November 1, 2025 • 22 mins
School leaders and teachers constantly face the challenge of turning great ideas into
lasting change. In this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, Jocelyn
shares a practical, simple strategy to keep school improvement initiatives
alive and thriving. Learn how to create consistency, maintain momentum, and
prevent your best efforts from fading away. Whether you're a school leader or
classroom teacher, this episode offers a straightforward approach to making
school improvements stick.
Has something in this episode resonated with you? Get in touch!
Are your students good readers, but poor spellers? If so, you are not alone. Spelling Success in Action addresses phonics, orthography, and morphology to give students a well-rounded understanding of how our language system works.
Find out how you can help your students move beyond guessing and memorisation at https://www.jocelynseamereducation.com/spelling2
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jocelyn (01:16):
Well, hello, hello.
Welcome to this week's episodeof the Structured Literacy
Podcast.
My name is Jocelyn, and I amdelighted to have you here with
me.
I'm recording on the lands ofthe Palawa people in Tasmania.
Now it is term four of 2025,and everybody is busy and
(01:36):
getting a little tired.
So this episode is short andsweet with a quick win for you
to get ready for the next schoolyear.
We've all been there.
We begin a new initiative,including all the right things
like building the why,modelling, allowing people to
have a play, observing, givingfeedback, and making sure that
(01:58):
everything is documented.
We high-five around theleadership meeting and move on
to the next item on thenever-ending priority list.
Then six months or a yearlater, we look up and discover
that our once universaleffective practice has devolved
into inconsistency, ad hocapplication, and lethal
(02:21):
mutations.
How does this happen?
Are we crazy to think we canever really get anywhere with
consistent school improvement,we ask?
In today's episode of theStructured Literacy Podcast, I'm
going to share someobservations about how and why
this happens, as well as somesuggestions for how to prevent
(02:41):
this frustrating and oh socommon situation from arising.
Whether you are a school leaderor a classroom teacher, today
you'll learn about how to keepmomentum going
post-implementation of a newpractice.
Let's dive in.
Today's episode picks up afterimplementation of a new
(03:02):
practice, where the team hasbeen trained, seen modelling
reflected and evaluated, anddocumented practices.
Doing what I'm about todescribe without doing those
things doesn't get the job done.
It's a bit like the "wash yourdishes" sign that we see in the
staff room.
We don't talk about it or wesimply mention it, we pop the
(03:24):
sign up on the wall and walkaway.
Documentation without the we dopart of the application ends up
becoming just another part ofthe environment or another file
on the server and essentiallyignored.
An increasingly common approachto embedding practices is to
(03:44):
create a playbook or aguidebook, which becomes your
school's guide for instructionin the school.
Now, this idea of documentingpractices is not new, but gains
traction in the modern agethrough the book The E-Myth by
Michael E.
Gerber.
The term playbook waspopularised in the business
(04:05):
space in 2021 in the book TheBusiness Playbook by Chris
Ronzio.
And of course, you might haveheard of playbooks from American
football.
The idea of playbooks in schoolsis one that is growing in
popularity, and many people aretalking about them and how to
create them.
So I'm not going to go intospecifics of all of the elements
(04:30):
of what goes into a playbook inthis episode.
What I'd like to cover is howto create the system that
ensures that a playbook or setof guidelines doesn't become a
thing that sits on a shelf orlives in a hard drive and is
forgotten.
We want it to remain a living,working document that supports
(04:53):
our school's improvementefforts.
And I'm going to start us offwith an "at my old school" story
and share a practical, simpleway to get started with this
work.
So take from this story whatworks for you and just ignore
what doesn't.
At my old school, I wanted eachperson in the school to have a
(05:14):
written record of everythingthat was important, particularly
the instructional elements weknew needed to be consistent if
we were going to reach our bigpicture goals.
Like everyone listening to thisepisode who works in schools, I
was time poor, had a to-do listthat was miles too long, and I
(05:35):
didn't have the headspace forcreating anything fancy.
If you're a school leaderlistening to this, you know
exactly what I'm talking about.
One day I found boxes and boxesof empty blue lever arch files,
and they were remnants of somelong-forgotten initiative.
