It’s been talked about a huge amount and we believe that it is becoming a reality in our schools, but we also know that for many school leaders personalised learning is still a buzz phrase – and a poorly defined one at that.

The truth is that, despite all the talk, there is still a lack of consensus on what we mean by the term personalised learning. In the words of Sue Hackman, the Secretary of State’s Chief Adviser on School Standards, it means ‘all things to all people’.

If that’s the case, then the danger is that busy school leaders will dismiss it. We believe that would be a great shame and a missed opportunity because, for us, personalised learning is essentially about making sure every child is actively engaged in learning and makes significant progress – a vision that should be part of the core moral purpose of every school.

Surely schools are doing that already? Not so, according to the secondary students asked by MORI earlier this year which three things they do most often in class. 52 per cent answered ‘copy from the board or a book’, followed by ‘listen to a teacher talking for a long time’ (33 per cent), ‘have a class discussion’ (29 per cent) and ‘take notes while my teacher talks’ (25 per cent). This is the fourth time the question has been asked since 2000, and the responses have remained depressingly consistent each time.

So what does personalised learning actually mean? The Gilbert Review, published earlier this year, provides a good starting point: personalised learning is about ‘focusing in a more structured way on each child’s learning in order to enhance progress, achievement and participation’. As heads of schools in all phases – primary, secondary and special – we think we are some way along in showing what this looks like in practice. As you’d expect, it looks different in each of our schools – there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach – but some of the common elements are:

• we all work with our staff and community to articulate a visiproach t0 learning that works for us in our context

• we use data to understand all of our students’ progress and focus our resources accordingly

• we provide high quality continuous professional development for all staff that is also personalised to meet their needs

• our pupils are genuinely involved in shaping their learning, even in one case by being involved in developing and monitoring the school development plan and reporting to parents on progress

• we are prepared to think ‘outside the box’ on any aspect of how we engage and support learning if we think it is needed, and we collect and use evidence that it is making a difference

So what difference does it make? Here are three examples. A reception pupil who can describe what she is doing, how she is doing it and what success will look like when she achieves it. A 19-year-old who was at risk of exclusion when he was in Year 9, but who chose an applied curriculum pathway (one of five available in the school) and is now training to be a hairdresser, has been offered a job and has won a national award. A serial offender who aspired to get an ASBO, who hasn’t been in trouble for almost two months since the school’s two personalised education assistants have been working with him in the community to develop
basic life skills and self-esteem.

At its heart, leadership for personalised learning requires us to focus on learning across every aspect of our schools. The College’s research shows that good leadership for learning relies on:

• leading by example, including modelling how students are treated and setting expectations for high achievement

• using data to track pupils’ achievements, analyse their progress and evaluate the quality of teaching (monitoring)

• generating discussion about teaching and learning (dialogue)

• sustaining school improvement, and

• creating structures, systems and processes to underpin all of the above

Leadership for personalised learning builds from this, but is also about an ethos of respecting every learner’s voice and seeing their potential to achieve. We are fortunate to see leaders in a wide range of schools and contexts. Everywhere we see this approach applied, we see it working.

We believe the College has a crucial role to play
in supporting all leaders to make personalised learning a reality and in working with other national agencies at a policy level to develop a real consensus on what personalised learning means – and how we can best move it forward together.

Reena Keeble is head of Cannon Lane First School in Pinner, Graham Soles is head of Brighouse High School and Sharon Jefferies is head of Newark Orchard School. Reena and Graham are regional leaders for NCSL’s Leadership Network and Sharon is a National Leader of Education.