Leadership

Analysing The Case Of Free Schools In England

This research by UCL Institute of Education (IOE) reveals that free schools are socially selective and reproduce socio-economic inequalities. The study analysed attendance at free schools and what impact they had on neighbouring schools. Leadership Briefing (143)

Despite the government arguing free schools will improve social equity, the research shows that free schools are located in areas with above-average deprivation but admit intakes that are more affluent than the average for the neighbourhoods from which they recruit. This is particularly the case for primary free schools, which also recruit students with above-average prior attainment.

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      string(373) "... cares, and where is there any compassion in education policy?The fragmentation of education philosophy and practice has been exacerbated by the explosion of new ‘free’ schools and academies alongside the polarised debate about grammar schools. Yet there is little evidence that this plethora improves outcomes.Sadly, so much education ..."
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      string(5229) "post-code lottery for most families where the political mantra of ‘choice’ doesn’t exist, this being the prerogative of those who can afford independent schooling or the purchase of a house in the catchment of an outstanding state school. The narrow test-orientated curriculum and SATs league tables has created not only untold stress for pupils and staff but perverse incentives to ‘off-roll’ poorly performing pupils whilst the disastrous outcomes from Pupil Referral Units for excluded children are shameful. Even worse is the scandal of provision for children with physical and especially those with learning disabilities. Any family in the country can experience the birth of a child with disability, the plight of those with a hitherto normal child then developing acquired brain damage being especially searing. Who cares, and where is there any compassion in education policy?The fragmentation of education philosophy and practice has been exacerbated by the explosion of new ‘free’ schools and academies alongside the polarised debate about grammar schools. Yet there is little evidence that this plethora improves outcomes.Sadly, so much education controversy is mired in which metrics to use to show success. SATs, attainment targets and league tables are beloved metrics for school improvement. What really matters in my opinion and what is simply not being addressed is the quality of the lives of the children and young people when they become adults. Are they healthy, educated, creative and resilient, happy people with the life skills to thrive, to be successful parents and workers on whom our future depends? And are those with disability being helped to achieve their full potential? I argue we have been indoctrinated to measure what is easily measurable and not what actually matters.Over 1,000 headteachers took part recently in an unprecedented march through Whitehall to protest against the reality of schools today. What does this say when so many admired professional senior staff go public in this way? The disconnect between those making policy and those delivering it is shown by the dismissive comment from a senior minister that more is being spent on education than ever before. Yes, that’s true, but as the teachers point out, class sizes have exploded, and the real budget is shrinking by over eight per cent. So, let’s step back and ask what is it that babies and children need to thrive? In my view they need ‘nurture’, and this should be everybody’s business, as best encapsulated in the African proverb ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child’.Thus, parents are fundamentally important, but do we invest enough in preparing people for the most important job in the world? My answer is no, we don’t. It’s not just parents – local communities are vital for play, managed risk, connection with nature alongside sport, music and the arts. Faiths promote spirituality and purpose of life, while local politics provide resources for statutory children’s services in health, education and social care supported by the voluntary sector. In my view, building local community responsibility for children must be a key way forward to improve the outcomes for our children. How do we do this?I went to Vancouver in Canada to see what can be done by the imaginative use of routinely collected data. The Human Early Learning Partnership has, for more than 20 years, been systematically analysing routinely collected data to ‘map’ the lives of children – identifying inputs, outputs and outcomes by post-code locality and then making them operationally useful in identifying vulnerabilities and making interventions that matter. Thus, I saw a computer print-out of the ‘nurturative’ assets for children by its school locality – where there were crêches for babies, after school clubs for children, sports facilities for teenagers. These data show how local communities are nurturing their children focused around the school. Sadly, it has proved impossible to engage with government or public health officials in England to understand the power of this approach. I argue that it is time to change public and political attitudes to the importance of children, get a long-term cross-political party, evidence-based agenda for children based on a clear definition of what we are trying to achieve for them, especially in education. Developing effective advocacy for the best interests of children is urgently needed alongside getting out of the bunkers and silos here to see best practice elsewhere. ‘It doesn’t have to be like this’ should be the mantra.So, what do you think? If you agree that children are our nation’s most precious resource, then what are you going to do to shout from the roof tops and kick the doors down to improve the outcomes for our children? If you don’t who else will?Professor Sir Albert Aynsley Green Kt is a consultant on childhood and child health. After a career in medicine he became the first Children’s Commissioner for England. His book ‘The British Betrayal of Childhood’ is published by Routledge. "
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Editorial/Opinion

