NAHT Leadership Focus May 2016

Issue 73 / May 2016 / £5

THE MA AGAZINE FOR NAHT AND NAHT EDGE MEMBERS

FOCUS

Leading the Way

Aspire – from pilot to national project Inside Instead

The road to successful evaluation

Perfect partners

Building relationships within the community

The funding vote Referendum impacts for EU money

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

OPINION

TONY DRAPER: NAHT president 2015/16

Let’s work together ll too quickly my year as president is drawing to a close. It has been inspiring and while I’m keen to get back into my school and see the children again, there seems so much unfinished business. So I wish our new president, Kim Johnson every success as he takes up the post I’ve proudly held for the past 12 months.

The ‘to do’ list is a long one, but let’s start at ‘A’ with ‘academies’ and ‘assessment’.

The government’s plan to turn all schools into academies by 2022 creates risks and opportunities for all of us. Let’s be clear – NAHT supports any school that chooses to take this route. The key thing is the element of choice. My school is converting at the moment and Kim’s school is already an academy. But forcing all schools to convert is wrong. It won’t be appropriate for every school, and it won’t guarantee success in the ways the government says it will.

Most of the schools that will be forced to convert are primary schools. And yet, over 80 per cent of primaries are already rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. So what problem is conversion supposed to fix exactly? The plans have caused arguments in Parliament, within the government and from its supporters. Many Conservative councillors and council leaders agree with school leaders, teachers, parents and governors. The government needs to convince us of the merits of its plan if it wants our support. As things stand, they are not winning the argument.

In some respects, if all schools become

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academies it will kill the government’s argument stone dead. Great schools will become great academies. But a change of structure won’t address the real reasons why schools struggle – budget cuts; the recruitment and retention crisis; accommodating rising numbers of children in the same space; overworked staff; relatively low pay; and policy overload. If full conversion happens, these issues will still be unsolved. What will the government do then? Will we have to wait until 2022 for the answers?

NAHT’s message is to not rush in. Most primaries will want to retain their current status, because they are already doing a good job. Don’t take actions you believe are wrong for your school. Instead, think about building and strengthening your bonds with other schools. That will be essential in the tough times ahead. There are many other ways schools can collaborate and improve that deserve to be acknowledged and valued. We believe that our highly successful Aspire programme now deserves government recognition and support.

Assessment remains a major issue. It’s a mystery why the government wants to proceed with the debacle that this year’s Key Stage 2 SATs have become. Despite the mess, we’ve maintained a reasonable position on assessment and we’ve worked hard to help the DfE see sense and change tack. We achieved a change of date for the submission of Teacher Assessment, an agreement that data can change up to 30 June, and that schools will get

Tony Draper

adequate notice of moderation visits. The expected standard is the equivalent of a 4b with no need to use tick boxes nor the exemplification materials. In response to our demand for clarification, the Minister wrote to Regional Schools Commissioners and Ofsted stating they should not make judgements based on 2016 data alone.

Without pressure from NAHT, these changes would not have happened.

We welcome the government’s promise to work with the profession to consider its next steps, but we are clear that a piecemeal approach to individual tests will not work. It’s what got us into this mess in the first place. We need a coherent approach to assessment from start to finish across all ages, methods and subjects.

Please sign the NAHT Assessment Pledge and help us keep up the pressure for change.

I hope you enjoy our new-look Leadership Focus, and I wish Kim all the best as he takes over the reins as president. I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job for all of you.

Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation: 28,060 (July 2014–June 2015)

ASSOCIATION AND EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES NAHT and NAHT Edge 1 Heath Square, Boltro Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1BL www.naht.org.uk www.nahtedge.org.uk Tel: 0300 30 30 333 Editorial Strategy Board: Christine Milburn, Nick Brook, Tony Draper, Lesley Gannon, Steven George, David Gilmore, Nicky Gillhespy, Magnus Gorham, Chris Harrison, Russell Hobby, Kim Johnson, Gail Larkin, Helena Macormac, Stephen Watkins, Paul Whiteman and Rob Williams @nahtnews #NAHT2016

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The views herein are not necessarily those of the publisher, the editor or NAHT.

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CONTENTS

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Contents 7

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News roundup The latest from across NAHT and NAHT Edge

10 Member benefits Make the most of NAHT’s services

12 Evaluating for the future Our Instead peer-review service goes from strength to strength

20 Aspiring to success What you say about the Aspire Partner Schools Programme

27 Russell Hobby Message from the general secretary

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28 Academisation Are there any good ideas in the White Paper?

34 Conference The lowdown on our annual conference

38 Perfect Partners One school’s success story in relationship building

42 The funding vote What would ‘Brexit’ mean for schools accessing European funding?

46 A legal view NAHT senior solicitor Simon Thomas takes a look at members’ legal support

48 Our new charity partner Introducing the Family and Childcare Trust

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52 Your professional development A comprehensive round up of the best CPD around

54 The final word The coastal school with high aspirations

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COMMENT

KIM JOHNSON: incoming president

Leading the way s you read this, I will still be settling into the first few days of my new role as NAHT national president. For the next 12 months, I will be working with our branches in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, meeting as many members as possible, discussing the key challenges we face and aiming to keep NAHT at the centre of the education debate. The theme of this year is ‘leading the way’. This is both a rallying call to our 29,000-strong members who are active in school and a direct challenge to government to finally stop tinkering with education.

Leaders should lead, so teachers can teach and children can thrive.

Whether you are currently in the midstream of tests, exams and teacher assessment, or are empathising with your former colleagues from your position of retirement, what unites us is our mutual commitment to NAHT and our drive to making it a successful voice in education. We have both the skills and the obligation to make sense of the system, to challenge the rhetoric and nonsense, and then to pose answers using examples of the best practice we have within our ranks.

The Aspire school improvement service, our Instead alternative

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inspection scheme, and our lifechances project, Primary Futures, are all evidence of our ability to do this successfully. We are taking ownership of standards in education by focusing on positive solutions and actions, rather than negative complaint.

It will be an interesting year for us with the academy programme being pushed so strongly by the DfE and RSCs. Some of you will have concerns over the best way forward. While changes to school structures alone can’t solve everything, we know that there are some excellent practitioners within our membership who run extremely successful MATs and standalone academies, as well as those who have, in partnership with LAs, set up free schools to add provision to their local community. We need to embrace their knowledge and working practices, to see how their professionalism complements the provision within a community rather than cause competition that may waste scarce resources. There are also other models of school collaboration that are working very well and these too need to be heralded and then explored.

In short, we know how we can make schools work, so we should not shy from rising to this new challenge. We can

Our challenge this year is to ensure we do all we can to provide opportunities in our educational system that release potential in all children

Kim Johnson

lead the way by shaping them to meet the needs of our diverse communities in cities, rural and coastal areas. It’s about getting the very best educational and life opportunities for children and young people – particularly those with personal challenges and disabilities.

Throughout my career the focus has been taking on anything that is second best and pursuing outcomes that raise aspirations and create a place for all in our educational system.

One of my 17-year-old students with a learning disability once said to the Children’s Commissioner, after thumping the table enthusiastically, “Look! We just wanted to be treated the same as everyone else!”

His plea for an equitable system and the opportunity to thrive and become a worthy citizen in the Medway Towns was very clear, and passionately expressed. We all have such children and young adults in our care. Our challenge this year is to guarantee we do all we can to provide opportunities in our educational system that release potential in all children, whichever sector or stage of learning they are in.

This is the approach I have held dear when working with some of our most vulnerable learners in schools and academies. It is the same drive that brought me into teaching and, after 38 years, it is still as strong as ever.

I am looking forward to meeting you as I visit branches, regions and individual settings this coming year. The joy of every day in our profession is that of learning something new and of being in the presence of those generous in spirit. Our commitment is to their education and to our local communities.

Enjoy this issue of Leadership Focus.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016 NEWS ROUNDUP

T H E L AT E S T F R O M A C R O S S N A H T A N D N A H T E D G E Get in touch and share your thoughts on this month’s news via the email publications@naht.org.uk

NEWS IN BRIEF

GUIDELINES ON SBMS’ PAY AND GRADING New NAHT advice on pay and grading is now available online to help our school business managers (SBMs) get the most out of local authority pay evaluation frameworks. As part of the senior leadership team, SBMs deserve to receive similar pay and benefits packages as other school leaders. This new advice will also help heads to negotiate SBMs’ pay and job evaluations with local authorities. For more information, log on to www.naht.org.uk.

CHANGES TO OUR NEWSLETTERS Do you currently receive one of our NAHT links e-newsletters? We’ll soon be changing our email communications so all NAHT members receive a weekly email from us. These will still feature the latest news and information relevant to you.

This is part of our ongoing transformation to improve how we reach members.

More news soon on how we will improve other aspects of our digital communication.

Welcome new NAHT Edge director James Bowen e’re very pleased to welcome James Bowen, who started his post as director of NAHT Edge in early April. James has swapped from being a school leader to leading NAHT Edge. He was previously head teacher of a successful school in Hampshire and has held many leadership positions including subject leader, deputy head and SENCo, so he really understands the issues that matter to middle school leaders. When we caught up with him in his busy first few days he said: “I’m delighted to have been appointed as the new director of NAHT Edge. I’m really looking forward to meeting members around the country and hearing their views on how I can best represent and support them. Their opinions will be crucial in shaping our future direction.”

You can read James’s take on the government’s White Paper on page 32.

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Students turned away from mental health services Almost a quarter of students are being declined access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), according to the CentreForum’s ‘State of the nation’ report.

Despite these cases being referred by concerned parents, GPs and teachers, 23 per cent were rejected because the students’ conditions weren’t deemed to be serious enough or suitable for specialist mental health treatment.

NAHT Edge director James Bowen said: “Teachers and SENCos are in a key position to recognise mental health difficulties in the children they work with. They must be able to refer pupils to appropriate services for support.

“But all too often thresholds are set too high for referrals to be accepted, and waiting times for services are excessive, leaving schools trying to support and manage pupils’ mental health issues as best they can.

“School staff aren’t the qualified counsellors, psychologists and therapists that these children require, and school budgets can’t stretch to fund these services to the extent they’re needed.”

IF YOU HAVE A NEWS STORY TO SHARE THEN CONTACT THE EDITOR Email: nic.paton@headlines.uk.com

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Primary Futures gets 8

government recommendation ducation and Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah has given Primary Futures a resounding endorsement.

Primary Futures is a joint initiative of NAHT and Education and Employers, a charity that connects volunteers with schools to talk to pupils about their job, career and the education route

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they took to get there. Primary Futures directly targets young children in primary schools to sow the seeds of inspiration in their early years. In a speech at the FASNA (Freedom and Autonomy for Schools National Association) conference Sam Gyimah said: “The government recognises the importance of

exposing pupils to the world of work from an early age. That is why the government welcomes programmes such as Primary Futures that help to broaden the aspirations of young people from an early age.” You can find out more about Primary Futures on the NAHT website or www.primaryfutures.org.

Inspiring Leadership Conference Now in its third year, the Inspiring Leadership Conference will be returning this summer to enthuse and galvanise school leaders from around the country. The event has been a runaway success in previous years, and this year aims to be no different, with William Hague, Matthew Syed and Dr Ben Goldacre being just a few of the speakers confirmed for 2016.

We hope you decide to join us from 15 to 17 June in Birmingham.

Visit www.inspiringleadership.org to book your place for the educational event everyone’s talking about.

Top right: Matthew Syed, writer and Olympian. Above: Lord Hague of Richmond.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Success at the Education Resources Awards AHT recently supported the Education Resources Awards, which took place on Friday 18 March in Birmingham.

The awards, now in their 18th year, celebrate the quality and diversity of educational resources, establishments, teachers and the most dedicated members of

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Below: Hazel Pulley (centre right) accepts the Education Resources Award for Educational Establishment of the Year on behalf of Parkfield Community School.

the industry. The two categories we supported were ‘Educational Establishment of the Year,’ which was won by Parkfield Community School in Birmingham, and the ‘Leadership in Education’ award, which was presented to Judith Carlisle, head teacher at Oxford High School.

Congratulations to all the winners.

NEWS IN BRIEF STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARDS Supported by the DfE, BIS, Mayor of London and various education organisations, these nationwide awards celebrate the achievements of students (aged between 16 and 17) across a range of academic and vocational subjects. Entries can be put forward by any teacher or tutor. Deadline for 2016 entries is Friday 24 June. All shortlisted students, plus their nominating teacher and a parent or guardian, are invited as guests to the awards ceremony, which is being held in September.

Discover more about the awards and how to enter your students by visiting www.studentoftheyearawards.com.

FREE RESOURCES FOR TEACHING STEM

Developing Great Teaching Conference Our brand new conference for middle and senior leaders in the primary sector is heading your way. Working with the Teacher Development Trust and Oxford University Press, we are bringing together school leaders and internationally renowned experts to examine what constitutes effective professional development for teachers and what approaches lead to sustained school improvement.

