The magazine for members of the NAHTMarch/April 2014 • £5

Issue #63

LEADERSHIPF O C U S

Long roadto freedomSarah O’Boyle took on the DfE’s academy brokers – and won with the NAHT’s help

Rwandan schools:

20 years on p34

National Youth

Orchestra p38

Modern foreign

languages p42

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 3

In a diffi cult and challenging cli-mate for education it can be easy to forget that the reason we all came into the profession is to make a dif-ference to the lives of children and

young people. So, to remind you about some of the positives, this edition high-lights aspects of NAHT’s work that can really impact on futures.

Primary Futures (see page 24), is an exciting joint project between NAHT and the Education and Employers Taskforce that aims to raise the aspiration of primary pupils through increasing their understanding and appreciation of the world of work. Schools can access volunteers from diff er-ent types of jobs who will visit schools and share their experi-ence. It is based on the Inspiring the Future programme that is already changing lives in secondary schools.

On page 34, you can fi nd out about our joint project with the British Council that is defi nitely helping to change lives. Three of our members visited Rwanda in January to help with the dev elopment of school leadership standards there. We hope this will prove to be the start of a long-term link with this exciting country, which will commemorate the 20th anniver-sary this year of the genocide that tore it apart.

BERNADETTE HUNTER

CHANGING LIVES

WE N A T I O N A L P R E S I D E N T

You may not all be aware of the invaluable work of our regional officer team if you have not needed their servic-es. Their excellent work and dedication protects the jobs of many members, including those facing the challenging agenda of forced academisation. You can read the inspiring story of how one primary fought off the academy brokers with the help of NAHT on page 28.

Finally, let’s remind ourselves that schools change lives every day and in the words of Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

PS. The fourth joint leaflet with Family Action is enclosed this month and it is all about dealing with change and tran-sition, which you may find useful next term.

W E L C O M E

E D I T O R I A L

ASSOCIATION AND EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES

NAHT 1 Heath Square, Boltro Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1BL www.naht.org.uk Tel: 0300 30 30 333

Editorial board: Clare Cochrane, Heather Forse, Lesley Gannon, Nicky Gillhespy, Magnus Gorham, Chris Harrison, Russell Hobby, Bernadette Hunter, Steve Iredale, Gail Larkin, Caroline Morley, Stephen Watkins and Paul Whiteman.

@nahtnews @LFmagNAHT

EDITORIAL TEAM Managing editor: Steve SmethurstAssistant editor: Carly ChynowethDesigner: Adrian Taylor Senior picture editor: Claire EchavarryProduction manager: Jane EastermanCover photograph: Richard Lea-HairColumnist illustrations: Lyndon Hayes Printed by: Woodford Litho

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 5

C O N T E N T S

6 Making waves The people who live in the Nigerian

shanty town of Makoko may only have a life expectancy of 40, but they do have a new fl oating school.

7 Ofsted in turmoil Ofsted chairwoman Baroness

Morgan has departed in acrimonious circumstances; and the NAHT calls for a six-month Ofsted break for schools facing unprecedented change.

8 Aspire project working well Early results from the NAHT’s

school improvement project are positive, with six schools already achieving an Ofsted rating of ‘good’.

9 NAHT annual conference Members can now book their

tickets for the ICC in Birmingham. “No conference has ever been as important,” says NAHT vice president Gail Larkin.

10 Family Action leafl et The latest leafl et from the NAHT’s

charity partner Family Action looks at the challenges faced by parents when their child starts a new school.

11 Praise for NAHT report The recommendations of the

NAHT’s Commission on Assessment Without Levels have been praised by education secretary Michael Gove.

12 Stay ahead of the game Changes to the curriculum, fi nance,

staffi ng and school meals mean that members may need to act quickly.

13 Obituary: Chris Purser Remembering the well-respected

NAHT professional adviser who died last year.

14 New year honours’ list NAHT members have been honoured

with OBEs, MBEs and a DBE.

24 Primary Futures? It’s just the job Primary Futures is a new initiative

that brings literacy and numeracy to life and raises aspirations for primary school children, reports Daniel Allen.

28 The long road to freedom… Sandwell head teacher Sarah O’Boyle

tells LF about struggles she’s faced to prevent her school being forced to join an academy chain against the wishes of the school, governors and parents.

34 A world of difference Twenty years after the genocide that

tore it apart, Rwanda is seeking outside help to improve school leadership. Kenny Frederick reports on a joint NAHT and British Council initiative.

38 Benefi ts of a classical education Members of the National Youth

Orchestra hit all the right notes during a two-day residency at Highbury Grove School in north London. Steve Smethurst reports.

42 Lots in translation Carly Chynoweth discovers the

benefi ts of a bilingual education as she meets three head teachers passionate about learning diff erent languages.

46 A question of trust NAHT members are invited to take

part in an exciting research project on schools and trust, reports NAHT past president Chris Harrison.

15 Legal update NAHT senior solicitor Simon Thomas

shows how the association has won cases for members through the criminal injuries compensation scheme.

17 Rona Tutt’s column Michael Gove dismisses the education

profession as ‘The Blob’, but the amount of political interference in education is unprecedented.

19 Russell Hobby’s column The report of the Commission on

Assessment Without Levels aims to take back ownership of assessment for the profession.

20 Best of the blogs The latest insights from the NAHT

website’s bloggers Warwick Mansell and Susan Young.

23 Partners GL assessment off ers help on

assessment without levels, while Rock off ers NAHT members travel insurance without the hassle.

49 What’s new? The latest books and resources for

school leaders, plus details about forthcoming events and anniversaries.

50 Susan Young’s column Susan hears from Miles Wallis-Clark,

head teacher at Hotspur Primary School in Newcastle, where a project has been running to raise aspirations.