It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This

13 Nov 2018

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      string(5767) "system is experiencing an era of unprecedented change, at least as significant asthe move to Local Management of Schools after 1988. Nowhere are these changes more keenly felt thanamongst the leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools.The most public manifestation of change has been the move to academy status for several thousandschools and the opening of new free schools. This brings both additional freedoms as well as increasedresponsibilities for the leadership teams involved. But other changes may prove to be equally far reaching:a new accountability framework; curriculum, assessment and qualification changes; new performancemanagement arrangements; new funding models; and a fundamental effort to sweep away bureaucracy andfree up schools to focus on their own priorities. Finally the establishment of a network of Teaching Schools,based upon the principles of Teaching Hospitals, is at the heart of the vision for a self-improving schoolssystem, owned and driven by schools themselves.This research therefore offers a fascinating and indeed timely consideration of the schools’ landscape andclearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since Peter Earley – the author of this report – led thefirst review of school leadership in England in 2002.This report summarises the views of headteachers, middle leaders and chairs of governors across Englandon the changes they are experiencing. It shows clearly that change brings both opportunity and challengein equal measure. It also offers the most detailed descriptions of the demography of school leadership everpossible, thanks to an analysis of the first two School Workforce Censuses.A study of this ambition is never without challenge, not least in relation to convincing leaders of thevalue of contributing to it, given the range of other pressures on their time. However our wholeheartedthanks as always goes to those many school leaders and chairs of governors who were so generous in thesupport they offered to this study. I would also like to thank Professor Peter Earley, Dr Rob Higham and theircolleagues at the Institute of Education and NfER for their considerable work on this project.Maggie FarrarInterim Chief ExecutiveNational College for School LeadershipForeword6 © National College for School LeadershipThe Institute of Education (IOE), together with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER), werecommissioned by the National College for School Leadership to carry out a review of the landscape of schoolleadership in England, between October 2011 and September 2012.The National College asked the research team to explore the following key issues concerning the developingschool leadership landscape:— the state of school and academy leadership in England, including its key demographic features— the way in which leaders are responding to change across phases and contexts and across a range offronts— the extent to which leaders are successfully maintaining a strategic and operational focus— the identification of key challenges, opportunities faced by leaders and their responses to change in thisnew landscape— an exploration of new leadership models, trends and innovations with the potential to address currentand future challenges— emergent and effective behaviours, skills, knowledge and capabilities of leaders in the new landscape— implications for the future direction and priorities of school and academy leadership and the NationalCollegeThe research project consisted of four overlapping phases, conducted between October 2011 and July 2012:1. an analysis of the leadership labour market/demographics using existing data sets, especially the SchoolWorkforce Census2. interviews with stakeholders, and a literature review3. a national survey of school leaders4. the collection of qualitative data from 8 case studies, 20 telephone interviews with school leaders and 3focus groupsThe report presents a snapshot of a changing educational landscape, particularly in the case of academystatus. The survey sample was drawn up in December 2011 when 6 per cent of all schools were academies(n=1,500 approx). Reflecting this, academy leaders constituted 8 per cent of the headteacher surveyresponses (n=58). In October 2012, however, there were 2,373 academies, representing 45 per cent ofsecondary schools and 5 per cent of primaries in England.A detailed account of the research methodology is discussed in chapter 1. It is noted that the national surveyresponse rate was lower than anticipated, despite considerable efforts to increase the response. Overall,a total of 1,949 questionnaires were returned from 1,006 schools (a response rate of 27 per cent). In eachschool, the headteacher, the chair of governors and two middle/senior leaders were asked to completea separate questionnaire. The response rate was higher for headteachers (23 per cent) than for the othergroups (9 per cent chairs of governors and 10 per cent middle/senior leaders).The report then presents, in chapter 2, an overview of current school leadership research. The chapterconsiders three main themes.First, it reviews the work of school leaders, the evidence of the effect leaders have on student outcomesand the actions leaders take to provide leadership for learning. A consensus is found to exist across a rangeof studies that school leadership is an important influence on student learning, second only to classroomExecutive summary7 © National College for School Leadershipteaching as a school influence (Leithwood et al, 2008). This leadership influence"
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Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017

