School Communication under the microscope

It is one thing to want to make change, but to maintain a focus on impact: it takes respect, discipline and patience bring a team with you on that journey.

As of our meeting last night, ‘Improving School Communication’ is now part of the strategic planning at the school at which I am governor. Which is great, but not enough. 

We’d like to invite others to help us research this better, and help us test the hypothesis that we can balance our work better, if we change one variable. Help us learn how better communication makes schools better.

Although, we agreed that good communication, like healthy arteries, makes for a healthier organisation, it was a matter of faith that it would have benefits for teaching and learning, and for the administration (& even the finances!) of the school. Faith in my experience, and in the statements of others. In reality, there was precious little evidence for tangible impact on school life. We want to change that.

Understanding an ecosystem requires a bit of distance! Tx to Parents@Play.com for the use of this image.

We agreed to start a major communication audit of the school, and explore the blocks, wins, and opportunities that exist now. As I have said in previous posts, about the scope of the work and the nature of some of the problems with school communication, there is a problem of objectivity.

We need outside help from expert researchers. This post is an open call for academics, perhaps from Oxford Brookes University or Oxford Department of Education (or both!) , to join us in this work. It is a hot topic, with a poor evidence base – and a real opportunity to make a direct impact on the quality of teaching and learning, as well as the workload of staff in schools.

If you are interested, please get in touch with me at eylan@ezekiels.co.uk, or in the comments below.

Also, please get in touch if you know of some good research, or sources, tools or evidence we could use to help us on our way: we’d also welcome those! We can’t be the first school to do this, and I am sure that some if this is out there, but hard to find.

If you are also just interested in this topic, thanks for reading this far and watching us on our journey. I hope we can make it useful for others, so let me know what might help you and your school.