N E W S F E A T U R E S V I E W SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LEADERSHIPF O C U S

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6 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

NEWS IN EDUCATION• OFSTED LEADERSHIP• NO-NOTICE INSPECTIONS• ASPIRE SUCCESS• LONGER SCHOOL DAYS• ASSESSMENT COMMISSION• ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Making waves

F L O A T I N G S C H O O L The building with the blue roof is the new school in Makoko, the Nigerian shantytown that sits within Lagos harbour. Unfortunately, the school is just as unauthorised as the settlement. The Architectural Review notes that last year “machete-wielding men, employed by the city, severed countless wooden piles in the town, causing hundreds of homes to collapse.”

The school could face the same fate. Prince Adesegun Oniru, the Lagos state government’s commissioner for waterfront and infrastructure development, said that it was “erected

without permission of the state. It shouldn’t be there.”

However, Nigerian-born Kunlé Adeyemi, an architect at NLE in the Netherlands, which led the build, disagrees. NLE is negotiating with the Lagos government to ensure that the school isn’t torn down.

Life is tough for the children of the town. Cholera, malaria and polio are rife and life expectancy is less than 40. The school, with classrooms for up to 100 children over two fl oors, offers a rare glimpse of a brighter future.

See how the NAHT is helping school leaders in Rwanda, page 34.

WE N E W S F R O M T H E W O R L D O F E D U C A T I O N

N E W S F O C U S

LAGOS HARBOUR IS HOME TO A ‘SLUM ON STILTS’ WHERE LIFE EXPECTANCY IS LESS THAN 40. BUT IT DOES HAVE A NEW SCHOOL

P H O T O G R A P H : I W A N B A A N / N L E

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 7

‘Worrying pattern’ in Gove’s appointments, claims MorganOfsted’s leadership has been in the headlines after Michael Gove

decided not to reappoint Baroness Morgan of Huyton as chair of the

schools watchdog at the end of her three-year term.

Michael Gove, the secretary of state who appointed the Labour

peer, praised Lady Morgan’s contribution to Ofsted and said

that the move was designed to refresh the

organisation’s leadership. He denied that the

decision was politically motivated.

But Lady Morgan, a former teacher who

worked at Number 10 under Tony Blair, told the

BBC’s Today programme that the decision was

part of a pattern. “I am the latest of a fairly long

list of people now who are non-Conservative

supporters who are not being re-appointed.

I think there is absolutely a pattern,” she said.

“It’s extremely worrying.”

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector,

was consulted about the decision and urged

Mr Gove not to replace Lady Morgan. “I did

say to the secretary of state that I wanted her

to continue, that she was a very good chair

and my working relationship with her was very strong,” he told the Commons Education Select

Committee at a scheduled appearance.

He also said that Lady Morgan had backed him and his decisions. “She stood foursquare

behind me and gave me a huge amount of support and gave me very good advice. She is a

very good chair of the board of Ofsted. She has their trust and she has the trust and confi dence

of the executive board. She is very knowledgeable about education.”

The Mirror reported that Mr Gove ignored the advice of the DfE’s top civil servant, who

had recommended that Lady Morgan continue in her role for another three-year term. A DfE

spokesman told the newspaper: “The department has no comment to make. We do not discuss

the contents of offi cials’ advice to ministers.”

/ /

Give schools a six-month Ofsted break Schools should be given a six-month break from Ofsted inspections so that they can concentrate

on bedding-in the large number of changes and new initiatives that come in to play this autumn,

according to NAHT president Bernadette Hunter.

“There’s a large number of changes coming in September 2014 for schools and school leaders to

manage and we want to be able to do the very best with all of them,” she said. “But to do that we

need time and space from the accountability framework while we embed the new curriculum and

make sure that new assessment procedures are properly in place.”

When Scottish schools went through similar changes they were given a one-year respite from

inspection so that they could make sure they got the new systems up and running as quickly and

effi ciently as possible. Under the circumstances a six-month break was a very reasonable request, she

said. “We will be writing to MPs to make them aware of just how much change has to be implemented

in the coming school year,” she said. “It is really important for schools to focus on teaching and

learning and make that their fi rst priority.”

Are you ready for autumn 2014? See page 12 for our checklist.

School places remain a concern More than 60 per cent of those surveyed said that with their current facilities, they would not be able to provide more places.

Other research by The Key suggested that only a quarter of school leaders think that performance-related pay will raise standards in schools.

Almost 90 per cent of school leaders are worried about the shortage of primary school places, according to research from The Key.

Lack of space a major worry �

21

Ofsted’s new programme

of no-notice inspections is

an unnecessary burden on

schools and will do nothing

to improve education, said

Russell Hobby, the general

secretary of the NAHT.

“In the current climate

of fear and uncertainty

surrounding Ofsted more

dawn raids and surprise visits

are the last thing we need,”

he said. “Ofsted is unable

to maintain the quality and

consistency of its current,

planned inspections. It should

not over-reach further when

so many inspections contain

basic mistakes.”

In January, chief inspector

Sir Michael Wilshaw

announced that Ofsted

would conduct unannounced

inspections of schools where

standards of behaviour were

causing concern.

“Behaviour was found to

be good or better in 92 per

cent of schools at their last

inspection,” said the general

secretary. “Furthermore,

Ofsted received only 30

complaints that qualifi ed for

further investigation last year.

Is this a real concern?

“The only crisis in our

schools right now is one

caused by perpetual

interference. This will not

help improve behaviour

further. How can it enhance

the authority of head teachers

when Ofsted responds to

anonymous complaints without

verifi cation? One unpopular

decision and schools could

face harsh penalties.”

SMART STAT No-notice inspections ‘unnecessary’

From almost 8,000 Ofsted inspections

last year, the number triggered

by complaints from parents was just...

4

P H O T O G R A P H : P A

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8 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

N E W S F O C U S

Aspire working wellS C H O O L I M P R O V E M E N T

Six of the 30 schools in the

fi rst Aspire cohort have

achieved a ‘good’ rating

within the fi rst months of the

three-year improvement

programme being piloted by

the NAHT.

All of the participants who

responded to an online survey

about their experience to date

said that the initial phase,

designed to help schools

identify problems and draw

up a plan of action, was

professionally supported,

according to an independent

review of the project by the

University of Derby.

