A small-scale research study looking at six subject departments that appeared to be adding significantly more to pupils’ achievements than might be expected from their intake found they shared a number of things in common.

1. Stress on the importance of the pupils: The schools in the study were trying to raise the expectations of both pupils and staff and saw a caring environment as one of those strategies. This was clear in themes for assemblies as well as systematic attempts to give young people a voice in the running of the school. Effective departments replicated the whole school policy of rewarding positive behaviour and a wide range of achievements (not just the academic) rather than punishment.

2. Scrutiny of departmental results: Heads of department in these schools knew that they were being held accountable for the results in their subjects but in the effective departments this was not viewed as a threat. Instead, they felt that this was a process which was both a necessary and justifiable route to further departmental improvement.

3. Climate for change: Three of the effective department heads were new and had inherited less than satisfactory departments in which “something needed to be done”, so innovation and change were expected. This climate is an important factor in becoming more effective.

4. Shared vision: A clear and shared sense of vision of the nature of the subject and how it should be organised for teaching purposes emanated from these heads of department. These were “talking departments” marked by a constant interchange of professional information at both a formal and informal level. Departmental meetings tended to be frequent - often in addition to those scheduled for all the departments in the school - and with clear purposes, including the important one of professional development.

5. Collegiate approach: One mark of this was the delegation of tasks. The heads of department trusted their colleagues and most teachers in the departments were allocated particular responsibilities in which they took the lead for the whole department. Different departmental heads had different personal styles but all of them could be seen as leading professionals in the sense that their vision of teaching within their subject was highly respected and their teaching was viewed as a good model. Their departments shared that enthusiasm for the subject and for pupils’ learning.

6. Management of resources: These were not usually well-resourced departments but what they had was particularly well deployed. Money was spent on good quality basic equipment rather than on more sophisticated equipment used by a few able pupils. The bottom line was the enhancement of teaching and learning for all pupils through the optimum allocation of material and human resources.

7. Record keeping: Each effective department could produce - usually very quickly - a detailed profile of each pupil with detailed assessments of strengths and weaknesses in the subject. Such records were systematically shared with pupils so that they too knew exactly how they were doing in the subject and where they needed to work harder.

8. Low staff turnover: Other studies of effective schools have shown that low staff turnover is an important feature of effective schooling and for departments too a consistency of approach with pupils is an advantage.

9. Effective organisation of teaching: The real success of these departments lay in their ability to organise key elements of the teaching and learning process in an effective way from a traditional mixture of teachers. All had detailed and agreed schemes of work that had been discussed and approved. Sometimes these schemes had been worked on by the whole department, sometimes divisions of labour had been evolved where staff worked on areas of their own expertise.

These schemes of work were: * consistent with the general vision of the subject in the department; * detailed with clear guidance; * regarded as important documents * accessible in the department; * agreed by all the department after discussion; * constantly modified in the light of experience.

The departments took a great deal of time and effort in the selection of what to teach their pupils. The key element here was finding content, and ways of teaching it, which matched the capacities and interests of the pupils. The most notable example of this was the time that was spent in selecting the right syllabus for GCSE.

10. Pupil popularity: It was noticeable that the pupils interviewed in the study by and large identified these effective departments and understood them as being quite different from most of the other departments in the school. The pupils were able to comment on characteristics of the teaching and learning in the effective department which they identified themselves as being good practice.

The general picture built up of these effective departments was that they had managed to establish routines and ways of working with children which the pupils appeared to accept, even enjoy, and which were productive.

A small part of the secret of achieving this appeared to lie in the way in which these departments inducted the children when they first entered in Year 7. An immediate attempt was made to establish what was different and special about the subject.

* This research was carried out by Dr Alma Harris at the Open University School of Education and Professor Ian Jamieson and Jen Russ at the University of Bath Centre for School Improvement.