(05:55):
But from that moment, thedocument we were creating was
called the Blue Folder, for noother reason than I had at hand
were blue folders.
Now, while we do need to keepdigital records of all of the
important things, I have apreference for physical
artifacts.
Having something that you holdin your hands that takes up
(06:17):
space but is portable makes anyundertaking somehow more real.
It's certainly how we do thingsin our Leading Learning Success
program with schools.
Each person has a folder thatthey bring to every single
session.
It's possible that I prefer thisbecause I have a tendency for
out-of-sight, out-of-mindthinking, but there's another
(06:39):
important element to consider.
The physical resource becomes avisible symbol of our
collective commitment to thework.
For us at my old school, theblue folder became a part of how
we did business.
In other words, a part of theculture of the school.
(07:01):
The number one goal of anyschool leader that I speak with
is consistency.
In a past career, we had asaying: consistency creates
credibility.
That's true, it does.
We also know that consistencylightens cognitive load,
streamlines our efforts, andsupports the building of
collective efficacy, which is soimportant for us in schools.
(07:24):
It means we're all rowing inthe same direction.
We all believe in thepossibilities of what we can
achieve, and we work together tomake that happen.
So my view is that physicalartifacts are preferable to
digital collections.
Every time you have a meeting,people bring the folder.
If they arrive to the meetingwithout the folder, they are
(07:48):
sent to go and get it.
Bringing and using the folderis a visible, tangible signal of
one in, all in.
And of course, the folderitself doesn't guarantee
commitment or consistency, butit helps.
The next decision that I madein choosing a lever arch folder
(08:11):
for the work made it much easierfor the folder to contain a
living, working document.
Binding the pages looks nicerand it's a little bit fancy, but
it makes the document static.
You basically have to have aPhD in binding machine
operations to replace or addpages as you update.
(08:32):
With a folder, you can simplyremove one page and replace it
with another or add extrasections as needed.
In our blue folder, we hadsections for curriculum,
professional development,assessment, and policies and
guidelines.
Although a word of caution isto be selective about which
policies you put in, and youmight even just provide
(08:55):
summaries and annotate themabout how it's most relevant to
your school, or your wholefolder will just be filled up
with policies.
When I created the folder, Ididn't sit down with a blank
page and start writing acompletely bespoke document for
the school.
The first step was to gatherall of the existing
documentation we already had.
(09:17):
Lesson overviews, curriculummaps, scope and sequence
documents from various programs,copies of visuals such as the
common visual timetable we usedin every classroom, assessment
schedules, and duty rosters wereall easy to put my hands on.
Every school has a range ofdocuments lying around, or on
(09:38):
the server, that have beencreated in the hopes that their
content will become the way wedo things here.
Begin with those.
One of the ways to make thiswork collective and bring people
along on the journey is to giveeach person a checklist of
items you want them to bring toa meeting, which is essentially
(09:59):
the contents page you want tohave in your folder.
This could be the literacyblock overview, assessment
schedule, reporting guide, orwhatever else you think you need
people to use or you think isin use.
Then at a meeting, go throughthe list.
When you read out an item, havethe teachers hold up the thing
(10:20):
or the version they use and seeexactly where things are the
same and things are different.
I guarantee that leaders havemade assumptions about which
version of something people areusing.
Doing this kind of check-inallows you to do an audit
without having to go classroomto classroom and take many, many
(10:41):
hours.
Where you discover thateveryone has their own version
of something, that's a signalthat there's work to be done on
creating shared understanding.
When this arises, just make alist of the items where it's
been a bit of a choose your ownadventure up until this point,
and then later you canprioritise what you're going to
(11:01):
work on first.
You can also ask for volunteersfor a slice team to help you
work.
That is, someone from a rangeof grades and areas of the
school who can give feedback,clarify thinking, and share the
love on the work of creatingconsistency.
One person in the leadershipteam doesn't have to devote
(11:21):
their entire being to doing allthis work themselves.
We all know that the guidebookor playbook's document's purpose
is to help create consistency.
But there's a bit about thisthat I see many schools miss
when doing this work.
The bit that's missed is thatthe folder isn't the end goal.
