12 steps to a Great Teacher reputation.

PART ONE: In the classroom.

1. Teach great lessons consistently

This is obvious isnt it?! In fact, you could argue that this is all you need forget all the rest below. In writing the Great Lessons
series I tried to capture the essence of the routine habits teachers need to develop to teach great lessons day after day:
1. Probing 2. Rigour 3.Challenge 4. Differentiation 5. Journeys 6. Explaining 7. Agility 8. Awe 9.Possibilities 10. Joy
Theyre all important and blending these ideas together is the core business of being a great teacher; sustaining them over time is
the key to building a great reputation. In truth, much as many teachers reject the falsehood of a snap-shot OfSTED-style lesson
observation, it does allow people to turn on the style only when needed. However, there is no escape from the ever-present
judgemental eye of your students or their capacity to talk about their lessons with you. The feedback from lessons that permeates
into the fabric of school discourse is crucial in the reputation stakes. It demands variety (see Balanced Diet of Learning and
Teaching) and consistency overall but because students are tolerant, it allows you to have off-days, to engage in a fair bit of slog
and some wacky wild moments.
So, let me stress this: reputations are founded on delivering great lessons as often as you possibly can. Please read or re-read the
series or download the pdf version here. Great Lessons Series pdf

2. Build positive relationships

A pre-cursor to teaching great lessons is to have established strongly positive relationships with your classes. My post outlining
a Bill Rogers Top 10 Behaviour Management strategies gives ideas for doing this and To maximise learning, get your
students RAMPed focuses on the starts of lessons. Highly effective teachers are ones you dont mess with but you dont want to
be soft or strict'; the latter is never a positive descriptor in students eyes it just means you shout too much or treat people
unfairly. Sarcastic put-downs or a general softness in tackling low-level disruption are unhelpful. Great teachers enjoy warm,
friendly relationships with students, take maximum ownership of behaviour issues, follow through on sanctions and use wholeschool systems properly without dumping on other people. Almost always, there is a controlled severity mode waiting in the wings
that gets given centre stage every so often; every teacher needs that from time to time. Students respect it; in fact they expect it.
A potentially great teacher who is sarcastic, insists on having the last word, is inflexible or intolerant, cant meet students half way to
build bridges or uses their authority inappropriately does great damage to their reputation as a great teacher. Theyre not a great
teacher.

3. Give effective feedback

Even if lessons are great, students and parents also want to know how well things are going over time. This is where the marking
and other forms of feedback come in. In truth, a lot of parents have unrealistic unreasoned expectations about seeing books that
are marked. Parents often like the sight of the red pen; it builds confidence that someone is taking an interest in their childs work.
In my experience, students are much less bothered; they just want feedback any way it comes. Strategies that involve all the
students like Think Pair Shareand using mini-whiteboards are part of the feedback armoury. In general, making the spirit
of AfL come alive can take many forms; its the basis of many great lessons.
I know teachers who have phenomenal reputations as great markers and others with the opposite independent of how good
they are in the classroom. This is where we need to get a balance and make sure were explaining to parents and students how our
feedback systems work. As I argue in Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective, Reflective not all marking
has impact and we need to take steps to minimise presentational marking that doesnt make a difference to learning. My run-away
top-hit post Making Feedback Count: Closing the Gap describes a range of excellent strategies and one very simple idea for
doing this.

4. Know your subject and use that to good effect.

Strong subject knowledge pays dividends in many different ways. It helps to plan the curriculum, to devise good questions, to be
responsive in lessons and to bring in the depth and detail needed to secure the highest grades. This is obviously not sufficient to be
regarded as a great teacher but it often helps to get you started. Certainly the opposite having weak subject knowledge does
you no good at all. In posts on Rigour, Challenge and Explaining, subject knowledge is a central component. Do you know for
certain what the A level or GCSE A* requirements are? Can you provide model answers at every level? Can you go beyond the
syllabus and also make the complex seem simple? This is the path to a great reputation. So keep up to date and keep learning
your own subject its going to pay off handsomely.

