Innovate with Ambition Institute

We worked with Lift Schools to design a programme that supports headteachers and executive leaders to lead at scale. Using an innovative, complexity-informed approach, the programme is helping leaders develop new ways to understand, respond to and monitor challenging problems that do not have straightforward solutions. The training is preparing colleagues to make sense of their work beyond a single school or area, equipping them with the ways of working and strategically collective approaches needed for executive leadership at increasing levels of scale.

We turned the traditional model of establishing best practice on its head. Instead of top-down guidance, we brought together specialists from different settings to crowdsource and make sense of expertise collectively. Through school visits and collaborative sessions, the community identified and codified effective approaches, focusing on pupil outcomes, flexible provision and inclusive leadership. Sharing these insights with the sector means schools and trusts can make the best decisions based on emerging evidence.

Through our research we want to push forward our collective knowledge of effective professional development and share what works, to turn evidence into action. One approach we use is innovative virtual classroom simulators. These can help us answer important questions in the sector. We have used this approach in research on the effectiveness of different approaches to giving feedback to teachers, and in a current study on coaching for Early Career Teachers. When using this approach, a researcher simulates the response of a pupil or group of pupils engaging with a teacher. This approach means researchers can control other variables which can be difficult to control in a real classroom. When we do this, we know that what we’re observing is affected by the thing we want to change, such as the type of feedback given. It is also a brilliant opportunity for teachers, who can practice techniques in a low stakes environment, ready to take back to their classrooms to benefit their pupils.

We co-designed a development programme with Eden Academy Trust, a group of specialist schools. By combining our expertise in leading and facilitating professional development with Eden’s deep understanding of specialist education, we helped build their staff expertise in designing and delivering effective professional learning. This combined research-informed principles, practical models and scenario-based activities, drawing on the Education Endowment Foundation’s insights. Staff applied learning in their own contexts and shared best practice, creating a consistent, evidence-informed approach to professional development across the trust.