(11:44):
The end goal is that you'vecreated a system that helps
maintain consistency.
A system that keeps the workflowing when a leader has to
move on to a new priority.
A system that becomes theculture, the way we do things
around here.
I've already mentioned bringingthe folder to meetings as a way
(12:07):
of creating culture, but I haveanother top tip that is more
about how weoperate. Are you ready for that hot tip that will change everything? Well, here it is.
Create the culture that in yourschool, whenever anyone has a
question about instruction, thefirst place they go to is the
(12:30):
folder, whether it be blue,green, yellow, or red.
Instruct and reinforce for allteachers, but especially
teachers who are new to theschool, that the folder is the
primary source of wisdom.
The folder is your friend.
Without making the folder thego-to place for information,
(12:52):
thishappens: and I want you to imagine, you're a new teacher
and you say, "Hello, I'm new to the school. Can you tell me how we teach high-frequency words?" Theexisting teacher responds,
"Sure, let me tell you what Ido." And at that moment, right
there, let me tell you how "I doit" is the point at which your
(13:15):
consistency begins to break downand the ad hoc application of
your practices begins.
Because everyone has their ownversion of how I do it, and
everyone tells a slightlydifferent story.
Let's create this with analternative response.
New teacher says, "Hello, I'mnew to the school.
(13:38):
Can you tell me how we teachhigh-frequency words in this
school?" The existing teachersays, "Sure, let's grab out our
blue folders and I'll talk youthrough how we do it here." That
version of events gets you amuch different outcome.
"Let me tell you how we do ithere," gives you half a chance
(13:59):
of achieving the consistencyyou're looking for.
I was coaching one of ourLeading Learning Success leaders
last week, her name is Monique,and she was telling me how
she's created some wonderfulguidelines for staff.
When there's an instructionalroutine or engagement norm to be
implemented, she videos herselfusing the practice in the
(14:21):
classroom.
Then she creates a QR code sothat anyone can scan it and see
the routine in action while theyreview the written
instructions.
Adding something like this isan absolute game changer.
Top tip though, sign up for asite where you can create
dynamic QR codes.
(14:41):
These allow you to change outthe file that the QR code links
to so that you don't have tochange all the pages out every
time you want to update thevideo.
So with this in mind, let's runthat scenario again.
The new teacher says, "Hello,I'm new to this school.
Can you tell me how we teachhigh-frequency words here?" The
(15:03):
existing teacher says, "Sure,let's grab our blue folders.
We can watch a video of alesson and I'll talk you through
the steps." I can almost hearthe leaders listening to this
saying, "Jocelyn, are you mad?
I don't have time to videoeverything." And of course you
don't, I know that.
That's where the SLICE teamcomes in.
They help create the videos andcoordinate your experienced,
(15:27):
high-performing teachers, whobest reflect your school's
expectations, to make thevideos.
This is collective work,remember, not one person's
year-long crusade.
When you have a shared approachto the work, leaders can focus
their energies on modelling theuse of the folder, being the one
(15:48):
to start saying, let's grab outour folders and look at our
school's guidelines.
The leader sets the pace, theleader models what they want to
see and then celebrates whenteam members join in.
Over time, with clearcommunication and expectations,
we are able to celebrate moreand more small wins that add up
(16:11):
to be the big wins we're lookingfor.
The difference between someonetaking one, two or three years
to on their own put togethertheir playbook or guideline and
bringing the team in for thecollective work is the
difference between a doer and aleader.
(16:31):
As leaders, I know how easy itis to get bogged down in the
technicality.
I had an idea, I'm going to bethe one to do it.
But whilever you stay in thatmode, you're not able to stretch
out and expand your influenceto the places you want it to go.
So where you can build thecapability of your team, please
(16:55):
do so.
That allows you to stretch outand means that you are creating
systems that will last beyondyour presence in the school.
Otherwise, when you go on oneterm of long service leave,
everything implodes.
So the consistency here is notjust about documenting the
(17:17):
practices, it really is aboutcreating the systems and
structures that make this aone in, all in mode of working.
I know how overwhelming it canfeel to be a leader thinking
about getting this sort of thingtogether.
