High Performance

What goals do we have and what are we aspiring towards?

I'm very fortunate to work at what is often described as a "high performing school".   I even use this phrase when explaining to people where I work, without having to go into the specifics of the school context to people who don't work in education.  When we stop to consider what that means, we realise that it's more than outcomes for a small proportion, e.g. the number of Oxbridge students.  We became a High Performance Learning school, adopting framework set by Deborah Eyre in which our principles aligned.  Only a couple of years previously, we'd started to use the tagline 'Everything is Possible' in our school branding. This stemmed from the Carol Dweck's theory of Growth Mindset.  

Extract from my Leadership Learning Journal

Growth Mindset is by no means an expectation that everyone will be able to achieve levels of high performance. After all, not everyone can get an A*.  In any case, this is outcome focussed. High Performance describes the day-to-day behaviours we expect of ourselves and others.  It recognises the impact that positive expectations can have and eliminates the pessimistic view that dismisses someone's potential early on. There are many anecdotes of successful people who will recall how their school told them that they wouldn't amount to much.  

Nurturing high performers

It is important for schools to have a culture of high expectations where achievement is the norm and students take responsibility for their own learning, supported by an appropriate and challenging curriculum. Student progress need to me regularly monitored with emphasis on mentoring and a concern for the personal development of the student. Students are quipped with the habits needed to perform consistently and their achievements are recognised.

Now read this paragraph again. Replace the word 'student' with the word 'teacher' and you're a step closer to having a high performing school.

Recommended Podcast

The High Performance Podcast with Jake Humphries and Prof. Damian Hughes usually starts with the guest being asked what High Performance means for them.  Using a sporting analogy, I think that every team goes into a match thinking that they can win, and even if the odds are against them, there is a possibility that they can win. However, the most important thing is to play well and have a good game. This is what gives us integrity in what we do. That's what we aspire to do. That's what I think High Performance is.

#HighPerformance #HPL #Aspiration #GrowthMindset