Today, collaboration is most commonly referred to as school-to-school support, and it has been enshrined in government policy. It formed a prominent part in the coalition government’s 2010 schools white paper, which made great play of the concept of the “school-led system”. One example of this was the launch of the teaching school programme, which recruits excellent schools to lead alliances with others, offering training and support for the alliance schools as well as supporting professional and leadership development in any other school that requires or requests it.

It’s obvious that collaboration has to be a given for schools in the education climate of today. And there is good evidence that it is happening. Teaching school alliances are growing apace - at the last count there were over 500 in operation – and more and more schools are forming themselves into formal trusts and federations. Still more work with other schools happens in less formal arrangements, such as clusters and ‘soft’ federations.

The structures for closer collaboration between schools are there. The will is definitely there. But I have grown concerned in recent years that there is still this gap between the aspirations schools have for collaboration and the hard, practical reality of sharing best practice, which is, after all, one of the core purposes of school collaboration.

I talk to a lot of headteachers about professional development and its role in school improvement, and from our conversations it is clear that the process of sharing best practice often fails to deliver. Regardless of what the focus of the best practice is, it is nothing without a robust mechanism to make it actually happen.

Whether best practice has been effectively shared can’t always be accurately measured, but it is obvious that if it was an easy thing to do then every classroom in every school across the UK would contain the very best teaching and leadership. Even though you would be hard pressed to find a head or a teacher in a school today who didn’t want the best for their students, this isn’t the case. Excellent practice certainly does exist in the majority of UK schools today, but the processes for sharing that practice between schools often leaves much to be desired.

Why does the sharing of best practice fail? The problem in many cases is that of dilution. At the moment, the observer of best practice might sit in the classroom taking notes about some excellent classroom management or teaching, and will then go back to their own school and share with their team what they have seen and learnt. This is where the first degree of dilution happens. Their own school may be very different from the school they have just visited in a range of ways. There may be a very different staff culture. The school may operate in a very different social context and serve a very different pupil community. Too little consideration might have been given to those differences and how they will affect the transfer of best practice knowledge.

The next degree of dilution happens in the actual act of note taking. It’s hard to observe a lesson, condense that accurately into note form and then precisely convey that information to your colleagues. That flaw in information transfer is exacerbated when the members of your team leave your briefing and go back to their classrooms. It is only natural that they will filter what they have heard through their own perceptions. Some will see it as an opportunity but others might see the sharing of that best practice as a criticism of their own practice.

If support is not available beyond the briefing then the colleague trying to implement it in the classroom can get frustrated and go back to what they know best. They will be facing all the challenges and pitfalls that the other school has gone through, unless there is a process that makes sure that the transfer of best practice remains relatively undiluted and support ever present.

So what does an effective approach look like? First of all, a fundamental part of sharing best practice is that, throughout the process, due consideration should be given to the different environment and different circumstances that prevail in the school in which you are observing that best practice.

There shouldn’t be a reliance on one or more people bringing a message back from a school. In order to share best practice you want your colleagues to have it with them at all times. You can’t rely on bringing that expert teacher over from the other school to tell you what is wrong and what is right about the practice you are seeking to replicate in your school.

When things do go wrong your colleagues need advice, guidance and support that put them back on track. If we reduce or even remove those degrees of dilution while at the same time increasing the level of interaction between the expert and the recipient then there will be more of a chance of replicating that best practice in the other school.

IT – in the form of online school improvement planning systems – has a crucial role to play here. These systems can provide a communication method that will allow that close contact between expert and learner, supported by professional development material and resources. For example, if the learner is delivering a project to improve the quality of pupils’ writing in their classroom, the mentor should be on hand to help the learner in this project with resources, guidance, support and encouragement. And the learner should have the opportunity to relay back how the project is going and to share resources such as lesson plans so that they can get support and feedback.

How do you know if your school’s approach to sharing best practice with other schools is working effectively? Here are my five rules for the effective sharing of best practice:

1. You have to know that best practice exists.

Quite simply you need to be able to identify where practice different from your own has made a positive impact. Ideally there will be measurable outcomes by which you can assess the value of this practice and which you might aspire to for your own pupils. Schools need to let others know of good things that happen!

2. Be aware of the context.

There are many examples of good and best practice throughout education, but not all of them are suitable for your school. It pays to invest some time in looking for the areas where you know you need outside help. Draw up a shortlist and begin your research to find the best amongst schools similar to your own. There is enough data available to find a ‘matched school’ and the communication systems are there to enable you to share what you have and what you need.

3. Make sure you are talking the same language.

Don’t let different terminology put you off and don’t be railroaded by consultant speak. Never be afraid to ask ‘what do you mean by…?’ when you hear something that seems out of place. There are only so many parts to sharing best practice and you are probably already engaging in all of them. It’s the ‘how’ that is different not the ‘why’.

4. Bring the best into your school.

In an ideal world, once we have found the very best we can, we would have that person come into our school and stay with us until we replicate what we have seen and achieved our own desired outcomes. The trouble is, that’s not going to happen – they (the best practitioners) have their own job to do. Implement communication methods which achieve the next best thing; if they can’t be there physically, make sure they are there ‘virtually’.

5. Plan-enable-do-review.

There has to be a sustainable method of setting out your objectives, ensuring all your staff are trained (enabled), that everyone is supported to fulfil their role and that you have the systems in place for ongoing evaluation. 80% of projects that fail do so at the implementation stage. If there are problems these need to be picked up early and rectified. If best practice isn’t successfully implemented, it won’t be because it wasn’t shared; it will be because successful implementation was never facilitated.

No-one can doubt the value of sharing best practice, as long as schools ensure that the processes they use do not dilute that learning. At the moment, in many schools, there are several degrees of separation from the moment that the recipient leaves the school car park having observed a piece of fantastic practice, and shares that with colleagues in his or her own school. Sharing best practice is a valuable transaction that can unlock high performance in another school, as well as enrich the professional development of the individual sharing their knowledge and practice. The key is how we make this transfer as strong and direct as possible to ensure that nothing is lost in translation.

How does your school collaborate with others? Let us know in the comments.