Llanrumney High School

Without the PROGRESS Programme, we might have gone off on tangents which would have been totally useless and missed out on areas that were very important. We felt that communication within the school was very good because we tell them everything. But unfortunately they hadn’t heard what we were telling them. We could have gone on quite happily believing that we were communicating, but we were not. Without that discovery, we wouldn’t have made any progress at all. The good things that have come out of PROGRESS wouldn’t have come about if we had just gone along each assuming that we understood where the other was coming from. Lesley Andrews, Assistant Headteacher

Staff and students at Llanrumney High School were feeling unsettled when they started PROGRESS, as a result of the school being under threat of merger with another local High School.

Staff anxiety about job security was part of the reason why each department had developed into a tightly knit unit that was garrisoned against all ‘outsiders’, including colleagues in other parts of the school. The only belief shared by departments was that the leadership team were to blame for things being so difficult.

The discussions facilitated through PROGRESS helped the staff to build a stronger sense of team. The process of spending time focusing on and talking about the same set of issues enabled them to develop a much more empathic understanding of each other’s roles and areas of responsibilities.

As the process moved from what was not working to what could be done to make things even better, creative energy began to flow. People took ownership of the process of change, and found the energy to move things forward. This was despite having their fears of merger confirmed and discovering that their site was likely to be the one to be demolished.

‘From the staff point of view’, reported the assistant head, ‘they are certainly thinking now as a team, and they are not looking always for senior staff to lead that process. You have got several members of staff now who step forward and are leading activities, making suggestions that allow them to act as a team rather than everybody sitting back and saying what are they going to be doing to us next.’

Taking part in the PROGRESS surveys also gave students a sense of ‘being heard’, leading to the feeling that their views could and would be ‘taken seriously’.

While the senior team was not surprised by the strength of views that students expressed - their desire for lessons to be more fun and relationships between students to be more positive – they were impressed by the way the students took on the issues, debated them and came up with workable solutions.

‘For all students’, says the assistant head, ‘sitting down, actually thinking about school, answering these questions about school, gave them a really good feeling. It gave the pupils the opportunity – without fear of comeback – to say bad things as well as good. And to know that somewhere along the lines, someone would be taking note of what they were saying.’

The sense of being able to influence the situation and make things better for others as well as themselves inspired their engagement and creativity. One of the most significant developments has been a number of student-led schemes for older students helping younger students to read, learn and manage conflict.

‘The school council has been in place for many years,’ says the assistant head. ‘I don’t think they felt it was anything more than a talking shop. This year, they have really understood they are in the thick of things.’