I can't tell you how many timesI've started a conversation
(17:39):
with the phrase, we reallyshould, X, Y, Z, knowing that
we're probably not going to getto it anytime soon.
And if I'm really honest, Istill do that even when I'm not
working in a school now.
If that's you right now, pleaseknow that you're not alone and
that you can start this workwith doing just one thing.
(18:00):
Get the folders.
Even if you walk into a pupilfree day at the start of next
year with boxes of empty foldersand hand out a draft contents
page, you will have taken astep.
From there, the next step isget your SLICE team together.
Someone from admin, someonefrom each phase of schooling,
(18:20):
and a specialist.
Step three, put it in yourstaff meeting agenda in the
calendar that you will actuallygive people time to collect what
they use that reflects thatdraft contents page you've
shared with them.
Step four is to do that andthen put it on another staff
(18:41):
meeting schedule to do thecomparing, where you say
everybody get out your literacyblock overview, hold it up so we
can see if we're all on thesame, literally on the same,
page.
You don't have to complete a357-page document by the start
of next year.
As we know from Rosenshine'sPrinciples, we can break things
(19:03):
down into small chunks and dothem one at a time.
In taking this step-by-stepapproach, we're making the work
achievable.
Remember, the goal isn't justto have the document, the goal
is to have the system that makesthe document do the thing we
need it to do, which is tosupport consistency in our
(19:27):
schools.
We know that consistency is anincredibly powerful mechanism
for achieving great things.
It's not an easy thing toachieve, though.
So as you're going about theplanning work for the next
school year, whether you'relistening to this as it's
recorded in 2025 or in somefuture year, remember that small
(19:54):
things get you big goals.
That the planning you domatters.
Think about the purpose of theplanning you're doing and give
yourself the space and grace tonot be superhuman.
These sorts of things matter,but they will not work and they
(20:15):
won't happen if you breakyourself in the process of
trying to achieve all the thingsand be all things to all
people.
If you're a classroom teacherlistening to this episode and
you know that this is the workthat your school has been
talking about doing, share thisepisode with somebody else in
the school, even if this is foryour year level team to be the
(20:39):
lighthouse team for the work.
Everyone, it's term four.
I know we're getting tired.
I know that the rest of theterm feels like a write off of
to-do lists.
But let me tell you, I thinkyou've got this.
Everything is going to be ok.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the Structured Literacy
(20:59):
Podcast.
I look forward to seeing you inthe next episode.
Bye.
Well, hello, hello.
Welcome to this week's episodeof the Structured Literacy
Podcast.
My name is Jocelyn, and I amdelighted to have you here with
me.
I'm recording on the lands ofthe Palawa people in Tasmania.
Now it is term four of 2025,and everybody is busy and
(01:36):
getting a little tired.
So this episode is short andsweet with a quick win for you
to get ready for the next schoolyear.
We've all been there.
We begin a new initiative,including all the right things
like building the why,modelling, allowing people to
have a play, observing, givingfeedback, and making sure that
(01:58):
everything is documented.
We high-five around theleadership meeting and move on
to the next item on thenever-ending priority list.
Then six months or a yearlater, we look up and discover
that our once universaleffective practice has devolved
into inconsistency, ad hocapplication, and lethal
(02:21):
mutations.
How does this happen?
Are we crazy to think we canever really get anywhere with
consistent school improvement,we ask?
In today's episode of theStructured Literacy Podcast, I'm
going to share someobservations about how and why
this happens, as well as somesuggestions for how to prevent
(02:41):
this frustrating and oh socommon situation from arising.
Whether you are a school leaderor a classroom teacher, today
you'll learn about how to keepmomentum going
post-implementation of a newpractice.
Let's dive in.
Today's episode picks up afterimplementation of a new
(03:02):
practice, where the team hasbeen trained, seen modelling
reflected and evaluated, anddocumented practices.
Doing what I'm about todescribe without doing those
things doesn't get the job done.
It's a bit like the "wash yourdishes" sign that we see in the
staff room.
We don't talk about it or wesimply mention it, we pop the
(03:24):
sign up on the wall and walkaway.
