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"You can't afford not to!" Headteacher Kulvarn Atwal on the power of slice teams

Should year 3 pupils be shaping school policy?

About Making Change Stick

This blog features ideas and strategies from the Making Change Stick programme, an approach to school improvement developed over the last 10 years by Dr James Mannion, working in hundreds of schools all over the world.

"You can't afford not to!" Headteacher Kulvarn Atwal on the power of slice teams

I bring you a different offering this week.

As you may recall, a few weeks ago I rattled a “Calling all slice teams” klaxon.

Today, I bring you the first in an occasional series of interviews with school leaders harnessing the power of representative, inclusive decision-making in their schools.

Dr Kulvarn Atwal is one of the most thoughtful and gifted school leaders I’ve ever met. A highly respected and successful headteacher leading not one, but two schools: Highlands Primary and Uphall Primary in East London - Kulvarn is also the author of The Thinking School and The Thinking Teacher, and he’s spent years developing cultures of continuous improvement through research engagement and distributed leadership.

In this conversion, we talk about what slice teams are, how they work in practice, and why including pupils in slice teams might just be the key to unlocking deep, sustainable school improvement.

Here are a few juicy clips, and if you prefer audio to video, there are links to various podcast providers below.

Oh and if you’ve used slice teams in your context - drop me a line!

Juicy clips

“You can’t afford not to!”

Year 3 pupil changing school policy

What a difference it makes to midday supervisors

“For school leaders, the value of a slice team is immeasurable.”

Podcast versions

Apple

Spotify

Soundcloud

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