Secondary headship july 2013 mke article

School improvement

Overcoming the challenges of deprivation How do you turn around a struggling school in an area of deprivation to meet the increasing expectations of Ofsted and earn an ‘outstanding’ verdict? In this article, Mo Laycock talks to two heads who have made the leap The barriers to achieving success in a school where many students come from impoverished homes, which might include having no table to do their homework on and little or no heating, are enormous. Add to this a community where there is high unemployment and low aspirations and where drugs, alcohol and antisocial behaviour are all significant problems, and you have the backdrop for Shirebrook Academy in Mansfield.

Julie Bloor became the principal designate of the academy in summer 2010. In 2006/07 the school was an LEA ‘Cause for Concern’ category. Under its new leadership, the academy placed the community at the heart of its vision for the future, and made a commitment to raise attainment annually.

The starting point was a three-year plan with the decision made to only aim to address two or three changes or challenges in each academic year. ‘This is important to keep your team with you,’ Julie explained. ‘I was also aware that sometimes I might have to be prepared to stick my neck out and challenge LA expectations.’

In Year 1 of becoming an academy the governors agreed with their new principal to offer voluntary early retirement with some enhancement to staff who were tired and ready to go. Other teachers and teaching assistants were put into capability procedures, although most of these left prior to the final stages of this process. ‘This has allowed me to appoint new, effective and younger staff keen to share the vision for Shirebrook,’ Julie explained.

The additions included two middle leaders and a number of Teach First staff. The SLT was restructured.

In the place of the deputy principals, there is now one senior deputy. Two assistant principals have been appointed from existing staff and another from outside the academy. ‘The staffing structure for Shirebrook is key to ensuring ongoing success and I was keen to promote from within the existing staff body to send a clear and positive message that promotion was possible,’ she explained.

Year 1 also saw a major review of the school’s QAS/ Monitoring procedures. Two external consultants were brought in to work with all staff in making the monitoring and observations of lessons more rigorous and linked to the Ofsted framework. The academy also used their SIP (a former headteacher), and other local ex-headteachers and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) to help progress their work.

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Secondary Headship 116 July/August 2013

Encouragement and reward

In deprived schools you live and die by your annual results

Although Julie said she was acutely aware of the need to ensure a work-life balance for herself and her staff, she noted that this wasn’t always achieved: ‘The academy’s car park is usually full at 8am and staff engage in many lunch time, after-school and weekend activities for students. This reflects the knowledge that students generally do the bulk of their learning and revision in school and not at home.’

Julie has a strong belief in encouraging, rewarding and praising staff in whatever ways possible and says this is an essential team ethos which contributes enormously to the success of the academy.

‘Leading a deprived school is tough, not only in relation to improving outcomes for students, but also in respect of the challenges of the community and historically low aspirations,’ Julie said. ‘There is no magic solution but having a shared vision. Being tenacious and robust is vital.

‘Value good staff, offer quality CPD on a regular basis – focusing on the two/three areas for development in the academic year – and always have teaching and learning as the focus of your thinking and planning.

In deprived schools you live and die by your annual results. ’ There was no quick fix to turning a deprived school round, she added. In order to ‘future proof ’ a school, it needed stability of leadership for five years at the very least.

Engaging all staff in the new school development plan was vital. ‘It’s also important to ensure there is no complacency now we have achieved “outstanding” from Ofsted,’ Julie said. ‘We now need to focus on transformational teaching and learning, using a variety of strategies including our teacher coaches, support from SHU and linking with our feeder primary schools.

‘Another focus will be on quality assurance. The school has two part-time secondments to research Quality First teaching and learning based on the David Hargreaves model. Two staff have extra free time and financial enhancements to lead on this work.’

Julie has recently become the executive headteacher of a local school in some difficulty. This has allowed her to make her excellent deputy principal the associate principal of Shirebrook.

