Leadership Focus (issue 91 / November 2021)

Issue 91 / November 2021 / £5

THE MAGAZINE FOR NAHT MEMBERS

FOCUS

A failure to invest

Values-based leadership How do our values drive what we do in our schools?

Free the STRB Time to remove the shackles of the government’s constraints.

SEND provision What needs to be done to protect those in special education?

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

OPINION

PAUL WHITEMAN: NAHT general secretary

Education is an investment in not only our children’s life chances but in the nation’s future ’m penning this column just two weeks after NAHT held its first face-to-face annual conference since April 2019.

It’s difficult to describe the energising effect that conference has on me, and I believe all the delegates who attend it. There is something so special that happens when our members come together to debate, discuss and share ideas about how we can improve education for the betterment of learners, teachers, school leaders and society as a whole – it can’t be replicated any other way.

By their very definition, trade unions are organisations created and run by members, so it’s no surprise we feel at our most powerful and effective when many of us can meet to shape our direction. That’s why our regions and branches are so crucial to our existence; they allow us the opportunity to meet frequently with fellow members, ensuring that the voices of school leaders can be heard in every part of England, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Crown Dependencies.

If you’re not someone who has previously been involved with your local branch or region, do consider contacting them. The support and sense of community you’ll receive from fellow members are massive parts of being in NAHT, and they’re also a great way of keeping up-to-date with what’s going on locally. You can find out more about your local NAHT branch or region by dropping us a line (email

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organising@naht.org.uk).

As well as providing the usual platform for members to discuss matters of the moment, conference delegates also received an address from the new secretary of state for education, Nadhim Zahawi. Not long into the job having up until very recently been responsible for overseeing the vaccine rollout, I was grateful that he took the time to speak to us.

In his speech, the secretary of state stressed the importance of delivering better national support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

This was good to hear, and he would do well to read the excellent feature within the pages of this magazine to understand just how critical the funding situation is in the special education sector. Our recent funding report showed that a staggering 97% of respondents felt that funding for pupils with SEND in their school was inadequate.

There can be no argument here; if this secretary of state and his government really do care about the future of these young people,

Above: Paul Whiteman

We have the next generation of society sitting in our classrooms; let’s give them everything they need to thrive.

then they have to do better and start backing up positive language with a financial investment that can actually make a difference. Rhetoric alone is not going to improve the prospects of these pupils.

Of course, funding remains an issue of paramount importance for all schools, and as I write this on the eve of the budget, I hope with every fibre of my being that the chancellor of the exchequer addresses the funding crisis. There will be little point to the Schools White Paper that the secretary of state announced he would be bringing forward at our conference if schools remain underfunded.

None of us is naïve; we’re well aware that the economic interventions taken to negate the worst consequences of the covid-19 pandemic will soon need to be addressed, and there will naturally be a temptation to tighten the purse strings in an effort to demonstrate fiscal responsibility. But I would urge the government to take a second look at our schools, where pupils have suffered and sacrificed so much throughout this period already, and ask it if this isn’t the perfect place to start the rebuilding. We have the next generation of society sitting in our classrooms; let’s give them everything they need to thrive.

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CONTENTS

ASSOCIATION AND EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES NAHT 15.11-15.12 Millbank Tower 21-24 Millbank London SW1P 4QP www.naht.org.uk Tel: 0300 30 30 333

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Editorial strategy board: Stuart Beck, James Bowen, Tim Bowen, Nick Brook, Mark Cornell, Iman Cornwall, Ruth Davies, Laura Doel, Guy Dudley, David Gilmore (chair), Magnus Gorham, Clare Fisher, Steve Iredale, Helena Macormac, Judy Shaw and Paul Whiteman. @nahtnews

EDITORIAL TEAM Editor: Nic Paton.

Publisher: David Gale.

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SALES DIRECTOR Ian Carter.

Tel: 0207 183 1815

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Leadership Focus is published on behalf of NAHT by Headlines Partnership Publishing, 51/52 Triangle Building, Wolverton Park Road, Milton Keynes, MK12 5FJ www.headlines.uk.com Tel: 01908 393303 Email: david.gale@headlines.uk.com ISSN: 1472-6181 © Copyright 2021 NAHT All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be copied or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. While every care has been taken in the compilation of this publication, neither the publisher nor NAHT can accept responsibility for any inaccuracies or changes since compilation, or for consequential loss arising from such changes or inaccuracies, or for any other loss, direct or consequential, arising in connection with information in this publication.

Acceptance of advertisements does not imply recommendation by the publisher.

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

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LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

Contents 7

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A failure to invest: the state of school funding The financial pressures NAHT members are under and why vital funding is needed more than ever.

16 Free the STRB from the shackles of the government’s constraints and interference The issue of pay for teachers and school leaders.

20 Values-based leadership How a values-led approach to school leadership might be a way forward.

30 Is SEND provision failing?

The financial situation surrounding special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.

14 Eq quality, diversity and inclusion

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Natalie Arnett, NAHT senior equalities officer, shares what NAHT has been up to as part of our co ommitment to better embed equality, diversity an nd inclusion into our work.

27 Industry-leading legal services How to access free legal advice and representation.

28 Emotional well-being Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive at Education Support, provides some top tips on the steps we can all take to improve our emotional health.

34 Discrimination claims in the workplace NAHT solicitor Richard Winterbottom looks at what to do if you are the victim of workplace discrimination or a claim is made against you personally.

35 Teachers’ Pensions: missing service

Is SEND provision failing?

Kate Atkinson, NAHT interim head of advice, gives some handy tips for fixing incorrect gaps in service.

38 Northern Ireland policy corner Helena Macormac, NAHT(NI) director, shares an update on covid-19 track and trace, our workload survey and more.

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39 Wales policy corner Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru director, provides an update on long covid, teachers’ pay and more.

41 Tim Bowen A word from our president.

45 Helping pupils to grow with outdoor education Jo Barnett, outdoor education group manager at Telford and Wrekin Council, shares two case studies of schools helping pupils learn with nature.

48 Courses and conferences Introducing our brand new courses to help you develop professionally and focus on your well-being.

50 The final word Journalist Susan Young talks to the school leader who’s making a splash.

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A FAILURE TO INVEST the state of school funding 2021

Leadership Focus journalist Nic Paton looks at the financial pressures NAHT members are currently under and why vital funding is needed more than ever. y the time you’re reading this, we could all be very pleasantly surprised. With chancellor Rishi Sunak due to deliver his comprehensive spending review and autumn budget on 27 October, there is – one has to suppose – at least an outside chance that education may suddenly find itself being showered with post-covid-19 gold.

However, given this government’s track record when it comes to loosening the purse strings – scrabbling down the back of the sofa for some loose change for covid-19 recovery rather than the transformational financial package the government’s education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins was looking for last summer; raiding national insurance for social care reform rather than looking for a more equitable taxation approach and implementing a pay freeze for teachers for 2021/22 – perhaps it’s best if none of us gets our hopes up too high.

What’s more, irrespective of whatever financial rabbits Rishi pulls out the proverbial hat this autumn, the reality is that education funding needs much more than just a one-off post-covid-19 cash injection, as NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman makes clear.

B

“Any extra money that is forthcoming from the government is, of course, welcome, especially extra finance to assist with covid-19 recovery. But, for me, when it comes to education funding, we need to be talking about much more than a short-term ‘recovery’ settlement,” Paul tells Leadership Focus.

“We – the government with unions and the wider profession – have to look beyond what recovery looks like, which should be short term, and really see this as a moment of wholesale financial reform for education,” he adds.

This need for a new funding settlement – and, in fact, a whole new funding conversation – was starkly illustrated in September by the launch of an NAHT report, ‘A failure to invest: the state of school funding in 2021’ (available at www.naht.org.uk/RD/A-failure-to-invest).

This laid bare the intense and heartbreaking financial pressures NAHT members are currently under, with a third of school leaders being forced to make cuts to balance their budgets this year and the numbers set to rise next year.

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision was in a particular state of crisis. Still, the report showed that crumbling infrastructure and

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman addressing MPs at the ‘A failure to invest: the state of school funding in 2021’ report's launch event.

unfunded rising employment costs were also significant and growing headaches for school leaders.

NAHT’s report echoed more high-level analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), published this autumn, which concluded that, despite the government’s allocation of more than £7bn extra for schools in England in the 2019 spending round, core spending per pupil in 2022/23 will still be 1% to 2% lower in real terms than in 2009/10. In fact, the IFS has argued, school spending per pupil fell in England by 9% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20.

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FUNDING

James Bowen, NAHT policy director at the launch.

Of course, that £7bn figure sounds a lot – and on paper it is – but the reality is it’s just a fraction of what’s needed, especially now with the financial impact of covid-19, highlights NAHT policy director James Bowen.

“It sounds like an enormous sum of money, but you have to remember, first of all, it is divided out over three years, and it’s also divided out over a lot of schools and a growing number of pupils. So, what starts by sounding like a big headline, when you get it down to the individual school level and over three to four years, it suddenly isn’t a big figure at all,” he explains.

“It’s also important to look at how funding is being allocated – we know that the government’s current approach has seen those schools serving the most deprived communities receiving the biggest cuts.

“As the IFS makes clear, despite the £7.1bn (when you take into account inflation), school funding overall will still be below where it was in 2009/10. This explains why

members are saying they still have to make cuts and why budgets are under enormous pressure. Then, of course, on top of all that, we’ve got the added covid-19 costs,” he adds.

“We’ve had stories coming back from members of them not replacing their teaching assistants (TAs) when they leave or having to make TAs redundant as well as other crucial members of staff who provide support, often to vulnerable pupils or those with special educational needs. The reality is that so much of a school’s budget is based around staffing, so if you have to make serious, substantial cuts, it is very hard to avoid cutting your staffing budget.

“There is only so much you can save on things like paper and photocopying.

When you are talking about tens of thousands of pounds, if not more, you are looking at staffing costs. If you reduce staff and teachers, that has an impact on the provision you can make for the children,” James adds.

To hammer home these messages and make clear to MPs and the government the reality for school leaders on the ground, NAHT briefed MPs in September to make a case for education to be properly funded in October’s comprehensive spending review.

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At that event, Labour MP and education select committee member Kim Johnson (pictured left) said: “This will be a massive campaign, and together, we will make it one the government can’t ignore.

Let’s fight this government together.”

Liberal Democrat MP, deputy leader and education spokesperson Daisy Cooper added that the report ought to “act as a trigger, a warning light, in Whitehall”. Teachers, she said, were facing “unconscionable choices” in their schools about whether to cut full-time teachers, TAs or anything else.

SEND provision, in turn, was “completely and utterly broken”, with the Liberal Democrats calling for a SEND-

specific recovery plan to be put in place by the government.

What, then, should NAHT members be doing to push and promote the campaign?

“We’d like to encourage members to engage their MPs in every constituency, in every community. To highlight and educate those MPs about what is really going on in terms of school funding rather than just what the Department for Education (DfE) is saying. The reality at the coalface is very

different from the DfE’s ‘you’ve never had it so good’,” Rob Kelsall, NAHT national secretary, tells Leadership Focus.

“Head teachers and school leaders are very skilled at making good of bad government policy around education and papering over the cracks. It’s now once again about sticking our heads over the parapet and speaking out publicly. We’ve demonstrated before how, by working with parents, we can make our voice heard

in the corridors of power, and it is clear that we will need to do that once again.

“The pandemic has overlaid the preexisting shortfall in funding with additional costs that we are all aware of. That is what led to Sir Kevan Collins’ resignation over the summer. For us, when we set off on this campaign five years ago, we said that we wouldn’t stop until we get the government – whatever government, and whatever colour politically – to fund our education service sufficiently and properly.

“There is quiet optimism that the government is already in a situation where it is going to have to come up with something. I think there will be some monies there. Will it be enough? Almost certainly not. If it is not enough, we will continue, and we will continue until the investment is forthcoming. We’re not going away; we said that five years ago, and we’re still saying it.

“Our campaign has been relentless and reasonable. We will continue to fight until we secure greater investment for all

children and young people across all of our nations,” Rob adds.

As Paul makes clear, adequate and – crucially – sustained funding for education needs to be a conversation that goes way beyond this autumn’s spending round, covid-19 recovery or a single funding or even parliamentary cycle.

“My call now is, let’s be ambitious about what we want to do with education. The generation of children in school right now is the one that will have to deal with all the issues we have. And they are vocal over Brexit, and they are vocal over climate change. They are vocal over economic and social inequality, but also they’re very vocal over the whole inclusivity agenda too,” he says.

“They feel very betrayed by us (the older generations), frankly; that failure to invest in their education, and that failure to listen to them. They see that as a betrayal, and we have got to put that right. Not just for them but for the good of us all, actually.

“We need to be having good conversations around the better, smarter use of technology within schools, where technology is used to enhance the teaching experience and improve pedagogy rather than simply being a tool to save money.

“We need to make sure our buildings are the best that they can be, rather

than the dilapidated buildings where you can’t even get proper ventilation going through them. And we have got to have the very best teaching profession we can have, adequately paid,” Paul adds.

Liberal Democrat MP, deputy leader and education spokesperson Daisy Cooper speaking via Zoom at the meeting.

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NAHT national secretary Rob Kelsall at the London launch.

“We need to make sure our buildings are the best that they can be, rather than the dilapidated buildings where you can’t even get proper ventilation going through them. And we have got to have the very best teaching profession we can have, adequately paid,” says Paul.