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      string(5816) "their home schools to support the weaker schools (Earley and Weindling, 2006).  The brief for these staff was to co-design solutions with staff from the supported school, thereby enabling ‘joint practice development’ rather than imposed ‘best practices’ (Higham et al., 2009; Hargreaves, 2010; Ofsted, 2010; Ainscow, 2015).  Consultant headteachersThe ‘consultant head’ model pioneered through the London Challenge was scaled up nationally by the then National College for School Leadership through the National Leaders of Education/National Support Schools (NLE/NSS) and Local Leaders of Education (LLE) initiative.  These headteachers and their teams were designated against a clear set of criteria and then brokered to support schools deemed to be underperforming (whereas seriously failing schools tended to be closed and reopened as sponsored academies).  Importantly, the core remit of these government-designated system leaders was to provide temporary support – ‘mooring alongside’ – withdrawing once the supported school was back on its feet (Matthews and Hill, 2008, 2010).  By June 2017 there were more than 1200 NLEs designated.  Evidence to date does indicate that outcomes improve faster in NLE-supported schools than in a matched sample (NCTL, 2013) and that NLEs increase the rate of improvement for children on free school meals (FSM) (Rea et al., 2011, 2013).  Muijs’ (2015) robust mixed methods analysis of the impact of school to school support partnerships brokered between high and low performing primary schools in one Local Authority also identified a consistent positive impact.   Growth of partnership modelsMeanwhile, other strands of policy and practice were coming together to demonstrate the potential of other forms of partnership.  Federations involve a more permanent relationship between two or more schools than in the NLE/NSS model, whereby the schools effectively amalgamate under one governing body.  The model was enabled by Labour’s 2002 legislation, but it took several years before significant numbers of schools had adopted it.  Chapman et al.’s (2009, 2011) research indicated a positive federation effect on pupil outcomes over time, most significantly in the case of ‘performance federations’ (i.e. strong and weak schools together) and where an Executive Head was in place across both schools.  Academy chains, which are generally groups of sponsored and converter academies overseen by a single Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), have emerged since 2010 as the dominant structural model for school partnership (DfE, 2016).  Critically, a MAT is a single legal entity (a charity and a company), so the academies within a MAT do not have autonomy except in so far as the MAT board grants this to them (Wilkins, 2017).  The government, more recently through its Regional School Commissioners (RSCs), has played an active role in brokering underperforming schools into academy chains, generally run by successful schools.  Kee and Wespeiser (2017) report that the number of MATs has expanded significantly; from 391 in March 2011 to 1121 in November 2016.  MATs range in size from two to over 40 schools and generally charge their schools a proportion of their core funding to cover central services, including ‘back office’ services such as finance as well as aspects of school improvement.Hill’s early reports on academy chains (Hill, 2009; Hill et al., 2012) flagged some of the challenges for policy and practice in this area: most obviously the rapid pace of growth in some of the larger chains.  In a number of cases this rapid expansion led to subsequent failings, with some chains being forced to reduce the number of academies they support by the government (House of Commons Select Committee, 2017).  There have also been numerous cases of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest in academy chains (Greany and Scott, 2014).  As a result of these issues, and as the number of MATs has increased, the government has introduced a range of reforms to tighten up practice and oversight.   Analysis by Hutchings and Francis (2017:5) indicates that whilst “a small number of chains continue to achieve impressive outcomes for their disadvantaged students… Longitudinal analysis shows that, in spite of some marginal movement… the main picture is one of a lack of transformative change over the period”.  Teaching School Alliances represent a different type of policy-driven partnership to those described above, both because the partnership remains voluntary for alliance members and because their remit is broader than just addressing underperformance.  Launched by the 2010 White Paper (DfE, 2010) Teaching Schools are ‘outstanding’ schools that play a leading role in co-ordinating initial and continuing professional development, school to school support and research and development across an alliance of partner schools (Matthews and Berwick, 2013).  By July 2017 more than 640 Teaching Schools had been designated.  The evaluation of Teaching Schools (Gu et al., 2016) concludes that they are at “the forefront of exploring the reality of what David Hargreaves described as ‘competitive collaboration’” (p180), but also acknowledges that they are seen by some non-Teaching School head teachers as part of ‘the centralised machinery of government’ (p167).  The evaluation reports considerable progress overall, but also flags a series of"
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Executive Leadership