Documentation without the we dopart of the application ends up
becoming just another part ofthe environment or another file
on the server and essentiallyignored.
An increasingly common approachto embedding practices is to
(03:44):
create a playbook or aguidebook, which becomes your
school's guide for instructionin the school.
Now, this idea of documentingpractices is not new, but gains
traction in the modern agethrough the book The E-Myth by
Michael E.
Gerber.
The term playbook waspopularised in the business
(04:05):
space in 2021 in the book TheBusiness Playbook by Chris
Ronzio.
And of course, you might haveheard of playbooks from American
football.
The idea of playbooks in schoolsis one that is growing in
popularity, and many people aretalking about them and how to
create them.
So I'm not going to go intospecifics of all of the elements
(04:30):
of what goes into a playbook inthis episode.
What I'd like to cover is howto create the system that
ensures that a playbook or setof guidelines doesn't become a
thing that sits on a shelf orlives in a hard drive and is
forgotten.
We want it to remain a living,working document that supports
(04:53):
our school's improvementefforts.
And I'm going to start us offwith an "at my old school" story
and share a practical, simpleway to get started with this
work.
So take from this story whatworks for you and just ignore
what doesn't.
At my old school, I wanted eachperson in the school to have a
(05:14):
written record of everythingthat was important, particularly
the instructional elements weknew needed to be consistent if
we were going to reach our bigpicture goals.
Like everyone listening to thisepisode who works in schools, I
was time poor, had a to-do listthat was miles too long, and I
(05:35):
didn't have the headspace forcreating anything fancy.
If you're a school leaderlistening to this, you know
exactly what I'm talking about.
One day I found boxes and boxesof empty blue lever arch files,
and they were remnants of somelong-forgotten initiative.
(05:55):
But from that moment, thedocument we were creating was
called the Blue Folder, for noother reason than I had at hand
were blue folders.
Now, while we do need to keepdigital records of all of the
important things, I have apreference for physical
artifacts.
Having something that you holdin your hands that takes up
(06:17):
space but is portable makes anyundertaking somehow more real.
It's certainly how we do thingsin our Leading Learning Success
program with schools.
Each person has a folder thatthey bring to every single
session.
It's possible that I prefer thisbecause I have a tendency for
out-of-sight, out-of-mindthinking, but there's another
(06:39):
important element to consider.
The physical resource becomes avisible symbol of our
collective commitment to thework.
For us at my old school, theblue folder became a part of how
we did business.
In other words, a part of theculture of the school.
(07:01):
The number one goal of anyschool leader that I speak with
is consistency.
In a past career, we had asaying: consistency creates
credibility.
That's true, it does.
We also know that consistencylightens cognitive load,
streamlines our efforts, andsupports the building of
collective efficacy, which is soimportant for us in schools.
(07:24):
It means we're all rowing inthe same direction.
We all believe in thepossibilities of what we can
achieve, and we work together tomake that happen.
So my view is that physicalartifacts are preferable to
digital collections.
Every time you have a meeting,people bring the folder.
If they arrive to the meetingwithout the folder, they are
(07:48):
sent to go and get it.
Bringing and using the folderis a visible, tangible signal of
one in, all in.
And of course, the folderitself doesn't guarantee
commitment or consistency, butit helps.
The next decision that I madein choosing a lever arch folder
(08:11):
for the work made it much easierfor the folder to contain a
living, working document.
Binding the pages looks nicerand it's a little bit fancy, but
it makes the document static.
You basically have to have aPhD in binding machine
operations to replace or addpages as you update.
(08:32):
With a folder, you can simplyremove one page and replace it
with another or add extrasections as needed.
In our blue folder, we hadsections for curriculum,
professional development,assessment, and policies and
guidelines.
Although a word of caution isto be selective about which
policies you put in, and youmight even just provide
(08:55):
summaries and annotate themabout how it's most relevant to
your school, or your wholefolder will just be filled up
with policies.
When I created the folder, Ididn't sit down with a blank
page and start writing acompletely bespoke document for
the school.
The first step was to gatherall of the existing
documentation we already had.