FUNDING

WHAT THE REPORT BY IFS SAID The Institute of Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) report, ‘School spending in England: trends over time and future outlook’, published in September, was damning in its conclusions.

Despite the government’s allocation of more than £7bn extra for schools in England in the 2019 spending round, core spending per pupil in 2022/23 will still be about 1% to 2% lower in real terms than in 2009/10, it calculated. Schools’ spending per pupil fell in England by 9% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20.

Those schools serving the most disadvantaged pupils had seen the biggest cuts over the last decade. The national funding formula for schools introduced in 2018 had ensured extra funding flows to areas that have become more disadvantaged over time. “However, as a whole, the formula has provided a bigger funding boost to more affluent areas than to disadvantaged areas,” it added.

• Deprived schools have seen larger cuts. The most deprived secondary schools have seen a 14% real-terms fall in spending per pupil between 2009/10 and 2019/20 compared with a 9% drop for the least deprived schools • While the national funding formula for schools has helped ensure that funding for different areas reflects how they have changed over time, it has also provided bigger funding boosts for the least deprived schools.

Between 2017/18 and 2022/23, funding allocated for the least deprived schools will increase by 8% to 9% in real terms compared with 5% for the most deprived schools, the IFS calculated • Over the long run, spending per pupil has gone up faster in primary schools than in secondary schools. In the late 1980s, secondary schools’ spending per pupil was more than 60% higher than spending in primary schools. In 2019/20, the difference was only 14%, the IFS added.

Other key findings from the research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, include the following: • In England, total schools’ spending per pupil was just more than £6,500 in the latest complete year of data in 2019/20.

This was 9% lower in real terms than its high point of £7,200 in 2009/10 • The government’s extra £7.1bn for schools in England through to 2022/23 will increase spending per pupil by more than 8%. However, schools’ spending per pupil in 2022/23 will still be 1% lower than in 2009/10 after accounting for overall inflation or 2% after accounting for the growth in specific costs faced by schools

According to the IFS’ Luke Sibieta, who wrote the report, the 9% fall in schools’ spending has been the largest in more than 40 years. “The fact that it [spending] still won’t have recovered back to 2009 levels by 2022 shows just how big the squeeze has been. This will make it that much harder for schools to address the major challenge of helping pupils catch up on lost learning alongside everything else they are required to do,” he said.

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman added: “This is at a time when demands on schools have been increasing. There is no escaping the fact that schools will have to continue to make cuts to provision until this is properly addressed.”

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WHAT NAHT’S REPORT SAID NAHT’s report, ‘A failure to invest: the state of school funding in 2021’, lays bare the stark reality for school leaders following more than a decade of chronic underfunding of England’s schools.

For the survey, more than 1,500 school leaders in England were questioned over the summer. Here are some of the key findings.

Almost a third (31%) of school leaders reported making cuts to balance their budget in 2020/21. This rises to 35% who expected to be forced to make cuts this academic year.

60%

50%

40%

1 1 15 18 11

30% 20

20% 13

2020/21

Due to a carried over surplus Due to significant cuts

10% 6

Due to centralised funds within the MAT Due to cuts and carried over surplus

10

0%

THE STEPS THAT SCHOOLS ARE TAKING TO BALANCE THEIR BUDGETS

10 2021/22

No reason given

One in four (26%) school leaders predicted a deficit budget in 2021/22 based on current funding levels.

A very large majority (83%) of school leaders do not believe that they have sufficient capital funding to maintain their existing buildings and facilities.

SCHOOL LEADERS’ VIEW ON THE SUFFICIENCY OF CAPITAL FUNDING TO DEVELOP THEIR SCHOOL’S INFRASTRUCTURE TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THEIR PUPILS

5

7

% 88

Sufficient

Insufficient

Don’t know/ Not sure

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

THE PROPORTION OF SCHOOL LEADERS FORECASTING DEFICIT BUDGETS IN FUTURE YEARS WITHOUT MAKING SIGNIFICANT CUTS OR OTHER CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

80% 70%

50% 40%

70

64

60%

48 50

30%

28

20%

16

10% 0%

Deficit forecast

2 2021/22

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8 2022/23

No deficit forecast

Don’t know

2023/24

Key pressures on budgets included SEND provision, ongoing costs associated with covid-19 and unfunded increased employment costs.

70%

60%

50%

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1 The need for a significant and sustained increase in school funding to ensure that the needs of all pupils are met and to renew England’s decrepit school estate. “The government’s threeyear funding settlement (announced in 2019) and inadequate covid-19 recovery funding have demonstrably fallen short of what is needed to serve the nation’s pupils,” NAHT said

2 Urgent and substantial increases are required to the schools’ block, highneeds’ block and capital budgets.

“Simply redistributing existing budgets in different ways will not resolve the crisis,” NAHT warned

61

40%

THE SURVEY ALSO MADE FOUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION TO THE GOVERNMENT.

45

41

30%

THE MAJOR FACTORS THAT HAVE CAUSED FINANCIAL PRESSURES IN SCHOOLS OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS

37

20%

10%

11

0% Providing increased support for pupils with SEND

Costs associated with maintaining covid-19 safety

Increased salary costs or pressures (not supply costs)

Lost income as a direct result of the covid-19 pandemic

Providing increased support for mental health of pupils

3

Almost all school leaders (97%) reported that funding for pupils with SEND in their school was insufficient, with 95% stating that top-up funding for pupils with education, health and care plans was inadequate. Four in five (79%) said they had to fund the purchase of additional services because they were not available or accessible from health and social care.

THE VIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERS ON WHETHER THEY AGREE THAT THE SEND FUNDING THEIR SCHOOL RECEIVES IS SUFFICIENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THEIR PUPILS

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THE VIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERS ON WHETHER THEY AGREE THAT THE SEND TOP-UP FUNDING THEIR SCHOOL RECEIVES IS SUFFICIENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF PUPILS AS LAID OUT WITHIN THEIR EDUCATION, HEALTH AND CARE PLANS

THE PROPORTION OF SCHOOL LEADERS THAT REPORTED FUNDING ADDITIONAL SERVICES FOR PUPILS WITH SEND BECAUSE THEY ARE CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE OR ACCESSIBLE FROM HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 1

2 3

The government must immediately recognise and address the crisis in SEND funding. “The long-awaited SEND review provides the ideal opportunity to do this and should not be delayed any further. The solution lies in a truly needs-led approach that is fully aligned with existing legislation and the code of practice, in place of the current resource-led approach that has failed to deliver adequate provision to meet the needs of significant numbers of pupils,” the report concluded

20

%

%

%

97

95

79

Agree/Strongly agree

Agree/Strongly agree

Funding additional services

Disagree/Strongly disagree

Disagree/Strongly disagree

Not funding additional services

Neither agree nor disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Don’t know/Not sure

4 Schools should not be left to work in isolation. “The government must use the comprehensive spending review to make substantial and sustained increases to fully fund the health, local authority, social care and therapeutic services on which pupils and schools rely,” NAHT argued.

FUNDING

VIEW FROM THE NATIONS

LAURA DOEL, NAHT CYMRU DIRECTOR In Wales, NAHT Cymru is complementing the ongoing funding campaign in England by relaunching its own funding campaign in November, which will include a lobby event on the steps of the Senedd.

“We are asking for the Welsh Government to review how schools are funded across Wales,” says Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru director. “The Welsh Government two years ago commissioned a report into how schools are funded,

which was carried out by economist Luke Sibieta of the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

“This highlighted what we already knew from members’ feedback: the way a school is funded is completely different depending on which part of Wales you live in, there is no consistency of approach, and the whole thing needs to be unpicked and started again,” Laura says.

“The Welsh Government has now had this document for more than a year and has done nothing with it. We want the Welsh Government to deliver on this report and commit to review funding for schools in Wales. That would not only include how individual schools are funded but also how education money is spent across Wales, including the funding for consortia,” she adds.

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HELENA MACORMAC, NAHT(NI) DIRECTOR NAHT in Northern Ireland has also surveyed members on funding pressures and priorities. “Northern Ireland remains the most underfunded part of the UK in terms of per-pupil spending on education,” says Helena Macormac, NAHT(NI) director.

“It remains a huge issue, and covid-19 pressures have pushed things further over the edge. We really do need a commitment that’s going to be addressed over the long term. There is no long-term strategy or contingency planning for this year, for example,” she adds.

Funding for education is also likely to be a key political battleground during next May’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections. “So, we would encourage members to get behind our campaign, get in touch with their local members of the legislative assembly and be asking those questions,” says Helena.

THE SCHOOL BUSINESS LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE RACHEL YOUNGER IS THE BUSINESS MANAGER AT ST NICHOLAS CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL IN BLACKPOOL AS WELL AS CHAIR OF NAHT’S SCHOOL BUSINESS LEADERS’ COUNCIL “The issue is, certainly, the fact that we need more funding in the system. But I think it is also about having longer-term certainty.

As school business leaders, we put together three or five-year plans, but often, they almost feel fictional because there are so many assumptions you have to make about everything.

“Some things are always going to be a bit of an educated guess; you’re never going to know exactly what the rate of inflation will be, for example. But when it comes to pay, here we are – for maintained schools anyway – halfway through the financial year, and we still don’t know what pay rises anybody will get this year. Then, we don’t know year on year what we’re going to get on the income side because the funding formula changes. So, trying to plan strategically is virtually impossible.

“When I started working in education some 16 or 17 years ago, we used to get three-year budgets. Yes, you had to make assumptions about your pupil numbers, but apart from that, you knew how much you would get for the next three years

‘It is about longer-term certainty as well as more funding’. to plan properly. That idea seems to have been ditched a long time ago, but I feel it needs to come back.

“We know, as school leaders, that it is poor practice to do everything short term, to think and to plan short term. But how do you plan long term when you have no idea what resources you’re going to have? You want to do the best job you can, but with the lack of information you have, you’re stuck; it is very difficult to do a good job.”

See the interactive version of this feature and hear from head teacher Adam Smith at https://features.naht.org.uk/a-failure-to-invest/index.html

EDI UPDATE

Equality, diversity and inclusion update NATALIE ARNETT, NAHT senior equalities officer, shares what NAHT has been up to as part of our commitment to better embed equality, diversity and inclusion into our work.

t NAHT, we exist to defend and promote the rights of school leaders, so together, we can create a better education system for educationalists and learners alike.

Equality, diversity and inclusion run through the core of this work.

We strive to create an education system that reflects the diverse communities around us and where everyone feels seen, heard, included and empowered.

Understandably, the pandemic has dominated everyone’s agenda, but despite this, over the last year, we have been extremely busy expanding our work in the equality, diversity and inclusion arenas.

Our work centres around three main areas:

A

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1. In schools

their pupils and staff, forging settings that welcome diversity and champion equality. NAHT supports its members by providing advice and guidance to achieve this.

2. In the sector NAHT is committed to ensuring the education profession (and school leadership in particular) reflects the diversity of the communities and areas that schools work in.

This includes establishing inclusive working environments and cultures for staff, lobbying for equal pay for groups with protected characteristics and providing advice and support to members who have experienced discrimination and harassment.

3. In NAHT NAHT is committed to ensuring its democratic structures are inclusive and reflect the diversity of the educational professionals and learners that it serves. NAHT will take steps to promote and encourage the participation of all members in its democratic processes and actively address areas of under-representation.

For more detail, visit: www.naht.org.uk/Equalitiesdiversity-and-inclusion.

As school leaders, NAHT members are ideally positioned to create inclusive learning and working environments for all

In NAHT: our equality networks We are extremely proud that the last year marked the development of two new informal equality networks for NAHT members: the Leaders for Race Equality network (www.naht.org.uk/RD/Leaders-for-Race-Equality) and the LGBT+ network (www.naht.org.uk/RD/LGBTplus).

These offer a safe space for members to come together to discuss the experiences and issues facing Black, Asian and minority ethnic school leaders and LGBT+ school leaders, both within the profession and NAHT itself.

It is so refreshing to realise that the difficulties, confusions or conflicts we all face [as school leaders] are shared; that’s been really supportive. Put simply, I love the network – it's the first group where I've felt I really belong,” says Lorna Legg, head teacher of Offwell Church of England Primary School in Honiton, Devon and a member of the Leaders for Race Equality network.

How wonderful to sit around a virtual table with this group. It still feels exciting to meet and talk with other teachers and leaders who happen to be LGBT+ after so many years of feeling we were so few. But today, we are not few; we are many," says Andy Moffat from Green Meadow Primary School, Birmingham and a member of the NAHT LGBT+ network.

The knowledge and experience from members of these networks are helping to deepen our expertise and guide our work. We’ve already seen some incredible examples of this, with the launch of the ‘You Are Not Alone’ book (www.naht.org.uk/RD/You-Are-Not-Alone), which originated from members of our Leaders for Race Equality network, and us marking the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in May 2021 with the support of our LGBT+ network.

NAHT will continue to support the development and growth of the existing networks and explore members’ appetite for creating other equality networks.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

Our 2021/22 commitments include:

• Engage with (and challenge) the government and key stakeholders in the sector to press for a greater focus on equality, diversity and inclusion in education • Support members to create an inclusive culture in their schools for pupils and staff, including ways to address barriers to recruitment and progression for staff with protected characteristics • Aid the growth of NAHT's Leaders for Race Equality and LGBT+ member networks

and explore the development of additional networks based on members’ demand • Launch NAHT's first equality and diversity member conference in 2021 • Assist our Leaders for Race Equality network members in developing a new book, ‘You Are Not Alone: Leaders for Race Equality’. The book will contain accounts from network members about their personal and professional experiences to help raise the profile of Black, Asian and minority ethnic school leaders within the system and their journeys to school leadership.

