EE April 11

APRIL 2011 / ISSUE 68

supporting business and financial excellence in schools and colleges

OUTSIDE IS IN WHY THE OUTDOORS IS GREAT FOR LEARNING

OUTSIDE IS IN Why the outdoors is great for learning

GETTING OUT OF THE STICKS

Is there a viable future for rural primary schools?

WWW.EDEXEC.CO.UK

BUDGETING FOR CHANGE

What curriculum changes mean for school budgets

APRIL 2011 / ISSUE 68

EDUCATION EXECUTIVE

EDUCATION EXECUTIVE

editor’s letter

EDUCATION EXECUTIVE

APRIL 2011

www.edexec.co.uk

Education Executive is the first business management magazine written exclusively for school business managers and bursars, bringing you the latest issues affecting your role, from finance to premises, procurement to HR. EdExec delivers the lowdown on all the hottest topics in education management right here, every month.

EDITOR julia dennison julia.dennison@intelligentmedia.co.uk DEPUTY EDITOR matthew jane matthew.jane@intelligentmedia.co.uk PUBLISHER vicki baloch vicki.baloch@intelligentmedia.co.uk SALES EXECUTIVE francis maitland francis.maitland@intelligentmedia.co.uk ACCOUNT MANAGER harrison bunce harrison.bunce@intelligentmedia.co.uk DIGITAL MANAGER dan price dan.price@intelligentmedia.co.uk DESIGNER elma aquino elma.aquino@intelligentmedia.co.uk PRODUCTION ASSISTANT sinead coffey sinead.coffey@intelligentmedia.co.uk CIRCULATIONS MANAGER natalia johnston natalia.johnston@intelligentmedia.co.uk

Education Executive is published by intelligent media solutions suite 223, business design centre 52 upper street, london, N1 0QH tel 020 7288 6833 fax 020 7288 6834 email info@intelligentmedia.co.uk web www.intelligentmedia.co.uk Follow Education Executive on Twitter at Twitter.com/edexec Printed in the UK by Buxton Press www.buxtonpress.co.uk

Don’t shoot your own foot

A

s we went to press this month came the alarming news that Edinburgh council plans to save £2.4m over the next two years by reducing management costs in secondary schools, as well as £736,000 by removing the role of bursar managers. This is not just an example of cutting off the collective nose to spite the face, but something much more sinister – like cutting off the brain to spite the whole body. I’m tempted to think it’s in fact Edinburgh councillors’ who have lost their mind.

No you’re not seeing things – nearly £900,000 has been set aside in Edinburgh to be spent in the next year on ‘voluntary early release’ deals on offer to secondary school principal teachers, deputy heads and bursar managers and around 180 school business management staff within the city’s schools have received letters asking them if they are willing to apply for voluntary redundancy.

While times are undeniably tough for education in the UK, particularly in Scotland where one local authority recently considered shortening the school week to four days to save money, what person thought it was a good idea to remove the financial nerve centre from schools? Getting rid of a school’s senior financial leader may leave it financially better off in the very short term (i.e. one less mouth to feed), but in the long-term school business managers add proven value to schools – saving the headteacher time and helping them run more cost-effectively.

Here at EdExec we don’t like this news at all – and we want to hear your reactions. Perhaps you are a bursar affected by the cuts or know someone who is? Please get in touch with your stories at editor@ edexec.co.uk. After all, if anyone is going to save an education system from financial ruin, surely it’s the bursars.

Hope you enjoy our new look magazine, we’ve rolled primary and secondary EdExec into one issue, along with ICT Matters, in order to reach the entire school business management community as one. Until next time, have a great month.

EDITOR

Contents

08

32

26

sector

rocure

lan

the lowdown on the business management world

how to make your budget go further

06 Sector news

28 Interview

Petty cash The Petty Pool Trust is saved

The latest school business management news

08 Event review

ASCL Annual Conference Business management highlights from the school leader event

10 Event review

BSEC 2011 What the future holds for building new schools

32 PREMISES

Think outside the box A guide to outdoor learning – from gardens to amphitheatres

36 CASE STUDY

A view from the Hill’ Hillview School readies its finances for academy status

12 Comment

Budgeting for change BESA’s Ray Barker on what curriculum changes mean for budgets

14 interview

A Chelsea morning Chelsea Academy defies the odds of an urban environment

management

tune up your management skills

38 LEGAL

schools in focus

what’s happening at primary or secondary school near you

18 PRIMARY update

Don’t get school tripped up Hosting responsible school trips

40 FINANCE

Joining forces Advice on becoming an academy or joining an academy trust

Primary news and views The latest updates and info specifically for primary schools

20 Out of the sticks

Is there a viable future for rural primary schools?

24 SECONDARY update

Secondary news and views What the future holds for building new schools

26 Exam season

How to get your secondary school ready for exam time

Turn to the end for April’s edition of ICT Matters

sector Sector news is brought to you by Free banking for schools supported by local specialist relationship managers Lloyds TSB Commercial - well educated banking

SEN WATCH ONE PLAN FOR SEN

Department for Education

06

In a green paper published last month, Children’s Minister Sarah Teather (pictured) unveiled proposals for the biggest reform of support given to young people with special educational needs (SEN) in 30 years. The paper seeks to include parents in the assessment process and introduce a legal right by 2014 to give them control of funding for the support their child needs – as opposed to the current system where schools receive SEN funding and allocate it accordingly. The government would also like to replace SEN statements with a single assessment process and a combined education, health and care plan so that health and social services are included in the package of support, along with education – this would run until the child is 25 years old.

If the green paper is made law, the government would also replace the existing “complicated” School Action and School Action Plus system with a simpler new school-based category to help teachers focus on raising attainment. Teacher training and CPD would also be overhauled.

DIARY 5 April 2011 Implementing the pupil premium Central london 7 April 2011 Capita’s national conference: efficiency in schools Central london 24 May 2011 National school reform conference Central london 25 May 2011 Effective leadership for school reform Central london

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

STORY OF THE MONTH EDINBURGH PLANS BURSAR CUTS Edinburgh council has set aside £860,000 to spend over the next year on voluntary release deals for secondary school principal teachers, deputy heads and bursar managers, according to an Edinburgh Evening News report.

The council is aiming to save £2.4m over the next two years by reducing management costs, which includes removing the role of bursar managers, which its claims will save £736,000.

City leader Jenny Dawe said the council cannot rule out compulsory redundancies, while trade union leaders are continuing to fight the school management cuts, which they say will have a direct impact on the education of children, with the EIS union signaling its intention to ballot for possible strike action.

John Stevenson, president of the Edinburgh branch of Unison, said: “If these were essential jobs in schools in the first place then they still are. The work will still have to be done by somebody, and it could put more pressure on teachers…Schools do not run themselves and somebody is still going to need to do this work.”

Opposition councillor Andrew Burns, leader of the Labour group on the council, said: “The whole problem is that the budget was set for this before any detailed strategy was agreed.

“It has been agreed that over £3m will be taken out of schools in terms of management posts, yet there has been no strategy decided on. It seems completely cart before horse.

“Putting aside nearly £1m for voluntary severance is all well and good but there has been no detailed proposals put to the workforce.”

They said...

I’ve met some incredible teachers over the years who are achieving tremendous results. But is our education system supporting and resourcing them with the right tools to engage the unengaged?”

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on his ‘dream school’

sector NEWS

INBRIEF

PICTURE STORY

PENSION REFORMS

Lord Hutton of Furness set out his proposals for comprehensive, long-term structural reform of public service pension schemes in his recent report following a nine-month review. The main recommendation of the report is that existing final salary public service pension schemes should be replaced by new schemes, where an employee’s pension entitlement is still linked to their salary (a “defined benefit scheme”) but is related to their career average earnings, with appropriate adjustments in earlier years so that benefits maintain their value. School leader unions say they would be prepared to take industrial action to protect pension rights.

STAFF REDUNDANCY Restaurant critic Jay Rayner (centre) with Nico Ducceshi, 9, Sinead Barton, 9, Jude Freeman, 11, and Shaan Kholi, 8, of Telferscot Primary School in London’s Lambeth have a taste of the food they have cooked as they prepare for the national Let’s Get Cooking BIG Cookathon

What we learned this month

There are more female school leaders. Headteachers are getting younger, and there are more female school leaders, according to new figures from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

Since 2004, the TDA has seen a 38% increase in the number of teachers under 45 reaching the top, and a 35% rise in the number of women becoming secondary school heads.

STATS & FACTS

2 in10

pupils say they do not feel physically safe at school

Bullying runs rampant A study for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, carried out by Goldsmiths, University of London, found that nearly two in 10 of all school students said that they do not feel physically safe at school. Nearly half of 6-10- and 14-year-olds said they had been bullied at school. Among the primary school children who said they were being bullied, four in 10 said it was happening at least once a week. More than eight in 10 disabled pupils have been bullied at school. Two in three lesbian, gay or transgender secondary school pupils said they had been bullied.

The number of school leaders calling the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) advice line to ask about how to make colleagues redundant has risen to its highest number in over a decade, the Guardian reports. More than a third of calls to a 24-hour ASCL helpline now relate to redundancies and ASCL’s courses in redundancies are oversubscribed. School leaders at ASCL’s general conference last month voiced concerns over the Department for Education’s proposal of an English baccalaureate, which would be automatically given to pupils who achieve at least a C in their GCSEs in English, maths, two sciences, history or geography and a language. Senior leaders felt a turn to the English ‘bacc’ could lead to more redundancies in teaching fields that fell outside those subjects.

THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Almost two-thirds of public sector finance professionals have a positive vision of their organisation’s future, four months after the government’s comprehensive spending review (CSR), a survey has found. The survey,

by Version One, highlights that 62% of senior finance professionals are feeling ‘confident’ with a quarter of these stating that they are very confident. In contrast, 26% of the 158 senior finance professionals that responded said they were “concerned” about what may lay ahead for their organisation with four per cent admitting that they were “very concerned”. The remaining eight per cent of respondents said it was still “too early to comment” about their organisation’s long-term prospects.

www.lloydstsb.com/schoolsbanking | 0800 681 6078 www.edexec.co.uk april 2011

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sector EVENT REVIEW

After the show The ASCL conference provided a great platform for business management issues. MATTHEW JANE went to Manchester to find out more

S

chool leaders were out in force at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) annual conference last month, which took place at the impressive Manchester Central Convention Complex. The delegates were treated to a superb range of speakers, including Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was subjected to a grilling from attendees, all keen to get some clarity on the ongoing school reforms.

The ASCL underlined its commitment to school business management by kicking off the event with an over-subscribed business management update, chaired by immediate past president John Morgan. The session underlined the ever-evolving management landscape and the pace of change under Gove’s rule.

Morgan emphasised the possibilities that the academies programme could present and stressed the potentially increased role that businesses managers could play. One particularly interesting point was the idea of rewarding outstanding secondary school teachers and changing the way lessons are taught to give these ‘super’ teachers more students, with lessons being delivered in large numbers before running breakaway sessions. The general feeling was that SBMs will play a larger role in structuring schools, with increasingly tight budgets and a need to do more with less.

There were obvious fears over how the shrinking budgets will impact schools, with a survey of ASCL members showing that some schools were considering making up to a fifth of their staff redundant as a result of financial constraints. This redundancy issue was further discussed in relation to the

English Baccalaureate, which many believe will further force schools to reassess their teaching structure.

The main conference was opened with a trio of songs performed by musicians from Chetham’s School of Music. This was followed by ASCL president John Fairhurst introducing the topic of “thinking leaders, thinking learners”. He challenged Gove to consider the delivery of the English Baccalaureate, saying that while the ASCL has long campaigned for one to be introduced, Gove’s vision is not in line with theirs. “The Welsh have one, which is rather good. With adjustments it could be developed as something appropriate for a much wider audience. Perhaps we could call it the ‘Brit Bac’,” said Fairhurst. On the second day of the conference, many delegates in support of reconsidering the English Baccalaureate wore badges with the logo ‘I failed the English Bac’, with the ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman sporting a badge, which highlighted the fact that they themselves would not have qualified.

Gove took to the stage with a host of questions to answer. While he delivered his speech with his usual aplomb, there were still many questions left unanswered and many delegates were left pondering how he plans to implement the proposals he spoke of with ever-shrinking resources to do it.

There was a plenary session from Sam Ellis and Malcolm Trobe, which looked at strategic financial planning. One of the big discussion points from this session was the pupil premium grant, which is causing much debate over how it will be rolled out. As Ellis pointed out, the grant can actually be spent on whatever the school wishes, with funds allowed to be carried forward. The session stressed the importance of having a clear financial goal and understanding of how and where money is spent.

There was much to be learned from the conference. Some of the key topics were the importance of idea sharing and possible clustering between schools, the importance of thorough planning and the need to have confidence in the systems your school currently has in place. These were themes emphasised in Lightman’s speech, and something well worth remembering in the face of the many changes that schools have to take on board.

There were fears over how shrinking budgets will impact schools, with some considering making a fifth of staff redundant april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

10

sector Event review

The future of new build BSEC 2011 went ahead without a hitch last month. Julia Dennison brings you the highlights of the show, considering what the future of school building will look like – from free schools in shopping centres to building schools post-BSF

E

yes were on BSEC 2011 as the two-day show kicked off on 23 February, for this building show came at a time when reforms to the education system are causing everything we know about school building to be put into question. Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme, which saw multi-million pound refurbishments of secondary schools, is no longer and at the opposite end of the spectrum the coalition government is talking about free schools being set up above hairdressers or in corner shops. With all the confusion that has ensued surrounding funding for school building projects over the past 12 months, this year’s event took a return-to-basics approach to its seminars and keynote speeches – with the underlying question being: what do schools really need from their buildings to give the pupils within them the best education they can?

In the run-up to the school building event, BSEC research confirmed a widespread uncertainty among UK institutions when it came to educational construction projects. Two-thirds of education workers surveyed felt confused about where to go for information on funding for building projects.

And it’s no wonder – the past two years have seen such a wide disparity between authoritative opinions surrounding what makes a good school.

Less than two years ago, it was not uncommon to see £50m spent on a new academy building at as much as £3,000 per square metre, and then there was BSF, the UK’s biggest ever school buildings investment programme that fed billions of pounds into secondary schools to turn them into ‘21st century learning environments’.

Come September, we will have free schools, modelled after similarly state-funded independent schools in Sweden and the charter schools in the US (on which American charter school evangelist

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

Michael J. Connelly confirmed he spends as little as $600 per square metre). Meanwhile, a business plan from the Department for Education has said it would revise school building regulations and change rules to exempt new schools from needing to seek planning permission so that free schools could be built in non-traditional environments. This has been a source of encouragement to journalist and free school founder Toby Young who said in a blog last month in the Telegraph that Education Secretary Michael Gove was right to scrap BSF. “Many people seem to be under the impression that with the cancellation of BSF the government is intending to spend no money on new buildings or refurbishing England’s existing secondary schools,” Young wrote. “That’s not true. A small amount of capital has been set aside to fund new free schools and academies, the majority of which will be conversions within existing buildings and therefore less than half the price of the average new build under the previous government.” For him, achievement may have less to do with a 21st century learning environment than many may think. “In fact, there’s no evidence that the extravagant, civic monuments that these councils hoped to build had they been given the hundreds of millions pounds they were expecting under the BSF programme would have ‘raised aspirations’ or transformed ‘life chances,” he added.

The underlying question is: what do schools really need from their building to give the pupils within them the best education they can?

sector

With this approach, you would be forgiven for seeing the choice of Young as a keynote speaker at BSEC as slightly controversial, and the sweat was notable on many the architect’s brow when Connelly quoted such low costs for new schools. In the end, this was a realistic event – if you could take one thing away from it, it is that priorities have to be made.

However further research surrounding the show was quick to curtail any thought that the school environment was anything less than crucial for bettering academic results, with BSEC finding that as many as 99% of people working in the education sector believe a well-designed school is important for pupils and their academic results.

Valuable seminars ran at the event with well-respected speakers the likes of Rachel Wolf, Stephen Heppell and Sir Bruce Liddington. Key topics throughout included new procurement routes, the (seemingly diminishing) role of local authorities, alternative funding models, how space can best support the curriculum, providing more for less, how to improve existing stock and adapt existing buildings to create quality education spaces. And it is the repetition of the word ‘existing’ here that is crucial – from upgrading existing locations for free schools to keeping up the £50m academies built under Labour, UK schools have entered an era of refurbishment. When you can’t have something new, you may as well better the one you’ve got.

www.edexec.co.uk december 2010

11

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sector budgets

DIARY

Budgeting for change With more questions circulating than answers regarding budgets. Ray Barker, director of BESA, looks at what the current curriculum changes mean for schools in terms of budgeting

D

espite the government’s review of the national curriculum launched in January being a regular part of staff room debate, we will not know the new policies and how they will affect schools’ budgets for quite some time.

However, through the statements released to date, we can begin to anticipate the changes and what this will mean for funding in schools.

Firstly, it is important to note that BESA’s annual research into monies unspent in school budgets by December gave an interesting result – there was more than last year. The total figure was £203m, and while only a little up, it is indicative that schools have had somewhat of a brake on spending during this financial year.

For schools, there are good reasons to spend now. The climate in local authorities is such that they will be looking for opportunities to claw-back unspent funds. However, if money is to be spent, it is vital in this climate that schools get best value.

This year the challenges are new and worth considering carefully. Schools have had 13 years during which most policy developments and announcements were made with some money attached, delivered to schools through the Standards Fund or other special grant routings. The overriding perception was that the budget kept being added to with additional, new money. The ‘new money’ part was virtually never true, in that the Department for Education’s own budget for any year always included what would be formula-delegated and what could be announced as special grant.

The change this year is that the department is stating the pot of money that it has available and that it will be delivered to

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

schools as a delegated budget plus the relevant pupil premium payment – no special grants or add-ons, nothing is being held back; all the money is in the pot. The implications have much to do with perception. As long as schools recognise that it is one amount of money with no extras to come; and budget accordingly, there is at least clarity. Our concern, from our research, is that schools can’t quite believe yet that the Department is not intending any hands-on managing of budgets and is breaking the link between policy announcements and special funding.

So, for the coming year, schools will have their pot of money and must budget on that basis, with no expectation of any more arriving. There is some evidence that the resources’ budget was often the last allocation at school budget time and, if the resulting figure looked low, the expectation was that additional special grants, made later in the year could be used to boost it.

That is no longer the case. Realistic budgets for resources must therefore be allocated from the start. For the rationale behind keeping up resources’ spending, one need look no further than the Publishers Association research showing the direct correlation between increased spending on resources and rising pupil achievement.

sector budgets

KeY AReAs OF CHANge curriculum National changes for literacy, numeracy, Pe/sport and culture means that schools are expected to allocate an appropriate amount of time and budget to teaching these curriculum areas.

education – gove has confirmed that religious Religious education would remain a statutory requirement at all ages (although parents can choose to stop their children from attending classes), but no programme of study would be prescribed. Once again schools have the forward warning that continued investment in resources to support Re will not be wasted. is the one subject area that will be reviewed PSHe separately. schools are therefore advised to avoid any new investments in resources to support this curriculum area at the current time.