Taking place in Cardiff on 21 June and again in London on 23 June, the conference is jam-packed with topical training, fringe meetings and opportunities to network with your peers. Inspirational speakers include Joanna Hall, deputy drector for Schools at Ofsted; Philippa Cordingley, chief executive of CUREE; Vivienne Porritt, director of school partnerships UCL Institute of Education; and Professor Sam Twiselton, director of Sheffield Institute of Education. Register your place today by visiting www.oxfordprimary.co.uk.

GOT AN IDEA FOR A FEATURE? THEN CONTACT THE EDITOR Email: nic.paton@headlines.uk.com

The National STEM Learning Centre houses the UK’s largest collection of STEM teaching and learning resources, providing teachers of STEM subjects with free access to a wide range of high-quality support materials. We are pleased to announce we will be contributing to the STEM Learning Centre’s e-library by sharing our 2014 report on assessment. The online eLibrary currently holds more than 10,000 resources in fully searchable collections. Take a look at what’s available at www.stem.org.uk/resources.

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MEMBER BENEFITS

Making the most of your membership ARE YOU making the most of all the benefits that come with your NAHT and NAHT Edge membership?

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he full value of your membership goes well beyond first-class representation, support and professional counsel – although, in itself, the depth and wealth of the advice our expert advisers give to thousands of members every year is worth the cost of membership alone.

As well as the rich range of services provided centrally from headquarters – like legal advice, union representation, policy updates and campaigning – there is a huge amount of help available to you at a grass-roots level.

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For advice

Call 0300 30 30 333 and select 1 Email specialistadvice@naht.org.uk Monday-Thursday 8.30am-5.30pm, Friday 8.30am-5.00pm 24/7 personal and professional counselling helpline Call 0800 917 4055 Please remember to have your membership number to hand when you contact us

NAHT and NAHT Edge members are known for being supportive of each other, and for working together to achieve change.

With nearly 1,000 NAHT lay officials at work in all local authorities around England, Northern Ireland and Wales, there is always support immediately to hand when you need it. The majority of them are actively working in schools and colleges, just like you, and others are recently retired. So they really do understand the current issues you come across in your classroom, staffrooms and outside the school gates. And they know the personalities in your local authority and regional school board, as well as the particular social and economic make-up of your local area.

Collectively we’re a dynamic community of school leaders whose voice is heard and respected by policymakers at the highest level of government. Here are some of the ways our members are benefiting from our influence at all phases of education.

Primary

Fortified by members’ support of the Assessment Pledge, NAHT’s campaigning has significantly benefited school leaders, teachers and pupils in primary education by easing the impact of changes to teachers’ writing assessment at key stage 2 for 2016. Our lobbying resulted in the Department for Education making three major changes to the rushed proposals.

The deadline was returned to June, intervention will not be determined by 2016 data alone, and we achieved written clarification of exemplification materials. We also secured an instruction from the government that will prevent regional school commissioners and local authorities from issuing

warning notices on the basis of writing results. And to be sure, we’ve created a scripted response that primary heads can follow if challenged by local authorities.

Secondary

Our campaigning in the secondary sector is going to boost the future prospects of thousands of GCSE, AS and A Level students by giving teachers a second opportunity to help them achieve their best possible exam results. As a direct result of NAHT’s contributions to a consultation on final entries to legacy exams, Ofqual has agreed to allow students to resit legacy A and AS levels, regardless of the subject.

And at GCSE level, students will be allowed two resits of English, English Language and Maths, and one resit of other legacy subjects.

Special education needs and disability

With the introduction of the SEND code of practice in 2015, SENCOs have a strategic role in schools, often as part of the school’s senior leadership team and middle leaders. To make sure our SENCO members remain up to date with the latest SEND legislation and Ofsted expectations, we have created a series of specialised training courses and events including our popular annual SEND conference. We also worked with the children’s mental health charity, Place2Be, during Children’s Mental Health Week earlier this year, to raise awareness of the state of primary school-based

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Membership gives you National collective representation on behalf of senior and middle leaders at all phases of education Accurate advice on pay, conditions and occupational pensions Specially created CPD training programmes, conferences and events at preferential rates Offers from carefully selected partner organisations at competitive rates, for school and individual member services Advice on education, management and employment issues Individual support and representation Access to a 24/7 counselling and support line.

Membership gives your school

Every month we give phone advice and support to 1,000 members provision available to children with mental health problems, based on the results of a member survey.

School business managers

We believe that school business managers (SBMs) and school bursars, with their specialised commercial and financial expertise, are critical to a school’s success.

So it’s only right they should receive similar pay and benefits to other senior school leaders. But many SBMs are still paid under the arrangements for local authority staff, not the ranges used for school leaders. To correct this, we have created detailed advice to help head teachers and SBMs negotiate with local authorities to ensure SBMs receive the salaries and recognition they deserve.

NAHT Edge

NAHT Edge was created to meet the specific needs of middle leaders who are juggling classroom responsibilities with management duties. We provide online advice and union representation that’s been tailored for middle leaders, to give them the peace of mind that comes from full union protection.

Targeted policy updates, research, newsletters and blogs cover all the issues that really matter for middle leaders. And our tailored professional development courses and events provide valuable opportunities for middle leaders to network with peers, gain the skills they need to work more effectively in their current role, and support their career development to senior leadership.

Life and associate membership

Membership doesn’t have to end when you retire or leave the profession.

Life members and professional associate members are entitled to retrospective legal support and representation for their career while a full member. They also continue to benefit from collective representation, access to the counselling and support line, and all the partnership offers, advice and publications available to full members.

• Access to continually updated, topical and relevant resources and information about education practice, policy and research on the NAHT and NAHT Edge websites • Print and digital publications and a library of online resources, including model policies • Advice on education policy-making across all phases of education.

Find out more ADVICE www.naht.org.uk/advicefaqs TAILORED TRAINING www.naht.org.uk/tailoredtraining CONFERENCES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT www.naht.org.uk/events SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT www.nahtaspire.co.uk PARTNER OFFERS www.naht.org.uk/nahtpartners NAHT EDGE www.nahtedge.org.uk/join

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EVALUATION

Instead

evaluating for the future hree years ago, NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby launched Instead, the NAHT School Review programme, with a passionate address to conference.

“Schools dance to Ofsted’s tune but don’t really learn from the experience – they are too busy defending themselves against it and then recovering,” he told delegates.

“Through Instead, heads and senior management will be offered a chance to take ownership of standards by inviting staff from other schools to challenge their judgements and plans.”

Scroll forward, and the deep misgivings felt by many school leaders about the politicisation of the inspection process under Sir Michael Wilshaw, and the effect of this on professional morale and educational performance, have not gone away. If anything, with the government reportedly looking to the US and a free schools advocate to be Ofsted’s next chief inspector, these concerns appear set to deepen.

More positively, Instead has not gone away and, in fact, is now set to step up a gear. The programme has been running in pilot form ever since Russell’s announcement and is now poised to be rolled out nationally, including in Wales and Northern Ireland. And, although the pilots – some 30 schools in regional clusters around the country – have until now solely been primaries, the national model will be appropriate for secondaries as well.

As NAHT executive director John Herriman explains: “The feedback from the pilots has been hugely positive with the peer-to-peer approach of Instead being popular. Just because it is peer-to-peer does not mean it

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is a ‘soft’ approach; if anything it is a more challenging result.

“Instead is the profession stepping up to the challenges being placed on schools as a result of all the changes currently going on in the sector.

“Our aim is for about 80100 schools to go through the programme this year. It will be an incremental growth approach because we want to make sure we do not lose the quality and rigour of the programme,” he adds.

Dr Ellie Johnson Searle, former NAHT programme manager, stresses that, despite its name, Instead should not be seen by school leaders as instead of Ofsted.

“It is as well as; it is about providing clear feedback from your peers. Whereas Ofsted is

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

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Above: head teacher Tracey Coles has given her backing to Instead.

Left: head teacher Paul Kilgallon has welcomed being part of the West Midlands pilot.

often about limiting judgements on this and on that, with Instead it is about the full picture for your school,” she says.

“It can apply to any school in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, so we are keen for schools in all three countries to come forward and ask how it might work for them. It is about offering a way of regularly checking where you are as a school against a range of performance measures, across the whole school; it is also not just about assessment, it is about your wider community relations, too.”

So, what is Instead and how does it work? And, importantly, how might it work for you and your school?

The £2,000 programme (see the panel overleaf for a fuller outline of Instead) is a peer review and self-review process carried out by schools in clusters (normally three). School leaders

visit each school in their cluster, interrogating and questioning each school’s strengths and weaknesses, with the whole process being overseen by a lead reviewer.

The process normally takes place over the period of a term or more, and a bespoke 12-page report with action points is then drawn up that each school can use to help them drive forward and sustain real improvement.

“The main benefit of Instead, to my mind, is that it is nonjudgemental peer review; it is about mutual respect, that each school is looking out for the other,” outlines Julie Nash, until last September head of Cape Cornwall School at Land’s End and now a lead reviewer for the programme.

“There are no overall judgements or limited judgements; it is just about your own school and the self-evaluation that you see in your school.

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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED “It can be a very honest and robust evaluation – it is certainly not a ‘warm bath’ and it can lead to some quite difficult conversations.

The idea is to be testing that self-evaluation, but it is about honesty and peer review; it is about respect of your peers. You do not usually get to see things as other people see them, with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective.

“We tend to see a process of cross-fertilisation between the three schools that are working together, even though they will all have different situations.

It is also good for ongoing relationships,” she explains.

Julie predicts the national programme is going to be popular among NAHT members, especially secondaries. “I do not think there is going to be a shortage of participants. If anything the big issue is likely to be capacity. The structure for secondaries is almost identical; there have just been a few minor tweaks with the framework to make it more relevant to secondaries.

“I’d strongly recommend any school leadership team, if you have an opportunity, to take part. It is a rigorous process and, in fact, I really wish it had been available when I was leading my own school in Cornwall,” she adds.

A programme like Instead, based as it is around a whole school

rather than individual members, is unusual for a trade union, concedes John Herriman. But in the current climate, and with the ongoing concerns about the Ofsted-led school inspection regime, it is something NAHT has been passionate about getting right and, now, embedding nationally.

“It is seen as representing very good value for money by schools that have taken part in the pilots; it is seen as generating very good feedback,” he explains.

“This is new territory for a trade union, to get into school improvement and support for schools rather than just support for individual members. But our view is that the best form of protection for our members in the current climate is for them to be leading a successful school.”

“What underpins the Instead programme is the knowledge, experience and expertise that sits within the profession; we want the profession to be more proactive about ‘owning’ this,” enthuses NAHT deputy general secretary Kathryn James, echoing Russell’s original conference address.

“The profession has the right, and indeed the responsibility, to say it has the experience and expertise to report on and guide others; we know what we are doing. So let’s get out there and do it,” she adds.

What is the Instead (NAHT School Review) programme?

The Instead programme is a peer review process that aims to provide school leaders with an alternative way of evaluating school strengths and vulnerabilities.

The process is entirely separate from Ofsted and participation is not dependent on your school’s current Ofsted grading.

It is intended to provide a constructive alternative to other forms of inspection, supporting school leaders as they evaluate their school’s strengths and vulnerabilities.

What’s the difference between Ofsted and Instead?

NAHT School Review is a peer-review process and more of a partnership approach. It focuses on school performance and, rather than assigning a grade as Ofsted does, the outcome will be to signpost which aspects of the school need to be: • Prioritised • Developed • Maximised • Sustained.

Evidence is provided to support and illustrate the findings. Self-evaluation and reflection are key aspects of the review and report writing exercise. There is no overall grade and it does not replace the Ofsted inspection cycle.

Who will I be dealing with?

What underpins the Instead programme is the knowledge, experience and expertise that sits within the profession; we want the profession to be more proactive about ‘owning’ this

There are five key roles within the review process. These are: • Reviewer. Each school leader will assume the role of a reviewer in other schools in their cluster.

• Lead reviewer. This will be a person trained to oversee each review.

• Cluster representative.

This will be a person to provide local co-ordination and additional support and guidance for school leaders • Programme manager. The programme manager coordinates the administration.

• Programme board. This is an NAHT group that oversees the programme including the design and quality of delivery.

What will happen when I take part?

Using a specially designed review framework,

participants will: • Audit their own school using a self-review form.

This is an audit tool to help inform discussions during each school’s review.

• Work in their cluster (usually three schools).

They will then take it in turns to review one another’s schools.

• This means your school will be reviewed and, in turn, be a reviewer. Every cluster also works with the external lead reviewer, ensuring an independent perspective on the reviews.

Each review takes two days, plus some additional time to discuss, draft and agree the report. Schools negotiate the timing of each review with the lead reviewer and other cluster members. Overall, most clusters take just over one term to compete a full cycle of reviews.

How do I make sure my review doesn’t clash with Ofsted?