In schools: new member resources

EDI calendar

Being mindful of diverse holidays, events and celebrations – and opportunities for involvement – can help create workplaces, schools and communities where everyone feels included. We have developed a free calendar (www.naht.org.uk/EDI-calendar) that highlights important equality, diversity and inclusion dates throughout the year, including holy days, religious festivals, health and well-being awareness days, and specific education-focused equality events.

Supporting LGB+ and trans staff

In the sector: NAHT’s statement of action Alongside other key organisations working in the sector, we outlined our actions and commitments (www.naht.org.uk/RD/EDI-commitments) to help further equality, diversity and inclusion in education in 2021/22.

This public statement aims to demonstrate e NAHT’s (and co-signatories’) commitment to playing its part in acknowledging the issues and furthering equality, diversity and inclusion in schools and trusts.

We will review the progress and impact of these commitments every 12 months and publish an updated statement to reaffirm our position.

In collaboration with Stonewall, we have revised our guidance for school leaders on supporting LGBT+ staff (www.naht.org.uk/RD/LBGTplusguidance). First released in 2017, the document aims to help schools become places where all staff can thrive and feel confident to be authentic about who they are. It covers key issues such as harassment, discrimination, bullying and lack of visibility, and it underlines the role and responsibilities of school leaders. The updated guidance also reflects the changes to relationships and sex education, new additional resources and further suggestions for school leaders on how to create an inclusive environment.

LEADING THROUGH ALLYSH IP CONFERENCE 2021 In September, we held our first equalities conference, Leading Through Allyship, which focused on how everyone can play their part in leading and promoting the equalities agenda in schools. Keynote Sop hie Williams, author of ‘Millennial Black’ and ‘Anti-Racist Ally’, spoke pass ionately on how being an ally is about wha t you do, not what you believe.

Throughout the day, a powerfu l theme was the need to liste n with compassion and check in with ourselves as individuals on our interpretations. Another clea r message was that it’s ok to get it wrong so that people feel more empowe red to discuss these critical issu es.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 202 1 October marked Black History Month, a commemoration of the history, achievements and contribution s of Black people in the UK; this year the theme was ‘proud to be’.

Black History Month 2021 gav e schools a positive opportunity to build on their ongoing work to cele brate the achievements and con tributions of Black people. We shared a range of free resources to help members integrate Black history into the curriculum during the month and beyond.

We also encouraged our mem bers to share with us what they wer e ‘proud to be’ on social media, using #NAHTProudToBe, and the way s they’d celebrated the event in their schools, using #NAHTB HM21.

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STRB

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FREE THE STRB from the shackles of the government’s constraints and interference

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Leadership Focus journalist NIC PATON looks at the issue of pay for teachers and school leaders and the need for a longer-term review of the pay system itself. f you’re a glass-half-full person, the fact this year’s pay negotiations are following on from 2021/22’s pay freeze means they will be starting from such a low bar that things, surely, can only go upwards? Of course, if you’re more glass-half-empty, the fact the government had no compunction about imposing a pay freeze during perhaps the most challenging year teachers and senior leaders will ever have experienced doesn’t exactly bode well for the future.

Nevertheless, NAHT rolled up its sleeves over the autumn and, as usual, has been making a

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IAN HARTWRIGHT, NAHT SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR

firm and evidenced case to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) for a considerably warmer pay settlement for next year, as its response to the statutory consultation on the STRB’s 31st remit report shows.

As Ian Hartwright, NAHT senior policy advisor, explains: “We are, first, seeking to recover the lost real-terms salaries since 2009/10.

We think the STRB could take an interim position, where it says, ‘right, we think what teaching needs is a three-year pay deal to recover the real value of teachers and leaders’ salaries from 2009/10’. That would, we recognise, be a massive win.

“However, we also feel that would be a good staging post to then allow the STRB to carry out a wider concurrent review of the pay of teachers and leaders, which previously it has said has been too much to do at the same time because it is too complex and too much work. We also want to press the STRB that this is something

As NAHT’s latest funding report, ‘A failure to invest: the state of school funding in 2021’, makes all too clear, unfunded increased employment costs are a key financial stress for many school.

it should do in conjunction with statutory consultees, such as unions.

We need to be looking at a really thorough process of engagement and consultation,” he adds.

Teaching is, of course, a people-heavy profession, and pay is normally the biggest chunk of most schools’ budgets.

Therefore, education’s deepening funding crisis provides added urgency to this year’s pay round negotiations, with NAHT’s new funding campaign examined in more depth elsewhere within Leadership Focus.

As NAHT’s latest funding report, ‘A failure to invest: the state of school funding in 2021’, makes all too clear, unfunded increased employment costs are a key financial stress for many schools, with changes such as next year’s extra levy on national insurance to pay for increased NHS and social care costs only likely to exacerbate things further.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

PAUL WHITEMAN, NAHT GENERAL SECRETARY But pay and discussions about pay go much deeper than figures on a budget or payslip, emphasises NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman. Pay is also about recruitment, retention and, crucially, respect. “We have to pay people properly, but it is not just about money. We have to get the money right, and we can’t continue to have unfunded pay rises. We have to accept that the biggest cost for education is people because education is a people business. We need the very best talent we can possibly get hold of, and we need to retain that talent as well,” he says.

“It is also about raising the status of the profession. Teachers and school leaders stood up and delivered everything that was asked of them during the pandemic and more. So, let’s rebuild the dignity, attractiveness and reputation of the profession; one way to do that is through recognising that both teachers and senior leaders need to be properly remunerated,” he adds.

One challenge for this year, although also a potential opportunity, is that the hugely experienced STRB chair Dr Patricia Rice, a senior research fellow in labour economics at Oxford University, stood down in September and was replaced by an HR professional from the banking sector, Dr Mike Aldred.

During Rice’s tenure, the review body has guarded

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its independence, requesting wider remits to allow it to consider systemic issues in the pay system.

This year’s report was unequivocal, urging that it “be allowed to exercise [its] role fully in making recommendations on pay uplifts for all teachers and school leaders for 2022/23” and stating that a continuation of the pay freeze “risks a severe negative impact on the competitive position of the teaching profession, jeopardising efforts to attract and retain the high-quality graduates necessary to deliver improved pupil outcomes”.

While the change of chair will mean, on the one hand, there will need to be a learning and getting-to-know-you process on both sides, as Ian points out, it also potentially offers an opportunity to build on the solid body of evidence that the STRB has already built up, including its clear finding that a review of the leadership scale should be included in the next remit.

“We have an opportunity to set out the landscape for him and show him where we are. We want to look him in the eye and be able to say, ‘we know what the problem is here; don’t pretend it’s something else’ but also be helpful and constructive,” Ian says.

“There is a story here, too, about the improving economy; suddenly, we’re finding ourselves with no workers, or shortages, in various areas, and wages rising – across the whole economy, wages grew

VIEW FROM THE NATIONS There will need to be a significant pay discussion within Wales about the introduction of statutory additional learning needs coordinators (ALNCos) within schools, highlights Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru director.

“As of this year, there has been new legislation that means each school in Wales has to have an ALNCo, a person who heads up support for learners with additional needs,” she points out.

“Because this is a new role, it sits outside the current pay structure; there is no pay scale for ALNCos. What we’re keen to do, therefore, is have those discussions to make sure, firstly, an ALNCo is properly remunerated because it is a senior position within the school and now a statutory position; it also comes with certain qualifications that you have to have as well as legal obligations, so it is quite a responsible role. To make sure schools are attracting the right people for these roles, they also need to have a pay structure that reflects the seniority of the position.

“Secondly, we want to discuss the issue of the remuneration of head teachers who are responsible for more than one school. Increasingly in Wales, we are getting schools that are federated. Normally a number of often rural schools will come together, not physically merged but with a leadership team that sits across maybe three small primary schools, say.

“Each will have its own governing body, but a single head teacher will cover all three sites.

We don’t have a way of paying head teachers responsible for more than one school because there is no way to calculate how to pay them. We have a very ad-hoc system with different local authorities interpreting how to pay those head teachers differently. We don’t have a lot of consistency, and it throws up all sorts of problems. We want to have something in Wales that looks at that,” says Laura.

In Northern Ireland, pay talks about this year and next are already underway, with unions jointly calling for a 6% uplift. “That is, we appreciate, quite ambitious, but it is an opening gambit.

We’ve also put in a claim for improved maternity, paternity, adoption and assisted pregnancy rights,” says Helena Macormac, NAHT(NI) director.

“At the moment, things are at an early stage, and talks are going on with the finance and education ministers. What we’ve been saying is that, with health getting an uplift, the contribution of education, particularly in the last 18 months, has been substantial and that ought to be recognised. We’re hoping it will be understood, but it is hard to predict,” she adds.

LAURA DOEL, NAHT CYMRU DIRECTOR

HELENA MACORMAC, NAHT(NI) DIRECTOR

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STRB 18

The review body’s recognition that a continuing pay freeze is very damaging to the profession “should be a wake-up call for the government”, NAHT argues. by 8.8% between April and June 2021. And there is a huge group of graduates who, perhaps, weren’t able to move forward in the way they wanted to over the last couple of years. On top of everything else, the government needs to be stepping away and letting the STRB do its work; that’s what the purpose of a pay review body is, after all,” Ian adds.

It is, of course, hypothetical, but what if the pay freeze extends for another year? What then? Clearly, anger and frustration are growing in the profession about funding generally, of which pay is just one (if important) part. Could we be on a slope towards industrial action, even strike action, if the profession’s demands are ignored once more?

“If the government extends the pay freeze, what would members be willing to do? That may be a conversation we need to be having, I am sure,” agrees Ian. “To an extent, however, there’s a point where

we’ll have to say to members, ‘well, it depends on what you’re prepared to do yourself?’. Is it write to your MP, sign a petition, take action short of strike or take action including strike action? But I think we’re probably a long way off that yet.”

What, then, has NAHT’s report to the STRB this year set out?

NAHT has argued strongly for the STRB to be freed from the shackles of the government’s constraints and interference. “It is critical that the next remit allows the STRB to conduct a full analysis of the pay of teachers and leaders, and of the pay system itself,” it says, “and to engage in longer-term consultation over the pay system for both teachers and school leaders, recognising that an effective pay continuum supports both recruitment and retention across the full career range.”

It is critical that the next remit allows the STRB to conduct a full analysis of the pay of teachers and leaders, and of the pay system itself.

Notwithstanding the government’s “dismally constrained” remit for the STRB, NAHT has recognised the review body “has a detailed and nuanced understanding of the key factors that threaten teacher and leadership supply”.

Indeed, NAHT in its report praises the STRB for the fact it “has consistently highlighted the declining position of teachers and school leaders’ pay and the steadily increasing risk that this poses to the recruitment of graduates and career-changers, the retention of experienced teachers and leaders, and the security of the already muchdamaged leadership pipeline”.

The review body’s recognition that a continuing pay freeze is very damaging to the profession “should be a wake-up call for the government”, NAHT argues.

“The recovery in employment and the wider economy during 2021 once again makes pay levels in teaching comparatively unattractive, particularly given the widespread acknowledgement of the huge workload and pressure associated with the role. Few will have looked with envy at school leaders as they struggled to manage the chaotic late instructions and guidance issued as schools attempted to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on their pupils, communities and staff teams,” NAHT highlights.

Therefore, NAHT outlines that it strongly agrees with the review body’s conclusion “that a pay pause for teachers of more than one year risks a severe negative impact on the competitive position of the teaching profession”.

The report also highlights the ongoing leadership drought in

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

THE SCHOOL BUSINESS LEADER’S VIEW

RACHEL YOUNGER, BUSINESS MANAGER AT ST NICHOLAS CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL IN BLACKPOOL AND CHAIR OF NAHT’S SCHOOL BUSINESS LEADERS’ COUNCIL School leaders may have a battle on their hands to wrestle out a pay increase.

Still, for school business leaders, it feels like they have been bashing their heads against a brick wall for years, argues Rachel Younger, business manager at St Nicholas Church of England Primary School in Blackpool and chair of NAHT’s school business leaders’ (SBLs’) council.

schools, with a decline in pay differentials for leadership roles and the fall of the real value of school leaders’ pay, all working to undermine the supply of new leaders and reduce the chances of assistant and deputy heads stepping up.

NAHT, therefore, welcomed the STRB’s call to the government for its next remit to include a review of the leadership scale. “NAHT believes that this is long overdue and agrees with the STRB’s view that this should include: the factors determining pay for school leaders, pay differentials between the teacher and leadership pay ranges, and the question of which leadership roles are covered by the existing pay structure,” NAHT has said.

In sum, NAHT’s position on pay covers the following priorities: • Reform to the pay structure for teachers and school leaders, recognising that professional pay is a continuum • Restoration of teachers and school leaders’ real pay to 2010 levels and reinstatement of the pay differential for leadership

“I know a lot of SBL members worry that we haven’t made much progress; how nothing seems to happen, how they’re on half the salary of their deputy head but have the same level of responsibility and so on. It’s not the fault of individual leaders or schools, of course, but the frustration and anger that is coming through – not at NAHT but just generally – is worrying,” she says.

“We get it, totally; it is frustrating.

