schools locally. 
-	Say it write it!
-	 We’ve provided a range of training for staff across the Foundation phase. One particular area we’ve concentrated on was developing the area of maths and numeracy. We’ve worked with our local consortia to identify good practice and provided a range of training opportunities for all staff and then developed a coaching and mentoring programme where staff work alongside each other to support them in developing their own skills in teaching and learning. We’ve then developed that further by sharing that good practice that we’ve established with other schools and developing our school to school work across the local regional consortia. 
-	One example is that we’ve tried to improve numeracy skills through the area of physical development. We’ve provided a coaching and mentoring programme with staff to help them understand and explore the opportunities that physical development can provide to help improve pupils’ numeracy skills. 
-	We are continually developing opportunities for staff to lead and manage the Foundation phase. We have a number of coaching and mentoring programmes ongoing and we also offer a shadowing programme for staff across the school. We ensure that we provide high quality training so that they’re able to share their good practice with others across the school and we are continually ensuring that we provide opportunities for staff to be involved in that leadership and management role. 
-	For me, as a Head I’ve been Key Stage 2 most of my life, I’ve taught Juniors most of my life. So I know my limitations and I look for expertise within our team to support and I’m really passionate about doing that. Most of Michael’s career has been in the Foundation phase he is very knowledgeable he is a very good leader with the staff that he works with. We’ve also worked within our team at developing good leaders along and being coached and mentored and monitored and supported by Michael. For me, my role is to empower them. For me, my role is to support them it’s to trust the leadership, the gut instinct, to trust their judgement. I question – I question a lot, I monitor I’m interested there’s no doubt with what we’re doing but I know I am not the leader of the expertise within the Foundation phase so for me it was to empower Michael, to support him, to create an atmosphere where there’s high challenge and high expectation but low risk. We’re encouraging people within the department to take risks, be innovative, and if it goes wrong we’ll fix it together no blame.
-	Dwi’n credu bod e’n allweddol bwysig i bob ysgol i gael cefnogaeth y pennaeth. Dwi’n credu bod athrawon er yn frwdfrydig yn eithaf awyddus i weithredu’r cyfnod Sylfaen, ond heb sêl bendith y pennaeth mae bron yn amhosib iddyn nhw i gario ymlaen, a bod yr aelodau yr uwch tîm rheoli yn datblygu dealltwriaeth gadarn o’r cyfnod Sylfaen fel bod nhw’n gallu cefnogi’r athrawon ar hyd y daith yma. Nawr mae cael cyd ddealltwriaeth o’r cyfnod Sylfaen hefyd yn allweddol bwysig, mae rhaid bod pob aelod o staff o’r cynorthwywyr i’r athrawon, uwch tim rheoli, i’r pennaeth, bod ganddyn nhw’r un cyd ddealltwriaeth o’r disgwyliadau’r cyfnod Sylfaen a sut mae gweithredu fe. Unwaith bod hwnna yn ei le, dwi’n teimlo wedyn bod yr ysgol yn barod weithredu’r cyfnod Sylfaen. Ac mae’n bwysig bod pawb yn gweithio gyda’i gilydd ac yn tynnu fel un er mwyn sicrhau llwyddiant y cyfnod Sylfaen. 
-	Leaders in the best performing schools ensure that all their Foundation Phase staff have access to up-to-date training.  They train and develop all staff to become highly skilled in meeting the needs of all learners. These schools are not afraid to make changes if things are not working.  They are innovative and eager to try new ideas.