21: Vic Goddard: Looking beyond the school gate: engaging the community

If you watched Channel 4’s fly on the wall documentary, Educating Essex that followed a group of GCSE students, and the staff who taught them, then you certainly will remember the infectious enthusiasm of Vic Goddard, the Principal of Passmores Academy.

Vic has a strong ethos of serving his school community, which hasn’t always been easy!  In one story, Vic reveals how an evening with parents to celebrate their child’s catering success and sample their culinary delights turned to disappointment, when parents failed to attend and show their support. 

Faced with the challenge of engaging the parent community, Vic and his team set about working the problem!  Vic shares how serving the community beyond the school gate requires evolution, not revolution.  Together Vic and I discuss how Passmores Academy has worked to engage their student and parent community, but also how they have sponsored struggling primary schools in their local area, to provide them with guidance on how to improve literacy levels and grow community engagement.

Episode take-aways:

Strategies that lead to willing parent engagement and participation

Employing marginal gains theory to enhance pedagogical approaches

Allowing young people to fail in order to progress      

What evolutionary pedagogy and strategies are you using?  Share your thoughts with us via: [email protected]