SBLs who work in maintained schools feel they are very much stuck with what their local authority says, and in some cases, it is appalling. One local authority near me was advertising for a school business manager, and it was phrased that they were going to be part of the senior leadership team and working at a strategic level. But the salary they were offering was about the same level as admin assistants in my local area; absolutely disgusting, quite frankly.

“There is so much variation up and

down the country. Everybody believes we need change, but nothing very much ever seems to change,” Rachel adds.

NAHT aims to carry out a significant survey of SBLs on pay over the coming months, she continues. Then, even though it is very early days yet, there is the possibility from there of holding some sort of ‘summit’ or event on SBLs’ pay that may be able to look at future actions, practical steps and how NAHT can help.

• Collaboration with statutory consultees to develop new career pathways underpinned by a reformed national pay system, with mandatory minimum pay points and pay portability • Codification of executive leadership roles within a revised School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), and inclusion or alignment of school business leadership roles with the leadership pay range • Establishment of a range of ‘key worker’ packages, differentiated to meet local or regional circumstances and need • Commitment to fund future uplifts in pay fully – schools’ budgets have not risen in real terms since 2009/10, meaning it is essential to ensure there is no trade-off between spending on pupils and investment in the workforce.

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FIND OUT MORE…

Read the full report at www.naht.org. uk/STRB.

Everybody believes we need change, but nothing very much ever seems to change.

Find and share the interactive version of this feature at https://features.naht.org.uk/strb-and-pay/index.html

VALUES

Values-based leadership Leadership Focus journalist Nic Paton looks at how a values-led approach to school leadership might be a way forward.

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SIR TIM BRIGHOUSE, FORMER SCHOOLS COMMISSIONER FOR LONDON AND LEADING EDUCATIONALIST PROFESSOR ormer schools commissioner for London and leading educationalist Professor Sir Tim Brighouse is well-known within education circles for articulating the concept of ‘gaps in the hedges’, or the value of being brave enough as a school leader to identify, try out, pursue and then share new or different ways of thinking or approaches.

The idea of gaps in the hedges isn’t, of course, originally Sir Tim’s, as he always fully recognises and accredits. It was first spelt out by educationalist and former head teacher Harry Rée. Harry was a member of the Special Operations Executive who worked behind enemy lines during the Second World War and told in his book ‘A School Master’s War’ of how you needed to spot the gaps (whether in hedges or otherwise) so that you could, often quite literally, scramble through them to escape.

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Ofsted’s inspection regime may not, thankfully, be about such literal high-stakes peril (at least not yet).

Nevertheless, if school leaders aren’t careful, high-stakes accountability can bring with it the temptation to take a ‘how-high’ approach to leadership – or, in other words, when Ofsted says ‘jump’, you ask, ‘how high?’.

How school leaders push back – how they regain even a modicum of control and agency over their leadership, expertise and professionalism – is something NAHT has been wrestling with for some time. We’ve seen its commission on assessment, its accountability commission and its commission on school improvement. There have been multiple reports, including the 2018 ‘Improving school accountability’ and 2020 ‘Improving schools’. And there have been initiatives such as ‘Instead’, which encouraged the development of more head teacher-led sharing of knowledge, ‘inspection’ and best practice.

Yet, even though Ofsted’s new inspection framework may be an improvement on what went before, there is still often a significant disconnect between the values and priorities being articulated from the centre (such as chief inspector Amanda Spielman’s recent controversial comment that schools

were too focused on distributing food parcels during the pandemic) and those of school leaders on the ground being buffeted by educational reality while also battling to do the very best for their children and communities.

NICK BROOK, NAHT DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY One way to square this circle, argues NAHT deputy general secretary Nick Brook, is for school leaders to try to carve out more of a values-led or valuesbased approach to school leadership. As he puts it: “The challenge for us all going forward is how to create supportive environments in which leaders can focus on what matters most to their schools’ communities, instead of being driven and distracted by the pressure to conform to the government’s diktats.

“If you look at the ‘Improving school accountability’ and ‘Improving schools’ reports, one of the common themes has been that sense of the profession stepping forward and taking

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

responsibility for one another and ownership of standards.

“I think that is going to become all the more important in the months and years ahead; how do we, as leaders, stay true to our values and moral compass when the direction of travel from the government may try to pull us a different way? How do we maintain the courage of our convictions?

I passionately believe the answer lies in not standing alone. If you stand alone, it is harder to do the right thing; if we work together, we have the support and strength in numbers,” Nick adds.

It is here that Sir Tim’s gaps in the hedges analogy, again, comes through strongly, he emphasises. “In terms of whatever is coming your way, find the thing that enables you to go through the gaps and keep true to your own North Star.

“It is not about being reckless or taking unnecessary risks; it is about being pragmatic to the situation you find yourself in, realistic to that situation, but at the same time, not just following somebody else’s beat. It is about finding the confidence to act that comes with having faith in our own abilities; the freedom that flows from professional confidence. The motivation that comes from the certainty that our insights and expertise will serve children far better than the latest directive from Ofsted,” Nick adds.

Of course, this is all well and good, but in practice – in the teeth of a pandemic, covid-19 recovery, a funding crisis (as we highlight elsewhere in this Leadership Focus), a recruitment and retention crisis, and our ongoing high-stakes accountability and inspection regime – how can or should head teachers actually do this?

NAHT certainly has a role to play here – and we’ll come back to this shortly – but other organisations and networks are also working to help school leaders in this space.

JAMES POPE, WHOLE EDUCATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR SCHOOLS AND FOUNDER OF THE HEADSUP4HTS NETWORK One such is the Whole Education network of more than 500 schools. Along with the complementary, values-aligned HeadsUp4HTs network, it brings school leaders together to reflect on and share best practices, as well as encouraging head teachers to think beyond simply running faster and faster on the spot to meet the next Ofsted diktat, as two NAHT and Whole Education members show at the end of this article.

As Whole Education executive director for schools and founder of the HeadsUp4HTs network James Pope explains: “The way accountability frameworks are interpreted in our school system, often reinforced by the narratives that Ofsted allows to spin out, is that it all ends up being about the outcomes. So, you can have a much easier ride if your outcomes are really high. Consequently, schools can end up focusing on outcomes as the

“IF YOU STAND ALONE, IT IS HARDER TO DO THE RIGHT THING; IF WE WORK TOGETHER, WE HAVE THE SUPPORT AND STRENGTH IN NUMBERS,” SAYS NICK BROOK.

starting rather than the end point, and there is a danger that you will become overly focused on knowledge and knowledge acquisition.”

There is, of course, nothing wrong with knowledge acquisition in itself. But, as James emphasises, it shouldn’t be the sole focus of a ‘whole’ education. “Schools in our network have bought into the notion that a ‘whole’ education does three things. The first is that it develops a range of skills, qualities and knowledge for learners to thrive in life, learning and work – the ‘whole’. It is not skills or knowledge; it is skills and knowledge,” he says.

“The second is to prioritise making learning relevant and engaging with students and pupils to take ownership of their learning. We look at the practice of teaching and learning and the curriculum’s structure to enable young people to take ownership and have agency in their learning. The third is the notion that a ‘whole education’ supports learning across various learning environments. Learning doesn’t, and shouldn’t, just happen in a classroom between 9am and 3pm.

“One of the things that has defined the last 10 years for leaders in our system is this nagging, sometimes more than nagging, doubt that the head teacher they wanted to be and set out to be is not what they’re currently doing on a day-to-day basis. The reason why is that they’re trying to play the game of a system that has a very narrow set of values, based solely on outcomes for young people, and they’re sometimes failing to marry that up with their much broader value set and view of education.

At Whole Education and HeadsUp4HTs, we are determined to support leaders and create spaces where they can reconnect with their purpose and deliver a more nourishing education for their community,” James adds.

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VALUES

LIZ ROBINSON, CO-DIRECTOR OF BIG EDUCATION “For me, values-led leadership is about setting a vision for the school that is ambitious for the children and based on a holistic approach of what a school could or should be about; one that transcends the demands of Ofsted and accountability frameworks and focuses on what your school and community actually need,” agrees Liz Robinson, co-director of Big Education.

Like Whole Education, Big Education aims to work with schools and school leaders to encourage new thinking and approaches and values-led and values-based leadership.

Of course, what schools need is going to be different for every school and every community. “But if you have that

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ambitious, expansive vision that exists over time and it doesn’t keep altering to reflect changes in the Ofsted framework – oh, now we’re jumping through this hoop, sort of thing – then the strategic decisions, the resourcing, the culture and the behaviour in the building will be aligned with what you’re then saying,” Liz emphasises.

“The thing with values as a tool in an organisation is that they can mean everything and nothing. The leadership aspect is how you, as a leader, as the head and other leaders, embody the values you espouse. It is about the congruence of what you say you believe in, and how you behave and what you do.

“Nobody came into the job to just worry about how well kids do in a test.

Nobody came into that. The system and infrastructure, the accountability and the incentives can disconnect leaders from their core purpose and values; that is what happens – they lose it because their head if you like, takes over from their heart.

“I get it; the rational decision is to optimise for exam results in your school

– that is the rational thing to do. So, it does take courage to step outside of that.

Acknowledge that it is important, but combine that with powerfully reconnecting with your ‘why’: why are you here, why are you doing it, and what matters to you?

That is where courage is found,” she adds.

What’s more, argues Carolyn Roberts, co-director of The PTI (formerly The Prince’s Teachin ng Institute), if you can do this as a school leader – although it is unlikely to be easy or be som mething that happens overnight – other things are likely to fall into place, such as teachers and middle le eaders feeling more fulfilled in their roles and more likely, as a result, not to move on.

“To get the best people into schools, there has to be a high-level, professional, satisfying job th hat is manageable for them to do. There needs to be a high level of job satisfaction becau use itt is not massively well paid, and it is quite hard. Job satisfaction is what will keep people th here.

And that job satisfaction has to be about having a real stake in the learning and having a liffelong in ntellectual endeavour,” she highlights.

“I think it is important that teachers are not just trained up to be tick-box performers. There needs to be a better discussion and understanding about what it takes to be an educator in so ociety. There needs to be an expectation that teachers will be treated well enough to enable th hem to do a difficult job for 30 to 40 years,” Carolyn adds.

In terms of how NAHT can help foster and embed this change, it comes back to two thingss. First, NAHT needs to – and will – continue to articulate the case for wholesale reform of the inspecttion system. As Nick explains: “During the pandemic, Ofsted trialled light-touch inspection visits to o understand what was going on in schools better. Schools that experienced these visits were, on the whole, positive about how they were conducted.

“This type of activity has enormous potential, both as a proportionate check (that schools are delivering a good standard of education and safeguarding remains effective) and (more impo ortantly, as we address the impact of the pandemic on education) as a mechanism to move learning and knowledge around the system. The top priorities right now are to support childhood and education n recovery. Identifying interesting and effective practices that make a difference in individual schools and sharing that across the system would have been a worthy contribution to recovery.

“Instead, we have simply returned to an overly bloated inspection framework, with no ap pparen nt acknowledgement of the impact of covid-19. That is a failure of ambition as much as it is a failure e of imagination. Consequently, we have schools worrying, ‘are we ready for Ofsted’s inspecttion?’ rather than focusing on covid-19 recovery. And that is a tragedy,” Nick adds.

Second, there is an opportunity for NAHT to become a ‘haven’ for values-led leadership, to use its pre-existing branch and regional networks and membership infrastructure to build and accelerate a conversation around values-led leadership. One where members can sharre experiences and leaders are encouraged and supported to pllunge into embedding a vallues-lled ed approach: finding their own gaps in the hedges.

“What we have seen during the past 18 months or so of lockdowns is that the local branc ch meetings we had with members shifted online overnight, and we had an eno ormous increase in n attendance to these. The reason that is important is that members can suppo ort one another through mechanisms and forums such as that,” highlights Nick.

CAROLYN ROBERTS, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE PTI

PAUL WHITEMAN, NAHT GENERAL SECRETARY

“Our branches and branch networks can be the key to building this professional community, which has been rock-solid throughout the pandemic,” agrees NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman.

“People seeking mutual support and mutual reassurance have used us as a safe place to speak, a safe place to think and a safe place to develop their practice but, equally, their confidence; so, the profession can be heard rather than pushed around by politicians who should know better.

“Don’t cede a lack of trust back to the government. You have worked so hard during the pandemic to demonstrate that, as experts in education, you can be trusted. Be bold, have the confidence of your profession and – with NAHT’s help – push back when you are asked to do things that simply aren’t right, and you know aren’t right,” he adds.

VIEW FROM THE NATIONS Reforms around accountability and inspection remain as high on the agenda in Northern Ireland and Wales as in England.

With Northern Ireland having a new chief inspector of schools, Faustina Graham, NAHT Northern Ireland is pushing for comprehensive reform of the Education and Training Inspectorate as part of the review of accountability arising from the pay and workload agreement 2020.

“It is still at the early stage,” explains NAHT(NI) director Helena Macormac.

“We do think there should be scope for change. Again, it will be a key driver within our manifesto ahead of next May’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

We are very much advocating the establishment of a school improvement service that will work collaboratively with school-based professionals,” she adds.

For Wales, NAHT Cymru is looking to emulate NAHT in England by setting up an accountability and assessment commission, highlights NAHT Cymru

director Laura Doel, but it is also keen to foster and embed more of a valuesled leadership approach and ethos.