Once you have organised your review dates, you are advised to make a scheduling request to Ofsted. You can notify them of the dates of the review and ask them not to schedule an Ofsted visit on those days.

Who is the report for?

The report is for the head teacher. It is their decision whether or not to share the report with the governors and/or the wider school team or anyone else. Your report will only be read by: • The review team • You and anyone else you choose to share the report with • The team at NAHT (as part of the evaluation and quality assurance process), but no reports will be published.

Will I be trained?

Yes. NAHT provides all school leaders taking part with training and all the necessary documentation.

What does it cost?

Participation in the programme costs £2,000.

As participation is voluntary, no funding is available.

Instead is currently being piloted across the Midlands, the Isle of Wight and Northern Ireland, but it is now set to be rolled out nationally.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

CASE STUDY

This is so damn good I don’t know why anyone would not want to do it

Tracey Coles is head of Blackwood Primary School in Walsall, West Midlands, which has 700 pupils.

When we enttered the pilot, all three of us within the Walsall cluster were deemed to be Good schools, and we were between Ofsted inspec ctions, Blackwood having last be een inspected in 2011.

We had also had a local authority min ni peer review, and I really liked the philosophy of what Instead d was offering; this is professional colleagues speaking together, along with a lead reviewer. It is much more ‘done with’ rather than ‘done to’ as you tend to get with Ofsted d, which we can also find to o be quite subjective.

There are elements of Ofsted d that have merit, such as the self-evaluation framew work. But Instead’s framew work goes into things in much greater depth. I got together with the senio or leadership team and spent quite some time on it; we spent a day out of school and quite a lot of twilight time to gauge where we were against the main category areas.

Because it was three schools working together, the level of candour and honesty brought to the process was very high.

With Ofsted you’re not going to lay yourself bare, because

Above: assistant head Lucy McFarlane and Tracey spend time with some of their 700 primary school children.

you’ll suddenly find you’re requiring improvement or on the route to academisation; there are too many political overtones.

With Instead it is just colleagues working together, so you can be brutally honest; and it is a dialogue not a pronouncement.

I uncovered nuances I had not spotted before. For example, it became clear that some of the observations senior leaders were doing to support practice were creating tension; there was a sense that some senior leaders were stifling dialogue. It’s also led us to review how we manage maternity leave and re-induction of staff.

They really did turn the school over, in a very open and honest way. I shared the findings of the report with the staff and governors, and it is now ‘our’ document. The subjective views of Ofsted always get blasted around

15

EVALUATION 16

the world and you have no comeback. So this, I feel, is something you can use much more profitably.

The compiled report outlined the school’s overall strengths, looked at our teaching and learning and what it is about the school that enables pupils to be the best they can be.

The language was constructive; it was about identifying vulnerabilities rather than weak points, and they were all framed as questions.

For example, one question raised was whether our targets for children were being regularly shared, used, reviewed or fed back? Then, there were some recommended actions and suggestions about how we might wish to develop that. As a result, we have reviewed our age-appropriate

target setting, something we did during an inset day last May. I think this is a cracking system, I really do. I think it is something you could carry out between Ofsted inspections to help you bring together a whole raft of school improvement initiatives. Our local authority operates a cluster model, with eight schools in each cluster.

By using Instead, three of our cluster have been drawn together much more closely. It has brought us together as leaders as well.

Give it another couple of years, and I would like to do it again.

It goes beyond and further than the Ofsted model; it is just so damn good I don’t know why anyone would not want to do it.

Above: assistant heads Lucy McFarlane and Becky Barber, head teacher Tracey Coles and deputy heads Emma Massey and Lindsay Charles.

Below and right: Paul and deputy head Barbara Britton in the classroom.

The feedback has been about improvement for everybody

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

CASE STUDY

Paul Kilgallon is head of St Barnabas CE First and Middle School in Pershore, Worcestershire, which has 345 pupils.

When you’re sitting around the table with colleagues it is much easier to say “I am concerned about this” or “can you tell me what you think about that?”; it can be a very open, honest conversation.

I wanted a system that was going to offer a meaningful approach to school self-evaluation.

I went along to an initial presentation about the project and liked what I heard. I discussed it with the governors and spoke to other heads of local schools in pretty similar situations to ours.

We’ve been part of the West Midlands pilot, and what I’ve liked about it has been that it’s a very positive, much less confrontational experience. You always feel as a head teacher that there are issues you want to explore and things you want to improve, but when you have those conversations with your local authority or Ofsted, it is often on a defensive footing because you are trying to justify what you are doing.

We had two days in each other’s schools, which meant six days out of school altogether. Prior to each school visit, we all completed a self-evaluation matrix. This was an opportunity to evaluate our school

against wide-ranging criteria and identify the supporting evidence for our decisions. It also allowed us to identify areas that could be a focus during visits to our schools.

Our approach has changed in several aspects as a result. We found that many of the areas for improvement were shared across the three schools. As a result, we have conducted a series of lesson studies across different year groups; implemented more CPD for staff; we have looked at sharing policies around things like marking and our approach to feedback to pupils.

We have also been looking at particular year groups across all three schools too, and how

we might do more CPD and moderation together. I am sure the network relationship that has built up between the schools is going to continue moving the school forward.

Being part of Instead has given us a much more in-depth perspective of what we are doing, in a non-threatening process. This is not Ofsted, and it does not feel like Ofsted. The feedback from staff has also been very positive.

Staff say that it has not felt threatening and that the nature of the feedback has been about improvement for everybody. The ongoing nature of the process makes it a powerful tool to support school improvement.

Paul and deputy head, Barbara Britton.

17

EVALUATION

CASE STUDY

18

Instead was developed during the tenure of former president Bernadette Hunter, head of William Shrewsbury Primary School in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.

Her school has 680 pupils and 35 staff teaching. It is rated Good with Outstanding features by Ofsted, with its next inspection due this summer. Last month the school completed its own Instead review process, and Bernadette has also acted as a peer reviewer for the programme.

The key thing for me is that this is something that has been developed by the profession for the profession. The National Executive worked up the idea and the concept of a challenging, peer review, evidence-based process, based around our own framework, and it was piloted by the profession.

It has been adjusted and refined but the main thing is that it is a completely different kind of professional review, and very different from Ofsted. Instead really gets under the skin of a school. It does, of course, examine data but it is not just about data.

It focuses on the activities of the pupils and the way the school serves its families and community.

Another important point is that Instead celebrates a school’s strengths and its vulnerabilities.

There is a balance to an Instead report that I feel is important.

Although for us the process has been very recent, I found it very thorough and very robust. The teaching staff also welcomed the opportunity to have a professional dialogue with reviewers about the quality of learning, with reviewers who were able to bring current thinking around best practice to these discussions.

Our staff overall I think found it a very positive experience.

The review identified a number of things we are strong on as a school as well as things we could move forward on. And it has given us a lot of detail to work from.

For example, like many schools, we have been doing a lot of work recently around developing our own assessment systems, and I think this is one area we will be looking to work on and embed.

Being a peer reviewer has been a privilege. To be able to go into other schools and see their practice is a really useful exercise in professional development for any head teacher; it just gives you a wider perspective.

Our next Ofsted inspection is due in July and it has given us greater confidence about it. It will also be interesting to see how Instead can be used as part of the inspection process, how being able to provide evidence of professional development in this way can feed into that process. I think that’s going to be a very interesting next step.

Heidi Elsmore is an inclusion leader and NAHT Edge member at William Shrewsbury Primary School.

Our school recently took part in the NAHT Instead pilot. Despite being told that the aim of this process was to provide a constructive alternative to other forms of inspection and not to be worried about it, I was slightly nervous, as were many of my colleagues. However, we understood the purpose and ‘threw’ ourselves into the process as we always do!

Being part of the leadership team, we worked together to complete the audit, to look at the various aspects of the school and decide whether we thought these were areas we had to develop further or a strength of the school.

This in itself was an incredibly valuable activity to undertake in that it highlighted the positives, which are always nice to see down on paper and, as a fairly new inclusion lead, it helped to guide me in the right direction to further develop my role and the support I offer in school. When we took this tool to the rest of the

LUCY MARRIOTT – MIDDLE LEADER

It helped me to be better prepared as a subject leader for Ofsted and I will feel more confident in a future inspection. It was a nonintrusive process and felt like more of a professional dialogue with an exchange of good practice.

FIND OUT MORE…

The Instead programme is currently being rolled out in the West Country.

Following a successful Reviewer training session in Exeter in February, 21 schools are now beginning the Instead process.

teaching staff, it was helpful to hear their views; this highlighted where we needed to work on consistency across the school.

Our school was the first school out of the three to be reviewed.

The lead reviewer and the other heads met with all the staff on the morning of the first day. It was reassuring to hear about their roles in their schools and how they were ‘doing the job’ and understood the challenges we face.

The two days flew by and the buzz around school was wonderful!

The review team were approachable and supportive, and any feedback given was constructive. I was asked to meet with the team to talk about my inclusion lead role and my science leader role. At the end of both of these meetings I felt listened to and enjoyed sharing my work in these areas. I could have almost done with longer as I felt in some cases, I only skimmed the surface.

Overall, I found the process to be extremely beneficial. I felt we were happy to have discussions, be honest and simply be our ‘best selves’. If the team identified something that we needed to work on, it was not viewed as a criticism, but simply support!

Since the review, I have arranged to meet up with the science leader in one of the other schools to offer my support and our staff are visiting other schools to see ‘how they do it’. This is a process that helps us grow and learn, one that all schools would benefit from and not one to be nervous about.

I would definitely do it again!

If you are interested in becoming involved too please visit the NAHT website www.naht.org.uk/naht-instead/

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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Aspiring to

success

f I’m being honest, I was initially quite cynical about it – I thought ‘what is this going to bring us that we are not already doing?’.

But it’s been one of the best initiatives I’ve ever done.”

So says Harriet Phelps-Knight, head of Janet Duke Primary School in Basildon, Essex. What is it that has got such a ringing endorsement from a level-headed, highly experienced education professional? The NAHT’s Aspire Partner Schools programme that, after being piloted in select clusters of schools around the country, is set to be rolled out across England, Wales and Northern Ireland from April.

The association’s flagship school improvement programme has, to an extent, simply been testing the water for the past three years, with 32 Requires Improvement (RI) primary schools in four geographical areas feeling their way and finding out what it might be able to do for them. However, the programme is designed for all schools whatever their level of school performance and is not exclusive to those requiring improvement.

The results have been startling, as the latest evaluation of the programme by Derby University has made clear (see panel on page 26). Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of the pilot schools had been inspected by Ofsted during the pilot period and been uprated to ‘Good’, with more predicted to follow suit.

Pilot schools also reported twice the improvement of schools nationally for both

I

20

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Below: deputy head Christina Rowan and head, Harriet Phelps-Knight, are advocates of the Aspire programme.

progress and attainment, with gains comparable to those found in sponsored academies.

The ambition now is to roll out the programme to as many as 100 schools, both primaries and secondaries, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. And, as NAHT deputy general secretary Kathryn James has emphasised, now it will be about school improvement across the board, from RI right up to ‘Outstanding’.

“The pilot focused on RI schools and how they could be improved or pulled up, with the focus being on generating sustainable improvement over a three-year period. But as the programme xt phase we want moves to the next to be attracting schools that are at nt schools that are all levels. We want e to ‘Outstanding’ ‘Good’ and aspire g’ schools that and ‘Outstanding’ et even better,” simply want to get she explains. y benefits of “One of the key nd, is that it is Aspire, to my mind, transferable and adaptable; it is definitely not one-size-fitsall. It also touchess everything

in a school, so it is not just about the senior leadership.

It is for all the key leads and the teaching staff. It involves the governors and the way the pupils relate to the teachers.”

Harriet’s school, with 630 children and 150 staff, was like all the others in the pilot, RI when it joined. With an Ofsted inspection now due any day, she is confident the school team will be able to demonstrate real, measurable improvement.

“It has been a really positive experience for us and I am hopeful our next Ofsted will be good. We expect to be able to demonstrate better outcomes and better quality teaching; most of all, I feel we are

It has been a really positive experience for us and I am hopeful our next Ofsted will be good.

We expect to be able to demonstrate better outcomes and better quality teaching; most of all, I feel we are continuing to move the school forward

21

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

WHAT IT COSTS

Above: Children in the library at West Borough Primary School in Kent.

Inset: Harriet talks to one of her pupils.

FACTS AND FIGURES

22

continuing to move the school forward,” she says.

“It allows you to clarify things and to define more clearly what you already have in place; what your core business is and should be – which, of course, is the children.

“To an extent, it refined what we were doing anyway, but it has led to changes. For example, when we had achievement team meetings, our groups met as year groups and so that tended to be the focus of the discussion. We are now much more focused on the achievement of children and how to drive individual outcomes.

Instead of just having a meeting with tea and biscuits at the end of the day, it’s now got a much more focused and purposeful agenda.

