This article written by our CEO, Alan J Whitaker, is the first in a series of four showcasing the work BCF undertakes to empower thousands of underperforming schools to simultaneously set off on their respective journeys to become high performance schools.
What drives me every day is seeing schools blossom after their leadership teams are trained to build high-performance cultures – inspiring teachers, unlocking potential and giving every child the chance to thrive.
Over the years, I and my colleagues have visited hundreds of schools where we have repeatedly seen children sitting quietly in classrooms, going through the motions, but not truly learning, growing, or being prepared for life beyond school.
But these are not failing children. They are children full of potential!
The problem on the face of it is that the teachers are not emotionally engaged – they do not prepare and present memorable lessons. In fact most lessons are downright boring!! Worse, so many teachers don’t care despite knowing what to do and that they should be doing better.
The real fault is that principals and their school managers have never been taught how to transform a hostile, non-performing school culture into a high performance culture which holds emotionally disengaged teachers accountable for delivery of excellence and inspires the emotionally engaged teachers to join a crusade to ensure every child receives the best education possible at their school.
So the real fault lies not with the principals and their managers but with their superiors who have not ensured they are trained to create a high performance culture at their school.
That is what motivates me and my team every day. Through our Global Schools High-Performance System tens of thousands of principals and school managers have been trained to create high performance cultures at their schools. And amazing academic results achieved during national examinations have followed even at rural schools with erratic electricity supply.
In the next message, I’ll share the practical steps we take to transform struggling schools (and businesses) into centres of excellence.
Thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us.