“What we’re looking to do in Wales is follow in the footsteps of our colleagues in England and form our own accountability and assessment commission to look at those key themes; to see what that will look like in the light of the new curriculum in Wales and in the light of the changes, such as the introduction of additional learning needs coordinators (ALNCos),” Laura explains.

“We especially want to make sure we have an accountability and assessment system in place in Wales that reflects the ambitions of the new curriculum and supports that. We don’t want a system so draconian that it dictates to schools what they need to do in the curriculum; that is a backwards way of working.

“Previously, we have had schools that have been engineered, pushed into, delivering a curriculum that ticks the boxes for Estyn. We don’t want that. We want a system that reflects freedom and flexibility

CARMELLA REECE JOINED ST PETER’S CHURCH OF ENGLAND AIDED JUNIOR SCHOOL IN FARNBOROUGH, SURREY, AS HEAD TEACHER IN FEBRUARY 2020, INITIALLY ON SECONDMENT, BUT THEN PERMANENTLY LAST SEPTEMBER “St Peter’s is my first headship, and I joined four weeks before the first national lockdown. It has certainly been something of a baptism of fire!

“The school was judged double ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted. So, it has been a real journey – one of leading from the heart, through my vision and values and those of the school. It has been a huge journey of changing the culture, responding to covid-19, embracing two Ofsted monitoring visit inspections, staying true to a leadership style that I believe in and then bringing that vision to life across the school.

“The school was in a difficult place when I first arrived, so it was a time of real challenge. I believe in ‘servant leadership’, which, in the context of the school, has meant being absolutely on the ground level with the staff, nurturing people and fostering loving, respectful relationships. I am wholly committed to leading a school where every member of staff feels valued and appreciated.

“It has been about giving staff back that autonomy, that sense of value, and about being very approachable. But it has also been a journey of very much having to hold people to account, though in what I believe has been a respectful, values-driven way and with integrity.

“WE DO THINK THERE SHOULD BE SCOPE FOR CHANGE,” SAYS HELENA MACORMAC.

“WE WANT A SYSTEM THAT REFLECTS FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY,” SAYS LAURA DOEL.

– one that doesn’t punish schools for thinking a bit outside of the box and where we’re not afraid to say, ‘well, actually, that doesn’t work for my school. I want to do something a little bit different’,” she adds.

‘It has been about giving staff back that autonomy, that sense of value, but also holding people to account’.

“One of the things we started with was underpinning the school’s vision: ‘life in all its fullness’. What do we mean by that? Across the subjects? In our own lives? For the school? And then using that to drive the school’s improvement plans. For example, how does our class environment reflect ‘life in all its fullness’? And having a clear direction of what we want that to look like. I guess it was that buy-in.

I hadn’t invented the school’s vision, and I might be here as a new leader, but it was about clarifying with the staff what that means in terms of the all-round development of every child and our community.

“We’ve had two monitoring visits from Ofsted. We were delighted when Ofsted reflected our vision of ‘life in all its fullness’ within its report, which has been a real validation. The school has since been recognised as a place where our ethos and values are central to everything that we do.”

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VALUES

‘We need to be able to articulate our approach and why it is important, rather than be pushed and pulled and having our professionalism undermined’.

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ROBERT CLEARY IS HEAD TEACHER AT SANDRINGHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL, FOREST GATE, EAST LONDON “Our vision is to make sure our children have the skills, attributes and learning dispositions to be successful at each stage of their education. It is important that our children are literate and numerate, but we also need to talk about ‘the holistic child’ and make sure they have a wide range of learning experiences that underpin what we do.

“This isn’t about a school trying to circumnavigate Ofsted; it is important that we are publicly accountable for the things that we do, and we want to celebrate that. Hopefully, we will be validated by Ofsted, but it is also about identifying what is important for our community.

“That journey has been supported through our governing body. When we’re constructing our strategic plan, it is about, ‘what does our community need, and how does that go back to our values of children first, putting the children first?’. Be it when we’re setting the budget, supporting children at lunchtimes, how we’re teaching our maths or how we’re making sure we engage with the wider community.

This values-led approach is important for the whole school community.

“Ofsted is Ofsted; it is part of being a school leader, and we have to make sure we do that well. But if you have your values and have spent time creating

your values, sharing them, picking them over, going backwards and forward, and grappling with them, then we can use them in holding ourselves to account. While also making sure there is humility and benevolence in how the leadership team goes about doing this.

“For me, it is also about making sure we articulate to ourselves. The pulls and pushes of education are just immense.

You can end up starting one thing in September and then a few months later go, ‘do you remember when we did that back in September?’ and it has had absolutely no impact. So, what is the method of making sure that we identify what is really important in our school and then saying, ‘OK, this is about professional practice and sticking with this’.

“We say to our teachers, ‘the person best placed to make you a better teacher is yourself’. We should be the experts; we shouldn’t create a vacuum that allows non-educational professionals to say what should be going on in the classroom. We need to articulate our approach and why it is important for our children to have those approaches, rather than be pushed and pulled and having our professionalism undermined.

“Ofsted can talk to any staff member about what they’re doing in their classroom, and they’ll be articulate and proficient about it. Or Ofsted can speak to any school team member about, say,

Jerome Bruner and the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract approach within maths. Or about how the reason why we allow our children in early years foundation stage to play is to do with Vygotsky and the zone of proximal development and social learning.

“In my experience, Ofsted inspectors are delighted to speak with members of staff who are well-informed in theoretical understanding and how this is reflected in their classroom. As a profession, we need to articulate why we do something in our classroom and share the impact. Then Ofsted will find it increasingly difficult to say, ‘this is what we want to see in the classroom’.

“The first thing I would do is develop a stump speech about what your school is; that’s a speech you can give without looking back at your notes. Can you articulate what it means to be a child in your school and how you’re going to enable that child to do that? If you can have that speech and give it to parents, staff or other partners, it shows you are clear about what you want to achieve, what your values are behind that and how you will get there.

“It shows that you have deeply considered what you are doing, that it’s based in research and not on a gut feeling or a hunch. Finally, give yourself time.

It’s a journey that’s not going to take six or 12 months; it’s going to take time.”

See the interactive version of this feature and hear from head teacher Kerry Scott at: https://features.naht.org.uk/values-based-leadership/index.html

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LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

Industry-leading legal services for NAHT members s a school leader, you face the daily challenge of safeguarding your staff and pupils, but your health, safety and well-being are vital too.

That’s why as an NAHT member, you have access to free legal advice and representation from the UK’s leading lawyers for trade union members, Thompsons Solicitors. The package of services is available to both you and your family.

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Your comprehensive legal package

Specialist lawyers at Thompsons Solicitors can support NAHT members with the following: • Personal injuries - at or away from work, on the road or abroad • Serious injuries - including brain injuries and spinal cord injuries • Industrial diseases - including asbestosrelated diseases • Work-related criminal law advice • Free, initial advice on medical negligence claims, with special terms if there is a case to pursue • Employment law (accessed at the discretion of the association’s solicitor) • Discounted rates for wills, conveyancing and powers of attorney.

As part of your membership, your loved ones can access the following: • Free advice and representation for personal injuries (away from work, on the road or abroad) • Special terms for clinical negligence • Discounted rates for wills, conveyancing and powers of attorney.

Keep 100% compensation

Making an injury claim via NAHT’s legal service is entirely free of charge.

Unlike other legal providers, who will take up to 25% of damages from their clients, members who use the union’s legal service benefit from the following: • Access to specialists in their field • 100% compensation • No deductions for legal fees.

Making a legal claim for injury or ill-health

As you know, all employers have a responsibility to protect their employees from workplace accidents and injuries. If your employer fails to provide adequate protection and you suffer an injury or illness as a result, you can make a claim for compensation.

If you have been injured outside of work because of an accident that wasn’t your fault or medical negligence, you can also make a claim.

Five things to remember if you suffer an accident or injury: Seek medical attention – whether from a first-aider or by attending a hospital for severe injuries, your priority should be getting the medical attention you need Keep a record of the incident – take photographs of the scene and your injuries, record contact details of any witnesses, take notes of what happened and, if the accident happened at work, make sure it is logged in the accident book Report the accident – if your accident happened at work, report it to your employers as well as your NAHT health and safety representative

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Get up to speed on your sick-pay entitlement – if you’re unable to work because of an injury, check your contract of employment to establish your sick-pay entitlement Check if you’re eligible for compensation – get in touch with NAHT’s trusted legal provider to establish whether you could receive compensation to support your recovery (and income if you are unable to work).

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ACCESSING LEGAL ADVICE AND REPRESENTATION It’s easy to get in touch with Thompsons Solicitors via NAHT members’ dedicated legal line.

Simply call 0800 587 7513 for a chat about your injury or illness.

Thompsons’ specialists will advise on whether you have a claim to make and how to get started.

You can also get in touch by filling out a form online at www.thompsonstradeunion.law.

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WELL-BEING SUPPORT

Emotional well-being SINEAD MC BREARTY, chief executive at Education Support, provides some top tips on the steps we can all take to improve our emotional health. o be emotionally healthy is a skill.

It doesn’t mean feeling great all the time, but we can improve our emotional health step by step. It can give us the ability to cope with negative emotions as well as positive ones and build our emotional awareness. It’s the ability to feel generally good about ourselves more often than not and to retain the ability to hold onto the good times! It’s also about knowing when we might need to seek help during challenging periods.

Taking care of our emotional wellbeing matters for our mental and physical health, and the pandemic has really shone a light on this. When we are emotionally healthy, we may feel more resilient, and we may feel more able to manage our responsibilities and

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work through our emotions while feeling in control. This can help us retain our overall confidence and reassure us that we can cope with life’s challenges.

The good news is there are many ways we can improve our emotional and mental health. It’s also important to remember that every aspect of our lives (and how we care for ourselves) connects to our well-being.

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How can we improve our emotional well-being and strengthen our ability to cope when things are challenging?

Healthy habits can build a foundation of good emotional health that creates overall resilience. Three key things we can all do to build a strong foundation of emotional health are as follows:

The benefits that come with all of these can be powerful. As school leaders, giving time and attention to these three things may help you feel your best and could help you make a bigger impact in your role. Here, we have set out some tips for making a space for these in your busy lives.

Move your body When you’re stressed, adding another activity to an already busy day can feel like too much. Can you view movement as a priority and something you do just for yourself? If you’re struggling to imagine this, consider the following: • It doesn’t have to be hours of training. A simple 15-minute stretch away from the desk or a walk around the block will likely help you to feel better • Start small. If you have any injuries or haven’t exercised in a while, yoga is a good place to start • Are you a morning lark or a night owl? Find a time in the day that works for you • Just as importantly, do something that you enjoy! You’re far more likely to stick at it and make it a habit if you do • Make it part of your routine. We know how hard it is to find a gap in your timetable. Could it be part of your journey to or from school? Can you get off the bus a stop earlier? Walk or cycle to and from a station?

Moving our bodies in a way that feels good Giving our bodies the nutrients they need Getting enough good quality sleep.

Give your body the right nutrients The link between food and mood is well established. A good, balanced diet can help us deal better with stress, and it can help prevent and ease mental illness, including depression and anxiety.

This shouldn’t mean avoiding the food you love; just planning for a balanced diet. Things that may help your mood in the longer term include the following: • Avoid skipping meals and aim to include carbs for slow energy release and brainnourishing protein each time • Set yourself up for the day with a decent breakfast. If you don’t have time for porridge or eggs, how about soaking oats overnight and adding fresh or dried fruit and seeds in the morning? Packing moodboosting nutrients like vitamin D, Omega-3 and B12 into your first meal is an excellent way to start your day. The ‘Live well, Eat well’ website (www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/ healthy-breakfasts-recipes/)

by the NHS has some quick and easy suggestions if you’re looking for ideas • Make sure you have plenty of healthy snacks to hand during the day. Fruit and nuts will give you a boost • Caffeine may be crucial for many of us to get going first thing but trying alternatives later in the day can really help set you up for better quality sleep.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

Well-being support

Get enough good quality sleep We know that sleep can quickly affect us positively and negatively. A good night’s sleep can make a world of difference, and it’s crucial to maintaining good emotional health.

• Try to stick to a routine, generally going to bed and getting up at a similar time every day • Gentle stretching, meditation or yoga can really help. There are plenty of downloadable meditations available. See our simple guide to meditation for teachers and education staff at https://bit.ly/3kzp9lT • Avoid large meals, caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime • Keep screens out of bedrooms. Read, listen to audiobooks, relaxing music or podcasts instead • If you find yourself mulling over the day and the challenges ahead, write your worries down to help put them to one side as you prepare to sleep • Read our guide to getting a good night’s sleep at https://bit.ly/2XCH1mM. If you have ongoing issues with sleep, do reach out to your GP for help and advice.

For more tips to support your emotional well-being, read our brand new guide, ‘The building blocks of good mental well-being’, at https://bit.ly/2W4Kw52 or visit us for many more tips, guides and resources at www.educationsupport.org.uk.

As an NAHT member, you can access Education Support’s dedicated, confidential counselling and support helpline on 0800 9174055. The helpline is open 24/7 and staffed by qualified counsellors who offer practical and emotional support.

Education Support is NAHT president Tim Bowen’s chosen charity partner for his presidential year.

As Tim (pictured right) puts it: “It is the ethos that Education Support brings; that it recognises the stresses for everyone in education remain high, but especially for school leaders.

