When I applied for the role of headteacher at Parklands Primary School in South East Leeds, I was faced with the great challenge of turning around a school which had seen five headteachers come and go within the previous two years. Despite only being a deputy head, since no other teachers applied for the role, I was appointed to the position in 2015.
Before starting at Parklands I had a comfortable job as a deputy head at a successful school in a deprived area of Leeds. This school had already moved from Special Measures to Outstanding, a fantastic achievement and one that I was keen to replicate myself as a headteacher.
When I first applied for the role of head at Parklands it was a job that no other teacher had been willing to touch. The Governors offered a £25,000 bonus for an established headteacher, something which had still failed to attract any current heads to the job. Eventually the DfE were forced to take a chance on a lowly deputy head and appointed me.
The challenges
Situated on the locally infamous Seacroft Estate in South East Leeds, Parklands had 74 per cent of its intake qualifying for pupil premium, 33 per cent of its pupils with diagnosable SEND conditions and a 40 per cent rate of staff mobility. The year before I joined there had been 150 exclusions and 2013 had seen the opening of the new ‘padded cell’. Tig on the roof was one of the more popular activities enjoyed at break time.
On being appointed head, I felt it was essential to identify the main problems which had led to the school’s cycle of constant underachievement. Results were at rock-bottom when compared to the national average. However, this wasn’t a cause of the school’s problems, just a symptom of the other issues. The children were just as capable of doing well as any other any other intake. After spending some time in the school talking with pupils and teachers, the main challenges could broadly be categorised under the following subheadings: morale, behaviour, attendance and funding.
Morale
Staff morale was the first issue which needed to be addressed. Improving a school where four out of ten teachers were new every term was impossible, and many of those who had been at the school a number of years had lost faith in the idea that it ever could be improved. Teachers felt that they were facing challenges alone, so showing the staff that their wellbeing was a priority was the first step in changing the atmosphere inside the school.