I’ve sat on both sides of the table when it comes to school improvement.

Before joining the Department for Education as director general, I worked as a Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) adviser supporting schools through some of their toughest challenges, and was also CEO of a trust with 40 schools.

I know what it feels like to walk into a struggling school, build trust with leaders under pressure and work alongside them to find a way forward. I have also experienced professional generosity both in schools that need a lot of support and in successful schools looking to develop a particular area.

That experience shapes everything about how I approach RISE - the service to help every school improve.

From the start, we designed this programme differently.

We didn’t assume that we had all the answers. Instead, we built RISE as a “test and learn” programme, working in real time with advisers, schools and system partners, adapting constantly based on what we were hearing.

And we did that quickly because many of the schools that RISE is supporting have not yet delivered the quality of education needed for too long.

Reviewing the RISE scheme

Our recently published report on RISE was a moment of honest reflection. It highlighted where implementation had landed well and where we needed to rethink our approach.

We’ve been transparent about both.

What we’ve learned is that scaling isn’t simply about doing more. It’s about doing it better, smarter and in ways that work across diverse school contexts.

Where processes proved challenging, we’ve embedded the lessons into how we operate now.

Where our ways of working are helping support to get into schools quickly, it will be because of strong relationships between advisers and schools, clarity of purpose and a focus on practical value.

Across my visits to schools and conversations with advisers and regional teams, one message comes through consistently: RISE feels like a programme built with the sector, not done it.

Helping all schools grow

School leaders tell me that working with RISE feels collaborative, respectful and energising.

The passion and professionalism of our advisers stand out, and their insights continue to shape how we refine support.

The sector has stepped up to provide support. We have over 200 trusts and local authorities sharing their expertise with the responsible bodies of schools that need it.

We want strong schools to become even stronger and the strongest schools to become leaders in driving change.

RISE supports this ambition by making it easier for leaders to find relevant, high-quality resources, facilitating collaboration and promoting the sharing of effective practice.

In recent weeks, regional teams have had many approaches from schools and trusts offering their expertise to the wider school system. It’s not the DfE that improves schools - it’s school leaders and responsible bodies.

Refining our approach

As we enter year two, our focus sharpens.

Impact must sit at the heart of everything we do. We’re consolidating what works, strengthening what needs improving and ensuring that every school in the programme experiences clear, consistent benefits.

The core principles remain: test and learn, collaboration, responsiveness and a relentless focus on impact.

There’s genuine optimism across the system that RISE can make a real difference for schools that welcome the additional funded support rather than intervention; not because we claim to have perfected it, but because we’re committed to evolving, listening and improving.

Every child deserves an excellent education. That’s what drives us. And we’ll keep learning alongside schools until we get this right, welcoming feedback as we go.

Dr Tim Coulson is director general of the Regions Group at the Department for Education, and a former RISE adviser and trust CEO

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