“As its chief executive Sinéad Mc Brearty has said, we need to recognise that self-care for school leaders is not selfindulgence. Looking after ourselves needs to be a core part of helping us do the jobs that we do. For me, that ties in uniquely with my agenda as national president.”

If you missed it the first time around, listen to Sinéad speaking with NAHT policy director James Bowen about tips and tools in covid-19 times in our School Leadership podcast (www.naht.org.uk/RD/wellbeing-podcast).

To coincide with Tim’s presidency, and simply because it is needed more than ever, NAHT has launched a campaign to focus on school leaders’ well-being and mental and emotional health.

The campaign focuses on a new theme each month, with November’s theme being ‘emotional’.

The campaign features continuing professional development opportunities, blogs, advice, a well-being book club and articles just like this one.

You can find out more about our campaign at www.naht.org.uk/well-being.

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Is SEND provision failing?

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Leadership Focus journalist Nic Paton looks at the financial situation surrounding special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.

he parlous state of school funding and how NAHT is campaigning to ramp up the pressure on the government are central conversations this autumn, as our article elsewhere in this edition of Leadership Focus illustrates.

But, while NAHT’s funding report, ‘A failure to invest’ (available at www.naht.org.uk/RD/A-failure-to-invest), paints a grim and worsening financial picture for schools and school leaders across the board – from budgets to covid-19 and capital costs to infrastructure – the situation for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision appears especially worrying.

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Almost all school leaders polled in the report (97%) said that funding for pupils with SEND in their school was insufficient.

97%

Similarly, high numbers (95%) reported that top-up funding for pupils with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) was inadequate.

95%

On top of this, four in five (79%) said they were funding the purchase of additional services themselves, often out of already-stretched mainstream budgets, because they were not available, or accessible, from health and social care, which are themselves also under immense pressure and demand.

79%

BARRY READ, HEAD TEACHER AT THE R J MITCHELL PRIMARY SCHOOL IN HAVERING AND MEMBER OF NAHT’S SEND SECTOR COUNCIL Is our government bothered? Not greatly, suggests Barry Read, head teacher at the R J Mitchell Primary School in Havering and member of NAHT’s SEND sector council.

“This is a crisis; there is no doubt about that.

Parents know that, and we know that, but the government won’t listen to the needs of schools and families,” he says, and we shall return to him at the end of this article.

ROB WILLIAMS, NAHT SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR The fact that (as of the time of writing in early October) there was still no sign of the government’s long-awaited and much-delayed review of SEND provision, originally expected back in the spring, also speaks volumes as to the lack of urgency within Whitehall and the Department for Education (DfE) over this issue, agrees NAHT senior policy advisor Rob Williams.

“There has been a significant number of changes within the team that is overseeing the SEND review at the DfE. There is frustration across the board, including rumblings in Whitehall, that this is taking too long to appear. But it is all still a bit up in the air,” he says.

Beyond funding, there are also concerns at hints from ministers that one area that they might look at within the review is the potential watering down of legal entitlements of children with EHCPs, he points out. Combine this with an increased expectation on mainstream schools to address and manage the needs of children with SEND, the crunched capacity within social care and health, and cuts to specialist provision; and what you have is “a concerning line of travel”, Rob highlights.

“The government needs to recognise that SEND is not an add-on in the education system; it is an integral part of it. As has been made crystal clear in ‘A failure to invest’, many mainstream schools have had no choice but to use their core budgets for provision to support children with their additional needs. As for the specific funding provided for special educational needs, neither SEN support nor EHCP high-needs funding is sufficient. And that has a knock-on effect on everything, on all the provision you can offer for every child,” he points out.

To that end, whenever the review does finally emerge and whatever it contains, there will need to be a much deeper, longerterm reform and a renewal of conversations around SEND provision within schools, argues NAHT. This discussion will need to include SEND provision and delivery in both mainstream and special schools, the way the system works (or not) currently for parents and schools, and how to join up provision between schools, healthcare and social care better.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

“It is about recognising that, yes, we want an inclusive system, a system that supports children in the right places, and sometimes that is special schools. But that system must be backed with resources, and it must also be backed with a wider, fully funded multi-agency approach,” says Rob. “So, it is not just about education needing to have enough resource to deliver its piece but also that health and social care have enough to deliver their piece, too. Yes, education needs better funding, but if you don’t address the shortfall in health and social care, the same issues will happen. Schools are already paying for things that should be sitting within health because either they have to wait for so long that it is not worth it, or they’re just flat-down refused,” he adds.

DAVID DUNCAN, FORMER HEAD TEACHER OF ROSSENDALE SCHOOL “In the wider concept of education, if you look at the role of our mainstream colleagues, I think, as we’ve moved more and more towards academisation – particularly those schools forced into becoming academies because they were failing schools – they are reluctant to have significant numbers of kids with SEN. This

“I do get that, as a parent myself. But what it means is the high-needs budget will just get stretched thinner and thinner until you’ll get to a position where an EHCP will, in effect, be meaningless because it won’t generate any extra income, any additional resource, for that child,” Rob adds.

ROB GASSON, MEMBER OF NAHT’S SEND SECTOR COUNCIL AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF WAVE TRUST “I think what we’re seeing is the whole system creaking under strain,” says Rob Gasson, another member of NAHT’s SEND sector council and chief executive of Wave Trust, which runs 12 alternative provision and special school academies in Devon and Cornwall.

“I am really sad that the government looks like it is going to rush back to a system that, actually, we have proven over the last two years is not necessary. If the last two years have taught us anything, it is the importance of our schools being at the heart of our communities. We’ve seen the impact education can have, in its widest form, and the positive effect inclusion can have on the poorest members of our community,” he adds.

“Obviously, within that, there is a place for special schools. Because you have some children with high disability needs that are not very common, and those are better met by specialist teachers and specialist settings.

My concern is that we fundamentally have a flawed system in place, and it’s one that this government is wedded to.

“The problem, for me, is also multifaceted. There is a problem with the EHCP process because it is adversarial. Because parents have been made to wait and have invariably been through a very long and very bruising experience, they come out of the other end of it going, ‘right, I’m going to get what my child deserves regardless of what that costs or what is reasonable’.

MARIJKE MILES, CHAIR OF NAHT’S SEND SECTOR COUNCIL “I think what has happened with covid-19 is that the existing fractures in the rock have exploded; it has been like putting frost on a stone,” says Marijke Miles, chair of NAHT’s SEND sector council and head teacher at Baycroft School in Fareham, Hampshire.

“What we are seeing is disjoints across the system for our children and families, massively exacerbated by the incredible pressures the system finds itself under and which were growing even before covid-19.

The situation now is so risky – both in a quite literal safeguarding sense but also in terms of children’s progress, development and prospects – because of the unforgivable fact that the legislation and the current framework do not mandate cooperation between different agencies and teams around the child in meeting their identified needs.

“The flaw in the legislation we currently work to and the reform to the Code of Practice, subsequent to the Lamb Inquiry, is the failure to make the health and social care of an EHCP statutory. While it is nonstatutory for the other agencies, I don’t think we will ever secure the level of joined-up practice that our children are entitled to – especially now, when so many

is because it could impact their position in the league table and so on,” agrees David Duncan, former head teacher of Rossendale School, an independent special school in Lancashire, though now retired but still a member of NAHT’s SEND sector council.

“All these issues have come together to form a perfect storm, and that now needs to be looked at. We also have considerable numbers of young people with significant needs but without EHCPs. If you look at what’s happening to them, they’re the kids who end up getting excluded. The explosion there in five and six-year-olds being permanently excluded is frightening, and that is around people struggling to manage the demands of the youngsters and their behaviours,” David adds.

agencies are working to minimum thresholds.

They are not going to do anything they don’t absolutely have to do,” Marijke adds.

And the answer? Is it just about more cash? “The bottom line is that, yes, there is insufficient funding across the whole system,” agrees Marijke. “But I think we have also got to ensure that clinical commissioning groups in healthcare, in particular, and bodies responsible for providing social care have much clearer lines of accountability to the EHCP of any individual child; that they have a named person in the same way that we do in education.

“As this is such an inconsistent picture across the country and as we are so often faced with excuses for failing to make provision, it seems only a legal mandate can galvanise people to understand that meeting identified needs, legally articulated in an EHCP, is not optional – regardless of which section they appear in.

“I am increasingly frustrated by the waste represented by the rise of parents seeking SEND tribunal rulings for residential education provision when it’s social care that should be meeting care needs, but the only current recourse is through the education route. I really welcome the current pilot of non-statutory direction for other agencies by the tribunal. Still, it’s incredibly frustrating for professionals and families that it remains just that: non-statutory,” Marijke says.

“If the last two years have taught us anything, it is the importance of our schools being at the heart of our communities,” says Rob Gasson.

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PAUL WHITEMAN, NAHT GENERAL SECRETARY

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There also needs to be greater recognition that not adequately funding SEND provision is a false economy that will only store up even greater problems – and costs – for the future, both within education and society more generally, warns NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman.

“We need a needs-led system rather than a resource-led system. We’re given an amount of money, and we do our best with that, but, actually, with something like special educational needs and mental health needs of young people, we need to establish what the problem is and not be held back by an amount of money,” he tells Leadership Focus.

“If we allow young people not to progress with the assistance they need or even to be damaged in the young part of their lives, they will never recover and never be able to have the absolute of fulfilment in later life that they deserve. If we fail to invest now, we pay for it forever.

This is a real crisis for young people and one the government doesn’t appear to be willing to face up to,” Paul adds.

Finally, one thing the pandemic has brought home to all of us is the potentially transforming capability of technology, and this needs to be recognised – and enabled – much, much more within the context of SEND provision, Marijke contends.

“There is a shocking lack of understanding about how technology can support the daily lives and the learning and care of people with SEND. We simply haven’t got the people who understand how to use the technology,” she says.

“For example, educational psychologists, who should be the people making recommendations because they write EHCPs, generally have little clue about how to harness technology and what entitlement someone may even have.

“They’re quite happy to recommend a sensory programme, speech and language support, or some way of breaking the learning down, but other than a typing programme, I’ve not yet seen somebody recommend the way technology ought to be properly used for a child. And that, again, should be adequately funded and systematically reviewed as an entitlement in every EHCP as needs change over time,” Marijke adds.

‘We have to borrow and beg. My wife and I even funded a £35 trampoline this week because there was no money.’

BARRY READ IS HEAD TEACHER AT THE R J MITCHELL PRIMARY SCHOOL IN HAVERING AND A MEMBER OF NAHT’S SEND SECTOR COUNCIL “Although we are a mainstream primary, we have 18% EHCP children in our school. We’re actually higher than two senior schools in the borough, and the next equivalent at primary is at 4%.

“That means we don’t get the funding as if we were a special school, even though we have children who are, most definitely, special school-type children.

We are also hammered by the £6,000 contribution [where schools must fund the first £6,000 of the cost of provision required by an EHCP]. If you have 60 children in the school with an EHCP, as we have, that is an immediate £360,000 worth of additional debt each year; that is a massive challenge.

“It’s not only the SEND funding itself. I have more than 100 staff employed here because of the needs of the children.

Every time national insurance goes up – as it now will under the government’s extra health and social care spending plans – that massively affects the school in terms of the budgetary situation.

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“At the moment, we’re simply robbing Peter to pay Paul. For example, we have a teaching assistant for one room covering another room, but then you’re not giving the provision and statutory hours for the other child. Lots of us are making decisions that we know are wrong and don’t want to make. Still, we are very conscious of this idea of governing bodies ‘failing’ because they’re not looking after their finances correctly, according to Ofsted.

“Nothing is taken into account in terms of children with SEND in our mainstream schools – yet we are doing fantastic work with the children, so we should be being rewarded for that, not penalised.

“Primary schools don’t generally have special school facilities. We’re supporting special-needs, high-needs children in a non-specialist environment, and we just don’t have the money to provide that. It’s even little things, like the cost of laminating pouches for timetables.

“We don’t have the hydro pools, the sensory gardens or the minibus to take them out on trips. We have to borrow and beg from senior schools, and we have to buy equipment ourselves. I even funded a trampoline this week for our children; it was a gift to the school from my wife and me because we have no money to buy a £35 trampoline.

“For me, yes, it is simply about a need for more money to be put into the system. As a union, we just have to be pushing for more money.

We also need to get parents on board, most definitely. Parents are probably our best allies because they understand what is going on in schools, and politicians will listen to them.”

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OVEMBER 2021 LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER

VIEW FROM THE NATIONS

LAURA DOEL, NAHT CYMRU DIRECTOR The introduction of statutory additional learning needs coordinators (ALNCos) into schools is a massive transition and potential SEND headache for schools in Wales, highlights Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru director.

“We are fully supportive of the new ALN legislation, which is designed to give every learner in Wales, whatever their ability, the support that they need to reach their full potential. That, of course, is something NAHT members 100% agree with,” she emphasises.

“However, what is not there are the building blocks and the funding to be able to do that. For example, we don’t know what the ALN funding will be for schools at the moment or how much an ALNCo should be paid because this role currently sits outside of the pay structure. The Welsh Government has made it a mandatory role, but it hasn’t thought through the implications of this on schools’ budgets.

“WE JUST DON’T HAVE THE INFRASTRUCTURE HELENA MACORMAC, OR SCHOOL ESTATE HERE IN NAHT(NI) DIRECTOR NORTHERN IRELAND TO DEAL WITH THE NUMBER In Northern Ireland, SEND provision is also a key pinch point for schools OF REFERRALS,” SAYS and school leaders, not least because HELENA MACORMAC. of the enactment of new SEND “So, the conversation in Wales is very much around how schools are going to deliver the new ALN legislation. Because, of course, this has landed smack bang in the middle of the pandemic, and there are significant legal ramifications for schools if they get it wrong.