– Funding for ICt in schools is no longer ring-fenced  ICT and the government appears to hold the view that now

specialism Language at primary level – the

technology is firmly embedded in learning, the funding should come under the standard school budget. However, in today’s multimedia environment, it is vital to enrich each student’s classroom experience to stimulate their learning. schools are expected to, and are advised to still ensure their investment in ICt remains. because so much of students’ experience is shaped and surrounded by technology, highly interactive activities have truly become the new currency of learning. technology will be an inevitable part of most students’ careers and therefore it needs to be a part of their learning experience.

core subjects of english, maths, science and Pe apply to both primary and secondary schools.

However the recent introduction of the english baccalaureate at secondary level also brings in modern foreign languages (MFL) and humanities. the establishment of these subjects at secondary school level indicates that they should also be taught in primary schools. In general, primary schools do not currently have to invest in specialist language teachers. Resources designed to ‘teach’ MFL without actual teaching staff needing to know the language are on the market, but what we don’t yet know is whether this will be considered to be an acceptable level of ‘teaching’.

– there is currently fierce debate at primary level on Phonics the use of synthetic phonics in the teaching of reading.

BROADER CURRICULUM | FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, WINSTON CHURCHILL AND HORATIO NELSON LACKING IN LESSONS

to teach? While freedom comes to schools in Freedom terms of the teaching of subjects, such as history and geography, there are clear indications that schools will need to invest in broadening such curriculum areas. the government has already indicated some spend on teaching music. the warning came in comments from Michael gove speaking on the bbC Radio 4’s today programme: “One of the problems that we have at the moment is that in the history curriculum we only have two names [of historical figures], in the geography curriculum the only country we mention is the uK – we don’t mention a single other country, continent, river or city.” the education secretary has in the past been vocal about the lack of a “connected narrative” in the teaching of british history. Writing in the telegraph, he lamented the absence in the curriculum of figures such as Winston Churchill, Florence Nightingale and Horatio Nelson. such comments are a clear sign to teachers that they will be expected to invest in resources that broaden out the curriculum in these areas.

despite gove giving teachers the freedom to teach how they see fit, he is currently stipulating that schools have to teach reading using synthetic phonics with a reading test at six. the majority of teachers, however do not believe in promoting just one approach to reading, and believe blending the use of synthetic phonics with analytic phonics. Primary schools looking to invest in reading support material may be well advised to postpone any investment until further clarity is gained.

We are missing the final bullet. Can we add it? We don’t have to add the last paragraph after the final bullet though.

www.edexec.co.uk april 2011

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sector interview

Shout from the rooftop As an urban new-build, the challenge for the Chelsea Academy was getting the most out of a tiny footprint.

As a result, innovations – such as a rooftop football pitch – abound. Julia Dennison reports

T finance director | Janet perry

fact box SCHOOL Chelsea Academy TYPE 7-11 academy plus a sixth form that starts in September PUPILS 324 now in Years 7 and 8 (capacity for 1,060 including a sixth form of 250) specialism Sciences Annual budget (2010/11) £4m Teaching staff 34 Support staff 31

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

he newly built Chelsea Academy sits tucked away in an area of southwest London populated by ritzy houses, priceless antique shops, five-star hotels and the occasional footballer’s crash pad. It’s certainly not where you’d expect to find a state-maintained school with 40% of its pupils on free school meals. However, while attending this all modcons 21st century learning space, the diverse student body is far from underprivileged.

Sponsored by the London Diocesan Board for Schools (LDBS) in association with The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Chelsea Academy has been developed to cater to around 800 pupils in years 7 to 11 and 250 students in the sixth form, all housed within a new five-storey structure interlinked by outdoor roof areas and an open-planned central atrium.

Creating the “perfect school” Despite only opening in September 2009, the Chelsea Academy can trace its roots back 17 years when the council identified a need for another secondary school in the area due to changing demographics resulting a serious shortage of local secondary school places. It took the local authority all that time to identify a suitable location and go through the legal processes in order to open – and the funding presented itself through the academy scheme.

The project became a reality when principal Andy Yarrow was appointed in April 2008 and the rest of the leadership team arrived between January and April 2009 – only months before the academy provisionally opened with its first 162 Year 7 students, residing in

temporary, modular accommodation in the car park of a local college.

When finance director Janet Perry started in January of 2009, the list of things to do in preparation for opening the new school was long, and she had nothing but a small office and laptop to get on with it. “It was an incredibly busy eight months,” she remembers. There were nine people in all working on the project leading up to opening – six members of the leadership team and three associate staff – who had to knuckle down and work on the recruitment of 39 staff to start on 1 September with 162 students.

Perry worked with a team from the Royal Borough to sort out the temporary accommodation, but apart from that, everything had to be developed from scratch by the academy’s leadership team. Starting a new school meant there was no template. As finance director, it was Perry’s job to sort out the practical issues relating to HR, finance and premises. “Things you take for

sector interview

granted had to be identified and sorted out,” she explains. “There were 87 policies and procedures requested by the DCSF to write and every document, form and data sheet we wanted had to be created.” But Perry wasn’t on her own; it was very much a collaborative effort. “We all brought with us the tools, experiences and things that worked and didn’t work in our previous schools to put together what we hoped would be the perfect school,” she explains.

The benefit of being in temporary accommodation was that the academy was able

to use it as a test bed for the final building being built just a short distance away, involving students and staff in decisions surrounding furniture, IT and even the colour scheme. For example, six different types of classroom furniture were trialled in the six temporary classrooms, which students and staff tested and evaluated, informing their decision for the final building.

Similarly, the academy building’s colour scheme were decided democratically through a student and staff vote.

“The aim of including staff and students in our evaluation process was to enable the students and staff to have an influence over and pride in their environment, as well as serving as an educational process for the students,” Perry explains. “It was

The value of the land in this part of the country is enormous, so they had to build cleverly in order to get everything we wanted

incredibly valuable too and saved what could have been some very serious mistakes.”

The Chelsea Academy takes pride in its commitment to the student voice and is something it plans to stand by throughout its future. “It’s one of the key things that we want to be special about our academy,” adds Perry.

If the footprint fits…

Completed in August 2010, the academy took two years to construct at a cost of £43m, which doesn’t include the expensive land in Chelsea.

The project presented one major challenge: constructing a building large enough to accommodate 1,000-plus students on a small former primary school site in gentrified Chelsea.

“You can imagine the value of the land in this part of the country is enormous, so they had to build very cleverly in order to get everything we wanted from a school on a very tight footprint,” remembers Perry.

www.edexec.co.uk april 2011

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sector interview

Starting a new school has been an exciting challenge, providing a great opportunity to be creative and to set the highest expectations and standards right from the start Principal Andy Yarrow

Creative thinking around the restrictive footprint resulted in underground sports, activity and drama halls and a rooftop games area/football pitch.

The academy has been designed to maximise external spaces, so rooftops on the first, second and third floors have been developed into furnished and landscaped spaces for pupils to socialise and learn.

New beginnings Chelsea Academy is only hosting Years 7 and 8 during this academic year; come September, a further year group plus a new sixth form will join its ranks. When EdExec visited the school in early 2011, many rooms were still waiting to be put into use and the leadership team, including the newly appointed head of sixth form who has started a year early, was in the process of recruiting staff for 2011/12.

Finding staff is not a problem for Chelsea Academy. “The opportunity to work in a brand new school in fantastic buildings with a very visionary principal is one that a lot of staff have been attracted to; we get a huge number of applications for every post, and have been very pleased with the quality of appointments,” adds Perry.

Chelsea is keeping to the national pay and conditions framework but being an academy gives the team more flexibility in how much they pay.

“We really value our staff and have already achieved the Investors in People Gold award,” Perry adds.

Having worked for other state-maintained schools in her previous roles, the day-to-day of working for an academy doesn’t feel too different for Perry – except that she’s now also company secretary for the academy trust. The independence of academy status also comes in handy for the students at the Chelsea Academy who are offered the opportunity to get involved in extracurricular activities that take place during the school day in addition to six hours of lessons, which means the school operates a longer day than most schools.

Another challenge for the academy’s leadership team is that it has had to be proactive about

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

recruiting its sixth form students since it doesn’t currently have a Year 11 group that would naturally fill the places. But that hasn’t been a problem either. The school is planning for at least 100 places in the sixth form next year, for which it has already received 300 applications and growing.

Expensive to build, undoubtedly this academy will cost money to maintain. Does Perry feel an annual budget of £4m (the amount she had for the financial year 2010/11) is enough?

“Budgets are never enough when you have very ambitious staff who want the best for their students,” she quips.

At the moment funding for the sixth form is a concern with government funding cuts for sixth forms throughout the country. Chelsea Academy is also concerned about the future of its extended schools activities offered at the moment

until 6pm every evening, which are attended by two-thirds of its students. “It’s incredibly important in this part of London to be able to offer that opportunity,” Perry explains.

In light of this, the school is seeking out sources of funding outside that supplied by central government, such as grants. The school has also started a charity – the Chelsea Academy Foundation – in a bid to raise funds to support all that it wants to achieve going forward.

Benefactors include the singer Bryan Adams, who lives locally and provides student bursaries and funding for musical equipment.

With the official opening of the academy this past November, many school leaders would be keen to put their feet up and pat themselves on the back, but for Chelsea Academy this is only the beginning.

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schools in focus newcastle

LLAngefni

primary update

derby

essex

What’s going on in the world of primary school and nursery management

New Takeley primary

Primary F1 in Schools champions Team X-Dream from Ysgol Y Talwrn, Llangefni.