The review also found that

98 per cent of respondents

felt that the early analysis had

helped them to prioritise

actions to support change,

while 95 per cent said the

process made them think

about new approaches to

school improvement.

NAHT president Bernadette

Hunter (pictured) said: “We

are really pleased that the

evaluation has determined

that this exciting project is

working effectively and that

the schools are benefi ting

from their collaboration.

“The results so far mean

that we are already thinking

about how we can develop

this programme further and

roll it out more widely.”

She added that she hopes

more school leaders will

become involved in the next

stages of Aspire as it expands.

Other early successes

identifi ed by the university

include improvements in staff

morale, teaching, marking,

target-setting, understanding

and analysis of data, as well

as a tighter focus on teaching

and learning as a core aspect

of raising standards.

Respondents also felt that

they knew the areas in which

they were doing well, where

they needed to take action

and what they needed to do

over the next two terms.

• The Aspire pilot involves

30 schools in four clusters

and is jointly funded by the

participating schools and the

DfE. The project is delivered

by EdisonLearning, NAHT’s

chosen business partner.

P H O T O G R A P H : U N P / N A H T

Gail Larkin, currently the

NAHT’s vice-president, will

step into the role of president

at the association’s annual

conference in May.

Bernadette Hunter, the

outgoing president, said:

“I am delighted that Gail

will be taking over and that

Tony Draper will join her as

vice-president.

“Gail is a very passionate,

determined and energetic

character who brings many

skills to the role. Tony has a

wealth of experience in school

leadership and a particular

interest in assessment.”

Tony, a head teacher in

Milton Keynes, said that he

hopes to draw attention to

the ways in which schools

are getting great results from

sports premium funding.

“I’d also like to work with

and support colleagues

who take on schools in

challenging circumstances

and then fi nd they are not

allowed appropriate time to

turn the school around due

to Ofsted. Also, to talk to

colleagues who experience

increasingly mobile

populations due to landlords

ending tenancies because of

benefi ts changes.”

Gail Larkin to step up to presidency

‘College of teaching’ wins NAHT supportAn independent college of

teaching to oversee

teaching standards would

have much to offer the

profession provided it was

led by the profession itself,

said NAHT president

Bernadette Hunter, but

Labour’s proposed ‘teaching

licences’ have generated

more scepticism.

“We support the idea of a

college of teaching, as it is

important that teachers

should be represented by

an independent professional

body,” she said.

Russell Hobby, the

association’s general

secretary, added: “We need

an organisation to take an

evidence-based, non-

political approach to setting

standards in educational

and professional practice. If

teachers want professional

respect and freedom from

interference, they need a

body like this to strengthen

their voice.

“Certain issues remain to

be addressed, such as

membership profi le and

fees, but as long as careful

thought is given to ensuring

the college is both

sustainable and accessible,

then these proposals are

likely to receive a welcome

from the profession.”

However, while Mr Hobby

welcomed calls to raise the

status of teaching, he said

that Labour’s suggestion of

teaching licences should

replace current forms of

accountability rather than

add to them.

E TESTING TACTICS Schools are lodging a high number of ‘tactical’ exam result appeals when students get GCSE or A-level marks that place them near a grade boundary, according to Ofqual.

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 9

A N N U A L C O N F E R E N C E

WE Aspirations, inspirationsand success at the ICC

The NAHT would support Michael Gove’s call for longer school

days so long as the move was properly resourced and allowed

individual schools fl exibility in how it was managed.

Allowing schools to run 10-hour days would mean that state

schools could become indistinguishable from independent

schools, the secretary of state

said in a speech to the London

Academy of Excellence.

He said: “I would like to

see state schools – just like

independent schools – offer

a school day nine or 10

hours long that allows time

for structured homework

sessions and prep. A longer

school day will also make

time for after-school sports,

orchestra rehearsals, debating

competitions, coding

clubs, cadet training, Duke of Edinburgh award schemes and

inspirational careers talks from outside visitors.”

NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby said the association

had “no problem” with schools staying open longer provided the

majority of the extra time was used for extra-curricular activities

and that the extension was properly resourced.

“We need to be clear where the money will come from to fund

the extra staffi ng, given that teachers already work a 48-hour

week on average,” he said. “If the fi nance is there, then schools

can make the appropriate arrangements, using a wide range of

staff, contracts and partnerships with other providers.”

Support for longer school days depends on resources

P H O T O G R A P H : N Y O G B

It’s time for members to book their tickets to this year’s

NAHT annual conference, which is being held at the ICC in

Birmingham from Friday, May 2 until Sunday, May 4.

“This is a real opportunity for new and experienced school

leaders to meet and discuss important educational issues,”

said incoming president Gail Larkin. It is also a chance for

people to revisit the values and beliefs that inspired them to

enter teaching in the fi rst place – and to motivate them and

inspire them for the journey ahead.

Importantly, it is also an opportunity for the profession

to unite to prepare for the challenges ahead. “Last year our

president stated that ‘we cannot underestimate the scale of

challenges we are facing in a climate where schools seem to

be under daily attack’,” said Gail.

“Unfortunately, we most certainly did. We could not have

possibly anticipated the increased criticism and vitriol – even

bullying tactics – levelled at our profession during the past

year. I cannot remember a time during my past 40 years in

the profession when we have been subjected to such attacks

from government ministers, the media and others in posi-

tions of authority and trust.”

STORM CLOUDS ARE GATHERINGFor this reason no conference has ever been as important

as that planned for 2014, she said. “The storm clouds are

gathering as we hurtle headlong towards the ‘perfect storm’

which we know is going to hit us in September 2014.”

A new national curriculum, revised assessment pro-

cedures, free school meals for all infant-age pupils and

changes to SEND provision are just part of the onslaught

of initiatives that schools will be expected to implement –

something that many will fi nd impossible with the tools at

their disposal.

The NAHT will continue to work hard in the interests of

pupils, schools and school leaders, which means that the

association wants to hear from its members. “There will be a

full programme of motions, seminars and workshops. We are

keen to hear your views and opinions on the wide-ranging

issues that will be debated,” said Gail.