5. Lay a path to successful outcomes for your students

Excellent examination outcomes dont happen by accident. Even though we might agree that they dont tell the whole story, exam
success is major element in building a strong reputation. However, the link is stronger if students testify to a teachers role in the
process. Do you build confidence, giving students self-belief whilst setting them challenging targets? Do you provide them with all
the resources they need to succeed? I know teachers who write blogs or put superb revision guides or exemplar essays together;
they use lesson time effectively to rehearse, to model success, to ensure that the exams are demystified. It is so important to know
your students exam structure, the content, the assessment objectives, the standards for each grade and so on so that you can
convey that to students in way that gives them the best chance of success. In my experience, the best teachers usually feel there is
more that could be done to support students in passing exams; weaker teachers are more likely to suggest they did all they
could. (Admittedly a generalisation but food for thought.)

6. Embrace a total G&T Philosophy

This is a theme dear to my heart as a learner and a parent. Its something I explored in this post: Gifted and Talented Provision:
A Total Philosophy Ive known several teachers who would be well-regarded in every respect except in their capacity to meet the
needs of the most able. This might link to subject knowledge but really it is a question of mind-set. A powerful source of reputational
enhancement is feedback from the brightest students and their parents. If you have them on your side, youre winning. If you
dontyoure going to struggle. I still hold the view that, nationally, far too many students are systematically under-challenged every
single day.but they dont have to be in your lessons! Teach to the top and the rest will follow in the wake of high challenge; put a
lid on expectations at your peril and theirs!

7. Express yourself
All the great teachers I can think of are idiosyncratic in some way. There is no mould or formula just as there is no one way to
teach. Teachers have great scope for self-expression; for doing things their own way; for being entirely autonomous. Coupled with
all the great lessons ideas and positive student relationships, a strong reputation can arise from a great teachers character; their
funny stories; their unique questioning style; their love of setting things on fire; the camaraderie they engender with their students;
their passion for poetry and reading aloud; their encyclopaedic knowledge of WWII battles; their witty critiques; their superb
collection of YouTube clips; their love of cake; their tendency to go way off at a tangent .. or whatever. Be yourselfexpress
yourself. use your autonomy to explore your passions and dont be inhibited. This is all part of what I call Rainforest
Thinking..lets get off the plantation!

PART TWO: Beyond the classroom

8. Give time generously to students who need you.

Outside the normal flow of lessons, there are always going to be students that need extra help. On the reputational scale, a
teachers willingness to give their time generously is often a major factor. I know teachers who have supremely high standing in this
regard and others who really dont. Obviously it is a choice you make.. but it doesnt actually take much. Students and parents are
often hugely grateful for just a bit of extra support.. and that can make all the difference to them, pushing them along at the right
time. All the letters and emails I receive from parents who want to praise or thank a teacher focus on this aspect the support
given freely, beyond the call of duty.

9. Engage with parents

Teachers who take the time to reach out to parents or to respond promptly always gain from it and the reverse it also true. There
is often too much unhealthy teacher-talk about pushy parents or nightmare parents. Actually, almost all parents want their
children to succeed at school; they have their own view of what their role is and how much they can help; they have their own
expectations and perceptions of their childs abilities and aspirations. We simply have to work with that. Some parents may be
excessively demanding in your eyes but, actually, wed be a lot better off if all our parents were pushy even if that sounds like a
lot of stress and pressure. Making a few strategic calls to give praise or share concerns is immensely powerful. Breaking bad news
at parents evening can be disastrous.. especially if the issues have been brewing for months. If a parent says the homework is too

easy, isnt ever marked or that lessons are being disrupted (so they hear) then dont be defensive; it is far more effective to
acknowledge their concerns and commit to resolving them whilst also giving your perspective.