“I don’t think, necessarily, the children are even aware of the programme, although they are certainly involved in some of the changes that have come from it.

We have, for example, reformed the School Council to make it more focused on StudentVoice – rather than being a council – and linked it back to learning. We’ve also reviewed and changed our marking policy, bringing in the views of both staff and children.

“It has simply enabled us to refocus on children’s learning, and work more consistently as an organisation. We want to keep with it as it moves beyond the pilot stage, and I have put in a proposal

to buy back some consultant days throughout the year; I definitely want to stay involved,” Harriet adds.

Tim Nash, chief executive of EdisonLearning, which delivers the Aspire programme, argues: “We have seen some fantastic stories come out of it from the schools that have been involved. But the pilot has been focused around a relatively small number of schools, so the next stage is to spread the net more widely.

“There will inevitably still be some schools in the category of needing to take things forward.

But we want to be very clear that this is not a programme just for schools that are ‘Failing’. This is a programme that can help schools

26

Number of schools in the Aspire pilot

Schools taking part in the pilot were each required to part-fund their participation, with £5,000 provided by the Department for Education (DfE) plus £10,389 provided by each school per annum.

Some schools paid using their pupil premium funding, although a few had additional financial support from their local authorities.

The DfE agreed that, while the schools were participating in NAHT Aspire and making progress, they would be exempted from any involuntary external intervention and, more specifically, enforced academisation.

that are already ‘Good’, or even ‘Outstanding’, to maintain their level or even improve still further.”

NAHT executive director John Herriman agrees: “By working together the schools can really focus on what is going to help Continues on p24

6

Number that are acting as case studies

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

CASE STUDY

Ashley Crittenden is head of West Borough Primary School and Nursery in Maidstone, Kent, which has 445 children and 65 staff.

We were put forward by our local authority to join the Aspire pilot back in February 2013. We had been through a number of initiatives over the years, some of which had worked and some of which had not, and we were ‘Satisfactory’ under the old Ofsted framework.

For me, one of the main reasons for doing it was that, while I knew our data and practices were strong, I wasn’t sure they would be strong enough to avoid us being forced into becoming an academy when Ofsted next came round.

As a result, we were thinking very hard about the future of the school and what was going to be the best way forward for us.

When the option of joining Aspire came up, I saw it as a huge opportunity to try something new, even though it was a pilot. The fact it had the NAHT name behind it also struck me; it gave it weight.

Another selling point was that the programme was made up of tools that Edison has used and refined over many years; you are not being asked to do something untested.

So it was exciting.

We did the Collaborative Quality Assessment (CQA) and that gave us a benchmark to work against. We then ran a series of observations and a variety of learning and walking activities throughout the school over the course of a couple of days. It was hugely comprehensive; unlike Ofsted, it was not just about the data.

The consultants even looked into the school toilets because they wanted to know what the environment was like for the children on a day-to-

4

day basis. We also felt we were able to be completely honest with the consultants because we were not going to be judged. It told me more about the school than I already knew, which surprised me.

For example, we had a mission statement. But we also had a values statement and a statement of school rules; there were all these different things and nobody could see the wood from the trees. So we’ve put in place a new set of core rules or values based around five words: equality, respect, responsibility, resilience and challenge. We eat, sleep and believe in those words; they now underpin absolutely everything we do in lessons or outside lessons. In fact, just this morning I was having a meeting with a parent who used two of the words in the conversation!

The whole school now talks with a different, more consistent language; the five words are also displayed prominently and we’ve put some money behind ‘Good’

Above: Children from West Borough Primary School.

We now have a set of core values that underpin everything we do

Number of geographical areas where Aspire has been piloted: the North (covering Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield), the South (covering Kent and West Sussex), the East (covering Essex) and the West (covering Bristol).

rebranding. We’ve rewritten the behaviour policy to put these values at the forefront. We also have a different style of achievement team meeting. It’s more action-driven with key members of staff leading elements and much more of a focus on the achievements of individual pupils. We are not talking so much about data or assessment or information; we have come together as peers to talk about the children. We have completely restructured how we teach maths at early years, and completely changed our Year 2 expectations.

The only disappointing part of the process has been that we were inspected again by Ofsted about a year ago. We had expected we were going to have a much better outcome but, disappointingly, we were still rated RI, although we were now ‘Good’ for behaviour and Outstanding in early years.

But, to me, that says more about Ofsted than it does our school, and I strongly feel we were unlucky with the lead inspector. Part of Aspire is about getting schools to ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ and, personally, I think anyone who walks through the door of this school would say we are an ‘Outstanding’ school.

I think and hope that being part of Aspire will prevent us from being forced into becoming an academy.

Our data now says we’re ’Good’; thanks to Aspire, we’ve seen a significant shift in professional and behavioural standards; we have much more effective, distributed leadership. I truly feel we should have been rated ‘Good’ and that, if anything, we are moving towards ‘Outstanding’.

23

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 24

them to improve but also to support each other. Because of the fragmentation of the education market we have seen in recent years, we wanted to provide a solution for our members, as school leaders, to help them make sense of the complexity now being created.

“It is about challenging assumptions and focusing on school improvement and school change; delivering more effective learning for children.

“If a school gets the good outcomes it should, that will help when Ofsted next comes through the door. But it also needs to be recognised that it’s not a quick fix or something to do just to respond to Ofsted; it’s about long-term, sustainable solutions to improve the system.

“What we are trying to do is help school leaders to better understand the strengths of their schools and the areas that need development,” John adds.

Indeed, Kathryn James suggests schools should not even think of Aspire as a programme, a project or an initiative at all, or as something that can be ticked off as “done”. It has the potential to be much more than that, if schools and school leaders are willing to embrace it.

“In many respects, I think of it as a lifestyle choice rather than a school improvement programme; it’s something you need to commit to completely,” she says.

Dr Ellie Johnson Searle, former NAHT programme manager said: “Aspire is for all school leaders who are looking for strong, sustainable school improvement journeys; it is most definitely not just for RI. We have recruited ‘Good’ schools that want to move to ‘Outstanding’. It is about engaging in long-term, sustainable improvement. It also sends an important message in terms of the ‘coasting’ schools agenda.”

Above: Jan Herbert, early years leader Charlotte McClymont and the youngest members of the East Borough Learning Council.

Below: Jan believes Aspire has really helped her school.

CASE STUDY

Jan Herbert is head of East Borough Primary School in Maidstone, Kent, which has 421 pupils and around 75 staff.

When I joined the East Borough back in 2010 we were rated ‘Satisfactory’, but by 2012 this had slipped to RI. The fact was, however – and Ofsted recognised this – this was based on historic data that we could do very little about, and we were ‘Good’ for leadership, management and behaviour. So it was deeply frustrating and disappointing.

In 2013 we were approached by the local authority and asked if we would like to take part in the Aspire pilot, with the process being jointly funded by the authority. My initial reaction was a bit sceptical. I knew our leadership and management was ‘Good’ and I did not want to start a programme that would derail the progress I felt we were already making. So it had to be something a bit special; it had to be something that would

underpin what it was we needed to be doing to achieve ‘Good’.

Aspire has very much done that.

It has really helped our middle leaders to develop their skills and move the school on. One of the really positive points of the programme is that it explores how to get your leaders, at all levels, to be working in more empowered ways. It has changed our systems around how we hold meetings and how we hold people to account; people are more empowered within their roles, there is much more delegation and distributed leadership.

At one level that can make it a difficult journey for head teachers.

Because you are empowering people to take responsibility, to become more accountable for school improvement, it means sometimes the head teacher is not necessarily required to be a part of leadership meetings, which can feel peculiar. But it is about shifting control and respecting the skills of your people who are coming into leadership and responsibility

THE METHODOLOGY BEHIND ASPIRE The Aspire programme follows a structured, whole-school approach, with a focus on empowering staff to take responsibility for and embedding continuing school improvement.

It works through a combination of expert consultancy support (via EdisonLearning), peer support clusters and tools and mechanisms to create more distributed leadership styles.

It is designed around five core strands: leadership; assessment for learning; learning environment; pedagogy and curriculum; and student and family support. Alongside these strands, there is an element called ‘precision

pedagogy’, which aids subject leaders and class teachers to focus on the highest-priority pupils, skills and pedagogy.

There is a five-pronged development focus to the programme: • Core values – these define the behaviours the school feels are important in guiding expectations and relationships and are a means of helping their children to develop.

• Achievement teams – these consist of teachers (and teaching assistants in some schools) who work together to share ideas and strategies to overcome pupils’ barriers

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

roles. It also means, of course, that the school has become less hierarchical and top-down; there are a lot of people now moving the school forward rather than a small group as it often used to be before.

Another big change has simply been how we’ve changed the whole ethos of the school. Like many schools, we had a School Council, but we realised the ethos that underpinned it was not that well understood or communicated.

It was a strapline that appeared on our prospectus and not much else.

So we have developed a set of five core values that are much more of a living reality.

These five core values are: aspiration; courage; responsibility; resilience; and respect. When you drive into the school they are displayed on banners; we focus on one value each term with the children; we have made these values a key part of our everyday, shared vocabulary, both for the staff and the children. The children n hear these words being used and understand them very well. We also have trophies based around them and a gold recognition booklet that is, again, aligned to these values.

Aspire requires you as a school to work in a much more organised, collaborative way. We also now

work more closely with some of the schools in our cluster, which has again been very powerful.

We were inspected again in May last year and achieved a ‘Good’ rating, which was really pleasing.

We discussed Aspire with Ofsted as part of that process and what we had changed as a result. Aspire has definitely helped me to move the school forward. It is quite a demanding programme; you have to fully sign up to it but, if you do that, it can really move you forward. It reshapes the way you think about the school and the structures you need to put in place. It is definitely something we are e going g to carry on with.

There are a lot of people now moving the school forward rather than a small group

to learning. The programme uses the ‘2-6-2’ technique, which dedicates 10 minutes to focus on a specific issue; two minutes for ideas, six minutes to discuss, and a final two minutes to identify actions. The process is also now being used by some governing bodies of the schools that have taken part in the pilot.

• Termly learning conferences – these provide a forum to discuss pupil progress whereby the teacher, parent and child all contribute to the process.

• Achievement statements – these are

a set of ‘I can’ statements mapping to years 1-6 for reading, writing and mathematics. These aim to support teachers and children to assess and plan learning (and are part of the precision pedagogy process).

• The Quality Framework for Learning & Teaching (the QFLT) and peer-topeer coaching – the QFLT provides a ‘common language’ to describe ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ teaching and a focus for peer-to-peer coaching. Common models used include TGROW (topic, goal, reality, options and way forward).

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A SCHOOL JOINS ASPIRE?

A Collaborative Quality Assessment (CQA) is carried out to establish the school’s current strengths and priorities. Immediate priorities might include short-term fixes, building leadership capacity, supporting middle leaders and teachers, and helping schools ‘swimming in data’.

Schools then work in local clusters, with support from EdisonLearning and an NAHT representative.

Heads meet first of all to get some initial Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and an understanding of what will happen next.

Schools name a lead for each of the five strands (see panel below), with the headteacher taking on leadership and senior or middle leaders responsible for the others.

Each set of leads meets at the start of each term, getting leadership development and building a network with colleagues. Back in school, they work with those leading other strands, with some development days which can include formal training but also coaching or planning support.

“It has been about putting the buzz back into the school, but also about offering a degree of protection; enabling teachers and leaders to do their jobs better, building capacity within the profession, encouraging new leaders to come up through the system,” explains Tim Nash, chief executive of EdisonLearning.

“It has been about how to make the teaching profession, and school leadership in particular, more attractive; how to make leadership something people want to do, rather than something that is perceived just to be about immense risk.”

25

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 26

CASE STUDY

Sarah Foster is head of Lovers’ Lane Primary School and Nursery in Newark, Nottinghamshire, which has 217 children and 30 staff.

We have really gone from strength to strength. When we joined the pilot we were RI but in our last Ofsted, in December 2014, we got a ‘Good’, and that’s in no small part down to Aspire.

Aspire has helped us to build and develop our staff; it has also helped us to create a new coaching culture and model.

For me, the ‘wow’ moment was when Ofsted came last time: no y talked to, the matter who they passion was there; everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet.

They recognised our teaching, data use and leadership p. We’d gone from beiing a bit wob bbly to being recognised as a strong team and we got there through

partnership, working and developing with others through Aspire to get that belief in ourselves.

We’ve also had a number of staff promoted into leadership roles as a result – so it created something of a headache in the summer term – but Aspire has given us the opportunity to grow new leaders. It has helped us to develop leaders at all levels; we have also developed our practice as reflective teachers.

One of the great things about the programme is that it’s not just about doing g it, but about understanding why you’re doing it. You are able to securely challenge each other and follow up p; it help ps you to build an ethos off proffessiionall priide.

As a head teacher, there is always something you can

improve. As staff change with promotion or maternity leave, or just from moving on, there are always areas you can revisit. We are determined to continue to g’ in drive towards ‘Outstanding all areas.