“We will take many extremely important decisions at the

conference that will infl uence the direction and thoughts of

our politicians.

“The NAHT has to take back the initiative. We have to con-

tinue to demonstrate that we care. We care about the pupils

in our school and we care about our colleagues who are fac-

ing pressures that would not be tolerated by any other pro-

fession and we have to stand up and be counted.

“I hope that members will join us to emphatically reiterate

to the current – and any future – government that we will no

longer tolerate their unacceptable and unwarranted diatribe

towards us and our hardworking and dedicated colleagues.”

For more information and to book tickets, please visit:bit.ly/AnnualConf2014

Big-name speaker line up for ‘Inspiring Leadership’ Speakers including Andy Hargreaves, Avis Glaze and Steve Munby

will offer their leadership insights at the NAHT, CfBT and ASCL’s

joint conference, Inspiring Leadership, being held at Birmingham’s

International Convention Centre in June. The conference, which

is now open for bookings, will also feature expert masterclasses,

workshops and seminars, as well as time for refl ection and for

engagement with many exhibitors and sponsors.

Other speakers include Dr Yong Zhao, who specialises in the

implications of technology and globalisation, and who was named

one of the 10 most infl uential people in educational technology.

Richard Gerver, a former head teacher who helped turn a failing

school into a global innovation success story, is also speaking.

For more information and to book tickets, please visit:bit.ly/NAHTinspiring

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10 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

N E W S F O C U S

F A M I L Y A C T I O N

J A R G O N B U S T E R

WE The Year of CodeGet with the program

The Year of Code (www.yearofcode.org) is an independent campaign run by a range of organisations, including the BBC, Google and Codecademy. It is designed to get more people writing computer code (‘programming’ to anyone over 30) and it coincides with curriculum changes that mean all children aged between fi ve and 16 will see cod-ing added to their timetables from this September. But it’s not all about equipping youngsters for the future, the web-site suggests that campaigners are also keen to get adults across the country to give coding a go.

HANG ON, REMIND ME WHAT CODING IS BEFORE WE GET INTO THE DETAIL Coding is telling computers what to do and when to do it.

Doing it requires the coder to understand a specifi c com-

puter language – there are a number of them – so that they

can do anything from building a mobile phone app to pub-

lishing e-books or setting up a music website. The website

includes a short starter session that shows people how to

build a simple online game of Moshi Pong.

Other courses are available online, including Codecademy’s

15-week after school programme (www.codecademy.com/tracks/afterschool-semester1) and code.org/learn’s guide,

which claims to be for people aged between six and 106.

SO IT’S NOT THAT HARD TO LEARN, THEN? Campaign spokeswoman Lottie Dexter got herself into a bit

of a pickle trying to answer this question on Newsnight re-

cently (see page 20). You can apparently learn it in a year.

Unless you’re teaching the subject, when it takes a day.

WHAT’S THE REACTION BEEN LIKE? Emma Mulqueeny of Young Rewired State, who has spent

six years working out how to encourage young people to

explore coding, argues that the whole set-up is doing more

harm than good. “It doesn’t know what it’s doing, it’s not

focused, it hasn’t looked at all the research that people have

done,” she told the BBC. “The thing that really tipped me

over the edge was when I found that they hadn’t even both-

ered to contact Computing at Schools, which has spent six

years working on this.”

THERE MUST BE SOME GOOD HERE? The BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones

acknowl edged that things hadn’t gone well so far. But he

added: “There is a lot of goodwill out there, particularly

among those IT teachers who have been campaigning for

years for a more stretching and creative approach to com-

puting education. If the Year of Code can take a breath, sit

back and work out what it wants to achieve, then maybe it

can regain some of its lost credibility.”

And, later, Emma updated her own blog to say that she is

sure that the campaign “will fi nd something useful to do”.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26150717 bit.ly/EmmaMul

Preparing for change The fi rst day of school

can be as nerve-

racking for mums

and dads as it is for

their children. The

latest leafl et from

NAHT and its charity

partner Family Action

aims to address the

challenges posed

by this change. It encourages

parents to plan ahead for their

child’s fi rst day at school, the

switch to secondary and for

new responsibilities.

Prior to their fi rst day at

school, that means ensuring

children can dress themselves,

hold a knife and fork, take

themselves to the toilet and

share with others.

The new leafl et, Preparing for change at school, is the

fourth in a series badged as

Ready to Learn Every Day.

It warns parents that the

changes a child faces at school

can affect the whole family,

but assures them that, with

the right support, children

can thrive.

Once a child is settled in

their fi rst school, the next

challenge is to ensure they

are equipped for additional

responsibilities such as extra

homework and longer days.

Parents are advised to help

their child cope by giving

them a healthy breakfast,

a good night’s sleep and

dedicated space and time

to do their homework.

With the move from

primary to secondary

school, parents are

encouraged to talk

positively about

changes, listen to any

worries their child

may have and discuss

what they have to look

forward to.

Secondary school means

helping children to check they

have the right equipment each

day and making sure they

know how to stay safe on their

way to and from school.

The campaign is aimed

at promoting the vital role

of parents in their children’s

learning, as well as supporting

teachers in their relationships

with pupils and their families.

Further information Family Action is the NAHT’s

charity partner for 2013/14.

The two organisations are

running a range of awareness

and fundraising activities

including a dress-down day

called ‘Dressed down and

ready to learn’.

Five assembly plans to support the campaign are available online at www.naht.org.uk/familyaction and www.family-action.org.uk/naht.

For more information, please telephone Cath Cole on 020 7241 7638 or email cath.cole@family-action.org.uk.

08_12 News.indd 1008_12 News.indd 10 21/02/2014 16:1121/02/2014 16:11

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 11

E RATIO TO BE RATIONED Liz Truss, the childcare minister, has announced plans to cut the staff-child ratio in after-school clubs from 1:8 to 1:30, bringing it into line with infant schools.

Gove praises NAHTA S S E S S M E N T C O M M I S S I O N

Education secretary Michael

Gove has praised the

recommendations of the

NAHT’s Commission on

Assessment Without Levels,

which were published in

February.

