The facilitator will
- ask clear, neutral questions;
- make space for quieter participants;
- test whether a proposal is observable and practical;
- summarise accurately and check meaning;
- help the note-taker capture themes and recommendations.
The role
Guide the process, not the answer.
The facilitator creates the conditions for people to think clearly together. They make the purpose and discussion code visible, keep the group on the agreed sequence, invite a range of voices and help turn broad concerns into useful alternatives.
The facilitator will not
- defend school policy or argue for a preferred value;
- invite names, case histories or allegations;
- decide whether an account is true;
- let one voice or topic consume the session;
- promise that every suggestion will appear in the synthesis.
The question sequence
One route from aspiration to action.
Begin with the school people want
“What should a pupil gain from being here? What would we see pupils, teachers, leaders and families doing in an excellent school?”
Include learning and ambition alongside belonging, wellbeing and relationships.
Identify what helps
“Which current practices or conditions already help create that experience? What should we protect or strengthen?”
Ask for patterns and examples of practice without identifying a person or recounting a case.
Identify what gets in the way
“Which patterns, practices or conditions make that experience harder to achieve?”
Keep the answer at the level of school life, systems and observable behaviour.
Explore the better alternative
“What would we see happening instead? Who would need to do what? What support, explanation or consistency would help?”
Test whether the alternative is understandable, fair and possible to observe.
Start, stop and continue
“What should the school community start doing, stop doing and continue doing?”
Invite actions for the whole community without making one participant group answer for another.
Find candidate beliefs
“What belief sits behind these actions? How would we know people were living it?”
Prefer short, memorable beliefs connected to visible behaviour.
Prioritise recommendations
“Which ideas would make the greatest positive difference? Which are most important to include in the final recommendations?”
Capture priorities without requiring artificial consensus.
Keep the discussion solution-focused
Move from concern to a better alternative.
Useful follow-up questions include: “What makes that important?”, “What pattern are you noticing?”, “What would better look like?”, “What would be different for pupils?”, and “What practical change follows from that?”
Redirect identifying material
If someone starts to name a person or describe an identifiable incident, interrupt respectfully: “Please leave out names and identifying details. What general pattern or practice does this point to, and what would you like to see happen instead?” The identifying material is not repeated or included in the notes.
Balanced participation
Make room without forcing contribution.
- Explain the sequence and time available at the beginning.
- Use a first round so every participant is invited before anyone returns for a second contribution.
- Offer quiet thinking time before important questions.
- Invite contributions through the online form when someone prefers not to answer in the room.
- Interrupt repetition or domination politely and return to voices not yet heard.
- Summarise a contribution and check that its meaning has been captured correctly.
Audience adaptations
Keep the purpose consistent. Adjust the language.
Pupils
Use concrete language, short questions and visible prompts. Explain unfamiliar terms. Allow thinking time and online follow-up. Keep all pupils within the same pupil framework, regardless of which scheduled session they attend.
Parents and carers
Focus on what families observe about learning, belonging, communication and consistency. Redirect contributions away from named people or individual disputes.
Teachers and staff
Include classroom experience, colleague relationships, professional culture, academic ambition and the support or systems required for consistent practice.
School leadership
Explore strategic ambition, practical constraints and the management systems needed to make behaviours consistent. The session gathers leadership’s contribution rather than asking leaders to respond to other groups in real time.
Closing the session
Check the summary and explain what follows.
Read back the main priorities and recommendations captured by the note-taker. Ask whether anything essential has been misunderstood or omitted. Explain that the session summary will be combined with other workshop summaries and online responses to produce an anonymised synthesis.
The school can add its own comments when the recommendations are shared. The facilitator does not predict which ideas will be adopted or promise inclusion of every contribution.
Return to the public workshop site