From left to right team leader Alaw Williams; design engineer Owain Roberts; manufacturing engineers Harri Williams and Sara Hughes; graphic designer Hannah Henderson; and resource manager Mari Hughes

Wales primary wins formula one challenge Ysgol Y Talwrn raises money to become the smallest school to reach the national finals for the Primary Formula One in Schools Technology Challenge

Team X-Dream, made up of primary school pupils from Ysgol y Talwrn in Llangefni, Wales celebrated winning the 2011 Primary Formula One in Schools Technology Challenge 2011, held at the Big Bang Science Fair at Excel, London.

This primary school version of the prestigious F1 in Schools initiative is now in its fourth year and is becoming increasingly popular with both school children and teachers.

With only 36 pupils, Ysgol Y Talwrn was the smallest to reach the national finals, and after competing for three consecutive years was delighted to finally take the title.

Team X-Dream’s team leader, Alaw Williams, said of winning: “It’s so amazing, we’re so lucky to be here and didn’t expect to win.” Resource manager

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

Ysgol y Talwrn Llangefni, Wales

Mari Hughes said she hoped to carry the team’s success forward to secondary school and win again.

As part of the project, the team was tasked with raising funds for the challenge, which included making £63 from selling their homemade blackberry and apple jam and over £1,000 from a sponsored family bike ride.

Runners-up included Need 4 Speed, a team from Ysgol Cae Top, Llangefni, who also won the Jaguar Best Engineered Car award with Team Dynamite from West Park Primary School, Port Talbot, in third place. Team Brent, West Winds Primary School, Newtownards celebrated having the quickest car on the track to win the Fastest Car Award, and collected the Best Sponsorship and Marketing Award. The Innovative Thinking award was won by United Paradise from Richmond Park Primary School and the tiger-painted faces of St. Chad’s Tigers from St. Chad’s CE Primary School helped the team win the Best Team Identity award.

Essex County Council planners have granted approval to plans for a new primary school in Takeley, Essex.

The focus of the new school building, designed by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, will be around the library, in a systematic way that is easy to navigate and fit for a variety of purposes.

Classrooms are clustered around courtyards, which will be used as outdoor learning environments. The design offers a low energy building that mitigates the acoustic characteristics of the site, which is close to Stansted Airport, while aiming to be simple and economical to maintain.

School governor Mark Gaby commented: “Our vision was for a new, sustainable school that will inspire the staff and pupils and encourage and facilitate learning, while offering first-class facilities, resources and learning opportunities for pupils at Takeley.”

They said...

We owe it to the futures of individual children to foster habits of adventurous outdoor activities as early as possible Sara Knight of Anglia Ruskin University, on why “nervous” nurseries harm kids

SEND IN YOUR STORIES We are always looking for local school news. If you have a story to share, email editor@edexec.co.uk

schools in focus primary news

Infant school wins ‘mobile’ classroom Ridgeway Infant School Derbyshire

Ridgeway Infant School in Derbyshire beat 300 schools in the UK to win a kitty of ICT goodies worth £6,500.

The 250 pupils at Ridgeway Infants School, between the ages of five and seven, are set to benefit considerably from the technology prize, which includes 10 netbooks, an interactive whiteboard and a laptop charging trolley.

Teacher, Melissa Harrison, who entered the competition on behalf of the school at the XMA stand at January’s BETT Show, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. I never in a million years expected to win. The children have never had access to netbooks or laptops in school before so this will make a huge difference to them.”

She added: “The prize will really help to support teaching and learning across all subjects and because the ‘classroom’ is mobile, all our pupils will be able to benefit.”

Bring your Bear for charity Nationwide

Primary schools across the UK are being encouraged by Paddington Bear to register to take part in his annual Bring your Bear event this summer to raise vital funds for children’s charity Action Medical Research.

To take part, schools choose a day from May onwards when the children bring their teddy bear, or a favourite soft toy, into class for the day.

Each child brings in a pound or two with their bear to support vital research to help babies and children.

Every school that registers will receive a fundraising kit with the resources needed to run a Bring your Bear event, including ideas for extra activities.

To register and receive a fundraising kit, visit action.org.uk/bringyourbear.

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news INBRIEF RISE IN PRIMARY LITERACY

The reading comprehension of Year 1 primary school children is beyond what is expected for their age, according to an independent study based on reading records of more than 150,220 children.

The study shows that primary schools have made impressive gains in improving literacy standards but, as they move toward secondary school stage, reading levels decline year on year. The data was gathered by Professor Keith Topping of the University of Dundee and revealed that Year 1 students at primary school had a very high reading comprehension even on some books of high readability for this year. The same applied to students in Years 2 and 3, however by Year 4 the ‘average percent correct’ score for the assessment began to decline.

sTATs & FACTS

£0.99m The average annual spend per primary/middle school according to the Department for Education

Young book worms shine through Skye Logan, 11, and Eve Colwell, eight, from Newcastle Church High School were stars for the day after winning a place on the judging panel of the Blue Peter Book Awards, which gives young folks the chance to review the UK’s best children’s literature.

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schools in focus primary analysis

Escape for the country While small rural schools face many challenges, there are also a wealth of opportunities and advantages.

Matthew Jane finds out more

W

ith the rolling hills, fresh air and the sound of the birds singing in the trees, the country lifestyle can be hard to beat. But for schools, the rural idyll can also bring a host of challenges. There are additional considerations in terms of the school infrastructure, the finances and the general logistics of running a school in a small, rural setting.

While the benefits of employing a school business manager is well documented, one of the biggest challenges for a rural school is many cannot afford to employ one, which could put them at a disadvantage.

“In the current climate, we believe headteachers cannot afford not to have access to one, at least on a shared basis,” suggests Trevor Summerson, head of school business management at the National College. “More and more schools are also considering different models of school organisation but headteachers and governing bodies are best placed to determine what’s right for their school community as there is no one-size-fits-all.”

Colin Ricketts, headteacher at Curdworth Primary School in Warwickshire, which is a small, rural school with 101 pupils, suggests there are a range of particular concerns that parents will have when considering such a school. “Some of the worries that parents have when they first come here is that they think, because we are small, that the children might lose out because we haven’t got the facilities of a larger school.”

However, Ricketts argues that the opposite is actually true and that the fact his school is smaller provides children with more opportunities than they might get at a large school. “For example, if a child wants to be in the football team, they will be in it. If we have a school play, they will be in it. Because we have the smaller numbers, we are able to get everyone involved,” he says.

This situation also allows Ricketts to offer a more personalised approach with the children, parents and staff. “We know all the children, their academic and

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schools in focus primary analysis

We are looking at alternatives to buying from the local authority and the local comprehensive is a good option social needs and even the wider family. Smaller schools are able to educate the whole child rather than them just being another number,” he says. “We have an open door policy here, so the parents know they can pop in and see me whenever they have a problem, so that concerns don’t become issues. It is about being proactive, not reactive.”

One of the major challenges facing small rural schools is the issue of reduced funding associated with smaller pupil numbers. “If we don’t get the numbers of pupils, then it impacts on our budget,” explains Ricketts.

RISE TO THE CHALLENGE Faced with these challenges of offering quality services and reduced funding opportunities, small rural schools are increasingly considering the option of clustering together to take advantage of the economies of scale this offers.

Clustering can also be used in order to provide business management services. The National College has been running a series of demonstration projects over the past two years that have looked at the use of higher level SBMs in areas such as rural settings.

“The impact of SBMs is most evident where schools collaborate in clusters to share an SBM,” says Summerson. “Schools stand to benefit in a number of ways – they can buy resources together and benefit from economies of scale or improve value for money by procuring better quality.”

Ricketts says his school has a very strong cluster group, eight schools that form the Coleshill Learning Community, which allows them to get better value and a broader range of services. “We are getting real value for money through buying in services and procurement through clusters,” he explains. “Rather than each individual school buying something, we can ask what they can offer us if we buy it in a cluster. We are looking at services like educational psychologists, school sports partnerships and ICT technical support.”

in cross-cluster moderation, cross-cluster planning and also sharing CPD, which can be a huge advantage.”

With space at a premium in a small rural school, one of the big advantages of cluster working is the opportunity to share resources. “We bought a set of 20 African drums in our cluster,” says Ricketts. “We use them for our annual multicultural fortnight. We couldn’t all afford to buy these separately, and also, we don’t have the space to store them at our school, so this situation works really well for us.”

The arrangement at the Coleshill Learning Community is evolving all the time. “We are starting to use specialisms within each of the schools,” says Ricketts. “It is definitely the way forward and helps with the ideas and knowledge sharing.”

Summerson agrees that cluster working is crucial for small rural schools. “Creating a ‘school company’ also offers a straightforward way to formally partner with other organisations on key issues and to procure value-for-money services,” he says. “Collaborating with an outstanding school could also be a ‘key to the door’ of working better with or even converting to academy status.”

The advice for small rural schools is to pick up the phone and have a word with the school down the road.

Who knows, they may be struggling with the same challenges facing your school, and a relationship could drastically change your method of working for the better, opening doors to opportunity and cost savings.

TOP tips

JOINING FORCES Some of the services needed by rural primary schools could be purchased from local secondary schools, which could work out as mutually beneficial, given the primaries need the services and the secondary school could use the additional revenue it provides. “We are looking at alternatives to buying from the local authority and the local comprehensive is a good option,” says Ricketts.

One of the services in question is a school business manager. “Our local comprehensive has a school business manager that we could buy for one afternoon a fortnight for example,” Ricketts says. “It is a good option to buy these services on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ deal.”

Services can also be provided through a cluster.