“The NAHT’s report gives

practical, helpful ideas

to schools preparing for

the removal of levels,” he

said. “It also encourages

them to make the most

of the freedom they now

have to develop innovative

approaches to assessment

that meet the needs of pupils

and give far more useful

information to parents.”

The key recommendations,

announced by commission

chairman Lord Sutherland, are:

• schools should adopt a

consistent approach to

assessment across the

country. The commission also

produced a ‘design checklist’

to underpin this;

• schools should retain the

use of levels while designing

a new system;

• pupils should be judged

against objective criteria

rather than ranked against

each other;

• all assessments need

external moderation and that

this moderation needs real

teeth; and

• assessment should be driven

from the curriculum.

NAHT general secretary

Russell Hobby said it was

up to school leaders to take

ownership of assessment.

“Just because the government

ceases to regulate something

does not mean the profession

must accept fragmentation,”

he said. “We can keep what

was good about our previous

system and address its fl aws.”

The report is a signifi cant

piece of work based on

input from numerous

stakeholders and experts,

added Bernadette Hunter,

the association’s president.

“This is a very important

document that signposts the

way forward for schools and

school leaders on assessment

in the new context,” she said.

See also Russell Hobby’s column, page 19.

2012 legacy requires more staff trainingStaff training is the key

to making sure that

government investment in

sport has the maximum

impact, said NAHT general

secretary Russell Hobby,

who also called for sharing

of specialist sports facilities.

He said: “The point of

schools is to equip young

people for the life ahead

of them. Sport has an

important role to play, not

just in terms of health but

also in building resilience,

teamwork and determination.”

The general secretary, who

was speaking at the Youth

Sport National Trust

Conference in Telford,

added: “In making the most

of the sports funding at

primary level, the NAHT

believes the key is to invest

in training for staff to build

their confi dence and skill in

leading and teaching PE.

“We also encourage local

and national government to

encourage collaboration

between schools to make best

use of specialist skills and

facilities. Schools should not

have to go it alone on this.”

Last year, the Commons

Education Committee

reported that it feared that

the legacy of the 2012

Olympic Games for schools

was ‘on life-support’.

P H O T O G R A P H Y : G E T T Y/ I S T O C K

A special general meeting of

the association in November

delivered a resounding

95 per cent vote in favour of

proceeding with a proposal to

create a new affi liate for NAHT.

Speaking after the vote,

NAHT general secretary

Russell Hobby said: “The

new affi liate will be aimed at

middle leaders in schools and

will offer the normal protection

of a trade union while helping

them develop as senior

leaders. This will help NAHT

appeal to the next generation

of school leaders while also

supporting that generation in a

time of signifi cant turmoil and

fragmentation. It will clearly be

aimed at aspirational leaders

who put a high priority on

professional development; we

think there are many out there

who fi t the mould.

“We have a happy

experience of partnering with

affi liates already (AHOEC and

IAPS). Using this model helps

us preserve the character and

tradition of NAHT while also

trying out innovative new

ideas. It gives us the best of

both worlds. The new affi liate

will operate with a streamlined

model, using online resources

(although there will be a

physical presence when

necessary) and direct

participation and democracy.

It will be self sustaining within

a few years and is aiming for

around 5,000 members.

“Launch is planned for

autumn 2014 and we will be

in touch regularly with more

details – including how you

can encourage your middle

leaders to sign up if you think

this might be the association

for them.”

Middle leaders will give NAHT the Edge

08_12 News.indd 1108_12 News.indd 11 24/02/2014 11:1424/02/2014 11:14

12 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

N E W S F O C U S

Stay ahead of the gameE D U C A T I O N C H A N G E S

As seen in the poster in the

last edition of LF, major

change are taking place in

education. Members can stay

informed by logging into the

NAHT website where you’ll

fi nd updates on the following.

TAKE ACTION NOWCurriculumAll schools must publish their

school curriculum by subject

and academic year, including

their provision of personal,

social, health and economic

education (PSHE). To support

schools in doing this, the

PSHE Association has

published its own guidance on

drafting and reviewing a

school’s sex and relationship

policy and a suggested

programme of study for PSHE.

Academies and free schools

are also required to publish

similar information relating to

their curriculum through their

funding agreements.

Finance By 4 April 2014, maintained

schools and academies must

publish information on their

website about how they have

used the PE and sport grant

allocation, including how it

has (or will be) spent and the

impact it is having.

Staffi ngAll schools should consider

mid-year performance

reviews for teachers subject

to performance-related pay

progression to support

reviews in September 2014.

Universal free school meals for infantsSchools should start

discussions with local

authorities and/or catering

providers to ensure they can

implement this in time. A

government funded advisory

and consultancy service will

be available from the end of

February and can include a

visit and assessment of the

school to advise on the

approach you could take.

NEED TO KNOWSEND Code of PracticeSubject to parliamentary

approval, the new 0 to 25

SEND code of practice will

be published soon, providing

statutory guidance to

schools and colleges about

how they should act under

the new SEND provisions

in the Children and Families

Bill when they become

law in September.

Staffi ngFrom March, an amendment

to the Education (school

teachers’ prescribed

qualifi cations, etc) Order

2003 will ensure that

unqualifi ed instructors

employed in maintained

schools and non-maintained

special schools will be paid

according to the pay range

for unqualifi ed teachers set

out in the school teachers’

pay and conditions

document (STPCD) 2013.

Curriculum and qualifi cations

From May, pupils will no

longer be allowed to use

calculators in statutory key

stage two tests.

For updates on all these issues and more, visit www.naht.org.uk

VP-ELECT PRIORITISES CHILD SAFETYHead teacher Tony Draper

has gone above and beyond

to ensure safety measures at

Water Hall Primary School

in Milton Keynes are robust.

As part of his efforts, the old

school was demolished and a

new doughnut-shaped school

opened in 2008. He told LF:

“Parents enter the school at

one end and must comply

with a one-way system in

order to leave. This ensures

that each child and parent

have to pass members of

staff and security measures

before leaving the premises.”

