Peer-to-Peer Learning

Developing a school-led system for sustainable improvement

KALE is committed to supporting schools to benefit from peer support and to establishing practical mechanisms for learning from and with colleagues. 
 
During 2025/26 we consulted with local leaders to define the most useful features of a school-led school improvement system. 
 
Key principles 

Our consultation identified a set of core principles around which such a system needs to be built: 
 
Reciprocity 
All professionals working in schools can learn from others and have something valuable to share. At different times a leader or school may have more need of support and/or greater capacity to share practice. The process of sharing and the collaborative dialogue is a learning opportunity. 
 
Whole system 
Schools value the opportunity to learn from those in similar contexts and also to explore school improvement across different phases and types of schools. There should be no barriers to practice-sharing and support between maintained and academy schools. The opportunity for dialogue across the whole system can often result in more systemic change. 
 
Equity of access 
To be effective across a local system, any approach needs to work for all schools, irrespective of their size, improvement needs, budgets etc. 
 
Sustainability 
The system for school-to-school support must be capable of continuing and thriving over time. It cannot be dependent on short-term resource or vulnerable to changes in the external environment. It will need to be adaptive and responsive to the needs of schools. 
 
Local in a national context 
A rich school-led system includes learning from local peers and also looking beyond Kent for expertise and collaboration. We will work with local, regional and national partners wherever their expertise and capacity benefits Kent schools. We will strive to ensure that through peer-to-peer support leaders can gain insight from schools who really understand their contextual challenges.   
 

Mechanisms for school-to-school support 
For these principles to be embedded in everyday practice, leaders defined the mechanisms that need to be developed in the local system: 

1. Access to information about effective practice in other schools  
   So that colleagues can identify and approach schools to learn from their experience 
2. Clear information about high quality, affordable professional development  
   To enable leaders to make careful decisions about their right development for their staff 
3. Ability to collaborate with other schools who are tackling similar challenges
   To enable in-depth, collaborative examination of shared challenges and peer to peer support for action for improvement 
4. Opportunities to take part in peer reviews
   So that peers can contribute external perspectives to self-evaluation and share practice and support for improvement 
5. A facility to share INSET training between schools 
   So that high-quality INSET, e.g. external speakers, can be more widely available 
6. A professional development pathway for school leaders to grow their skills in providing peer-to-peer support 
   So that leaders can grow skills over their careers and we build capacity and capability for high-quality peer-to-peer support.   

To find out more about what is already in place, what is developing and plans for the future, please see Project Plan and Progress available in the KALE Hub.