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.
8
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