A teacher who listens is one who

commands respect and support; its a win-win. Homework is a superb vehicle for communicating expectations and values to
parents, as I describe in this post: Homework matters: Great teachers set great homework. Being a teacher who religiously
sets homework in a variety of engaging forms, providing practice, challenge and opportunities for exploration, is always going to
gain. A low volume of homework-setting is always undermining.

10. Get involved in the school community

Time and time again Ive seen teachers grow in confidence and stature through their engagement with students and colleagues
outside the confines of the classroom. It can be a release from the normal routine and a great source of joy to take part in extracurricular activities but with the bonus by-product that students learn to perceive you as a more rounded person. This always
enhances a teachers reputation amongst students and helps build relationships for learning that might otherwise have taken much
longer. On top of that, these experiences can help develop a wider set of skills planning, organisation, leadership, managing
people that can be an asset when looking to take on further responsibilities. Ever since I started teaching, my extra-curricular
work has been immensely rewarding; the motivational aspect of that feeds back into the teaching. You do need to get a balance of
course; Ive known teachers whose non-teaching activities have begun to impinge on their core rolebut in general, a teacher who
plays a wider role in the life of the school always benefits.

11. Maintain high professional standards

This will seem blindingly obvious Im sure but it is worth stating because, too often, people fall down in this area without realising
the impact it has. Teaching and learning are clearly the priority without question. But there are some aspects of general
professional life that can enhance or reduce someones reputational standing. Id include things like being on time for meetings,
meeting deadlines, matching the dress code (top buttons done up if that is the expectation of students), sticking to email protocols,
being disciplined with comments on social media at all times. and so on. It also extends to using appropriate language with
students, alcohol and smoking, making spelling errors in formal letters, handling disagreements, maintaining confidentiality,
modelling full commitment to equality policies.. a long list. For me, these things are completely compatible with being an
idiosyncratic, creative, maverick classroom practitioner or a more straight-forward conformist. Homophobic comments in the
staffroom, a public argument or an overly revealing late-night tweet can be very harmful. Were basically under scrutiny 24/7
whether we like it or not.

12. Show initiative; offer solutions; be collaborative; be your own CPD champion
The people who command the greatest respect and admiration, to my mind, are those who contribute to leading the school forward
at every level. It is so great when a teacher comes forward to present an idea something theyd like to try or that theyve already
explored but want to take further. At departmental level, the collaborators and sharers are vital to taking teaching and learning
forward. You cant really be a full-on great teacher if you fly solo; youre in a team. There are all kinds of pedagogical, operational
and strategic challenges in school lifeit is always easy to pick out the faults in the status quo. It is far harder to suggest solutions

and harder still to commit to implementing them. So, whether it is the marking policy, the curriculum structure, the lunchtime
supervision rota or the behaviour of boys in 8F, teachers who have ideas or who at least can express concerns in a constructive
manner always gain reputational credit.
With CPD, the same issues are relevant. It is unlikely that anyone is going to send you on a course..if youre just waiting in hope.
However, if you see a course you want to go on and make a request or you have an idea for a project you want to work on with
some colleaguesthen doors begin to open. Clearly the school systems and middle and senior leaders have a role to play; but
their role is not as important as yours. With any number of school based projects and initiatives, my feeling is get on with it and
then report back. If you wait too long for permission, it may never happen.

CONCLUSION
As I described in this post on Leading 21st Century Learning there are so many ideas out there to engage with; it is an exciting
time. A great teacher will be getting stuck in, reading the books and the blogs and trying hard to refine their thinking and improve
their practice all the time. Despite the challenges we face with all the noise from OfSTED and the DFE, there is hope for a better
system, especially because we have the power to do so much of what really matters ourselves. In the same spirit, each teacher
has a great deal of control over the reputation they great generate; OfSTED will come and go; exam results will go up and down
but your reputation as a great teacher can grow and grow. Its really up to you.