Another system put in place

was 3fi fteen, an after-school

child safeguarding service

designed to inform schools

when changes are made

to the collection plan for a

pupil at the end of the school

day. Tony will become NAHT

vice president at the annual

conference in May.

www.3fi fteen.co.uk

ITN CONFERENCE PARTNERSHIPThe NAHT is partnering

with ITN at its annual

conference in May to create

a news programme focusing

on excellence in teaching.

Hosted by newsreader

Natasha Kaplinsky, it

will celebrate success in

teaching leadership and

look to inspire others to

foster a self-improving

school-led system. It will

feature in-depth interviews

with education policy

makers and provide insights

from leading schools and

their leaders. NAHT general

secretary Russell Hobby

said: “The programme will

show how teachers and

heads are supporting each

other by using innovative

ways to improve earning and

develop leaders.”

To view last year’s programmes visit www.itnproductions.co.uk/naht and alsobit.ly/TVnaht

N E W S I N B R I E F

08_12 News.indd 1208_12 News.indd 12 24/02/2014 12:4124/02/2014 12:41

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 13

Chris Purser: 1941-2013

P H O T O G R A P H Y : N A H T/ E D U C AT I O N S H O W

T H E E D U C A T I O N S H O W

WE 20-22 March 2014NEC, Birmingham

There is little doubt that 2014 will continue to be a year of change. Yet it also promises new opportunities. With head teacher responsibilities changing and new policies to consider, regular free training, advice and inspiration are essential. Recognising this, the Education Show offers valuable, free, high-quality continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities.

For school leaders, the School Leaders Summit is not to be missed. The two-day conference will focus on the most crucial issues affecting senior leaders. Based on in-depth research with more than 100 school leaders, the programme promises to encourage discussion, debate and networking opportunities.

In a series of best-practice, case-study and panel sessions, topics will include using technology to enhance learning, innovating teaching and learning, designing a fair and successful teacher appraisal policy and achievingeffective communication with staff, pupils and parents. The programme can be found at the website below.

In addition to the conference, more than 120 free CPD-accredited workshops, seminars, training sessions and discussion events will be led by practitioners, peers and industry experts. These will include the new national curriculum seminars and workshops. With the new curriculum high on everyone’s agenda, this series of seminars and workshops has been devised in association with publisher Scholastic to provide advice and guidance from key industry experts and associations.

Scholastic will lead a number of free 25-minute sessions for primary heads and educators. These workshops will provide tips and guidance for delivering the national curriculum for English, maths, science, geography, history and computer science. Attendees will receive a free Scholastic ‘100 Lessons’ goody bag worth £50. You can fi nd full details and book online at the website below.

School leaders may also wish to send members of their PTA to the PTA-UK National Conference, held on 22 March. With the theme ‘Achieve More’, the programme is designed to help PTAs to maximise their fundraising efforts, fi nd the most effective ways to promote a PTA, support their activity through social media, discover better ways of working and benefi t from Gift Aid.

Investing in the right resources and making the most of budgets continue to be crucial. The Education Show provides a wide range of potential solutions under one roof from more than 360 suppliers. On top of this, you can speak in person with suppliers and benefi t from free advice. The NAHT will be at the Education Show on stand N29. The event is free to attend.

To register for your free, fast-track pass, visit www.education-show.com.

Many readers will have known

Chris, who sadly passed away

last year. The following is an

extract from the eulogy given

at his memorial service.

Chris did his teacher

training college at Avery Hill

Men’s Annexe in 1959 and

taught for seven years before

being appointed head teacher

at Hadlow Down primary

school in East Sussex.

He then worked for the

Service Children’s Education

Authority in Germany, fi rst in

Hanover and then at Churchill

School in Verden, before

returning to the UK in 1984 as

head at Highfi eld junior school

in Eastbourne.

Chris had by this time

become a fellow of the

College of Preceptors and

in 1990 he obtained his MA

in education policy and

decision making from the

University of Sussex.

While in Eastbourne, Chris

had been secretary for the

East Sussex branch of the

NAHT and in 1990 he moved

to work full time for the

association. As a professional

adviser, he travelled all

over the country advising,

supporting and representing

members who were in

professional diffi culties.

Following a reorganisation,

he set up a new department

promoting membership and

the support of branches

around the country. This

meant extensive travel and

a further opportunity for his

vast collection of A-Zs to

bounce around in the boot

of his car. Through these

two roles he became widely

respected in the branches

and he was equally highly

regarded at headquarters.

Chris was also a non-

executive director of the Royal

Society for the Prevention of

Accidents and at one time

was chair of the National

Safety Education Committee.

Should you ever fi nd yourself

muttering about health and

safety, you now know who

to blame. He wrote a book

on the subject for Croner

Publications, entitled Health, safety and welfare of pupils: the responsibilities of the governing body.

Following a lengthy illness

Chris passed away at his home

in September 2013.

N E W S F O C U S

13 News.indd 1313 News.indd 13 24/02/2014 12:3924/02/2014 12:39

14 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

N E W S F O C U S

The following school leaders among those awarded honours for services to education.

Damehood (DBE)Kathy August, lately principal of Manchester Academy.

Rachel de Souza, lately executive principal, Ormiston Victory

Academy, Norwich.

Alison Peacock, head, Wroxham Primary School, Hertfordshire.

Knighthood (KBE)Craig Tunstall, executive head, Gipsy Hill Federation, London.

CBEClaire Axten, head, Brookside Community Primary School,

Somerset.

Hadyn Evans, head, Sir John Cass Foundation and Redcoat CE

Secondary School, Tower Hamlets, London.

Louise Smith, lately executive head, Ingrow and Long Lee

Primary Schools Federation, Bradford.

Elaine White, head, St Mary and St Thomas Aquinas Catholic

Primary School, Gateshead.

OBESusan Alford, head, Dunkirk Primary School, Dunkirk,

Nottingham.

Gill Bal, head, Wembley High Technology College, London

Borough of Brent.

Shahed Ahmed Battiwala, head, Elmhurst Primary School,

Newham.

