Look what you’re doing
Better never stops David King describes the thinking behind a programme of fundamental change There is an old saying, ‘If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got’. This was very much the case at Appleford when I became Headmaster in 2011. Certainly, it was a lovely school and place to work and learn, almost ‘Enid Blytonesque’, but, with 58 pupils and a steadily declining roll, hardly a sustainable model for success. So, what to do…? First question. Is there a market for our school? Too often this question is avoided and schools are inclined to believe that they will succeed simply because they exist. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In a competitive market, one needs a USP that will differentiate your school from the field. In our case this was easy. We were a school that specialised in educating dyslexic pupils. So why were we in such a pickle when there was clearly a demand for our product? This led on to the second question. Are we as good at what we do as we think we are? Here a bit of honest soul searching
was called for, together with an analysis of similar provision across the country. In our case the answer was an emphatic no. Other ‘standard’ schools had caught us up and even surpassed what we believed to be a truly specialist provision. In short, it was possible to receive as good a level of provision in the primary school over the road – but we didn’t know it. Our survival therefore depended on providing a setting that reflected the needs of our pupils and parents, combined with a dramatic improvement in provision which reflected the 21st Century and put us at the forefront of specialist innovation. Not, as you will note, simply spending more money on marketing. In accepting this reality, Appleford was destined to embark on a programme of fundamental change and everyone had to be ready and committed to this. In setting our vision and commensurate development plan, it was not only important
Autumn 2018
5