Ricketts says there are two options for this, either purchasing a full-time service, or purchasing aspects of the role. “We have all put money in the pot to employ a PSA and an extended services coordinator,” he says. “Our cluster can work across a range of areas. We are involved

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

n Smaller class sizes could present learners with more opportunities as nobody misses out n Cluster working could improve purchasing through economies of scale n Services can be purchased as part of a cluster and used on a ‘pay as you go’ deal n Purchasing services and sharing resources with local secondary schools could be a cost effective model n Items purchased as a group can be stored at a larger school, helping reduce the space constraints on small schools.

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secondary news What’s going on in the world of secondary school and further education

Gwent

dorset

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sTATs & FACTS

£5.54m The average annual spend per secondary school according to the Department for Education

School loses sixth form Brynmawr Foundation School Wales

Cornwallis Academy saves admin costs through document management

Academy cuts admin time by 19 weeks Smart document management minimises administration time as part of a £62m new-build project Cornwallis Academy, a new-build school specialising in technology and science due to open in September, has installed document management software as an alternative to the manual process of filing and storing student records, HR, finance and payroll documents – a process that is already predicted to remove 19 weeks’ worth of admin time per year for the school.

Cornwallis Academy, part of the Future Schools Trust, operates two academies located within the Maidstone borough, catering for 2,680 students aged 11-18. The secondary school holds its specialism in science and design technology, while sister school New Line Learning Academy (featured in last month’s EdExec Secondary) specialises in business, enterprise and vocational studies.

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

Cornwallis Academy Maidstone

All student records need to be retained for between 6-10 years for compliance purposes and over 80% of the school’s documents are paperbased. Prior to implementation, files were stored all across the schools and typical issues of misfiling and loss occurred.

Charles Ealham, director of new technologies, outlines the main challenge at the school: “We aimed to remove the 60 filing cabinets spread throughout the two sites. Storage space at the new site was limited to reduce new build costs so going paperless was an obvious choice, especially in departments where document levels were acute.”

Since implementing the document management system from Invu Services, Cornwallis has improved the efficiency of its administrative processes, achieving significant savings in time and cost throughout all departments.

A school in Wales has lost a fight in court over the future of its 200-pupil sixth form, the BBC reports.

Blaenau Gwent council proposed shutting the Brynmawr Foundation School’s sixth form to make way for a new college nearby but the school argued that its foundation status meant it was outside council control.

In a legal fight led by headteacher James Retallick, the school accused the Welsh Assembly Government of unlawfully delegating the decision making to the local authority.

However, a high court judge ruled that ministers were right to delegate the decision to Blaenau Gwent council .

The judge said the school’s complaints were either not legally sound or brought to court too late.

But the school argued the timing of the consultation was unfair because most of its period fell during the summer holidays.

The decision to close the sixth form has not yet been taken but the council’s preferred option is to close it by September 2012. The school may now face court costs, which will be decided at a later date.

SEND IN YOUR STORIES We are always looking for local school news. If you have a story to share, email editor@edexec.co.uk

schools in focus secondary news

news INBRIEF SECONDARY OF CHOICE

According to a survey of 12 English local authorities by the Guardian, around one in six children will have been refused a place in their first choice of secondary school, with as many as 11 applications for every place at the country’s most popular state-funded secondaries. The poll found schools that were severely oversubscribed in previous years were even more so this year. When a school is oversubscribed, priority is given to pupils with special needs or in care. After that, pupils are chosen according to how near they live to the school, whether they have siblings at the school and sometimes which primary school they attended. Parents can list between three and six choices, depending on where they live.

ACADEMIES

Bryanston undergoes lunch counter revolution Bryanston Dorset

Bryanston in Dorset, one of the UK’s top independent schools, has invested in a major upgrade of its catering facilities, combining the latest food servery technology and design with a sympathetic refurbishment of its Grade 1-listed building’s historic architectural features.

“The old catering facility had five different entries and four different server positions,” explains estates bursar Jon Mortimer. “We could seat just over 300 but it was cramped. Mealtimes felt like being in the middle of Waterloo station in rush hour!”

Since the restaurant caters for 670 pupils and 400 staff, and there’s limited time to serve most of them lunch, things had to change. “On the one hand we needed to exploit the latest thinking in terms of traffic flow, on the other we wanted to keep the building’s historic elements and, indeed, restore some that had been lost,” Mortimer added.

The new facility features counters by E & R Moffat and has one entrance, one servery area and seats over 400 in three interconnected dining areas.

“The design of the counters is critical to the success of the scheme,” said Mortimer. “They give us enormous flexibility, which is very important because we change the menu regularly and the servery area has to be able to adapt.”

The biggest driver for secondary schools going for academy status is the belief that it will help their school financially, a poll of school leaders has revealed. Nearly half of secondary schools polled last month by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) are intending to convert to academy status or have already become converter academies. Of the 1,471 respondents, eight per cent have already converted to academy status and 38% said they are in the process or intending to start as soon as eligible. Those who remain undecided make up 34% and a minority of 19% have no plans to become an academy. Of those seeking to become academies, most were tempted by the idea that it would help the school financially (72%).

Secondary schools spend £293m on supply teachers Non-academy secondary schools in England spent £293m on supply teachers in 2009/10 (over £100,000 per school), research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has found.

The TPA’s analysis of Department for Education figures also suggests that there is “already a pupil premium”; schools with over 30% of students on free school meals received an income of over 26% more per pupil.

Director Matthew Sinclair commented: “Many parents are very concerned when they see their children being taught by a series of different supply teachers, rather than enjoying a stable learning environment with a regular teacher. At the same time, we have just seen a decade in which Britain has spent more and more on education but slid down international league tables for performance.

“Taxpayers deserve to get better value and this

report provides new evidence that suggests the key to improving schools isn’t just throwing more money at them, but improving how they are managed.

Headteachers need to be given more power to run their schools and should be accountable to parents, not bureaucrats in Whitehall.”

Simon Cook, author of the report, said: “This new information on school budgets offers an invaluable insight into how our education system is functioning.

“It is clear that schools in more deprived areas are getting a substantial premium in terms of funding, but most aren’t able to overcome the challenges of working with more deprived children and deliver better results. It is really important that more information like this is released so that we can have a real, informed debate about how we can make public services work.”

supply in demand n Schools in deprived areas use

supply teachers far more frequently n Schools with over 30% of students on free school meals spent an average of over £140,000 each on supply teachers, which the TPA says suggests that the pupils who need stable teaching the most do not get it n Many areas that have low attainment are those with the highest funding per pupil n Higher deprivation tends to lead to lower academic achievement.

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Testing times april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

With the stress of the exam season nearly upon us, schools should be considering their exam invigilation cover to ensure tests are carried out safely and correctly.

Matthew Jane considers what schools should know

schools in focus secondary analysis

T

he summer term is a time when secondary school pupils bury themselves in their books, teaching staff work overtime to ensure every student knows their subject inside out, and boxes of test papers are secured under lock and key.

The exam period is a lively one for schools, with a lot of apprehension, nerves, and behind the scenes management to ensure everything goes to plan. For school business managers, this means recruiting teams of exam invigilators to oversee proceedings, which involves carrying out appropriate checks, timetabling, and checking contractual details are correct.

When recruiting exam invigilators, the logistics could be seen as somewhat of a grey area. Yvonne Spencer, partner at law firm Veale Wasbrough Vizards, says there is no specific reference to invigilators in the relevant regulations. “They should be regarded as support staff, even though their contracts may be short term,” she says.

“Neither the guidance nor regulations relating to safer recruitment distinguish between short term or temporary staff and permanent staff, except in relation to staff supplied by an employment agency.” This means that all the regular checks a school does for permanent staff must also be carried out for invigilators.

One of the main checks that need to be undertaken when recruiting someone to work in a school is a CRB. This can be a stumbling block for recruiters, as the nature of an exam invigilators work means there may be long periods of time when they are not working with children or within a school environment. “One of the main factors that schools should be aware of is regarding the CRB clearance,” says Anton Roe from Alderwood Education. “All too often we hear of institutions that assume that because a candidate once had a CRB carried out, they are now cleared and covered to work. Many are unaware that if a candidate has a break of working with children of three months, then a new check is required.”

While some may think that an exam invigilator is exempt from certain checks because they are never left alone with a child, it is worth remembering that they may need to escort a pupil on a toilet break or look after them if they are taken ill. Roe suggests that the best principle to adhere to is that if a worker is on the school premises, then they need to be fully vetted.

One method of helping to ensure all the correct checks are carried out is to use a recruitment agency, but even then, some best practice is advised. “The school must have contractual arrangements with the agency that require the agency to provide a written notification that it has made all the relevant pre-employment checks and also to provide a copy of the CRB certificate if it contains relevant information,” says Spencer. “The school must also carry out its own identity check on staff supplied by the agency before allowing them to start work in the school.”

CONTRACTUAL REQUIREMENTS When recruiting, there are inevitably contractual requirements to consider. Chris Cook from SA Law explains that the employment status of temporary staff should be determined as either work, employee or selfemployed from the outset. “The distinction is crucial because employees are entitled to more comprehensive legal rights than workers,” he says. “For example, employees are often entitled to statutory sick pay and maternity leave whereas workers are not.” There could also be other serious implications, such as failing to identify an employee, which could have repercussions if there is a failure to deduct tax and National Insurance through a PAYE scheme.

A good source People to approach for exam invigilation: n Retired teachers n PGCE or BEd students looking for experience n Oversees teachers n Experienced support staff already working

in school, such as teaching assistants and cover supervisors n Parents, who could be sourced through the

school newsletter or learning platform.

