Dallas Primary

Arlene Wilson, Head Teacher, Dallas Primary School, Moray

Contents:

• Background
• Bringing coaching into the schoolroom
• Thinking, questioning and listening
• Linking to the wider vision for the school and the authority
• Coaching and mentoring

Background

Dallas Primary is a small, rural, two teacher school with 35 pupils. Arlene Wilson has been Head Teacher for three years. The school is one of the first group of schools participating in the Moray Coaching for Change project. In this conversation Arlene talks about how coaching has been integrated into the work of the school and its effect on children, about the skills of questioning and listening, the connection she makes between coaching and Assessment is for Learning (AifL) and the importance of the Moray project for her and her school. She also describes how she uses both coaching and mentoring in her role as school leader.

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Bringing Coaching into the Schoolroom

In some of the other Moray schools coaching is offered as a form of peer support or as a solution focused process, but because Dallas is a small school the way in has been to establish coaching skills as part of classroom practice. Here she describes how she brought coaching into the classroom.

 'We took what we had already established with our formative assessment work, particularly with effective questioning and we developed our questioning into more coaching style questioning….so that every single day when we were in class the effective questioning was being developed into coaching questions. So we weren’t trying this almost solution-oriented conversation with childen….we were developing a coaching culture with coaching coming into everything.'

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Thinking, Questioning and Listening

Arlene’s views on coaching are that is a lot to do with developing thinking skills and that the benefit for children is in the effect it has on their thinking.

 'For us the whole thing about coaching is helping people think….but you can only help people think if you’re playing this game of tennis that they ask you a question and you’re batting the ball back to them with a question that’s really helping them to think. So to develop our questioning was really key to developing coaching.'

Skilful questioning and skilful listening go together and Arlene’s appreciation of the importance of listening developed with a colleague from Highland during their time at Columba1400 on Skye.

 'We had a lot of conversation together and I learned a lot from him about the importance of listening….We’d be walking and I’d be saying all these things and he’d say nothing. And just by saying nothing you’d almost talk it out for yourself….So when I came back we incorporated that into our coaching. The listening is as important and it’s not about the blind panic of thinking up the next best question! It’s about being more relaxed about it….and it’s almost by not saying anything that people talk themselves round to the solution.)'

She sees this combination of questioning and listening making an impact in the classroom and having a powerful effect on children’s learning.

 'All we need to do is go into a classroom and you’ll notice from the type of questioning we do that we’re continually trying to get the children to think for themselves….to become much more responsible for their own learning….Now they’re beginning to notice 'I need to think'…..Some of the children sometimes say to us 'That question’s too hard because you’re making me think!'....The coaching tools that you can use evoke thinking and promote thinking.'

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Linking to Wider Vision for the School and the Authority

Arlene feels positive about the development of coaching in Moray and the contribution that coaching can make together with other initiatives designed to enhance the quality of learning and teaching in the authority. She sees the future of coaching closely linked with the development of AifL.

 'AifL is something we should all be doing and we should all be familiar with the effective questioning part of it. If we introduce coaching to people as an extension of effective questioning and develop that into a coaching culture I can see that as the easiest way.I think to roll it out you have to have a clear view of exactly what it is you’re doing and where you’re trying to get to...I’m a great one for looking at what you do already and looking at what’s really working... and I think the 'hook' you can hang coaching on is what you are doing already.'

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Coaching and Mentoring

Arlene’s final comments are about how she is sometimes both coach and mentor in her role as school leader.

'There is a place for mentoring as well as coaching. I had been making a mistake in having everything as a coaching situation...Sometimes there is a place for mentoring, for being more instructional. That was a hard lesson to learn. Sometimes people need the reassurance of somebody’s expertise, so they need to use your experience in whatever field you’re in.

So as a teacher of many years’ experience, instead of encouraging a young teacher to find a solution for herself, sometimes you have to say 'Have you thought about doing it this way?' or 'I did it this way and it worked' and they’re almost relieved to know that, for example, you made a similar mistake and learned from it rather than let them make the mistake then coaching them on it….I feel that sometimes I coach too much and I don’t give enough of my expertise and experience. I think there needs to be a balance specially if I am dealing with a probationer teacher or a teacher facing difficulties…

So, now, if it’s appropriate I coach and help them find the answer and they’ll have more ownership of what they’re doing. But there are times, and it would be specifically over teaching issues, that my experience is more pertinent to the problem and will be of much more help to the person.'

Contact:

For more information please email Arlene Wilson.