“NAHT Cymru has, therefore, been calling for greater support for schools to help them get to grips with the new legislation. The ALN code that sits alongside the legislation, which is supposed to tell schools what they need to do, is 260 pages long. It is not particularly user-friendly. So, we are calling for greater support for schools and school leaders to help them get it right, not criticism or threats of legal action if they get it wrong,” she adds.

“THE CONVERSATION ON IN CH WALES IS VERY MUCH AROUND HOW SCHOOLS OOLS ARE GOING TO DELIVER VER THE NEW ALN LEGISLATION,” TION,” SAYS LAURA DOEL.

legislation, including a new code of practice and regulation, this year, says Helena Macormac, NAHT(NI) director.

“None of this has been properly workload assessed; it hasn’t been properly budgeted for either. Legislative reform is obviously essential, but without the practical realisation of how that affects our members in schools on the ground, we are concerned as to the success of this to really change things for children,” she says.

“Already we are seeing high numbers of school leaders reporting that they simply cannot recruit to the new learning support coordinator post, even where there is additional remuneration, because the workload is too unmanageable, and this responsibility cannot be offloaded on to already overworked school leaders.

“We’re still seeing high numbers of unplaced children this term. It is not like they’ve come out of thin air; they are known and should have been planned for. We just don’t have the infrastructure or school estate here in Northern Ireland to deal with the number of referrals; it is a huge issue,” she adds.

READ AND SHARE THIS FEATURE: https://features.naht.org.uk/ SEND-provision/index.html

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A LEGAL VIEW

Discrimination claims in the workplace NAHT solicitor RICHARD WINTERBOTTOM looks at what to do if you are the victim of workplace discrimination or a claim is made against you personally. obody should be mistreated because of a characteristic that has no connection to an ability to carry out duties at work. However, discrimination in the workplace is relatively commonplace.

There are laws to protect workers from discrimination based on protected characteristics, and an employer who fails to protect its staff from discrimination can be held accountable.

We regularly pursue discrimination claims against employers on behalf of our members when the necessary evidence to support the claim exists.

The 2010 Equality Act sets out nine specific protected characteristics: 1. Age 2. Disability 3. Gender reassignment 4. Marriage and civil partnership 5. Pregnancy and maternity 6. Race 7. Religion or belief 8. Sex 9. Sexual orientation.

Time limits

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Who is liable?

It is often the employer who discriminates.

However, an employer can also be ‘vicariously liable’ for the actions and behaviour of its employees or those who represent an organisation it deals with.

You must make a claim within three months minus one day of the act of alleged discrimination. Discrimination that occurs over a long period is known as a ‘continuing act’, and the time limit runs from the date of the last act. If you intend to seek legal advice, make sure you do so in plenty of time.

We have seen an increase in the number of claims where a school leader is named as a personal respondent in a tribunal case brought by a member of their staff. If this happens to you, your employer will be expected to defend the claim on your behalf unless they state that you acted without authority in carrying out the alleged discrimination.

Either way, consult NAHT if you are named in proceedings.

Is it easy to prove discrimination?

On the balance of probabilities, you have to prove you were discriminated against by someone (eg your employer, a colleague for whom it is vicariously liable or someone representing an organisation you dealt with as a customer) because of one or more of the protected characteristics.

Unless it led to physical injuries, this is rarely a simple task. It is often harder to prove what is not visible, even though it is still there. That is why it is important to consult your NAHT representative, who can work with our legal department and guide you through the complexities of employment law.

Early conciliation

Before lodging any employment tribunal claim, you must contact Acas for early conciliation. Without an early conciliation certificate number from Acas, the tribunal will reject your application form, and your claim may run out of time. The clock on the three-month time limit above stops during the conciliation period.

Keep a record

It is vital to keep a record of what happened to you because you will need to recall and demonstrate the sequence of events you say amounted to discrimination. You will need that evidence to negotiate a settlement or for the tribunal if the early conciliation fails.

My advice to you • Keep a written daily work diary.

Note anything relevant down, who was involved, and where and when it happened. Sign and date each entry • Keep a record of all meetings, and if possible, circulate your notes via email and seek attendees’ agreement of them being accurate. At the start of a meeting, ask if someone is making a record of it, and if not, request that you are allowed to keep one • Stay focused and professional. It is important to remain level-headed no matter how angry or upset you may feel • Do not make any unprofessional or disparaging remarks about your employer, in emails or on social media • If you are in a position where you have the right to be accompanied, always take a representative, regardless of how confident you are about the meeting.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

KATE ATKINSON, NAHT interim head of advice, gives some handy tips for fixing incorrect gaps in service.

Teachers’ Pensions: missing service 35 t’s essential to check your pension scheme service history and take steps to rectify any incorrect gaps. While this isn’t the most exciting bit of ‘personal admin’, it is worth doing because you may miss out on annual income at retirement.

I

Our recommendations

• Keep and check your salary slip each month to ensure pension contributions have been deducted – you can use these as evidence if something goes wrong • Check your pension statement to ensure there’s no missing service – think of this as a one-off exercise to get your house in order. After that, an annual check should be less onerous. If you do find missing service, we set out below the steps to take • After the one-off exercise, check your pension statement annually to ensure your service/contributions have been included.

How to check your pension with Teachers’ Pensions You need to register for ‘my pension online’ through the Teachers’ Pensions’ website. Once you’ve signed up, log in to the secure portal and check your record. If there are any ‘service gaps’ that don’t make sense, go to the employment

history page, where you can find more detail. Gaps may be because of work that was non-pensionable or periods when you opted out of the scheme.

If that isn’t the case, the gaps could be because the details haven’t been provided correctly to Teachers’ Pensions. For these, you’ll need to speak to the relevant employer for that service period and ask them to update your record.

What if the employer won’t update the missing service?

The process to correct missing service can be long, fraught and, in some instances, unsuccessful because your employer at the time of any missing service has to put this right. If they don’t hold the relevant records, they may not be able to do this.

The increase in the number of separate employers and the use of outsourced payroll services have made it more difficult to get the necessary documentation from previous employers, so don’t leave this until you’re close to retirement. NAHT has no standing in this area, and as such, we’re unable to intervene if difficulties arise, which could result in delays, underpayment or overpayment of pension benefits.

If you aren’t receiving a response from the employer to your request for them to update your service, we recommend writing to the CEO of the local authority

or trust. Ask them to instruct a senior member of the HR team to look into this issue and note that they have obligations to provide correct service information.

If the employer doesn’t hold the records, we recommend you provide them with a copy of your payslips from the period as evidence of your employment and contributions made to the scheme, allowing them to provide the updated service.

If you don’t have payslips, you can contact the National Insurance office for a SARS and NIRS2 print, which details all your earnings and pension contributions. You will then need to provide this to the relevant employer for the missing period, and it is their responsibility to reconstruct your service record and, in turn, submit that information to Teachers’ Pensions.

If you’re unable to demonstrate your entitlement to the service you believe is missing, your pension record may not be updated, and there is no way for NAHT to challenge this. For that reason, we strongly recommend checking your service annually to prevent any issues from arising. Missing service from 12 months ago is usually straightforward to correct. In contrast, if you don’t keep your payslips for historical service, it can sometimes be lost for good.

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POLICY CORNER

POLICY UPDATE

Northern Ireland HELENA MACORMAC, NAHT(NI) director, shares an update on the key issues affecting our members in Northern Ireland.

Covid-19 track and trace

38

Before the summer holidays, we advised the government of the need for a dedicated unit to take the responsibility of track and trace away from school leaders.

Despite raising our concerns repeatedly then, the impact of the pandemic continued to be felt intensely

by Northern Ireland schools at the start of the autumn term, with many of our members managing the untenable task of track and trace with no support.

With recent months seeing Northern Ireland facing the highest infection rates consistently in the UK, we raised this again directly with the education minister, the Stormont’s education committee and relevant officials. Eventually, this pressure came to bear with a policy change, with the responsibility shifting to the Public Health Agency (PHA) in mid-September.

While welcoming the removal of this task from school leaders, we remain highly concerned about the PHA’s ability to undertake this role.

We’re also concerned about the PHA’s revisions to the accompanying guidance.

Without transparency, open communication and consultation with school leaders and without the published scientific evidence behind the policy

Our manifesto asserts that the education system is key to post-covid-19 recovery and a peaceful, prosperous future.

For more information, visit: www.naht.org.uk/ About-Us/NAHTNorthern-Ireland.

change when schools are dealing with the highest term-time community infection rates, members’ confidence in the government remains low.

We will continue to monitor the situation very closely and advocate as the ongoing uncertainty and challenges of the pandemic unfold.

A political force

While covid-19 looms large in the daily work of NAHT(NI), we are conscious that Stormont parties are gearing up for an election.

Whether that takes place in May 2022 as planned or sooner as some predict, we will ensure that school leaders’ priorities are prominent on the political agenda.

In September, we launched our interactive draft manifesto ahead of our political panel engagement session planned for our autumn conference.

Our manifesto asserts that the education system is key to postcovid-19 recovery and a peaceful, prosperous future.

To devise a better education system that ensures real, continuous improvement for the benefit of every child, we are urging the government to trust the profession and give school leaders greater autonomy.

We believe this approach will empower school leaders to take ownership of standards and support each other to create the kind of school experience that enables children to thrive.

Our campaigning priorities: • Fairer funding for schools • A more effective and child-centred approach to special educational needs • An overhaul of school leaders’ terms and conditions to guarantee fair pay and conditions.

Workload survey

We launched our school leaders’ workload survey this term. At the time of writing, early indications show it’s vital that the ongoing school leaders’ workload review, arising from the pay and workload settlement, delivers immediate and tangible results.

Otherwise, we could be facing a very real recruitment and retention crisis.

School leaders’ workloads were unsustainable before the pandemic, but the unchecked additional responsibilities heaped on them over the past 18 months have made this situation exponentially worse.

We will share the findings of this research with our members in Northern Ireland and call on the Department of Education to take immediate action.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

Wales

POLICY UPDATE

LAURA DOEL, NAHT Cymru director, provides an update on the work being done in Wales to protect, support and empower NAHT members.

NAHT halts the naming and shaming of ISO recipients

For several years, the Education Workforce Council (EWC) has sought to introduce interim suspension orders (ISOs) in Wales.

This mechanism would see EWC registrants temporarily suspended from the public register if accused of a serious offence.

Although it is a procedure used by other regulators, NAHT Cymru took exception to the EWC publicly naming registrants subject to an ISO on its website. We felt that went beyond the EWC’s powers and would see the ‘naming and shaming’ of registrants who might have no case to answer against them.

NAHT Cymru and several other education unions called for the EWC to revoke this procedure element, and we are pleased to report that the regulator has listened.

The EWC has agreed not to publicly list anyone subject to an ISO and amend its disciplinary rules and procedures to reflect the change.

Long covid protocol

There has been much discussion in Wales on how best to support those employed in schools suffering from long covid.

Although numbers are relatively small in the education workforce, with local authorities reporting just a handful of cases, it is nevertheless something education unions are keen to address.

The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has produced a draft protocol, providing a memorandum of understanding between the employers (represented by WLGA) and the workforce (represented by the unions).

The protocol would see everyone

employed in a school receive six months’ full pay if suffering from long covid.

The employee’s absence wouldn’t be on their sickness record, and they would suffer no detriment from being off work.

The protocol aims to bring consistency to the workforce, protect our members and give local authorities time to understand the condition’s impact on staff sickness.

It is a direct result of the trade unions’ and employers’ commitment to supporting workers suffering because of the virus.

Hopefully, this will be the catalyst for a long-term mechanism to help our members with long covid.

Teachers’ pay

£ 1.75% PAY INCREASE FOR TEACHERS

For more information, visit: www.naht.org.uk/About-Us/NAHT-Cymru.

On 8 September, education minister Jeremy Miles confirmed the 1.75% pay increase for teachers.

Despite welcoming the muchdeserved additional money for teachers, NAHT Cymru stressed that the Wales Government and the education minister shouldn’t badge any increase below inflation as a pay rise.

We were also deeply concerned that the Wales Government wasn’t going to fund the rise fully. We will continue to lobby for additional funding for local authorities to cover the costs.

Discussions are already underway with the Wales Government and other stakeholders at the Pay Partnership Forum to agree on items for inclusion in the fourth remit. Top of the list from NAHT Cymru is remuneration for additional learning needs coordinators and school leaders responsible for more than one school.

39

LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

COLUMN

TIM BOWEN: NAHT president 2021/22

Time to focus on your well-being s we move towards the festive break, I’ve been reflecting on what a tough term the first one can be.

All too often, it starts with the excitement and enthusiasm that has built up from a summer of generating ideas and identifying new learning opportunities. But my word, it’s a long shift until Christmas, and workloads, paperwork and unforeseen consequences can all take their toll – that’s before we factor in any of the accoutrements of covid-19 that have been bestowed upon us.

As you may have read in the previous issue of Leadership Focus, I’m spending my presidential year highlighting the issue of staff members’ well-being, and it’s difficult to ignore that teachers and school leaders often feel like they’re in the thick of it during the cold, dark months of November and December. When workloads are high, the prospect of a Christmas break can still feel like a very long way away.