Bethnal Green: Unlocking potential

The challenge of moving Bethnal Green Academy (BGA) forwards in the past five years has presented

School improvement

Profile: Shirebrook Academy, Mansfield Roll: 700 students, aged 11–16 years Indicators: SEN 25%

FSM 42%

Attainment on entry: low Attendance: 95% GCSE results: 2010: 44% 5+ A*-C with English and maths

2011: 55% 5+ A*-C with English and maths

2012: 65% 5+ A*-C with English and maths

2013 target is 67%

Ofsted results: March 2013: Attained ‘Outstanding’ in all areas, only one week away from moving into their new building.

many challenges. The academy is situated in Tower Hamlets, surrounded by high-rise flats, where many students live, and there are few open spaces, parks and gardens locally. It has also had to battle against a prominent gang culture and low local expectations of the school, in order to become a safe and exciting learning environment for all students.

So what was Mark Keary’s vision for the school when he joined as principal in 2007, at which point it was in special measures? ‘To stop the school being closed down and turned into a car park: anything else was a bonus!’ he said. ‘To do that we had to put the learner first, have the most effective staff to engage with teaching and learning and together to unlock the potential of every one of our students regardless of their social background or post code.’

The staff turnover in the school has stood at around 80% for the last five years. Staff, who were entrenched in a culture of low expectations and low aspirations for themselves and the students, needed to be challenged.

‘It was important to appoint effective, enthusiastic and passionate staff who believed in the future of the

Initially, at the level of senior leadership, the “survival rates” were lower then those of the Lancaster Bombers in WW2

Profile: Bethnal Green Academy, Tower Hamlets, London Roll: 971 students, aged 11–18 years Indicators: FSM: 85%

SEN: 29%

Ethnic minority students: 91% (25% of students born outside UK

and 30 different languages spoken)

Deprivation index: 0.58 (national average 0.21)

Stability measure: 67% (national average 92%)

Attainment on entry: very low Attendance: 96.5% GCSE results: 2012: 71% 5+ A*-C with English and maths Ofsted results: November 2012: Outstanding in all areas. In 2012, progress in English and maths was outstanding when compared with local and national results.

Other news: 99% of students reached their expected level of progress in English in 2012. Nationally this figure is 71%.

81% of students made the expected level of progress in maths in 2012. Nationally this figure is 64%.

academy,’ said Mark. ‘This included a large number of Teach First staff who are excellent practitioners and were instrumental, with others, in bringing about a culture change for the academy.

‘Initially, at the level of senior leadership, the ‘‘survival rates” were lower then those of the Lancaster Bombers in WW2. This has now changed and the academy has a highly effective and stable SLT.’ Partnerships have played an important part in turning the academy around. ‘Teach First personnel and London/City Challenge has had a significant and positive impact on the work of the academy.

HMI David Woods and other HMIs have also been instrumental in getting Bethnal Green to where it is today,’ Mark explained. ‘The local authority has also been supportive.’

Mark urged other academies facing challenges never to lose sight of their vision. ‘Measure your school by how close you get, each day, to where you want to be,’ he said. ‘And value your staff and their ideas. You don’t have to have the great ideas – create the right climate and the ideas will come from others. The more this happens, the closer you get to being outstanding.’

The future for the academy, according to Mark, was ‘to work with other schools and to unleash the revolutionaries from BGA who want also to change education in schools up and down the country’. Local schools had been trying to entice BGA staff to move into their school, but generally the staff were loyal to the academy. But clearly the opportunity to spread the BGA way of doing things was potentially exciting.

So had Mark any other advice to new headteachers of inner city/deprived schools in difficulties or otherwise?’ ‘No more advice’, he said. ‘Just this quotation: “I touch the future, I teach.” (Christa McAuliffe, Space Shuttle Challenge.)’

Both Shirebrook and Bethnal Green are relatively small with regard to cohort numbers in comparison with the size of schools nationally. The school leaders’ presence is apparent on a daily basis, leading the school team onwards and upwards.

Both leaders are passionate, highly skilled people with a clear vision and clarity of thinking. They are also more than able to challenge and question any unwanted interference or initiative which takes their eye off the ball. They value their staff and students, encouraging ideas, ensuring rewards at various levels.

The school ethos and team work in each environment is positive and supportive but with rigour and teeth.

Interestingly for me in respect of the current national agenda, both leaders see longevity and sustainability to be at the heart of their visions and view step-by-step incremental changes as important to achieving them.

Mo Laycock OBE is the former headteacher of Firth Park Community Arts College, Sheffield. She can be contacted at: maureenlaycock@yahoo.co.uk

Secondary Headship 116 July/August 2013

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