This article explores a key element of the new Ofsted inspection toolkit and provides some practical, evidence-informed suggestions to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your school.

A focus upon pupils

The Leadership and Governance section of Ofsted’s inspection toolkit focuses upon the extent to which leaders ensure that every pupil thrives. I believe this would also be a clear ambition for schools across the country, even if worded differently in a school’s vision and values statement. With an ever-increasing range of pressures upon schools and leaders, reaching this ambition requires significant effort and commitment.

To assist us, we can draw upon useful lessons from beyond education. These can often provide creative perspectives to consider with regard to the approaches taken to achieve our ambitions. In this case, we’ll focus upon the following evaluation factor from the Ofsted School Inspection Toolkit (Leadership and Governance – page 72) –

managing the school as an organisation effectively, including organising staff strategically and removing barriers and distractions from core classroom activities

Perspectives and ‘muda’

After many years as a headteacher and school improvement adviser, I’m now in the privileged position of being able to work alongside school and trust leaders to explore creative solutions to suit the realities of leadership in education. Those I work with have the professional courage and curiosity required to recognise that approaches taken in schools can often be improved, even from positions of strength.

One concept I often share with leaders relates to the term, ‘muda’. It’s one that is rarely mentioned in education circles but does offer useful perspectives for leaders. Thankfully, muda is not ‘the next new thing’ but, in simple terms, muda is a Japanese term meaning wastefulness. It comes from tried and tested practices across decades of car manufacturing, where the reduction of waste and a drive to increase efficiency and effectiveness were paramount. This focus upon high-performance in industry offers parallels to the above element relating to management in the current Ofsted toolkit.

Muda gained prominence through research by the Toyota Motor Company, resulting in Toyota becoming one of the highest-performing car companies in the world. Muda is just one element within a rigorous, and much wider, ‘lean’ approach to improving production processes. The overall aim of lean process thinking is to ensure all energy is focused upon the ultimate goals of the organisation. There is a wealth of information available about the Toyota Production System but, in this article, we’ll be focusing solely upon the concept of muda.

Evidence-informed practice

You’ll obviously have your own measures of success as a school leader, no doubt expressed through your school’s vision and values. If we adopt a muda mindset, but shift thinking from car production to successful pupil learning and flourishing, we can focus upon increasing efficiency and effectiveness towards a school’s overall goals. Anchoring plans and actions to evidence-informed approaches is a key foundation for success. One such framework to support thinking is Evidence Based Education’s model for School Environment and Leadership. This useful resource for school leaders offers sixteen elements that EBE suggest identify ‘a set of characteristics for which there is good evidence that they are related to student outcomes’ and ‘school leaders should pay attention to’. It’s worth taking note of all sixteen elements in the report but, for a specific exploration of efficiency and effectiveness within the scope of this article, I’d suggest focusing upon the following element within the ‘Learning Time’ section –

Element 4 – Disruption to timetabled lessons

Leaders will know the value that a fresh pair of eyes can bring to practices that we often take for granted. Adopting a muda mindset alongside an understanding of element four from the Evidence Based Education report can support leaders when analysing the efficiency and effectiveness of school arrangements and procedures. In addition, familiarity with EBE’s Great Teaching Toolkit can also provide clarity around effective classroom teaching, further enhancing the practical use of the School Environment and Leadership report.

Opportunities

• As school leaders, explore the full School Environment and Leadership report with your Senior Leadership Team. Make time to discuss this and share any insights and thinking that may have arisen from interacting with it. Note how the report could inform your ongoing and planned development journey.
  
• If you decide to explore school improvement through a muda lens, ensure any potential opportunities and actions align with the school’s context and stage in the development journey.
  
• Protect time to introduce the muda approach and EBE report elements to all staff. A blocked period in a weekly meeting might be enough to explain a need to analyse practice and explore possible efficiencies, in line with a healthy muda approach to continual development.
  
• Blank poster paper on staffroom walls and plenty of sticky-notes could empower staff, familiar with a muda approach, to suggest possible actions to increase efficiency across school. Suggestions could be considered by senior leaders alongside the school development plan to see if there are any quick wins or potential actions for implementation over the longer term.
  
• Obtaining the perspectives of pupils and families, alongside an appropriate explanation of a muda type approach, could provide useful insights to inform planning. Gathering information at this scale would require careful thought, and the strength of underpinning relationships and community culture would have to be considered. Involving the ‘customer’ or ‘end users’ from the outset is a key principle of the ‘Design Thinking’ approach, but an in depth look at this approach may have to wait for a future blog!
  
• Ensure you clearly communicate as to why any suggestions received through feedback might not be adopted. Often, it’s leaders who have an understanding of the full picture so it’s easy to forget that well-intended suggestions from others might be based upon a narrower knowledge base. This might provide an opportunity to communicate strategic elements with stakeholders in an appropriate way.
  
• Invite trusted colleagues from a partner school along to spend a day on-site to see what insights they could offer. Sharing the muda approach and the School Environment and Leadership report in advance would support a clear and tight focus upon the elements for exploration. This would hopefully put staff members at ease when colleagues are observing and gathering information during their visit. Any subsequent suggestions would be for senior leaders to consider and share with staff as part of the school’s ongoing, professional journey. Ideally, this approach would involve a reciprocal arrangement with staff visiting the partner school to offer the same fresh eyes approach to support their own initiatives.
  
• Communicate updates and findings back to staff for further discussion and, when appropriate, integrate planned changes into development documents. Some changes might actually involve doing less in some areas or cutting out some practices entirely. Explain any intended changes to the wider school community to ensure there are no surprises and everyone understands the rationale behind any different approaches. This would allow leaders to gain a further source of feedback before any action is taken, hopefully securing buy-in and support from all stakeholders (or the vast majority at least).

Summary

The Ofsted inspection toolkit will be a key document for leaders and their teams to consider. Taking action to ensure every pupil in our schools can thrive will be an ambition for all in education. Having the curiosity and courage to seek wider perspectives to enhance our practice is a commendable leadership behaviour. Considering the concept of muda (the reduction of wastefulness and a drive for increases in efficiency), alongside EBE’s School Environment and Leadership Report, may lead to conversations that provide you and your team with some practical actions to further increase the effectiveness of your school.

It could be a very interesting and professionally rewarding journey!

If you decide to consider the concept of muda to explore efficiencies in your own school, or have used different approaches that you’ve found useful, please do drop me a line to let me know how you’ve got on – calum@eamonteducation.co.uk

Resources

School Environment and Leadership: Evidence Review – Evidence Based Education

The Great Teaching Toolkit – Evidence Based Education

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker | Goodreads

Governing strategically in your school or academy trust: resources – GOV.UK

School inspection: toolkit, operating guides and information – GOV.UK