In October 2023, I was fortunate to travel to the UK with my Headmaster, Glen Denham, at Wellington College, along with three of my Deputy Principal colleagues, and our Associate Headmaster. We spent two weeks visiting schools in London, Buckinghamshire, and Yorkshire. Glen had led schools in the Borough of Croydon for fifteen years; his primary role and drive was to turn schools around that had been placed in special measures by OFSTED (our version of ERO). He worked alongside a group of emerging and inspiring leaders who now run multi-trust academy schools in London and the North-east of England. As we initiated a change journey at Wellington College, it was imperative to Glen that we see what was possible and the transformative and life-changing difference that can be made to the lives of young people when courage and purpose align.
In London, we visited four high-performing academy trust schools that serve deprived communities: Ark Globe Academy in Southwark, Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, REACH in Hounslow, and Michaela in Wembley. These were diverse and vibrant schools that achieved incredible outcomes for their young people, with large numbers of students going to Cambridge, Oxford, and Russell Group universities (top third of UK universities) every year. We were keen to understand the ‘secret sauce’.
On our first day in London, we visited Matt Jones OBE (Principal) at Ark Globe Academy in Southwark. One moment stands out when visiting classrooms. Matt directed us into a large room where around 40 students were working at desks. Some worked in books and others on devices. The room was silent. To a student, they were focused and engaged in their work. My first thought was how well the teacher managed the class, but when I looked around, I saw no teacher. This was a senior study space, and no supervision was required.
As we continued our classroom visits, we realised that what we saw was the outcome of a culture that was fostered in the students from their arrival in Year 7. This is best summed up in Matt’s acknowledgement of receiving his OBE for service to education. “Our team and I are passionate about embedding lifelong learning into the school and the local community, and everyone has worked hard to create a culture of aspiration and high expectations for all our students.” Working hard and giving your best effort in all that you do was the cultural and social norm at Matt’s school. This was intentionally crafted and set as a non-negotiable, which Matt and his teachers were unapologetic about. The stakes were too high. They owed it to their students and community to ensure their young people reached their full potential and brought about real change and uplift in the community.
As we continued our tour over the next two weeks, we saw a similar culture in the other London schools and the Dixon Academy Trust schools in Bradford and Leeds. A strong values base was the foundation of these cultures of aspiration and high expectations. At Ark Globe, these were integrity, relationships, and independence, which derived from beliefs about growth mindset and professionalism, and the purpose of promoting a fair society where everyone has equal opportunity to determine their own future. This was powerful and authentically practised in everything they did. Students were able to clearly articulate what the school values looked like in practice and how they reflected them in their daily actions. It was humbling to talk with them and hear the sense of purpose they brought to their attitude and actions every day. They all spoke of attending university, often the first in their families, and bringing their education back to benefit and uplift their communities. We returned to Wellington with our own sense of purpose and set about implementing aspects of what we saw that would work in our particular context. These experiences influence the outlook I bring to John McGlashan College.
In last week’s assembly, I set 100% Every Day as our theme for the year, which connects to our value of Excellence. In our setting, this means striving for personal growth, curiosity, discipline, and the pursuit of potential. In this week’s assembly, we unpacked the theme by talking about Bill Walsh’s Standard of Excellence.
Bill Walsh was the coach of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers between 1979 and 1987. He won three Super Bowl titles, six division titles, and was awarded coach of the year three times. His first two seasons, though, were defined by poor results, and many questioned his appointment and methods. Behind the scenes, he was embedding a positive culture, habits, and expectations that would see the 49ers win the Super Bowl in just his third year as coach. They would go on to create a dynasty in the years that followed. Walsh demanded high standards and worked tirelessly with the coaching staff and players to achieve success and have everyone in the 49ers organisation aligned and thriving. Walsh’s belief was that your ‘standard of performance becomes who and what you are.’ He based this on seventeen elements that comprised his Standard of Excellence. We talked about those that we can apply at John McGlashan, as we make our theme of 100% Every Day, the cultural and social norm, and the ‘McGlashan Way.’
Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement;
Demonstrate character;
Honor the direct connection between details and improvement;
Show self-control, especially where it counts most - under pressure;
Use positive language and have a positive attitude;
Take pride in effort as …separate from the result of that effort;
Be willing to go the extra distance…;
Deal appropriately with victory and defeat (with humility and resilience);
Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus.
In survey responses from staff and community last term, aspirations for our young people to realise their potential, based on motivation and effort, were loud and clear. We owe it to our young people to challenge them with high-expectations but to create the supportive conditions by which they can meet those expectations. You’ll hear us talking a lot about ‘moving the middle’. By national measures, we are a high-performing school and achieve good results. The question, though, is whether every student is fully realising their potential and thriving in their journey. Potential is realised on a daily basis. Qualifications and assessment results are outcomes. We are focused on the process, and that process is based on how we show up and carry ourselves each day. This is summed up in a quote from Bill Walsh’s book, The Score Takes Care of Itself: “I directed our focus less to the prize of victory than to the process of improving - obsessing, perhaps, about the quality of our execution and the content of our thinking; that is, our actions and attitude. I knew if I did that, winning would take care of itself.”
Whāia e koe te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei
Pursue excellence – should you stumble, let it be to a lofty mountain
Dr. Aaron Columbus
Principal | Tumuaki
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