WHAT DIFFERENCE HAS ASPIRE MADE? The Aspire programme has been evaluated and assessed at regular stages by a team from Derby University throughout the three-year timeframe of the pilot.

With the pilot stage of the programme now complete, the university’s final report concluded that participants believed it had improved their schools, empowered teaching staff and built leadership capacity within the school.

In addition, the pilot school head teachers felt the programme to be cost effective and value for money; certainly when compared with the cost of forced academisation.

ITS KEY FINDINGS WERE:

for both progress and attainment with strong gains in mathematics at Level 5.

95 per cent of survey respondents believed the programme was either “very appropriate” or “appropriate” for the whole school.

Gains shown over the pilot period were comparable to those found in sponsored academies.

88 per cent found the five-strand 2 design covered all or most areas of school improvement.

Both case studies and survey respondents (90 per cent) were overwhelmingly positive about their experiences and the impact on the whole school.

1

63 per cent of pilot schools had been inspected by Ofsted and rated as ‘Good’ over the course of the programme, with more forecast by the end of the third year.

3

Pilot schools in the programme had made twice the improvement of schools nationally

4

5

6

7

78 per cent believed Aspire had provided good value for money.

The evaluation team, led by the university’s Dr Siobhan Neary, Vanessa Dodd and Dr Neil Radford, concluded of Aspire: “Participants believe that it has improved their school, has

Above: Children from Lovers’ Lane Primary school have benefited from the programme.

FIND OUT MORE… Go to www.naht.org.uk or visit www.nahtaspire.co.uk

empowered teaching staff and built leadership capacity. In addition, it is cost effective and has provided value for money when compared with the costs of forced academisation.”

The fact that 63 per cent of the pilot schools (which had all been RI when entering the programme) had achieved Good, and that this was expected to be 73 per cent by the end of the programme, was a significant achievement, the report concluded.

Another key outcome was the sense Aspire had contributed to the professionalisation of staff, including classroom teachers and teaching assistants. “Staff reported they have greater responsibility for their work and what they do. In many schools the coaching model has been particularly effective in driving this change,” the report argued.

“Many of the schools on the programme have seen NAHT Aspire as a transformative experience: it has changed the way the schools see themselves, improved progress, attainment and pupil behaviour and increased the confidence levels of many staff.

School stakeholders saw NAHT Aspire as good value for money,” the evaluation team concluded.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

OPINION

RUSSELL HOBBY: general secretary

All change We were promised a period of calm and stability to let the recent reforms bed in. We needed that period of calm and stability!

Instead, we’ve been informed of the largest structural change to education in many decades with the suggestion that every school in the country must convert to an academy by 2022. ome have compared it with the dissolution of the monasteries in scale. I say every school, but there is little evidence that the government remembered about special schools or nurseries when they made the announcement. Or considered the situation of isolated rural schools either.

I was reading David Laws’ memoirs of his time in office and came across his assessment of the NHS re-organisation instituted by Andrew Lansley: “So it was that a government that had pledged to ‘stop top-down reorganisations of the NHS’ began to embark on a reorganisation that was ‘so big you can see it from space’. What I thought completely daft were the massive changes to the NHS commissioning function. This was designed to radically alter the organisation of the NHS across the whole country. It was immediately clear that it would distract top NHS managers from their main job of finding efficiency savings, while the reorganisation rolled on over two or three years. Many experienced NHS managers would now leave.”

It feels like history is repeating itself.

I have no problem with schools choosing to become academies, but this massive, time consuming and expensive structural change offers precious little benefit for the massive toll it will exact.

Indeed, the main arguments put forward by the schools minister seem to amount to the proposition that the creation of academies has created such confusion that the only solution is to create more academies. The only clear beneficiaries of mass academisation are lawyers, uniform suppliers and school sign manufacturers.

By some estimates it costs more than £60,000 to convert a school to an academy. At a time of austerity, this money could be better spent on the

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things that make a difference: ensuring enough places for every child, enough teachers to stand in front of them, and enough money to put a roof over their head. It could pay for 15,000 new teachers for example. Instead of tackling these basic supply issues, ministers are focused on the detail of exclamation marks and expecting schools to solve the recruitment crisis themselves (or ‘challenge’ as they prefer to describe it). I respectfully suggest that neither of us are playing to our strengths in this arrangement.

The topic of exclamation marks brings me to the train wreck of primary assessment in England this year. It is late, poorly explained, poorly designed and ineffective. Using the weight of numbers and opinion provided by those of you who have signed our Pledge, we have been chipping away at this situation.

Our most recent achievement was an instruction from the government to prevent regional school commissioners and local authorities from issuing warning notices on the basis of writing results this year – even if those results push the school below the floor. This is a very significant concession and protection.

We are now turning our attention to the spelling, punctuation and grammar tests, which are distorting teaching. We have already ensured their exclusion from the floor standards; we are now looking at how Ofsted uses them. Our next priorities are the key stage one tests, multiplication tables, year seven resits and the Rochford review results.

We can achieve some gains but overall we need a better long-term approach to assessment that properly recognises professional judgement. The Pledge gives us the weight to press hard for this.

With Welsh Assembly elections on 5 May, we are also calling for a

Russell Hobby

period of calm and stability in Wales.

This will be a challenge with any new administration almost certainly wishing to make its mark. However, with the education profession in Wales given the responsibility of designing an innovative new 3-16 curriculum; the huge implications for CPD in the Welsh government ‘New Deal’; and the potential for radical changes to accountability streams – including a major overhaul of Estyn inspection approaches from 2017 onwards – I think politely requesting no new changes is the only sensible, pragmatic approach.

There are also Assembly elections on 5 May in Northern Ireland where members continue to face significant challenges. The new Education Authority, that replaces five Education and Library Boards, has resulted in a large number of school support officers availing themselves of generous exit packages.

School leaders feel isolated in the gap between an incessant drive for improvement and rapidly diminishing support and structures. The impact of reorganisation is also seen in provision for special educational needs where support for the most vulnerable children is continually being reduced, with schools and school leaders under increasing pressure to plug the gap.

The Department for Education is keen to promote accountable autonomy for schools, but we are pushing hard for this to become resourced accountable autonomy. This will be our priority when working with the new Northern Ireland education minister post-election.

Our attitude as an association is to speak out and to always provide a constructive alternative. It seems this works well.

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POLICY AND LEGISLATION 28

Are there any good ideas in The White Paper?

LESLEY GANNON, NAHT director of research and policy development, takes a look at the government’s recently published White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Tackling teacher recruitment and training Lesley Gannon

he main proposal – universal academisation of every school by 2022 – has been, I think it’s fair to say, poorly received by almost everyone; from teaching unions to Tory councillors.

No one seems to know how on earth (let alone why on earth) at a time of financial austerity, we are going to find the funds required to undertake structural change of this kind; especially when the evidence of success is, well, let’s just say patchy. Still, NAHT has made its view clear on this one.

We’re encouraging members to hold their nerve and not rush into anything. Remember, this isn’t legislation yet, it’s a proposal.

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The big idea has opposition. What about everything else?

The White Paper is overflowing with proposals, most of which have major implications for schools and colleges across the country. The question is, are any of them any good?

The first problem in answering that question is the fact that the White Paper, as is often the case, is heavy on ideas and light on detail.

We can only guess how some of this will work in practice. There isn’t space here to discuss all of the proposals but here’s a quick run through some of the headlines.

Recruitment and retention are pretty high on most school leaders’ lists, so what suggestions does the White Paper contain? Well, there’s a commitment to more flexible working opportunities and reduced workload; all of which is welcome, but most of which we’ve heard before.

There are free web tools and a free national jobs website. That will save some schools a pretty penny on advertising, but is unlikely to solve a national recruitment crisis.

Thankfully there are some meatier plans too. The National Teaching Service, something NAHT has previously supported, would see over one-and-a-half thousand teachers and middle leaders deployed to areas of greatest need across the country. We’ll have to see exactly how this allocation and deployment will work out, and there are issues for those with significant caring responsibilities. However, for schools in areas that traditionally struggle with recruitment, this could be of some help.

Initial teacher training (ITT) and qualified teacher status (QTS) are also in for a shake-up and at first it all sounds like good news. There will be new quality criteria for ITT providers with a greater focus on subject knowledge and evidencebased practice. More places will be given to the most successful providers in the areas of greatest need and allocations will be granted over longer periods to allow for improved planning. So far, so good.

QTS will be replaced with ‘a stronger, more challenging accreditation based on a teacher’s

effectiveness in the classroom’.

In the future, we are told full accreditation will only be achieved ‘after teachers have demonstrated their proficiency – including the strength of their subject knowledge – over a sustained period in the classroom’.

On the surface, this all seems very sensible; more training where it’s needed most and a longer period in the classroom before we decide someone is ready to be recognised as a fully fledged teacher. However, there are a few important cautionary notes to make here.

New entrants to the profession will not be required to undertake any ITT. Instead they could just start teaching and gradually make their way towards accredited status over time. This is, according to the government, in order to make it easier to get skilled experts in shortage areas like coding into our classrooms. It will certainly mean that we have more unqualified teachers than ever before. And we have to question how many young people who are struggling with student debt will favour a year-long ITT programme over the variety of short courses and direct-entry routes that will inevitably proliferate.

Also, the revised accreditation process is not without its challenges. Once a school believes a teacher has reached the required standard for accreditation, they will make a recommendation which will then be ratified by another ‘high-performing school’. While on the surface, peer accreditation seems like a useful way to go, the profession will need to be mindful that accreditation standards remain consistent between multiacademy trusts (MATs) and large chains, so that accreditation has equal validity wherever it is gained.

Luckily, the White Paper

No one seems to know how on earth (let alone why on earth) at a time of financial austerity, we are going to find the funds required to undertake structural change of this kind; especially when the evidence of success is, well, let’s just say patchy

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POLICY AND LEGISLATION

The White Paper, as is often the case, is heavy on ideas and light on detail

30 suggests we will have some independent bodies to oversee the way this is all going. The College of Teaching, independent of government is now a step closer to existence and will produce its own journal, setting out the evidence base for what works in the classroom. The evidence-based approach is to be supported by more investment in the Education Endowment Foundation. The National College of Teaching and Learning is to get a revamp and reinvestment and we are to get a national standard for Continuing Professional Development.

What about school leaders?

The big good news story seems to be the realisation by government that high-stakes inspection is bad for head teacher recruitment. The White Paper proposes further changes to Ofsted inspections, including an ‘inspection window’ for new heads taking on schools in challenging circumstances or new schools in challenging areas. There is to be a new suite of national professional qualifications in leadership

and middle leadership, and a commitment from government to work with the Foundation for Leadership in Education (in which NAHT is a founding partner).

The importance of increasing diversity in school leadership features quite heavily in the White Paper, where it points out the extent of the challenges, stating that currently, only 3.2 per cent of heads are from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups (compared with 7.3 per cent of all teachers) and at secondary, just 37.1 per cent of head teachers are female (compared with 75.2 per cent of all classroom teachers).

Schools will be supported to develop leadership pipelines and encourage more BME, women and LGBT teachers to consider leadership roles. This is certainly something that NAHT supports and, along with NAHT Edge, will be looking to provide support for all members of the school community who are looking to develop leadership skills.

Finally on the school leadership front, there are some big proposals on governance, where there is to

be a much greater focus on skills and training and much less on parental representation. In fact, if the proposals go through, there will no longer be any requirement for a governing board to have reserved seats for parent governors. That is likely to cause huge controversy, and no doubt will be further clarified in coming months. Less controversial is the introduction of a national database of everyone involved in governance along with the power to bar unsuitable individuals from governance.

This is something NAHT has long requested and will be pleased to see being taken forward.

So there we are. I’ve yet to touch upon what the White Paper has to say about those lighter topics such as funding, curriculum and assessment and of course the national academies programme.

These will be covered in the next issue of Leadership Focus.

So what do you think, are there any good ideas in the White Paper?

We’d love to hear your views. Please email us at policy@naht.org.uk

NAHTURALLY TAILORED TRAINING FOR OUR MEMBERS’ NEEDS For occasions where standard ‘off the shelf’ training courses might not fit your requirements.

We offer value for money bespoke training, delivered to your staff, at your venue of choice by high quality facilitators.

For more information please contact events@naht.org.uk or visit naht.org.uk/events

POLICY AND LEGISLATION

Educational excellence everywhere What does it mean for middle leaders?

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JAMES BOWEN, director of NAHT Edge, gives his view of the White Paper. he issue of universal academisation has understandably dominated coverage of the government’s recent White Paper. However, there is a lot more to the paper than just this one issue. Measures to tackle geographical inconsistencies in the quality of schools, further reforms to Ofsted inspections and changes to how teachers gain qualified teacher status are just a few of the other areas that are covered.

The paper can effectively be split into four overarching headings:

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● Universal Academisation ● Recruitment & Retention ● Curriculum, Assessment & Accountability ● School Funding A closer reading of the paper reveals that within each of these areas there are a number of specific proposals that are likely to impact middle leaders and NAHT Edge members.

