Step 8 of 8
Making it stick
It still depends on you or a few champions, rather than being how things are done.
What this step is about
A change is finished when it’s simply how things are done here. This step is about building it into the routines, systems and induction of the school, so it no longer depends on you.
The test is simple: would it survive you leaving?
The questions for this step
- A new member of staff would pick this up as normal practice without being told it’s new.
- It would carry on if I left the school.
What it looks like when it’s missing
- The marking policy works while its champion is in post, then fades within a term of them leaving.
- New staff learn the old homework approach from colleagues, because the induction handbook still describes it.
- The timetable model survives, but the thinking behind it is lost, so it’s gradually taken apart.
- Two years on, the behavior system is still called “the new system”.
What to do
- Write the change into induction, handbooks, job descriptions and policies.
- Build it into routines: meeting agendas, lesson visits, data reviews, appraisal.
- Make sure more than one person can lead it, and hand it over deliberately.
- Tell the story of why it was introduced and what it achieved, so new staff understand the reason.
Common mistakes
- Declaring the change complete once the launch is over.
- Keeping the knowledge in one person’s head.
- Forgetting to update the documents new staff actually read.
Templates
Change on a page
The whole change on one page: the problem, the reason, what success looks like, who’s involved, the timeline and the first wins to aim for.
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