With thanks to Adam Shulman, Simply Education

Spencer says that employees are not entitled to a contract of employment until they have been employed for two consecutive months, which could be a consideration when recruiting invigilators. “It is always advisable to set out the terms and conditions under which any individual is employed so that both employer and employee understand the expectations of the position, particularly when it will come to an end.” This can be done through either a contract of employment or a letter of terms and conditions.

There is guidance for recruiting part-time workers in the form of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, which contains provisions regarding pro-rata payment.

“The contract should set out the period for which the employment will last and ideally the purpose. It should be clear as to the date on which employment will terminate,” explains Spencer. “I assume that exam invigilators will work for two to three weeks at a time. If so, there is no real need to include notice provisions in the contract. It should, however, state that employment will be terminated with immediate effect in the event of gross misconduct.”

GETTING THE BEST STAFF While exam invigilators may only be temporary members of the school team, it is nonetheless worthwhile trying to get the best candidate as possible. “Many people assume that it is an easy role, where all you do is walk up and down and keep the kids quiet,” says Roe. “Exam invigilation is an area where candidates should not only be fully cleared and vetted, but also trained.”

Some useful skills to look for include previous experience of working with children in a school environment, understanding of exam procedures, methodical working practice, and good communication skills.

Another important consideration is good planning. “If new CRBs are required, allow two months for the return of them, this will ensure that the recruitment is well in advance, all referencing is carried out, and the exam invigilator is fully vetted,” says Roe. “If you have exam invigilators directly employed, try to ensure that they have some work within the three month period at your institution, this removing the requirement for a new CRB check. Mock exams are an excellent opportunity for this, as well as any cover work or teaching assistant work in the school.”

If you ensure that all the systems and planning for the exam is well managed and thoroughly considered, then the end result will be well worth it. Once your pupils are celebrating their exam results come the summer, all the hard work in making sure the process was as smooth and stressfree for them as possible will all seem well worth it.

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Sitting Petty The Petty Pool Trust combines a successful college with an outdoor activity centre that ensures its learning disabled students are provided with exciting opportunities. Matthew Jane met chief executive Peter Evans to find out more

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

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et in 32 acres of stunning Cheshire woodland, The Petty Pool Trust is an innovative college and outdoor activity centre that provides outstanding educational opportunities for students with learning disabilities, with a curriculum designed to equip learners with the skills they need to get into work.

“The courses we run are all designed around real-life and setting people up to get a job,” explains chief executive of the Petty Pool Trust, Peter Evans. “We equip the students with skills such as travel training, to ensure they can actually get to their place of work. A lot of it is geared around the practical skills they will need in life. If we help find the students a job but if they don’t have the skills to make their way there, then we are setting them up to fail.”

The college has a superb record for getting its students, aged between 16 and 25, into employment, with 68% of Petty Pool students going into some form of work, be it paid or unpaid, well above the government’s benchmark figure of seven per cent for young people with learning disabilities. “Our aim is to provide education for employment, and this is an ethos we have worked to for the last five year,” says Evans.

The college is fortunate to have a wide range of facilities to help provide this ‘real life’ education, including a garden centre and farm, complete with goats. The college offers a range of qualifications, including City and Guilds and BTEC, focusing on a range of practical skills, including animal care, horticulture, conservation, retail and IT, hospitality and catering. “We sell plants to the public as part of the horticulture course,” Evans says. “It doesn’t make us much money, but it is a great teaching tool. Similarly, we have a school shop, which helps give students the skills of organising the money and working the till.”

MAJOR TRANSFORMATION Petty Pool hasn’t always been the remarkable success story that it is today, and the institution has had to weather some difficult years along the way. When Evans took up his position in 2002, he describes it as being a “worn out charity” with various issues to resolve. “It had gone through its good days, but had really just got too big for one person to manage,” he recalls. “The trustees were actually going to give the charity away as it was failing. That is when they asked me to come in and try to pull it together.”

Within four years, Evans had turned the fortunes of Petty Pool around and the charity is now financially stable. “We are never in the red with the bank,” he explains. “We have got a plan to keep moving it forward, it is important that we never stay still. We have to be realistic, but everything we do is planned out and we stick to the plan, and fortunately we have always got there. It has been a challenge, but ultimately it has resulted in helping our young people to make a real positive impact on their communities.”

Under the current structure, the college is the training arm of the Petty Pool Trust, while the outdoor centre is the trading arm, providing an income that can be reinvested in the college. “We made it clear from the outset that our main aim is the college,” Evans says.

“During the first three years of the transition, our efforts were heavily targeted on getting the finances in order – every penny counted.”

fact box SCHOOL Petty Pool College TYPE Special school for 16-25 year olds with learning disabilities Area Cheshire

A BETTER BRAND

PUPILS 90

One of the first things Evans did on taking up his role was to rebrand the centre. “We used to be called the Mid-Cheshire Sheltered Workshop Trust,” he says. “We were still a college and an outdoor activity centre, but I thought the name didn’t really describe what we do or tell anybody about us. We chose the name Petty Pool after a large lake on the edge of our grounds.”

The positive branding of Petty Pool extends throughout every aspect of the college, and Evans is keen that any work instils a positive message on the students.

“We recently swapped our minibus for some regular people carriers,” he says. “We wanted some ‘normal’ transport and not something that said disabilities all over it. We have designed the people carriers with a corporate image and our young people really enjoy going out in them. It helps them to feel like adults within their community, which is very important.”

Now that the finances are looking more secure, the college has been able to invest in the facilities, with some work done recently on retiling the bathrooms and putting down new floors. “Our next major project is to develop a standalone classroom for our farm and tarmac the area around it to make it neat,” says Evans. “It will cost around £80,000, but we are confident that we can do this without going into the red because we have been working on this for the past eight months and everything is well planned.”

Teaching staff 10 tutors, eight learner mentors and one life skills coordinator Chief executive Peter Evans MBE TIME IN ROLE Eight years

THE GREAT OUTDOORS Petty Pool Outdoor Centre provides a huge range of exciting opportunities for both college students and outside groups. It is not just open to people with learning disabilities, but also mainstream schools, colleges, youth groups and corporate business team days from across Europe. The activities include high ropes, a climbing wall, zip wire, orienteering, canoeing and archery.

The centre also offers residential opportunities, with rooms available for overnight stays. “We are very keen to promote equality and diversity, and we have facilities for every level of ability,” explains Evans. “We have got high ropes, but we also have low ropes, so everybody can take part in the exercises. Archery is a popular activity as it is something that everyone can do, even the wheelchair users.”

One of the challenges for providing these opportunities to students is the health and safety risk. Evans employed an outside consultancy firm to ensure everything was compliant with the relevant laws. “The archery is one in particular that gives our

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WORKING WITH OTHERS Petty Pool’s success at finding employment for their students is not only down to the training they receive at the college; it also runs a designated programme called MORE (meaningful opportunities for realistic employment), which has developed key relationships with large organisations, such as Bentley, Halfords, University of Chester and Crewe Alexandra Football Club.

The project began three years ago, and the portfolio of associated companies is constantly expanding.

The scheme not only helps give students realistic experiences of work, but also provides benefits to the employers. The college is keen to stress that their students will bring a hard-working ethos; a keenness to learn; and loyalty to the company.

december 2010 www.edexec.co.uk

You do it with a fantastic leadership team and some fantastic staff who work to the best of their abilities. Our success shows what can be done when everyone pulls together health and safety adviser a scare,” he quips.

“But we have put a net up so that the arrows don’t pose a threat, and we have instructors for every activity and we are registered with the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA).”

The centre runs courses for children from Chernobyl, a project that Evans is keen to develop as he outlines the benefits of their visits. “The children that come here from Chernobyl will live five years longer as a result of breathing English air for one month,” he says. “That is a proven figure and it’s quite incredible. I am working with a large company to try and get them involved with supporting us in getting these children over as much as possible.”

After the struggles that Petty Pool has endured in the past, the future finally looks bright. The sound financial base gives them a platform to expand on, although Evans

accepts this situation has not been brought about singlehandedly. “You don’t do it on your own,” he says. “You do it with a fantastic leadership team and some fantastic staff who work to the best of their abilities. Our success shows what can be done when everyone pulls together.” The college has an Investors in People Gold award as testament to its commitment to staff, and is one of just nine education institutions to have achieved this accolade.

“One of our successes is that we are a charity, but we are run like a business,” continues Evans. “We work with compassion and understanding in a friendly environment and it passes on through all the staff.”

Importantly, Evans concludes that everybody at the college is a “very happy learner”, which when combined with the results they achieve makes for a successful and inspirational place to learn and work.

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outdoor learning

Swing vote With the warmer weather comes the option of taking lessons outside the school building and into the great outdoors. Julia Dennison looks at options for bringing learning outside, from amphitheatres to gardens

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

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ith springtime’s warmer weather finally upon us and new budgets divvied up, there’s no time like the present for expanding your school outside.

Outdoor learning is proven to be more beneficial to indoor learning in a few ways. It shakes pupils from the boredom of the quotidian and children have been known to retain knowledge they’ve learned outside for longer. “Young kids have loads of energy,” confirms architect Sarah Wigglesworth, “so it is important to change the setting in which they learn to keep them interested.”

The outdoors can also present some challenges and schools are only too aware of the health and safety implications of bringing children outside.

However, concerns over children’s wellbeing should not get in the way of their learning. A recent study of outdoor learning by Sara Knight of Anglia Knight University in her recent book Risk and Adventure in Early Years Outdoor Play: Learning from Forest Schools goes so far as to say that “nervous” schools, which air on the side of caution and avoid outdoor experiences for their pupils, could in fact be harming the development of the young children.