Universal Academisation Pay and conditions: Under the academy system, each academy chain is free to set its own pay and conditions for teachers and leaders. There is no requirement to stick to a nationally set main scale, upper scale, TLR points, etc. This means that pay and conditions for middle leaders could potentially vary significantly from trust to trust. While this will obviously impact all employees in a school, the impact on TLR payments and leadership scales will be of particular concern to our members. It is important to note that those currently working in a school that transfers from the local authority to become an academy will be covered by Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) arrangements – more details of which can be found on the NAHT Edge website www.nahtedge.org.uk.

Increased Influence: Under the Multi Academy Trust (MAT) structure, there is an expectation that middle leaders will have greater influence beyond their own schools. This could mean subject leaders taking on responsibility for their subject across a number of, or even all schools within the trust. For example, the paper talks about a subject leader taking the lead for their subject across ‘30 schools’ within their MAT. This would bring both opportunities and challenges for middle leaders.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Recruitment and Retention Qualified teacher status (QTS): The proposal is for QTS to be replaced with a more challenging accreditation based on a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as judged by schools. The White Paper states that, ‘full accreditation will only be achieved after teachers have demonstrated their proficiency… over a sustained period in the classroom’. In a large number of schools, middle leaders often act as mentors and play a key role in supporting teachers in the early stage of their careers.

CPD: There is a strong focus in the paper on improving the quality of professional development for leaders at all levels. There is an expectation that the number of teaching school alliances will grow in order to provide ‘high-quality leadership development activity’. The paper also states that the government will continue to support targeted programmes for developing middle leadership in schools facing challenging circumstances such as the ‘High Potential Middle Leaders Programme’.

Formal accreditation: The government has said that it will work with a range of external providers to develop a reformed National

Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership and Senior Leadership. There is a commitment to working with the new Foundation for Leadership in Education (which the NAHT is playing a lead role in establishing) to develop a long-term strategy for such qualifications. These will continue to be voluntary.

Flexible and part-time working: As part of measures to address ongoing recruitment issues, the paper outlines plans to encourage schools to create opportunities for teachers to work flexibly, including through part-time work and job sharing. If successful, this should make it easier for middle leaders to combine their school and family commitments.

National Teaching Service: The concept behind this is that the best teachers and middle leaders will be encouraged and supported to move to work in schools in some of the nation’s most challenging areas. This scheme could see schools being able to request support from ‘elite’ middle leaders for up to three years. The paper states that these middle leaders will ‘receive a package of support and a clear path to promotion’. The pilot for this scheme is due to be launched in the north west later this year. It will be interesting to see how the logistics of such a scheme are managed.

A closer reading of the paper reveals that within each of these areas there are a number of specific proposals that are likely to impact middle leaders and NAHT Edge members

Curriculum, Assessment & Accountability SEND: Within the White Paper the government has reiterated its commitment to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in order to boost their attainment.

In line with the new code of practice, there is a strong focus on putting children and parents at the heart of decisions that affect them. SENCOs have already been working to implement these reforms in their schools.

Alternative provision: The paper also contains plans to reform the alternative provision system so that mainstream schools remain accountable for this vulnerable group of pupils.

Higher-attaining pupils: There is a continued focus on schools stretching all children, especially the most able, and not just focusing on bringing children up to a ‘minimum level’. We will have to watch closely how this fits with the new progress measures that will come into force following the scrapping of National Curriculum levels.

School Funding Pupil premium: The government has announced that it will continue the pupil premium and improve its effectiveness by encouraging schools to adopt evidencebased-strategies, drawing on evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation. This will be of particular interest to members who take responsibility for pupil premium provision in their schools.

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ANNUAL CONFERENCE

ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN NUMBERS

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3570 Cups of coffee drunk

1350

Bottles of water opened

510 Dinners served

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

Conference season SPRING IS conference season when NAHT headquarters goes into overdrive to make sure everything is ready for the annual conference and AGM. This year we’re expecting to welcome nearly 400 members at the ICC in Birmingham over the conference weekend of Friday 29 April to Sunday 1 May.

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4517 Biscuits nibbled

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Past presidents present

16

Motions to be voted on

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 36

mong the orders of business, workshops, networking and a speech by the Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, conference attendees can expect a very special guest speaker this year – David Cameron. No, not the current prime minister and leader of the Conservative party; the ’real’ David Cameron.

David is an entertaining and engaging speaker with a unique view of the education landscape.

His experience stretches from the classroom to leadership of children’s services at local authority level. He has contributed to the development of national educational policy and its implementation in schools. As the lead on Scotland’s Outdoors Education strategy, David was involved in the devolved management of schools initiative and was a central player in Scotland’s challenging Curriculum for Excellence project. And he helped draft Creative Scotland’s manifesto on learning and creativity.

David is also a leading player in Scotland’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, an annual education festival aimed at challenging, provoking and generating ideas about how education could (and should) be.

With such an eclectic background and strong opinions, it’s sure to be an inspiring and thought-provoking session.

Leadership Focus caught up with David to ask him what conference attendees can expect to hear.

UESTION &ANSWER

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Despite everything, being a leader in education is a wonderful job. It really does offer the chance to make a difference for young people and we need people in post who are committed to doing that

Ten minutes with the ‘real’ David Cameron

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LF: Can you give us a taster of what you’ll be speaking about at NAHT annual conference?

David: I want to talk about the unacceptable workload that schools and head teachers are faced with and try to take a positive approach to dealing with that. It will be a tricky balancing act between realism and optimism, but will hopefully leave colleagues feeling that their circumstances have been recognised, but also feeling that they have more energy, passion and ideas to deal with them.

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LF: What are you looking forward to at NAHT annual conference?

David: I suppose that I am looking forward to working for an organisation that I respect and the opportunity to meet colleagues who, I believe, are working to make a difference for young people. I hope to learn a lot from conversations and from attending other sessions.

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LF: What do you think are the key issues in schools at the moment?

David: Clearly the recent White Paper and the commitment to forced academisation will be uppermost in people’s minds, and part of the impact of that is the massive problem in recruitment and retention of staff.

The best generalship in the history of the universe will be of little avail if you have no troops. I also think that there are massive problems in assessment.

We are still not assessing all that is important in terms of learning.

The curriculum is being narrowed.

Accountability is disproportionate …

I could go on!

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LF: What do you think the key strengths of a good school leader are?

David: I think there are different sorts of ‘good school leaders’ and I hate the way that we stereotype when we discuss leadership. Michael Wilshaw can be terribly guilty of this in some of his public utterances with his clichés of ‘bruisers and battleaxes’ and intriguing references to Clint Eastwood. For me, a good leader offers clarity of purpose, demonstrates his/her values in his/her behaviour, knows his/ her strengths and builds teams that work with these. He/she is generous with his/her time and trust and has a deep understanding of how schools in general, and his/ her school in particular, work.

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LF: Any predictions for 2016?

David: I fear that it will get worse before it gets better, but I think that we will begin to have some grounds for optimism. There are clear signs that the current government has gone too far in its ideological commitments and has divided its own supporters and alarmed parents.

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LF: What advice would you give to new and aspiring leaders in education?

David: Go for it! Despite everything, being a leader in education is a wonderful job.

It really does offer the chance to make a difference for young people and we need people in post who are committed to doing that. Draw on the generosity of colleagues and be brave.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

ELECTRONIC VOTING Following the success of electronic voting at last year’s conference, the system has been enhanced this year. Every voting delegate will be given a voting card and electronic handset with a keypad to cast votes and let the President know if they want to speak. The handset also doubles as a microphone so delegates can stand at their seat instead of walking to the microphone to address the conference.

PRESIDENTS PAST AND PRESENT

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

+ Tony Draper, NAHT president 2015/16, is the 115th president. + At the 2016 conference Tony will hand over to the incoming president, Kim Johnson. + Presidents always serve as vice president for a year before taking office.

+ On Saturday 27 March 1897, the National Federation of Head Teachers’ Association was founded at a conference at the Clarendon Street School, Nottingham. + This first conference was attended by 14 local representatives. + Nottingham became a city in the same year.

+ Past presidents are entitled to a personal vote at every subsequent conference after their year in office.

+ At the end of the first year, the association’s membership was 1,477, with 12 affiliated associations.

+ The first president was Edward Bolus.

+ Membership was initially limited to boarding schools.

LEAD AND LETTERED MOTIONS In response to feedback from last year’s conference, a system of lead and lettered motions is being introduced this year, for example 1a (lead motion), 1b, 1c, etc. Proposers and seconders of lead motions will have a total of five minutes to give their speeches.

After that, anyone who proposed and seconded a lettered motion can speak for two minutes. This will cut back on the number of motions to be debated and give delegates more debating time.

GET INVOLVED

Read the latest reports on debates and decisions at Annual Conference 2016 on the NAHT website www.naht.org.uk

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COLLABORATION

Perfect partners yron Primary School is a large primary school in Gillingham, Kent, with some 525 children and 67 staff. Back in 2014 it was rated ‘Inadequate’ by Ofsted and, since then, it has been on a turnaround/improvement journey, including becoming an academy, part of The Westbrook Trust, in January this year.

So far, of course, so similar to many other schools up and down the country. But one thing that marks Byron Primary out, is the partnership it has forged over the past two years with financial services firm Vanquis Bank to help it on this improvement trajectory, a partnership that has in the past year alone been worth £64,000 to the school.

“When I joined the school two years ago, there was already a relationship with Vanquis Bank in that it was funding one of the year six residentials and some of its staff regularly came along to support the trip,” recalls head teacher Jon Carthy.

“That initial partnership had been borne out of the fact the bank operates a large call centre in the area, in Chatham, so a number of bank employees have children at the school and many have previously been pupils at the school. But it is also simply because, as an organisation Vanquis Bank, has similar links with many other schools; it is very active within local communities,” he adds.

That may well be the case but, since Jon’s arrival, which pretty much coincided with the arrival of a new community investment manager at the

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bank, Annette Saunders, the relationship between the school and the bank has, in Jon’s words, “gone through the roof”.

As he says: “I invited some of the management team, including Annette, to come to the school and walk around and see everything we do. They spent half a day with us and I showed them around, warts and all. At that point the school was in special measures and so I set out my vision for how I wanted to move the school forward, how we were embarking on a huge school improvement journey that was going to benefit the children and families, which they really bought into.

“The result has been amazing.

The bank has fully funded the development of a new foundation stage playground; it has bought laptops for all the children and purchased trollies for them; it has renewed our library books; and it has continued to fund and support the year six residential.

“On top of this, we’ve hosted our School Council at the bank’s offices and some of the children have gone up to London on the train to visit its headquarters, at the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building in Fenchurch Street.

That was real experience for the children; they got to spend an hour with the managing director, they were given lunch, and then got a tour of the building’s Sky Garden.

“The bank also introduced us to the Outward Bound Trust and we are now organising a five-day residential trip to Wales in the autumn. It has given advice to our governors and our business manager; it’s there on the end of the phone, which is just wonderful.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

The result has been amazing.

The bank has fully funded the development of a new foundation stage e playground; it has bought laptops for all children and purchased trollies for them; it has renewed our library books

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Jon Carthy with some of his pupils in the Sky Garden at Vanquis Bank, based in the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building in Fenchurch Street, London.

“For example, when we were going through the academisation process, we were short of a trustee and, while the bank recognised that putting one of its own people forward would probably have over-stepped the mark in terms of its relationship with us, it was very happy to recommend some people within

the financial services world for us to approach, which was hugely valuable,” adds Jon. What has the bank got back in return? Has it been a case of “your child’s education, brought to you in association with Vanquis Bank”?

Not at all, emphasises Jon. “The bank is very clear it wants very little back for all this. It’s quite happy for us to name-drop the fact it’s

COLLABORATION 40

our corporate partner but it isn’t looking for any publicity or anything specific – branding and so on – from this. It does this because it fits with its policy, which is to put significant time and resources into a few, select community organisations, especially ones that have a vision of where they want to go.”

Vanquis Bank’s Annette Saunders makes the same point. The bank, part of the Provident Financial Group, employs around 1,300 people, split between its London HQ, the operation in Chatham to a division in Bradford. As a result, it supports the Royal Docks Community School in Newham and Dixons Trinity Academy in Bradford, as well as Byron Primary.

“Our ethos is that we want to try and have grassroots, community connections wherever we have a footprint as an organisation.

When I went to visit Byron it broke my heart as we walked around the school to see the state it was in and the fact this was part of ‘our’ community,” says Annette.

“But it was also clear Jon was passionate about improving the school and so we sat down and talked about what it was we could do to help; how it was we could support him. I then spoke to our finance people and got the money released. For us, it is simply about ‘doing the right thing’. It is about inspiring the children and creating a better environment in which they can learn.