Lindsey Clark, executive principal, Park View School,

The Academy of Mathematics and Science, Birmingham.

Connie Cooling, head, Bousfi eld Primary School, London.

Sarah Creighton, executive principal of The Hill, Gooseacre and

Littleworth Grange Primary Academies, South Yorkshire.

Shirley-Anne Crosbie, head, The Chiltern School, Caddington,

Bedfordshire.

Joan Cuthbert, principal, Culmore Primary School, Londonderry.

Sally Davies, principal, Thriftwood Special School, Chelmsford.

Judith Donnelly, head, Pennywell Early Years Centre,

Sunderland.

Ian Elliott, formerly head, Ysgol Penmaes, Brecon, Powys.

Cynthia Eubank, executive head, Grinling Gibbons and Lucas

Vale Primary Schools, Lewisham.

Sarah Evans, lately head, King Edward VI High School for Girls,

Birmingham.

Roland Gooding, head, Valence Special School, Westerham,

Kent.

Eithne Theresa Hughes, head, Bryn Elian High School, Conwy.

Sofi na Islam, head, Stanton Bridge Primary School, Coventry.

Gareth Williams, principal, West Kirby Residential School.

MBEKathleen Patricia Burns, principal, St Therese Nursery School,

Belfast.

David Kemp, assistant head at Queen Elizabeth Humanities

College in Herefordshire.

If we have missed anyone, please let us know: naht@redactive.co.uk

N E W Y E A R H O N O U R S

School leaders were well-

represented on the 2014 New

Year’s Honours list, with three

DBEs and one knighthood

awarded to current or former

heads and principals.

One recipient

who is

well-known

to NAHT

members

is Dame

Alison Peacock (pictured),

the head teacher who led

Wroxham primary school in

Hertfordshire out of special

measures. Wroxham, which

has 67 teaching schools in its

alliance, now has ’outstanding’

status.

NAHT president Bernadette

Hunter congratulated all

school leaders who were

awarded honours in the list.

“This sends the message that

the work school leaders do

is truly respected despite the

challenges that they face,”

she said. “It is exemplifi ed by

Dame Alison’s inclusion for

the enormous amount of work

she has done for education,

including her involvement

with the commission on

assessment.”

Sofi na Islam, head teacher

at Stanton Bridge primary in

Coventry, who received an

OBE for her work in turning

around the once-failing

school, said that it took a

while for the news to sink in.

“But when I saw the reaction

of my daughter, husband and

brother, I knew how proud

they were and I felt a sense of

overwhelming appreciation,”

she said.

“It gives you faith that

when you work hard to

make a difference to the

lives of others in some

signifi cant way, it is noticed.

Communities in challenging

contexts need to know that

hard work brings rewards.”

David Kemp,

assistant head

at Queen

Elizabeth

Humanities

College in

Bromyard (pictured) said

that he was looking forward

to bringing his medal into

school after he receives it

at Windsor Castle in early

March. “When I saw a letter

marked ‘On Her Majesty’s

Service’ I thought it was

from HMRC,” said David, who

is passionate about music

education. “When I opened

it I was gobsmacked – but I

couldn’t tell anyone until it

was announced.”

Other NAHT members

recognised include Kathleen

Burns, principal of St Therese

nursery school in Belfast;

Eithne Hughes, head of Bryn

Elian high school in Conwy;

Ian Elliott, the former head

teacher of Ysgol Penmaes, in

Powys; and Roland Gooding,

head teacher of Valence

special school in Kent.

• Stay connectedNAHT sends key updates by

email and it’s important we

have an active email address

for you. Check your details by

logging into the NAHT

website with your username

and password, then select the

button: ‘Updates: members

update your details here’.

www.naht.org.uk

School leaders rewarded with new year honours

14 News hons.indd 1414 News hons.indd 14 21/02/2014 16:0921/02/2014 16:09

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 15

N E W S F O C U S

P H O T O G R A P H : P L A I N P I C T U R E

Crimes of violence

L E G A L U P D A T E

The Criminal Injuries

Compensation Authority

(CICA) turns 50 in June,

writes NAHT senior solicitor

Simon Thomas. Although

perpetrators of violence

have long been ordered to

pay fi nancial compensation

to victims, in 1964 the

government recognised that

in most cases they were in no

position to do so and took on

the responsibility.

The NAHT provides

representation and advice

for members who are the

victims of crimes of violence

during the course of their

employment. A claim can be

made even if the perpetrator

has not been prosecuted or

is below the age of criminal

responsibility (10 years old).

The scheme has

undergone a number

of changes since its

introduction, none more

controversial than those

affecting claims submitted

since 27 November 2012.

Most of the changes

restrict eligibility or limit

compensation:

• many minor injuries have

been removed from the

scheme;

• net annual earnings loss

was previously capped at

one and a half times the

gross national average

earnings (currently £27,000)

so £40,500 per year. Loss

of earnings is now paid at

the statutory sick pay rate of

£86.70 per week; and

• previously, an award could

be reduced or withheld if

‘the applicant failed to take,

without delay, all reasonable

steps to inform the police, or

other appropriate body, of

the circumstances giving rise

to the injury’.

Since 2012, an award

‘will be withheld unless the

incident giving rise to the

criminal injury has been

reported to the police

as soon as reasonably

practicable.

It remains to be seen

how the reporting

requirement will be

interpreted, particularly

in relation to assaults by

children, which may not

normally be reported to the

police and may be reported

sometime after the event

and then only as a precursor

to a claim. The time limit for

submitting claims remains

at two years from the date

of the incident, in contrast

to the three years for other

personal injury claims.

It seems likely to be those

in charge of the treasury

coffers rather than the

innocent victims of crimes

of violence who will be

celebrating this anniversary.

WE Criminal injuriescompensation victories

As well as guiding members through the normal Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) process, the NAHT has successfully represented members who have appealed to the fi rst-tier tribunal against CICA refusal to make awards or to obtain increased awards. Below are some examples:

• A special school head who was assaulted by two students

suffered minor concussion and had to stop work early due

to psychiatric illness. He was awarded £1,500, which was

increased to £4,800 on review and further increased to

£40,000 following appeal to the fi rst-tier tribunal.