“A concrete square has few visible risks, and yet children fall or push each other over and accidents

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happen,” explains Knight. “It may even be that some of the ‘accidents’ are the result of the limitations of the space, a direct correlation with the sterile safety being offered to the children.

“Perhaps if they had the challenge of a pile of logs to scramble over, the risks would be focused, could be discussed and managed, and learning could take place. There is a thought that if children have exciting, reasonable risks to undertake they will be less likely to find unreasonable ones for themselves.”

The issue of risk-taking in playgrounds was highlighted recently when Malvern Primary School, near Liverpool, banned footballs, and parents were told that pupils would only be allowed to bring sponge balls to school.

Knight said: “The issue at the school in Liverpool would seem to be an unfortunate combination of cramped school playgrounds, where accidents will happen, and nervous teaching staff.”

Knight does not believe that it is the health and safety legislation that has gone too far, but the interpretation of the legislation by professionals who “lack experience of risk-taking” and who are therefore risk averse.

“To avoid the grazes, stings and bumps of childhood would be to avoid learning how to manage ourselves and our environment,” she

To avoid the grazes, stings and bumps of childhood would be to avoid learning how to manage ourselves and our environment continues. “Until teachers are given the tools with which to assess playground risks competently they will continue to over-react in self-defence.”

Planning the outside As a school business manager looking to expand their school into the great outdoors, it’s important to have the tools in place to do so. The options are as limitless as the space – and can include everything from outdoor classrooms, to common areas where pupils can let off steam, sports fields to playgrounds and even school trips (see page 42 for more on this subject).

Schools looking for advice would be welladvised to consult with the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC), which is a charity that champions taking lessons outside.

Schools with an interest in outdoor learning can apply for the Learning Outside the Classroom

Quality Badge, which makes it easier for teaching professionals to organise LOtC activities by helping them to identify organisations providing good quality activities, reducing paperwork and red tape (see box out for details).

When planning a project, it’s important to see the landscape and architecture as two parts of a whole, according to Wigglesworth, and not view outdoor projects as an after-thought.

One of Wigglesworth’s recent design projects was a new primary school in Takeley, Essex where classrooms were built in a Roman villa-style around courtyards, which provided outdoor areas with a safe, quieter and focused environment for the pupils. She also pointed to the importance of classrooms with thresholds onto the outside, so pupils could experience the best of both worlds, weather permitting.

The LOtC Quality Badge The Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge is a nationally recognised benchmark that is awarded to organisations that have pledged to engage in an ongoing process to sustain good quality learning outside the classroom and have demonstrated that they meet a set of quality indicators.

These indicators show the provider: n has a process in place to assist users to plan the learning experience effectively n provides accurate information about its offer n provides activities, experience or resources that meet learner needs n reviews the experience and acts on feedback n meets the needs of the users n and has safety management processes in place to manage risk effectively.

To find out more about the quality badge, visit www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk.

www.edexec.co.uk april 2011

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Starting a school garden Tips from the Royal Horticultural Society

n Apply for funding n Letters to parents, garden centres, seed

n Share the vision – engage everyone in the

companies, supermarkets asking for donations of money, plants, seeds or help. n Ask the children to write the letters – could be done as a literacy task. n Don’t forget – you need tools. You may require specially adapted tools.

school community – managers, staff, parents and pupils. Make everyone aware of the potential of a school garden and the benefits your school will gain from using it. n Find out if any of the skills needed exist in

the school community, parents, governors or the friends/PTA. Skills such as gardeners, garden designers or builders.

n Find plans of the chosen site, available from the LA. Establish the orientation (N, S, E and W) and find out whether there are any services underneath the surface of which you should be aware.

n Incorporate the project into the school

development plan. n Decide who will project manage the

n Legal, technical, safety guidelines and

design and build of the garden and who will maintain it later?

school policy documents are required.

n Establish a group to move the project forwards. n Produce an action plan. To do this you will

need to consider by when you want the garden completed. n Identify a location for the garden

think about: n the distance from the classrooms n water supplies n storage of equipment n access to toilets n accessibility and security.

Examples of best practice When developing your school’s outdoor offering, it’s important to consult not only the senior leadership team, but also the school’s staff and, of course, its pupils. It is involving the latter group in the planning that is likely to give you the best end-result.

One champion of the great outdoors and winner of a regional award from CLOtC is Moulsecoomb Primary School, in Brighton.

Sixty-five per cent of the school’s pupils have special educational needs. Because so many children have limited life experiences, the school tries to give them as many valuable opportunities for learning outside the classroom as possible and so over a number of years has augmented its grounds to include an ‘artists’ hill’, geology trail, organic garden, two ponds, a fairy-tale forest, willow structures, orchard, meadow, Iron Age roundhouse, and Saxon house.

If all this sounds a bit ambitious, a good place to start is with a school garden, which can play a part in the curriculum, while allowing children to participate in physical activity, develop social skills, learn about the environment and understand the importance of healthy eating. (See box for advice on starting a school garden.)

Another LOtC Awards regional winner, Durham Community and Fyndoune Community School’s students grow bedding and perennial plants for use within the school grounds and for sale

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

n Visit other schools that have done similar

projects to gain ideas. n Contact organisations that are experts in

this field and which may be able to advise you, including those involved with school grounds maintenance at the LA.

n Survey the site – walk around it, see what you have there. Are there paths or sheds you need to keep? Are there any plants that could still be used? What trees do you have? Check to see if any of the trees are protected by preservation orders or are in a conservation area (look at the local council’s website or contact the local planning office), or if the deeds of the school mention anything. All these things may affect what you can and can’t do with your garden. Add any items to your plan. n Decide on the budget... and get planting!

campaign last year addressing the cuts made by the government to the Playbuilder Scheme, which was introduced by the labour government to complement its Play Strategy in 2008. The scheme invested £235m and aimed to provide up to 3,500 new and refurbished playgrounds for children across England.

She told the BBC that the Playbuilder scheme, introduced by the previous government, was a unique example of Big Society; uniting communities to secure funding. She also highlighted the importance of playgrounds in the fight against childhood obesity.

After tirelessly campaigning, securing coverage in national and local press, the government announced that 66% of funding would be retained including the £47,000 allocated towards Kane’s local play area in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire.

The options for bringing learning outdoors are inexhaustible, and can be fit to any budget.

While budgets for the new financial year may not be as generous as those gone by, schools can still bring the outdoors to their pupils, whether it’s through a simple vegetable patch or an elaborate eco centre. When in doubt, start small and see where the path takes you.

If children have reasonable risks to undertake they will be less likely to find unreasonable ones to the public through farmers’ markets. Through the programme, students have developed skills such as research, planning and implementation which are transferrable to other areas of the curriculum.

Sustainability is an important element of learning outdoors and at John F Kennedy Catholic School in Hemel Hempstead, the 11-18 pupils have worked to help develop the school grounds as part of the Year of Food and Farming to maximise opportunities for learning outside the classroom including the creation of an outdoor classroom, development of a school allotment and the construction of a log cabin, which would act as the school’s environmental education centre.

Playgrounds Without going into too much of a tangent on playgrounds, it’s important to know the background story. Funding for community playgrounds has been under threat and so it becomes the school’s responsibility to ensure their pupils have access to suitable outdoor play areas. It was with this in mind that Emma Kane launched the Save the Playground

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CASE STUDY

View from the Hill The Hillview School for Girls is applying for academy status. Julia Dennison speaks to the school business manager to find out what this is like for a foundation school

T

he Hillview School for Girls, located in Tonbridge, Kent, is a vibrant performing arts secondary school and sixth form rated outstanding by Ofsted. Pupil numbers grow year on year, particularly in the sixth form, which sees an annual surge of pupil numbers.

Hillview School for Girls gained the status of Performing Arts College in September 2001 in recognition of its particular strengths in dance, drama and music. The extent and quality of the school’s arts provision was also reflected in the award of one of the first Gold Arts Marks in July 2001 from the Arts Council of England, which was reconferred for 2004.

The school had Investors in People status renewed in 2005 and is seeking to update its Healthy Schools Award from 2006. It also gained the Sports Mark in 2003.

When EdExec speaks to school business manager Bryan Key in February, it’s a time of waiting for the school – having submitted an application to become an academy to the Department for Education in January with the hopes of opening with the new-found independence it brings in September. It’s a nailbiting time for the senior leadership team anyway, as it coincides with the time they are awaiting their annual budgets for the new financial year.

As he prepares for independence as an academy, Key seems surprisingly calm, though busy as ever. He can do little else but await the results of the academy application and his budgets for the next year, though even those will only last 12 months. “We’ll have to do this all over again next year anyway,” he says of the inevitable stress of budgetary uncertainty.

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

Perhaps his calm comes from a previous career working for small- to medium-sized enterprises in a variety of industries, from steel stockholding to telephone call centres. He runs his school much like he ran his business – and with the possibility of academy status, it will mean more schools like his taking this approach. Part of this business like attitude towards education means he is realistic about the prospect of his budgets getting cut back. “It’s an uncertain time here and we may be looking at reducing our staff numbers as a result of cutbacks,” he admits.

As an academy, not much will change for Hillview in terms of how it is run, and if the school’s application is accepted Key plans to keep staff salaries on the National Pay and Conditions Framework.

As a foundation school, Key is used to running the school finances independently of the local authority. He is good at taking advantage of things like online banking to pay the school’s bills and is skilled at looking for alternative sources of funding, including fundraising by the PTA and using a bank that helps him put any spare cash on the money market.

fact box SCHOOL Hillview School for Girls TYPE All-girls secondary foundation school with a mixed sixth-form – ages 11-18 Specialism Performing arts Area Kent

Finances being what they are, the school has had to put the second phase of the project – to build a new canteen and theatre – on hold until further notice

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Not much in terms of the school building will change if the new status becomes a reality.