“But as an organisation we’ve benefited too. When the children came up to HQ, the positivity, the buzz, around the office was amazing. It had a huge impact on a

lot of employees. Some employees also follow the school on Twitter and get its newsletter,” she adds.

So, how as a school should you go about ‘selling’ yourself to potential community or commercial partners? Annette is adamant the worst way is to rock up with a shopping list.

“It is about being flexible and adaptable and just simply trying to attract their attention. It might be at a networking event or through your local chamber of commerce; it might be through contacts that your school governors have,” she advises.

“But what’s important is it mustn’t just be about the cash. I get letters left, right and centre asking for money but often they have not thought about the bigger picture. It really helps to articulate how you feel we can get involved, how we can help and why that will make a difference; it might be whether our employees can help with trips or come in and read to the children. But it has to be about the bigger picture, not just the money,” she adds.

Being very aware of the boundaries of the relationship, especially in terms of what the partner organisation is wanting to get in return, is also important, advises Jon Carthy, even though in the case of Vanquis this has not been an issue.

“For me, there is no downside to this at all that I can see. I suppose in any sort of partnership arrangement it is very important for the school to be clear what the quid pro quo is, whether it’s publicity or something more. But for us it has all been positive,” he says.

LET US KNOW YOUR VIEWS ON THIS ARTICLE Email: nic.paton@headlines.uk.com

HOW TO GET STARTED • Speak to your school governors about any contacts or links they may have • Audit who are the big employers in your area, and who within them may be the best named individual to approach • Gauge what it is you want to get out of the partnership • Be very clear with the partner what it is they will be looking for in return and whether there are any ‘lines in the sand’ (for example around branding, promotions or sponsorship) that both of you need to be aware of • Think carefully about whether there might be any reputational downsides associated with the partnership.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Below: Children receiving a talk from bank staff.

• Business in the Community (www.bitc.org.uk/) runs an initiative called Business Class that links schools with businesses • The British Chambers of Commerce (www.britishchambers.org.uk) is also active in this area, through its Chamber Network • It is worth seeing if there are smaller networking organisations in your local area. For example, there is a charity called Inspire! (www.inspire-ebp.org.uk) that works to link employers with schools in Hackney, Camden and Islington in London • The Education Business Partnerships network (www.ebpnational.org.uk) also has useful links, although it tends to be more focused on training and employment links than school partnerships as such.

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FUNDING

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

The funding vote or most of us, how we vote in the European referendum on 23 June will be a case of carefully weighing up a range of ‘heart versus head’ questions about our ongoing relationship with our continental neighbours. But, for school heads and leadership teams, there will be another important question to consider: what a vote for “Brexit” might mean for the ability of their school to access potentially valuable EU funding.

As former NAHT president and national executive member Chris Harrison points out: “The biggest international funding source for schools, by millions of euros, is the EU. So this is quite an opportune moment for the profession to be discussing the potential benefit of EU funding streams as, if we come out of the EU, schools could lose access to that.

“There used to be a whole series of Brussels-generated funding streams to support inservice training and professional

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development. But about two years ago everything was brought together into one funding mechanism, Erasmus+,” he adds.

Technically, it’s not a certainty that if Britain were to crash out of the EU it would lose access to funding streams such as Erasmus+.

Countries that are outside the EU (such as Iceland and Switzerland) do participate in Erasmus+.

But to do so they have agreed separate contracts with the EU, and therefore, in all likelihood, the UK would have to follow the same path and agree its own deal, but in a probable climate of political acrimony and uncertainty.

And Erasmus+ money is not to be sniffed at, both in terms of the hard currency benefit it can bring to a school but (and probably more importantly) because of the valuable educational, developmental and cultural benefits that can be gained from accessing these funding streams, especially for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND).

We have accessed two lots of €25,000. The first was a partnership with schools in Estonia, Turkey, Italy and Spain, focused on opportunities for inclusion

NAHT incoming president Kim Johnson, head at Bradfields Academy in Chatham, Kent, which provides specialist SEND provision for students aged 4-19 with a range of complex learning disabilities and difficulties, is among those whose school has benefited from Erasmus+.

“We have accessed two lots of €25,000. The first was a partnership with schools in Estonia, Turkey, Italy and Spain focused on opportunities for inclusion. The second one we led on with schools in Finland, Portugal and Turkey around developing our Youth Partnership work,” he explains.

“There is, of course, a process that you have to go through, there is paperwork, but it is quite straightforward.

And the opportunity for the engagement and enrichment for students through the release of this capital is immense.

“For a child with disabilities, having the experience of travelling abroad and engaging with different people can be just a massive thing.

It makes them think of themselves more as individuals, rather than individuals with disabilities. And as a school we now see ourselves very much as international citizens, as international advocates for people with disabilities.

“The development effect on the children’s self-confidence and self-esteem has been massive.

Sometimes we are taking children away from their families for the

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FUNDING 44

KEY ACTION 1 first time; some even stayed with a host family, for many, again, a first-time experience.

“It can help to bring alive your school curriculum. We have had parents come up and say ‘I would never have dreamed my child could have engaged with something like this’. It broadens their horizons and helps them to become more themselves,” Kim adds.

Erasmus+ funding is divided into two main ‘Key Actions’ explains Chris (see right for more information), and there tends to be a high success rate for applications. Indeed, some 70 per cent of primary schools that applied for funding under Key Action 1 (in other words funding related to the mobility of learners and staff) were successful last year.

“That rate of success last year means schools would be daft not to consider doing it,” Chris says.

Applications will normally be made as partnerships between schools or organisations within the UK and Europe. There is a common EU-wide application process, but the agency for accessing Erasmus+ funding in the UK is the British Council (www.britishcouncil.org).

There are, however, valuable resources and advice available directly through the Erasmus+ website (www.erasmusplus.org.uk).

“In the days when local authorities were mostly in charge, every local authority had their own modern foreign languages advisory staff who were able to encourage

and help schools to apply. With the demise of local authority control, it is down to the leaders in individual schools to recognise the potential of what is available and encourage people to go for it,” adds Chris.

“When you are putting together a proposal or bid it is usually a collaboration between two to three different countries. The first time you do it, it is, naturally, a bit of a trawl. But once you have been through the process once it is pretty easy, and the application lasts for 12 months.

“But it is not just about developing teachers, it is the support side, too – heads of departments, school leadership and areas such as SEND; it is money the whole school workforce is able to access.

“Whether you need money for a village school with 10-30 kids or a huge comprehensive with 2,0003,000, this is worth considering.

For most schools, 80 per cent of their budget goes on people, their teaching and other staff. I’d argue we need to be spending 77 per cent on staff and the extra 3-5 per cent on professional development; but EU funding can help make up that difference.

“One of the problems with running a school is that you are incredibly vulnerable to being inspected against your result.

But if you can show you have a professional development ‘pot’, and that you are promoting and sharing best practice, that can act as a protection,” he adds.

• You can make one application a year • An individual school or a local/regional authority consortium can make an application • Projects can last one to two years • The aims of Key Action 1 are to: support learners; help develop teachers in their roles; improve the quality of teaching; share and implement new ideas; improve languages; raise cultural awareness; make organisations more international; bring schools, employers and organisations together; and recognise the value of different ways of learning • Mobility activities for staff can last from two days to two months, and are available to all staff • These will normally be courses, training events, job shadowing, observation in a partner school or teaching assignments.

KEY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE APPLYING: • What do I want this money/project to achieve?

• How will I achieve it?

• What will be its impact?

• How will I evaluate the activities and their long-term impact?

• How will I tell others about what we’ve done or achieved?

STEPS Write your European Development Plan. This will need to consider questions such as the development goals of the school and how these link to the over-arching aims of Key Action 1.

1

This will then be scored under the Erasmus+ award criteria (out of 100), which is based on relevance of the project, the quality of the project design and implementation and impact and dissemination.

2

Relevance of the project: what do you want to achieve, how does your project address the aim of that action, how it is relevant to improving learning?

3

When it comes to accessing Erasmus+ funding, there are two Key Actions that are most relevant to schools. Key Action 1 is focused on funding related to the mobility of learners and staff and Key Action 2 is focused on forging strategic partnerships.

Staff mobility can cover teaching assignments abroad or staff training for staff and leaders at all levels.

The UK national agency for Erasmus+ is the British Council (www.britishcouncil.org), though Ecorys UK (www. uk.ecorys.com) covers vocational education and training and adult education.

The eTwinning School Education Gateway www. schooleducationgateway.eu is a good first port of call as it advertises mobility opportunities and strategic partnership requests.

Project design and implementation: what is the overall management plan and timetable, what will be the key milestones, quality measures and resources, what will be the budget planning and communication between partners?

4

Impact and dissemination: who will it benefit (short and long term), how will you let people know about it, how will you evaluate your activities?

5

The minimum score to secure funding is 60/100, and the application will need to score at least 50 per cent in each category.

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LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

KEY ACTION 2 • You can make one application a year • One organisation applies for funding in their country on behalf of the whole partnership • Partnerships can be between schools only, or between schools and different organisations • Projects can last between two and three years • Application funding is up to a maximum of €150,000 per year • Projects can include individual or group mobilities.

KEY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE APPLYING: • What are you planning to achieve, and why?

• Who will benefit from your activities in this project?

• How will you achieve it?

• Who are your project partners, and why?

• How will you evaluate your project and disseminate the outcomes?

YOUR APPLICATION MUST ADDRESS EITHER ONE ‘HORIZONTAL’ (OR GENERAL) PRIORITY OR ONE PRIORITY FOR SCHOOLS. Horizontal priorities include: • Developing skills • Innovation, developing new methodologies in learning or teaching • Enhancing use of digital in learning or teaching • Supporting projects that facilitate the recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning and cross-EU skills and qualifications • Help learners with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds through innovative teaching methodologies.

Priority objectives for schools include: • Revising and strengthening the profile of teaching professions • Improving the attainment of young people with low basic skills • Improving the attainment of young people, especially those at risk of leaving school early • Developing high-quality and accessible early childhood education and care services.

Dos and don’ts

DO ✔ Plan a project that has an impact on all partners ✔ Actively involve partners in the application writing and project planning ✔ Clearly describe agreed roles and responsibilities ✔ Use the application form to plan ✔ Look up the template eForm from the previous year, as this will give you a

STEPS Address key questions about the purpose of your project and the structure of your project team.

1

2

Link them to the horizontal/ school’s priorities.

Fill in the application form.

This will then be scored under the Erasmus award criteria (out of 100), which is based on relevance of the project, the quality of the project design and implementation, impact and dissemination and quality of the project team and co-operation arrangements.

3

• Relevance of the project: what do you want to achieve, how does the project address the priority, how is it innovative?

• Project design and implementation: what is the overall management plan and timetable, what will be the key milestones, quality measures and resources, what will be the budget planning and communication between partners?

• Impact and dissemination: who will it benefit (short and long term), how will you let people know about it, how will you evaluate your activities?

• Project team and co-operation arrangements: how did you choose your partners, and why; roles and responsibilities – who will do what?; how will you plan, communicate and deliver the activities?

The minimum score to secure funding is 60/100, and the application will need to score at least 50 per cent in each category.

4

LET US KNOW YOUR VIEWS ON THIS ARTICLE Email: nic.paton@headlines.uk.com

good idea of what to expect from the current year’s form ✔ Clearly describe your plans and strategy for delivery, say what your partnership will achieve and how ✔ Write your project summary first (even though it is at the end of the form)

erasmusplus.org.uk/project-planning for guidance on the application process.

DON’T ✘ Apply late or leave it all to the last minute ✘ Write your application in one go

✔ Specifically answer questions on the application form

✘ Write it all yourself

✔ Check out www.erasmusplus.org.uk or its various social media channels or www.britishcouncil.org for more information. Also go to

✘ Forget the time difference between the UK and Belgium

✘ Forget to include the attachments

✘ Hesitate to ask questions.

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REPRESENTATION

SIMON THOMAS, NAHT senior solicitor, takes a look at the scope of legal support provided for members.

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NAHT LEGAL SUPPORT FOR MEMBERS IS PREDOMINANTLY IN FOUR AREAS:

• Regulatory proceedings • Employment claims • Personal injury claims • Allegations of criminal offences in the course of employment.

here are separate regulators for England and Wales – the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) in England; Education Workforce Council (EWC) in Wales. The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland has not yet established a disciplinary function.

The NCTL only deals with ‘conduct’ and criminal offence cases and has only one sanction at its disposal; that is indefinite prohibition from teaching work.

When making a prohibition order the NCTL will specify a period of time (usually two or five

T

years) within which the teacher may not apply for the prohibition order to be set aside. NAHT has recently supported a member in a successful application to have a prohibition order set aside.

EWC on the other hand deals with capability cases too and has four sanctions available: reprimand, conditional registration order, suspension and prohibition.

REGULATORY CONDUCT CASES TEND TO COVER ALLEGATIONS RELATING BROADLY TO FOUR AREAS:

• Administration of tests • Financial issues

• Ill treatment of children • ‘Bullying’ of staff.