(09:17):
Lesson overviews, curriculummaps, scope and sequence
documents from various programs,copies of visuals such as the
common visual timetable we usedin every classroom, assessment
schedules, and duty rosters wereall easy to put my hands on.
Every school has a range ofdocuments lying around, or on
(09:38):
the server, that have beencreated in the hopes that their
content will become the way wedo things here.
Begin with those.
One of the ways to make thiswork collective and bring people
along on the journey is to giveeach person a checklist of
items you want them to bring toa meeting, which is essentially
(09:59):
the contents page you want tohave in your folder.
This could be the literacyblock overview, assessment
schedule, reporting guide, orwhatever else you think you need
people to use or you think isin use.
Then at a meeting, go throughthe list.
When you read out an item, havethe teachers hold up the thing
(10:20):
or the version they use and seeexactly where things are the
same and things are different.
I guarantee that leaders havemade assumptions about which
version of something people areusing.
Doing this kind of check-inallows you to do an audit
without having to go classroomto classroom and take many, many
(10:41):
hours.
Where you discover thateveryone has their own version
of something, that's a signalthat there's work to be done on
creating shared understanding.
When this arises, just make alist of the items where it's
been a bit of a choose your ownadventure up until this point,
and then later you canprioritise what you're going to
(11:01):
work on first.
You can also ask for volunteersfor a slice team to help you
work.
That is, someone from a rangeof grades and areas of the
school who can give feedback,clarify thinking, and share the
love on the work of creatingconsistency.
One person in the leadershipteam doesn't have to devote
(11:21):
their entire being to doing allthis work themselves.
We all know that the guidebookor playbook's document's purpose
is to help create consistency.
But there's a bit about thisthat I see many schools miss
when doing this work.
The bit that's missed is thatthe folder isn't the end goal.
(11:44):
The end goal is that you'vecreated a system that helps
maintain consistency.
A system that keeps the workflowing when a leader has to
move on to a new priority.
A system that becomes theculture, the way we do things
around here.
I've already mentioned bringingthe folder to meetings as a way
(12:07):
of creating culture, but I haveanother top tip that is more
about how weoperate. Are you ready for that hot tip that will change everything? Well, here it is.
Create the culture that in yourschool, whenever anyone has a
question about instruction, thefirst place they go to is the
(12:30):
folder, whether it be blue,green, yellow, or red.
Instruct and reinforce for allteachers, but especially
teachers who are new to theschool, that the folder is the
primary source of wisdom.
The folder is your friend.
Without making the folder thego-to place for information,
(12:52):
thishappens: and I want you to imagine, you're a new teacher
and you say, "Hello, I'm new to the school. Can you tell me how we teach high-frequency words?" Theexisting teacher responds,
"Sure, let me tell you what Ido." And at that moment, right
there, let me tell you how "I doit" is the point at which your
(13:15):
consistency begins to break downand the ad hoc application of
your practices begins.
Because everyone has their ownversion of how I do it, and
everyone tells a slightlydifferent story.
Let's create this with analternative response.
New teacher says, "Hello, I'mnew to the school.
(13:38):
Can you tell me how we teachhigh-frequency words in this
school?" The existing teachersays, "Sure, let's grab out our
blue folders and I'll talk youthrough how we do it here." That
version of events gets you amuch different outcome.
"Let me tell you how we do ithere," gives you half a chance
(13:59):
of achieving the consistencyyou're looking for.
I was coaching one of ourLeading Learning Success leaders
last week, her name is Monique,and she was telling me how
she's created some wonderfulguidelines for staff.
When there's an instructionalroutine or engagement norm to be
implemented, she videos herselfusing the practice in the
(14:21):
classroom.
Then she creates a QR code sothat anyone can scan it and see
the routine in action while theyreview the written
instructions.
Adding something like this isan absolute game changer.
Top tip though, sign up for asite where you can create
dynamic QR codes.
(14:41):
These allow you to change outthe file that the QR code links
to so that you don't have tochange all the pages out every
time you want to update thevideo.
So with this in mind, let's runthat scenario again.
The new teacher says, "Hello,I'm new to this school.
Can you tell me how we teachhigh-frequency words here?" The
(15:03):
existing teacher says, "Sure,let's grab our blue folders.