Luckily, the school is not in need of too much refurbishment since as recently as September 2005 a £5m building project was completed to provide 22 classrooms, a sixth form, staff accommodation, a new entrance and administration area. However, finances being what they are, the school has had to put the second phase of the project – to build a new canteen and theatre – on hold until further notice.

An additional source of income for the school is its LittleView Nursery on site, open to the staff as well as the general public. The school also has close ties with nearby St Stephens Primary School, which takes advantage of Hillview’s facilities and shares some of its services.

With the pupil premium coming up this financial year, one last stand Key is taking for raising money is trying to increase the modest nine per cent of Hillview’s pupils on free school meals. With finger-print technology in the canteen, getting pupils’ parents to agree to move over to free school meals, thereby making the school eligible for a bonus £430 per pupil, is a goal this business manager believes is more than achievable.

www.edexec.co.uk december 2010

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Don’t trip up School trips can provide pupils with hugely beneficial experiences, but there are still concerns surrounding them. Matthew Jane considers what is needed to ensure such experiences are safe, enjoyable and cost effective

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

school trips

S

chool trips can often be viewed as a doubleedged sword for organisers. The educational benefits can be second to none, giving students an exciting learning experience with hands-on activities. But there is also the downside of risk assessments, administration and fear of what could happen if something goes wrong.

A pupil from Torquay Boys’ Grammar School recently made the national headlines after an accident on a school skiing trip left him in a coma following an accident on a ski lift. The student, who was on a half term skiing holiday with his school, became entangled in a chairlift and had to be cut free by rescuers and resuscitated, before being airlifted to hospital. Thankfully, such incidents are rare and the chances of such accidents happening are remote, but nonetheless, schools should ensure that any trips they plan are properly organised and risk assessed.

Despite any risks, educational visits can be a powerful tool for teaching a subject and getting students enthused through activities and practical experiences. “It makes studying more engaging and memorable and this kind of hands-on learning can only have a positive effect on behaviour and academic attainment,” agrees Ian Finlay, MD of TUI Education.

“On school trips, students often discover they have a talent for a new skill or sport they have never tried before and this can be tremendously rewarding. In an age when many children spend too much time in front of the television and on their computer, school trips contribute to a child’s wellbeing, enabling them to get active and broaden their horizons to new experiences and environments out of their normal daily lives,” he adds.

ASSESS THE RISKS While there is an obvious need to ensure safety is of paramount importance, Karen McDonnell, head of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, believes planning a school trip does not necessarily have to involve lots of red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy. “We are always disappointed when teachers tell us that they have been put off running school trips because of the perceived dangers and bureaucracy involved,” she says. “Millions of British children go on school trips each year, and the vast majority of visits happen without serious incident.”

TOP tips How to make your school trip run to plan n Ensure teachers have the necessary

competence and skills to lead the trip they are planning n Involve young people in the risk

assessment process n Ensure parents are fully aware of what is

planned so that they are happy their children will want to participate n Make sure what is done has been planned

properly, not making last-minute decisions to introduce new activities which have not been properly thought through n Have a plan B and plan C in case circumstances, such as weather, travel arrangements, alter while on the trip.

McDonnell says school trips have huge educational and social benefits. “We need to promote a culture where things are ‘as safe as necessary’ not ‘as safe as possible’.

Restricting children unnecessarily will not help them to cope confidently in later life.”

Getting the correct level of safety in place could seem like a tightrope, but there are some essential guidelines for schools to look out for. From a monetary perspective, Ken Bailey, MD of HTS Total Ski, says schools should look for companies that have ABTA bonding as this gives complete financial protection. “Having ABTA bonding means that should anything happen to a tour’s arrangements, either with a supplier or the operator, all of the payments are protected,” he says. He also recommends looking for an ATOL licence, membership to the School Travel Forum and the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom quality badge.

Finlay says legal requirements for school trips depend largely on the type of trip. “I would advise organisers to check the student to teacher ratio requirements with the appropriate governing body for their type of trip,” he says. “Look at what affiliations and accreditations the operator has in place: reputable companies will have an Adventure Activities Licencing Authority (AALA) licence where appropriate, will be fully bonded and may have independent inspections through membership of organisations such as the British Activity Holiday Association, the School Travel Forum and the Expedition Provider’s Association.”

CUTTING THE COSTS One of the biggest barriers to providing school trips, whether they are for educational or sporting activities, is the cost associated. While schools could have the best plans in place for ensuring a safe and enjoyable trip, if pupils and parents can’t afford to take advantage of this then it will all be to no avail. One method to ensure costs are kept as low as possible is by joining forces to take advantage of economies of scale. Marcus Tinsley, headteacher at Broadwood Primary School, is a keen skier and wanted to provide similar activities at his school.

He realised there were cost and administrative efficiencies to be made through joining forces and as a result, he and a group of fellow ski enthusiasts formed the Newcastle Schools Ski Association, which works in partnership with teachers, parents and school ski trip specialists to provide skiing holidays for local pupils. The group has grown from taking 300 students to 1,500 from around 40 schools across the north east.

“The advantage of sending students through the association is that we get the best price for the students and their families,” explains Tinsley. “Because of the economies of scale, we are also able to send more party leaders along, providing a better teacher to student ratio, making it safer for the kids and giving them a more individualised service.”

The project has expanded as schools’ interest in skiing grows, with one school investing in stocks of ski clothing that their students can borrow during the trips. “The students love the trip and some come back year after year – even after they have finished school,” explains Tinsley.

“One boy enjoyed his trip with us so much that it inspired him to work a season in La Plagne when he finished school.”

By ensuring all necessary safeguards are in place, school trips can bring huge benefits to students, parents, and school staff. By doing careful planning and ensuring all necessary safety measures are in place, schools can focus on the main reason for a trip – to enjoy it and engage with some unique learning experiences.

www.edexec.co.uk april 2011

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CEFM

Joining forces As the academy programme continues to gather pace, Christine Dickson looks at the options for schools to join an existing academy trust

Academy chains

Grant funding

Any school can apply to join an existing academy trust. Any group of schools, regardless of their individual OfSTED ratings, can apply in partnership to join the academy programme as long as at least one of the member schools is outstanding or good with outstanding features.

When choosing between the two options, the over-arching question for a convertor school to consider is how the decision making process will work in the different models.

An academy trust is a legal entity in its own right. It has a board of directors who are decision makers. Therefore, key questions before a school joins an existing academy trust are: what involvement will they have in the ongoing decision making process? Will the academy trust require the convertor school to pay a percentage of their general annual grant to the academy trust for functions such as finance and personnel? Who will have the power over the recruitment and dismissal of the school’s staff, including the headteacher? and how are the board of directors paid – through the academy trust or a separate management company that employs them and charges the academy trust for their services? Schools concerned with the answers may choose to opt for the partnership model.

The government considers the local authority central spend equivalent grant (LACSEG) to be complex and in serious need of reform. Subject to contracts, which need to be paid for when a school converts to academy status, some of LACSEG will represent a financial gain to the convertor school. LACSEG is made up of two separate strands: the LA schools budget and costs funded from other LA sources.

Government funding for LAs is being reduced to reflect the overall fiscal position. As LACSEG is partly based on LA budgets, the Department for Education believes academies should be asked to find equivalent savings on the relevant budget lines.

A number of central LA school improvement grants are ending. The DfE therefore proposes to exclude

april 2011 www.edexec.co.uk

these from the calculation of academy budgets. New rates will apply on an unprotected basis to those schools converting from 1 September onwards.

Therefore schools currently intending to convert to academy status as of 1 September may choose to bring their conversion date forward.

Academy year ends Our research at Companies House indicates that a number of converter academies have chosen a year-end for their academy trust other than 31 August. This means that they will incur an additional administrative burden as they are also required to report to the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) as at 31 August, under the guidance given in the Academies Financial Handbook. Because of

Converter academies should consider choosing a 31 August year-end and those that have chosen other dates should seriously consider changing their year-end to 31 August to avoid additional work

CEFM

this, converter academies should consider choosing a 31 August year-end and those that have chosen other dates should seriously consider changing their year-end to 31 August to avoid additional work.

Governor liability Sometimes governors are concerned about their personal liability when they become directors of an academy trust. The DfE memorandum lists some clauses and articles of association for academy trusts that should give a great deal of comfort to governors. n A governor may benefit from any indemnity insurance purchased at the academy trust’s expense to cover the liability of the governors, which by virtue of any rule of law would otherwise attach to them in respect of any negligence, default or breach of trust or breach of duty of which they may be guilty in relation to the academy trust. Provided that any such insurance shall not extend to any claim arising from any act or omission that the governors knew to be a breach of trust or breach of duty or which was committed by the governors in reckless disregard to whether it was a breach of trust or breach of duty or not and provided also that any such insurance shall not extend to the costs of any unsuccessful defence to a criminal prosecution brought against the governors in their capacity as directors of the academy trust.

n Subject to the provisions of the Companies Act

2006, every governor or other officer or auditor of the academy trust shall be indemnified out of the assets of the academy trust against any liability incurred by him in that capacity in defending any proceedings, whether civil or criminal, in which judgment is given in favour or in which he is acquitted or in connection with any application in which relief is granted to him by the court from liability for negligence, default, breach of duty or breach of trust in relation to the affairs of the academy trust.

AT A GLANCE intending to convert to academy uSchools status from 1 September may wish to bring their conversion date forward as new rates will apply on an unprotected basis to those converting September onwards. academies should consider a uConvertor year-end of 31 August as those with any other year end would also be required to report to the YPLA.

www.edexec.co.uk april 2011

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