In their book ‘Putting Staff First’, John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley outlined a blueprint for revitalising our schools. Dylan Wiliam described it as “the most complete and compelling vision” he had seen “for a school that places teacher learning at the heart of its endeavours”. In this project, John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley provide a three-strand approach to staff wellbeing which optimises working conditions.
The Putting Staff First project involves:
- Setting up a Staff Wellbeing Team based upon the Kaizen model of organisational improvement
- Establishing a Workload Charter which is lived rather than laminated
- Developing an industry standard succession planning programme which is woven into schools’ performance management systems.
Project Outcomes
- To improve your school’s operational systems from the bottom up
- To improve working conditions and so deepen your colleagues’ commitment to the school
- To enhance your professional development offer and improve staff retention rates.
Dates
- Thursday 7 October 2021, 1.00 - 4.00 pm
- Thursday 20 January 2022, 10.00 - 4.00 pm
- Thursday 24 March 2022, 1.00 - 4.00 pm
- Thursday 19 May 2022, 1.00 - 4.00 pm
Members Resources
How do I take part?
- VNET members can access projects using 6 of their membership credits or for £750+VAT
- Projects are exclusively for VNET members, for more information on membership please click here
- We recommend that two delegates attend the project including a senior leader
- Access to the project includes access to an area on VNETCIC.com with all resources and a project forum
- Click here to sign up
John Tomsett
John Tomsett has been a teacher for 32 years and a headteacher for 17 years. He currently leads Huntington School & Research School in York. He writes a blog called This Much I Know, and has written extensively about school leadership. He has published five books:
Putting Staff First: A Blueprint for Revitalising our Schools (with Jonny Uttley);
Love over Fear: Creating a Culture for Truly Great Teaching;
Mind Over Matter: Improving Mental Health in our Schools;
An Angler’s Journal; and
Cognitive Apprenticeship in Action (editor).
He still teaches and is focused resolutely upon improving the quality of teaching and learning, both at Huntington and across the school system as a whole.
Jonny Uttley
Jonny Uttley is the CEO of The Education Alliance Multi-Academy Trust in East Yorkshire and Hull. He has been in post since April 2018, having previously been headteacher at South Hunsley School. All schools in the trust are judged Good or Outstanding by Ofsted and the SCITT was judged Outstanding in Autumn 2019. As a National Leader of Education, he has worked with schools in many different contexts and is committed to a school improvement approach that puts real ethical leadership at the heart of our system, so schools create cultures in which staff genuinely thrive. The Education Alliance is a pathfinder trust for the ASCL/NGA Ethical Leadership Project and Jonny is the co-author, with John Tomsett, of Putting Staff First: A Blueprint for Revitalising Our Schools.