With that in mind, I’d urge any of you who may be struggling somewhat to consider what you might be able to do now to alleviate some of that stress. Rather than wait until Christmas, what can you incorporate into your working routines that will allow you to recalibrate yourself and feel a bit more on top of things?

A few days ago, I was catching up with a friend and fellow head teacher who felt like she’d had something of an epiphany.

Having become ever more frustrated with ‘urgent’ things forcing her to miss out on the

A

activity she felt gave her the breathing space she valued (in this case, reading books about leadership), she realised there were certain commitments in her diary that were routine and immovable, regardless of what issues came up (leadership team meetings, parents’ evenings, school assemblies, etc.). So, she thought, ‘why don’t I treat my reading time like it’s one of those things?’.

Not just block it out in the diary, but actually consider it one of the most important things she needs to do that week.

She told me the difference in how she feels about her role now compared with just a few months ago is remarkable.

I also want to talk about long hours. I’ve spent too many late evenings in my office over the years, and to be perfectly honest, so have you. We’re at a point in the year where the workload starts to mount up, but we’ve all been here

Above: Tim Bowen.

Making space for our well-being means being proactive and doing things differently, but when we do, the pay-off is significant not just for ourselves but for our teams and our schools.

before, and we know we’re not going to get to the end of it or ‘complete’ the work, so let’s stop acting as we might.

If practising self-care wasn’t a good enough reason in itself, we need to think of the example we’re setting. I’ve no doubt many of you have witnessed an increasing number of your team also working late as the term has progressed. But if we can make a point of leaving at a reasonable time whenever possible, it’ll encourage them to do likewise, which will positively impact their well-being and, in turn, be beneficial to you and the school.

Neither of the actions I’ve reflected on over the last couple of paragraphs is easy. Easy is doing what we’ve always done: working late and throwing our weight behind every emergency that comes our way. Making space for our well-being means being proactive and doing things differently, but when we do, the pay-off is significant, not just for ourselves but for our teams and our schools.

One last thing: please do remember to keep talking to each other. No one understands the challenges of school leadership better than other school leaders. Let’s be honest; we haven’t always got it together, but together, we’ve got it.

41

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LEADERSHIP FOCUS | NOVEMBER 2021

Helping pupils to grow with outdoor education JO BARNETT, outdoor education grou up manager at Telford and Wrekin Council, shares two case studies of schools helping pupils learn with nature. he pandemic has shown us all the true value and benefits of getting outside and embracing nature.

Following multiple lockdowns, disruptions and covid-19 restrictions, more schools are now using their grounds and local green spaces, with the guidance of outdoor education providers, to re-engage their pupils, help them catch up on learning and support their well-being.

Here, we look at two innovative examples of schools leading the way.

T

Hollinswood Primary, Telford

Hollinswood Primary is in the heart of Telford. The school iss extremely proud of its learning environment, using outside spaces to maximise opportunities for teaching and learning g.

For a setting so close to the centre of Telford, it is one of the greenest schools in the borough, with extensive and beautiful grounds that include a wooded pit mound. Within 500m of the school is Telford town park, which offers canoeing, high ropes activities and the chance to explore 230 acres of local nature reserve created out of the historical industrial workings.

During the last school year and whenever covid-19 restrictions allowed, children showing signs of stress or anxiety would walk to the town park for weekly outdoor adventures. These were progressive and varied, with the focus on the children, not the activity. By having an experienced, well-qualified outdoor educator, there were opportunities to respond and adapt, challenge and stretch, or energise or relax as best for the children on that day.

Head teacher Glenn Atkinson explains: “Our children have been working on a tailor-made sequence of activities designed by Chris from Arthog Outreach and our school staff.

The programme aims to develop resilience, communication, stamina, problem-solving and self-belief as part of the school’s ‘catch-up’ work. The programme has already positively impactted d on alll the sttud dentts (and d sttafff ) wh ho took k partt.””

Whitehaven Academy, Cumbria

Situated on the west Cumbrian coast, on the edge of the Lake District national park, Whitehaven Academy is in an ideal position to provide students with a rich outdoor learning programme that embraces the local environment. As part of the creative curriculum offer for years eight and nine, students participate in a 12-week Whitehaven Outdoor Learning Award.

Based on the existing National Outdoor Learning Award but with a local focus and a strong emphasis on the importance of oracy, students explore a range of activities and develop skills leading to an expedition.

“We believe passionately in connecting our students with the remarkable environment around them,” says head teacher Nigel Youngman. “The impact on confidence and self-esteem is palpable. The past year has made people think differently, and for us, it has given rise to our creative curriculum. In addition to outdoor learning, students can study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), arts award, politics and philosophy, food and nutrition, and creative media and design.”

Over a year, 150 students will complete the outdoor learning aspect of the programme, working with a wide range of local providers and drawing on the considerable expertise of the staff.

Course leader David McCabe sums it up: “We’re absolutely loving exploring our extensive grounds, stunning setting and the various habitats on-site that we often have underused and undervalued. New connections with local partners support our students to pursue new interests in nature, conservation and activities in their immediate communities. Most of all, we’re having memorable learning experiences outside of the classroom and delivering a refreshing antidote to lockdown learning.”

The Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres (AHOEC) is affiliated with NAHT. We encourage you to include AHOEC membership in your application with us. Learn more about outdoor learning by visiting AHOEC’s website www.ahoec.org.

45

Building a culture of professional learning

By Patrick Foley, Headteacher, Southborough Primary School At Southborough Primary School we have always sought to improve outcomes for the children by having a clear focus on improving learning and teaching. A key part of this has been our use of coaching triads and peer to peer support to enable reflection and discussion about practice. This approach was praised by Ofsted and has improved the quality of our curriculum and our outcomes over the last years.

There was something missing in this approach, though, which was external input on what made teaching good, we had used various external evidence to improve and develop our understanding of good learning and teaching, including the EEF and the staff room library but we did not have a sustained and efficient approach to accessing high quality evidenced based materials.

When we first saw NAHT Discovery Education Pathway it was clear that it was going to enable us to enrich our conversations and to enable us to be informed about our practice.

During the pandemic it also became clear that if we were going to continue to improve our practice and ensure that children moved on

up in their learning we were going to have to make the wellbeing of staff the highest priority. Through the pandemic all staff worked incredibly hard and were focused on making sure that the children were learning and were safe and were happy. This was very difficult and draining for us all and took its toll. We needed to make sure that we gave ourselves time to recover, time to reflect and gave ourselves agency. It was clear that the first term, and year, back to something like normality, we were going to need to be kind to each other, to support each other and to give to each other. It seemed to us that the most important thing that we’d not had during the pandemic was an ability to focus on ourselves and our professional development.

Pathway gives staff agency to work on their own professional learning, to reflect on their career pathways and to take control.

Wellbeing is not simple and we took time to think about what we could do to truly make this a priority. We have made it a central element of our appraisal conversations and we have committed ourselves to a culture of care for each other and

our community. Enabling people to access high quality training and professional learning is a central part of a caring culture.

We began our conversations with Discovery Education at the start of the Summer term in 2021 and this helped us plan and develop our approach. Colleagues trialled some of the elements of the programme, and we discussed how we would best use it and share it with staff and how we would want staff to use it.

We decided to buy licenses for all our teachers and our HLTAs, each year group has an HLTA assigned to them. They play a fundamental role in teaching the children and ensuring outcomes improve. A clear part of our caring culture is equity and we have worked hard to make sure that all our staff have fair access to training and are able to improve their practice through coaching and discussion.

We introduced the programme, in a soft way, in the second half of the summer term, we gave people their log ins and explained what it was and asked them to have a look at it. At that time, we set out no other

expectations. By then everyone was exhausted from the hardest year we had all experienced and people needed time. Some colleagues have accessed elements of the programme and have said that they found it very useful, this was all we wanted at the time.

At the start of this term we launched the programme formally. Andrew Hammond from Discovery Education shared with the staff team what was available and this was universally welcomed. We want them to have control over their own learning and the programme will give them this, for the first time in a long time, after the pandemic. We have suggested that everyone, before the appraisal interview, if they can, spends some time on the orientation element and accesses the wellbeing unit, so that the conversation during the appraisal meeting can be informed with high level thinking about this.

We have also set aside 2 INSET days later in the term for colleagues to access the units and other elements of the programme as they would like to. We have suggested that people access this individually or in friendship groups, as they wish, setting their own agenda and learning and developing for themselves.

Next term we will be reintroducing our peer to peer observations and triads. We will use these as a way of reflecting on the learning from Pathway, in implementing the learning in practice and in discussing and deepening understanding of the learning. Colleagues will observe each other, coach and discuss what has been seen and target learning from the programme to be discussed and thought about together. They will then refer back to this when they revisit each other’s classrooms to work together to improve and develop their practice through learning, coaching and reflection.

Team work is central to our culture.

We have a range of teams that work together to address elements of our improvement plan and other elements of school work.

Our Achievement Teams check and monitor outcomes, and our Curriculum Teams develop and monitor the delivery of our curriculum, for example. As we develop our use of the Pathway programme it will play a central role in informing the work of these teams, in enriching the knowledge base and enable colleagues to develop and improve their understanding of these elements of our work. We envisage using

elements of the programme accessed by the teams and discussed in a book group type way to develop their work.

We are sure that Pathway will be a central part of our plan to move on up from the pandemic and its effects. Better teachers can only mean more and better learning, teachers who are in control of their practice and make the best decisions for themselves will enable the children in their care to thrive.

Patrick Foley, Headteacher, Southborough Primary School

I have been a school leader for more than twenty years, starting as a maths leader in a school in Lewisham and continuing as a English subject leader in a school in Bromley, and then a deputy, acting head, head teacher of a small school and as head teacher of Southborough Primary School. I have worked at Southborough for 10 years.

When I started we were amongst the lowest 10% of schools in terms of outcomes at the end of Key Stage 2 in the country and we were amongst the top 5% of schools, in terms of progress in maths, for the last three years of such numbers existing. My time at Southborough has been a time of change and improvement, we have had 4 visits from Ofsted and just before lockdown we had our second good judgement in a row, the first time we have been judged good twice in a row in the history of the school. Southborough is a Cooperative Foundation school and is part of the Aspiration for All Cooperative Trust, AFACT, a group of the maintained schools in Bromley working together for the good of our community. The two most important things that have led to this success have been building teams and developing coaching. We continue to improve and work together for the good of the children in our care and our community.

Find out more about Pathway at www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/Pathway

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THE FINAL WORD

SUSAN YOUNG: education columnist

The school leader who’s making a splash wasn’t a sporty kid. I hated PE and was always picked last. But there’s something nice about finding you’re a different person to the one you thought,” says Dr Hildi Mitchell.

The Brighton head completed six Iron Man triathlons before discovering extreme swimming during her first deputy headship.

This, her first substantive headship, coincided with a move into cross-Channel swimming.

And that, says Hildi, has fed back into her leadership.

Her big visions include developing free flow learning for every child at Downs Infant School. “We’re working to make our infant school a unique experience. We’re not following the early years foundation stage through to key stage one. Instead, we’re following the principles of child development and child readiness to do things when they’re ready, as much as possible.

Rather than getting a child to write who isn’t ready, we get them to play with sand and phonics, with teaching sprinkled on their experience. And suddenly it all takes off: you’re asking ‘who did this amazing writing?’” Most exercise books are jettisoned, with children’s work documented in the Tapestry online learning journal and achievements visible to parents every day.

The challenges of leading a school riven with conflicting loyalties after three heads in as many years, achieving ambitions to be “a beacon of best practice for infant children” and dealing with a pandemic have been supported by her experiences in cross-Channel

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relay teams. “You learn you can’t do it all, and if you do, you miss things. Every time something happens in school leadership, it’s either prefigured or developed something I’ve learned through leading or being led in the Channel.”

During her first crossing, the team needed to swim faster or risk being pushed away from France because of fierce adverse currents. The team captain asked the support boat’s pilot to set the necessary pace, “and he swam his socks off” before Hildi followed suit.

“I swam like I’ve never swum before, doing an hour at a 400m pace. He led by example, not asking us to do something he wasn’t prepared to do, and how it motivated me was hugely powerful.

“Also, he didn’t swim the celebration points from Dover or the glory leg landing in France. He almost went into the

Above: Susan Young.

I swam like I’ve never swum before, doing an hour at a 400m pace.

He led by example, not asking us to do something he wasn’t prepared to do, and how it motivated me was hugely powerful.

background. The start and finish were all about us, and it was remarkable. Seeing what it’s like to be led like that was something else I brought back to school.”

Leading a team herself (“a good distraction from leading a school through covid-19”), she missed a crucial email from the pilot, and they lost their crossing slot.

“I realised you can be in danger of spreading yourself too thin and not having your eye on the ball – that added a layer to my understanding of leadership.”

Now planning her solo swim and a team attempt, Hildi is evangelical about the benefits of sea swimming as an inclusive sport that allows devotees to release stress and switch off from constant demands, at least while they’re in the water. Qualifying as a specialist swimming coach has also taught her not to intervene too quickly. Instead, she knows to allow people to make mistakes and reflect on them.

“That’s going to be something to bring back this year: we’ve created an environment where we can make mistakes, and it’s OK. My rallying speech on our first day was about how we don’t have the answers to coming back after covid-19 or on rolling out free flow with years one and two, but we’re going to build that bridge as we cross it, and that’s OK.”

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