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18 Apr 2018

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      string(5815) "of the staff in their home schools to support the weaker schools (Earley and Weindling, 2006).  The brief for these staff was to co-design solutions with staff from the supported school, thereby enabling ‘joint practice development’ rather than imposed ‘best practices’ (Higham et al., 2009; Hargreaves, 2010; Ofsted, 2010; Ainscow, 2015).  Consultant headteachersThe ‘consultant head’ model pioneered through the London Challenge was scaled up nationally by the then National College for School Leadership through the National Leaders of Education/National Support Schools (NLE/NSS) and Local Leaders of Education (LLE) initiative.  These headteachers and their teams were designated against a clear set of criteria and then brokered to support schools deemed to be underperforming (whereas seriously failing schools tended to be closed and reopened as sponsored academies).  Importantly, the core remit of these government-designated system leaders was to provide temporary support – ‘mooring alongside’ – withdrawing once the supported school was back on its feet (Matthews and Hill, 2008; 2010).  By June 2017, there were more than 1,200 NLEs designated.  Evidence to date does indicate that outcomes improve faster in NLE-supported schools than in a matched sample (NCTL, 2013) and that NLEs increase the rate of improvement for children on free school meals (FSM) (Rea et al., 2011; 2013).  Muijs’ (2015) robust mixed methods analysis of the impact of school-to-school support partnerships brokered between high and low performing primary schools in one Local Authority also identified a consistent positive impact.   Growth of partnership modelsMeanwhile, other strands of policy and practice were coming together to demonstrate the potential of other forms of partnership.  Federations involve a more permanent relationship between two or more schools than in the NLE/NSS model, whereby the schools effectively amalgamate under one governing body.  The model was enabled by Labour’s 2002 legislation, but it took several years before significant numbers of schools had adopted it.  Chapman et al.’s (2009; 2011) research indicated a positive federation effect on pupil outcomes over time, most significantly in the case of ‘performance federations’ (i.e. strong and weak schools together) and where an Executive Head was in place across both schools.  Academy chains, which are generally groups of sponsored and converter academies overseen by a single Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), have emerged since 2010 as the dominant structural model for school partnership (DfE, 2016).  Critically, a MAT is a single legal entity (a charity and a company), so the academies within a MAT do not have autonomy except in so far as the MAT board grants this to them (Wilkins, 2017).  The government, more recently through its Regional School Commissioners (RSCs), has played an active role in brokering underperforming schools into academy chains, generally run by successful schools.  Kee and Wespeiser (2017) report that the number of MATs has expanded significantly; from 391 in March 2011 to 1,121 in November 2016.  MATs range in size from two to over 40 schools and generally charge their schools a proportion of their core funding to cover central services, including ‘back office’ services such as finance as well as aspects of school improvement.Hill’s early reports on academy chains (Hill, 2009; Hill et al., 2012) flagged some of the challenges for policy and practice in this area: most obviously, the rapid pace of growth in some of the larger chains.  In a number of cases, this rapid expansion led to subsequent failings, with some chains being forced to reduce the number of academies they supported by the government (House of Commons Select Committee, 2017).  There have also been numerous cases of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest in academy chains (Greany and Scott, 2014).  As a result of these issues, and as the number of MATs has increased, the government has introduced a range of reforms to tighten up practice and oversight.   Analysis by Hutchings and Francis (2017, p.5) indicates that whilst “a small number of chains continue to achieve impressive outcomes for their disadvantaged students… Longitudinal analysis shows that, in spite of some marginal movement… the main picture is one of a lack of transformative change over the period.”  Teaching School Alliances represent a different type of policy-driven partnership to those described above, both because the partnership remains voluntary for alliance members and because their remit is broader than just addressing underperformance.  Launched by the 2010 White Paper (DfE, 2010) Teaching Schools are ‘outstanding’ schools that play a leading role in co-ordinating initial and continuing professional development, school-to-school support and research and development across an alliance of partner schools (Matthews and Berwick, 2013).  By July 2017, more than 640 Teaching Schools had been designated.  The evaluation of Teaching Schools (Gu et al., 2016) concludes that they are at “the forefront of exploring the reality of what David Hargreaves described as ‘competitive collaboration’” (Hargreaves, 2010, p.180), but also acknowledges that they are seen by some non-Teaching School head teachers as part of ‘the centralised machinery of government’ (Hargreaves, 2010, p.167).  The evaluation"
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Executive Leadership

System leadership and collaboration – a new skillset for leaders?

16 Apr 2018