We can watch a video of alesson and I'll talk you through
the steps." I can almost hearthe leaders listening to this
saying, "Jocelyn, are you mad?
I don't have time to videoeverything." And of course you
don't, I know that.
That's where the SLICE teamcomes in.
They help create the videos andcoordinate your experienced,
(15:27):
high-performing teachers, whobest reflect your school's
expectations, to make thevideos.
This is collective work,remember, not one person's
year-long crusade.
When you have a shared approachto the work, leaders can focus
their energies on modelling theuse of the folder, being the one
(15:48):
to start saying, let's grab outour folders and look at our
school's guidelines.
The leader sets the pace, theleader models what they want to
see and then celebrates whenteam members join in.
Over time, with clearcommunication and expectations,
we are able to celebrate moreand more small wins that add up
(16:11):
to be the big wins we're lookingfor.
The difference between someonetaking one, two or three years
to on their own put togethertheir playbook or guideline and
bringing the team in for thecollective work is the
difference between a doer and aleader.
(16:31):
As leaders, I know how easy itis to get bogged down in the
technicality.
I had an idea, I'm going to bethe one to do it.
But whilever you stay in thatmode, you're not able to stretch
out and expand your influenceto the places you want it to go.
So where you can build thecapability of your team, please
(16:55):
do so.
That allows you to stretch outand means that you are creating
systems that will last beyondyour presence in the school.
Otherwise, when you go on oneterm of long service leave,
everything implodes.
So the consistency here is notjust about documenting the
(17:17):
practices, it really is aboutcreating the systems and
structures that make this aone in, all in mode of working.
I know how overwhelming it canfeel to be a leader thinking
about getting this sort of thingtogether.
I can't tell you how many timesI've started a conversation
(17:39):
with the phrase, we reallyshould, X, Y, Z, knowing that
we're probably not going to getto it anytime soon.
And if I'm really honest, Istill do that even when I'm not
working in a school now.
If that's you right now, pleaseknow that you're not alone and
that you can start this workwith doing just one thing.
(18:00):
Get the folders.
Even if you walk into a pupilfree day at the start of next
year with boxes of empty foldersand hand out a draft contents
page, you will have taken astep.
From there, the next step isget your SLICE team together.
Someone from admin, someonefrom each phase of schooling,
(18:20):
and a specialist.
Step three, put it in yourstaff meeting agenda in the
calendar that you will actuallygive people time to collect what
they use that reflects thatdraft contents page you've
shared with them.
Step four is to do that andthen put it on another staff
(18:41):
meeting schedule to do thecomparing, where you say
everybody get out your literacyblock overview, hold it up so we
can see if we're all on thesame, literally on the same,
page.
You don't have to complete a357-page document by the start
of next year.
As we know from Rosenshine'sPrinciples, we can break things
(19:03):
down into small chunks and dothem one at a time.
In taking this step-by-stepapproach, we're making the work
achievable.
Remember, the goal isn't justto have the document, the goal
is to have the system that makesthe document do the thing we
need it to do, which is tosupport consistency in our
(19:27):
schools.
We know that consistency is anincredibly powerful mechanism
for achieving great things.
It's not an easy thing toachieve, though.
So as you're going about theplanning work for the next
school year, whether you'relistening to this as it's
recorded in 2025 or in somefuture year, remember that small
(19:54):
things get you big goals.
That the planning you domatters.
Think about the purpose of theplanning you're doing and give
yourself the space and grace tonot be superhuman.
These sorts of things matter,but they will not work and they
(20:15):
won't happen if you breakyourself in the process of
trying to achieve all the thingsand be all things to all
people.
If you're a classroom teacherlistening to this episode and
you know that this is the workthat your school has been
talking about doing, share thisepisode with somebody else in
the school, even if this is foryour year level team to be the
(20:39):
lighthouse team for the work.
Everyone, it's term four.
I know we're getting tired.
I know that the rest of theterm feels like a write off of
to-do lists.
But let me tell you, I thinkyou've got this.
Everything is going to be ok.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the Structured Literacy
(20:59):
Podcast.
I look forward to seeing you inthe next episode.
Bye.
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