Administration of tests cases which make up possibly a third of regulatory cases usually involve papers having allegedly been altered. They can become quite technical with evidence of handwriting, ink types and indentations.

We have even had cases where the right answer has been replaced with the wrong answer. Where the evidence shows that papers have most likely been altered, there will often have been a failure to adhere to the guidance on security of papers which means that although a number of people may have had the opportunity to alter the papers, the buck will stop with the person who was responsible for the security.

We have represented a number of members who have, despite denials, been found to have either altered

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing and pay disputes.

Unfair dismissal claims often focus on the employer’s investigation leading to the dismissal. Employers have a wide discretion in determining ‘guilt’ or in deciding whether dismissal is the appropriate sanction. However, if the investigation is conducted with the aim of proving guilt (rather than a balanced gathering of evidence pointing to innocence or guilt) it may result in a dismissal being unfair.

Discrimination cases often involve disability (usually

For the victim to be eligible for compensation the assault must have been reported immediately to the police even if there is no possibility or likelihood of a police prosecution

papers or failed to have complied with security requirements. More often than not, maladministration of tests will result in a prohibition.

The lesson is to comply with the security requirements to the letter.

There are some similarities between criminal law and regulatory law. One is if the ‘accused’ admits the offence and shows remorse, or what the NCTL/ EWC like to call ‘insight’, and can convince the panel that the conduct is unlikely to be repeated.

In these cases they are treated more leniently and may escape prohibition for conduct which, if denied, would lead to prohibition.

The lesson is to follow the security requirements to the letter.

We handle claims for members as employees in employment tribunals, including unfair

concerning allegations of failures to make reasonable adjustments often relating to return to work after a period of sick leave) or return to work after maternity leave.

Despite the change in the law and the introduction of the ‘public interest’ requirement in whistleblowing claims, we are still handling a number of claims for members and have recently achieved a settlement for a member who resigned after he was bullied for making disclosures relating to safeguarding and financial issues about the head.

He had less than two years continuous employment so would not have been eligible to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim.

However, if a dismissal (including a constructive dismissal – where the employee resigns) is because of whistleblowing then there is no requirement for two years’ continuous employment.

The member managed to mitigate his loss by obtaining alternative employment and so

the settlement figure of £20,000 was sufficient to cover the loss between his resignation and the start of his new employment.

Personal injury claims are mainly tripping and slipping claims, including falls attributable to such things as ice, water, potholes in car parks, shiny concrete and peas!

However, employer’s liability for personal injury only arises where the employer was at fault in some way; for example, if they were in breach of a statutory provision or were negligent.

Employers are not liable for the actions of children and, in the absence of negligence by the employer, the only source of compensation for injuries sustained in assaults by children will be either compensation orders made by the criminal courts (which are only made if the assailant is convicted and tend to be modest) or through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

The victim of an assault may be eligible for a CICA award, even if the assailant is not prosecuted, which may be because they are under the age of criminal responsibility (10) or because the school has dealt with it as an internal behaviour management issue.

For the victim to be eligible for compensation, the assault must have been reported immediately to the police even if there is no possibility or likelihood of a police prosecution. Immediately, generally means within 48 hours. A cynic might say this requirement is designed to reduce the number of claims and cost to the public purse.

NAHT, through its external solicitors, also provides support and advice and, where appropriate, representation at the police station and in court for members accused of criminal offences allegedly committed in the course of employment.

They are mostly accusations of dishonesty (fraud/theft) or allegations of assaults on children. Most members accused of criminal offences for whom we provide support are either never charged or are acquitted.

FIND OUT MORE… If you need professional legal advice you can call 0300 30 30 333

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CHARITY PARTNER 48

Parental gui NAHT’S CHARITY PARTNER FOR 2016 IS TO BE THE FAMILY AND CHILDCARE TRUST

he Family and Childcare Trust (familyand childcaretrust.org) campaigns for affordable and accessible childcare, and better support for parents. It carries out a range of lobbying activities with government,

T

conducts research and provides information, advice and support.

However, one of the key attractions for NAHT in making the charity its partner for 2016 is the Trust’s Families First Quality Award accreditation scheme, which schools

can gain to show they are demonstrating excellence in providing information, advice and assistance to local families.

As NAHT incoming president Kim Johnson has made the point, the hope is that partnering with the Trust will encourage more

Above: The Trust presenting a Families First Quality Award to Thurston Community College near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 20116

49

dance is key schools to revisit and improve their working relationships with parents, and go through the process of gaining accreditation.

“The reality is parents can be our greatest support or our most difficult adversaries. School leaders have a real responsibility

to ensure that parents, in turn, are taking responsibility for their children,” he says.

“It is also about how we as employers better engage with our staff, who of course will often be parents themselves and may have children at the

school; and how we become more family-friendly for staff.

“One of the award’s strengths is its ability to look at every detail about how to make yourself more family-friendly; what is it we need to do on a day-to-day basis to engage with parents?

L-R: Pheobe Mercer, Jack Wills, NAFIS officer, Helen Wilson, principal, Grace Long and Scott Taylor.

CHARITY PARTNER

“During this year we will be working with the Trust to help ensure schools have policies and practices in place that are fit for purpose, that advice and support is available to leadership teams, and that the quality of their parentteacher support is improved.

“To my mind, this partnership, is an enormous opportunity.

When schools come to being judged by Ofsted, one of the big issues is around parental engagement within the school, so this is a way potentially to show that. The Families First Quality Award is a badge that shows your engagement with parents,” Johnson adds.

“This partnership is really about continuing, and deepening, the work we are already doing with schools,” agrees Rebecca Griffin, head of communication and campaigns at the Trust.

50

Below: The charity presents a Families First Quality Award to Thurston Community College near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, the first secondary school to receive the award.

(L-R) Will Tucker, NAFIS officer, Helen Wilson, principal, Patrick Chung, mayor of St Edmundsbury and Robert Lenko, chair of governors.

Left: Family and Childcare Trust chief executive Julia Margo with Parliamentary under secretary of state for childcare and education Sam Gyimah at a recent event about changes to childcare support, hosted by the Trust.

Below: The Bridge school in Ipswich receives an award.

(L-R) Will Tucker, NAFIS officer, Adrian Ilott, chair of governors, Frances Gander, vice chair of governors, Liz Gerrie, governor, and Odran Doran, head teacher.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | MAY 2016

“The Families First Quality Award accreditation scheme is already very popular with schools; it is about encouraging excellence in the way local authorities, the various agencies and schools all work and communicate with parents and communities around early years’ provision.

“Schools are becoming much more engaged with outcomes for home learning and making sure parents know about what local services are available and how they can access them. There is

already a requirement by Ofsted to be doing this anyway, and so we’re hoping our partnership will help schools to more effectively build and show the evidence they need in this context.

“We hope this partnership will enable us to talk to more schools and work with more schools; we hope to be able to reach out to schools to show them the work we do and how our various schemes can, in turn, work for them. It is really exciting,” she adds.

51

Above: Parents from Owler Brook school in Sheffield involved in the Trust Parent Champions scheme.

The reality is parents can be our greatest support or our most difficult adversaries. School leaders have a real responsibility to ensure that parents, in turn, are taking responsibility for their children

LET US KNOW YOUR VIEWS ON THIS ARTICLE. Email: nic.paton@headlines.uk.com

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In your first headship you will face both excitement and challenge and it will be important to continue to invest in your own skills and to find time for reflection.

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Last month the conference ran for the first time in London and 100% said they’d be back next year!

At the conference the range of workshops includes: dealing with difficult people, de-mystifying Ofsted inspections and emotional health and wellbeing. One workshop attendee from the London conference, Seamus

SCHOOL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE 22 JUNE, BIRMINGHAM This year we have launched our first school business management conference which has been developed for all school leaders who are involved in the business side of their schools. Featuring keynote speakers education secretary The Rt Hon Nicky Morgan, Dominic Herrington regional schools commissioner, Russell Hobby NAHT general secretary and Valentine Mulholland, NAHT policy adviser, you will be able to choose from a range of workshops including the latest update about the national funding formula; demystifying the finance world for academies; attracting, recruiting and retaining top talent; and mindfulness: enhancing wellbeing.

Gibbons, head teacher, Langford Primary School stated that “As a result of this conference, when I go back to school I will be more confident in handling challenging conversations and will think about the members of staff in my school who don't get enough of my attention.”

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53

THE FINAL WORD

SUSAN YOUNG: Education columnist

Aiming high few years ago, King Ethelbert School on Kent’s Isle of Thanet was turning out hairdressers, shop assistants and car mechanics – that is, if former students found work at all.

Recent destinations are rather different, with sixth-formers taking apprenticeships in banks and stockbrokers, going to university, and becoming teaching assistants, midwives and more.

Aspirations have been forced upwards in one of the most deprived areas of the UK – thanks to a little-known qualification and the sheer determination of executive head teacher Paul Luxmoore.

“I’m going to force them to have higher aspirations, even if they don’t want to have higher aspirations. I’m bloody-minded about that. They’ll tell you to ‘eff off’, that they don’t want to go to university or do anything different to their parents,” he says.

So now he only offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) to sixth-formers.

“You’re raising aspiration compulsorily: if A Levels or vocational study post-16 look easier, that’s what they’ll go for. You have to be quite brutal about forcing people to have higher aspirations,” he chuckles, adding: “I am proudest of making everybody study the IB, because I’m damned if my students in a deprived area like Thanet aren’t going to do exactly the same as those whose parents pay a fortune for independent schools.”

While he offers the academic IB Diploma, it is the growing Career Related Programme which has proved transformational. The IBCP has been so successful that schools offering it in Kent will more than double to 26 by September 2017, with the IB organisation streamlining processes to meet demand.

Students are getting high grades, and Luxmoore says it’s “magic” for its flexibility and preparation for work, apprenticeship or further study. “It’s really simple and brilliant. It’s the only educational offer I know that combines vocational and academic learning with a core which makes it coherent.”

A

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Students combine at least two IBCP subjects, plus programmes including vocational A Levels or BTECs, and the core. New subjects can be added: he’s currently evaluating a specialist financial course.

Now, King Ethelbert’s students aspire to university and much more.

Luxmoore recalls with pleasure a boy who said: “‘I’ve got the options of an apprenticeship, a job and a university place as a back-up.’

I thought, that’s brilliant.”

The qualification’s focus on different learning styles – where students take responsibility, work collectively, and learn how to research and present information – is attractive to employers, and has been adopted throughout the school.

It includes a compulsory community project, which saw one group organising King Ethelbert’s reunion.“We gave 16 students a £2,000 budget – there were lots of fallouts and tears but they were successful and learned a huge amount about organising something as a team.”

Language learning is also compulsory.

“Our students do Italian, usually with a teacher who doesn’t know any Italian and learns with them. The whole point is that they work out how to learn together.

If you forced them to learn a language for an exam nobody would do the IBCP but this way it’s an absolute pleasure and a staple part of the course,” he says.

Susan Young

Upcoming challenges are to widen students’ horizons beyond the immediate area, although Luxmoore is encouraged that one former pupil returning for teacher training with them did her degree in Liverpool.

He has his own big aspirations for his coastal school: “We’re hoping to get capital to a group of students to set up a business and make money through their CP project in the hope of creating young entrepreneurs who will become future employers and help to regenerate the economy of Thanet. I don’t see why we shouldn’t use education as not just a route to HE or employment, but to create employers of the students. I think it is entirely normal and natural to do that.

“I get angry with the government’s approach that for a few hundred quid of pupil premium money we we are expected to eradicate the effects of poverty on education. But doing that is what motivates me and my colleagues: we see our job as providing education that will change the local economy and people’s life chances.”

I’m going to force them to have higher aspirations, even if they don’t want to have higher aspirations. I’m bloody-minded about that Paul Luxmoore

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Full terms and conditions at aviva.co.uk/naht *10% of customers buying comprehensive car insurance with us from November 2015 to January 2016 paid this price or less for our standard cover (excluding optional extras). The price you will pay depends on individual circumstances, cover chosen and payment method. **Amazon.co.uk Gift Cards sold by Giftcloud rewards, an authorised and independent reseller of Amazon.co.uk Gift Cards. Amazon.co.uk Gift Cards may be redeemed on the Amazon.co.uk website towards the purchase of eligible products listed in our online catalogue and sold by Amazon.co.uk or any other seller selling through Amazon.co.uk. GCs cannot be reloaded, resold, transferred for value, redeemed for cash or applied to any other account. Amazon.co.uk is not responsible if a GC is lost, stolen, destroyed or used without permission. See www.amazon.co.uk/gc-legal for complete terms and conditions. GCs are issued by Amazon EU S.à r.l. All Amazon ®, ™ & © are IP of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Insurance underwritten by Aviva Insurance Limited. Registered in Scotland No. 2116.

Registered office: Pitheavlis, Perth, PH2 0NH. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

CFPOCA0090 04.2016