Explore Our Alternative and Additional #thing410 Training Philosophy…

Overview

Rather than a learning resource itself, #Reflect410 is an approach to group-learning that can be adopted with all the learning resources accessed through the Assurance Governance web site/App. It enables an alternative supplementary and habitual ‘little and often’ approach to group training & development for use at the start or end of full board meetings, subcommittees, or as a discrete group activity.

Given that each learning resource focuses on a single theme, provoking a reflection on an important governance question, each provides an ideal opener in the first ten to fifteen minutes of any given meeting. It mirrors a ‘dwelling-in-the-word’ approach often adopted in mission and ministry development.

For example, because every learning resource provides the option of a short, engaging and challenging video presentation (and audio script) for use on a projection screen, monitor, or for listening, each sets the context for a group discussion plus reflection and is supported by a set of arising question prompts (also supplied by the web site/app).

Typically, the multiple topics available can be selected menu-style at the beginning of the academic year, on the basis of the schools self-evaluated areas of development.

Worked Example

St Mary’s C of E School (a non-specific example school), although engaging in diocesan and local authority governor training on an individual ad hoc basis, has been increasingly struggling to invest group development time as a governing team. As a result, a supplementary #Reflect410 approach was adopted, to facilitate a more achievable ‘little-and-often’ approach to group training and development.

The school has a minimum of six full board meetings per year (i.e. 1 per half-term). Some are online, and some face-to-face in-school. Governors also have the same number of sub committees also conducted using a mix of meeting arrangements. It was decided to use the #Reflect410 approach with a selection of the learning resources at the start of each meeting.

At each full board meeting, whether online or face-to-face, each meeting started with a ten-minute reflection using a #Reflect410 resource, based on a short 3 minute video watched as an opener to the meeting followed by group discussion. The themes were selected at the beginning of the year based on the schools priorities, with each demanding a reflection based on the governors current understanding of the effectiveness of the school. After each video a discussion was undertaken, typically giving a total group reflection time of between ten and fifteen minutes.

For example, reflections for the year included ‘What are our in-year short-term priorities?’, ‘What is our long-term vision – where will the school look like 5 years from now?’, ‘Are we Christianly distinctive?’, ‘Are we inclusive and how do we know?’, ‘How do we compare to other similar schools in performance terms?’, ‘How do we reflect the needs of the community we serve?’ etc. etc. Reflections were revisited in the ongoing dialogue of the year in each meeting and used as a touchstone for returning to the oversight core support and challenge, as the nit-and-gritty operational life of the school year unfolded in parallel.

Over the course of the year the sub-committees did the same as the full board, but choose various topics pertinent to their areas of specialist responsibility; for example, the ‘Teaching & Learning’ committee reflected on ‘Is our curriculum meeting our children’s needs and how do we know?’, and the ‘Resources and Finance’ committee reflected on ‘Are we sustainable, and could new structures give a greater security?’. Other units were also used in different meetings.

Over the course of the year the ‘little-and-often’ time invested through the #Reflect410 approach accumulated, with the six full board meetings giving a total of 15 x 6 = 1.5 hours over the year, added to by another 1.5 hours from each subcommittee.

In total, the school added another 4.5 hours to its statutory register of development, listing participation based on which governors attended each committee plus the main board meetings. As a bonus, many governors also accessed the extension materials provided by Assurance Governance to follow up on areas of reflection particularly relevant to them, with link governors also engaging in further reflection modules for their own ‘link’ areas.