• A special school head teacher who was assaulted by a

student and suffered psychiatric illness. He was initially

refused an award on the grounds that the injury was

not serious enough to attract the minimum award.

On review, he was awarded £1,000 for a minor head injury.

This was increased to £125,000 following appeal to the

fi rst-tier tribunal.

• A special school deputy intervened to prevent a

colleague being assaulted and injured his back. At fi rst, the

CICA rejected the application on the grounds it was not a

crime of violence. On appeal, it was accepted that he was

taking an ‘exceptional and justifi ed’ risk to prevent a crime

and was awarded £37,000.

• A primary head suffered a signifi cant eye injury from a

snowball thrown by an unknown child. At fi rst, the CICA

would not accept it was a crime of violence. At an appeal

hearing, the tribunal accepted that the head teacher was

not a voluntary participant in ‘horse play’ but was stood

between the battle lines directing that hostilities should

cease, when she was struck by the missile. It was therefore

a reckless assault and she was entitled to an award.

• A primary head teacher suffered, fortunately minor,

injuries when she tripped over a fi re hose at her school in

the middle of the night. It was found that the fi re had most

likely been caused by arson, which was included in the

defi nition of a crime of violence.

If you need professional advice, call 0300 30 30 333.

N A H T C A S E F I L E S

15 News_Law.indd 1515 News_Law.indd 15 24/02/2014 12:3724/02/2014 12:37

LFO.03.14.016.indd 16LFO.03.14.016.indd 16 17/02/2014 16:1817/02/2014 16:18

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 17

M uch has been said about the amount of change hitting schools this September. Yet further churn is being caused

by the political parties behaving as if the general election is just around the corner. In the same way that animals mark out their territory, politicians are busy staking out their ground, but by using rhetoric rather than scent.

For the fi rst time in 70 years, there is the added complication of the two parties in coalition vying to prove how very diff erent they really are. This has only served to emphasise the unsatis-factory nature of having the education service so entirely in the hands of politicians.

One of Michael Gove’s early moves was to support the drive to quash quangos and turn four of them into executive agen-cies of the DfE (the Teaching Agency has since been absorbed into the National College for Teaching and Leadership). This meant they lost much of their independence and were tied more closely to the DfE. It was an early sign that the politicisa-tion of the education service was on the increase.

Various think tanks are also working away in the background, seemingly more detached, but still with close ties to the politi-cal party each one favours. Earlier this year, when it came to light that two right-leaning think tanks – one of which was set up by Michael Gove in 2002 – were working on reports criti-cal of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, suspected that the DfE had been involved and said he was ‘spitting blood’ over it.

This came as a shock to many of us who had thought that the two Michaels agreed on how to improve the nation’s schools – by insisting on smart uniforms, discipline, a rigorous testing regime for pupils and an accountability system that has made job security for school leaders a thing of the past.

Hardly had Mr Gove attempted to smooth Wilshaw’s ruffl ed feathers, when Baroness Sally Morgan, a Labour peer, went public about her dismay at not having her three-year contract renewed as chair of the Ofsted board. She believed she had not been reappointed because Gove wanted to put a Conservative supporter in her place (see page seven). David Laws, the Lib Dem schools minister, was said to be ‘absolutely furious at the blatant attempts by the Tories to politicise Ofsted’.

RONA TUTT

HOUSE OF HORRORSTHE DFE MAY DISMISS THE EDUCATION PROFESSION AS ‘THE BLOB’, BUT IT’S POLITICIANS WHO ARE SCARING US

WE V I E W F R O M A P A S T P R E S I D E N T

Alienating the professionIn the political system that we have, it may not be possible to remove education from the hands of politicians entirely, but it ought to be possible to have a mechanism by which untrained politicians work with the professionals to discuss and agree educational reforms and a timetable for bringing them in in an orderly and timely manner.

So far, Mr Gove seems to prefer to lump together all those who know something about how to improve schools and the teaching and learning that goes on in them as ‘The Blob’, a term that comes from the 1958 horror fi lm of that name, fea-turing a jelly-like alien that consumes everything in its path.

He also speaks as if there is an education establishment con-sisting of all teacher unions, academics and bureaucrats that speaks with one voice and actively opposes every reform that governments wish to bring in. Gail Larkin, the NAHT’s nation-al president for 2014/15, has written: “This amount of political interference is unprecedented.” Perhaps Mr Gove could refl ect on this and, in whatever time he has left, work with the NAHT to put education on a diff erent footing, where it is not at the mercy of politicians in a hurry to stamp their personal agenda on schools, but one where politicians, professionals and par-ents work together to bring about a brighter future for pupils.

V I E W P O I N T •

Rona Tutt is a retired head teacher and a past president of NAHT

VIEWS IN EDUCATION• RONA TUTT• RUSSELL HOBBY• BEST OF THE BLOGSO P I N I O N

17 Rona col.indd 1717 Rona col.indd 17 21/02/2014 16:1221/02/2014 16:12

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 19

In February we published the re-port of the NAHT Commission on Assessment Without Levels. The immediate aim of the commission was to chart a path through the

potential fragmentation of assessment following the government’s dec ision to abandon the use of levels. Levels were far from perfect, but they did provide a shared professional language and a consistent benchmark between schools. The idea of a future fi lled with thousands of approaches to assessment did not fi ll us with enthusiasm.

The commission had a longer term aim too: to take back ownership of as-sessment for the profession. In a sense, we decided to take the secretary of state at his word. Just because the government has decided to adhere to no system, does not mean we have to do the same. This is a chance to get assessment right: keeping the best bits of levels – the use of objective criteria rather than ranking and a shared approach between schools. It would also mean a chance to improve practice, abandoning the process of summing up a child as a single number, for example, and speaking more in terms of strengths and areas for development.

The report provides a set of hard-edged principles for as-sessment and a detailed design checklist. This could act as self-evaluation or as the seed for a revised assessment policy. It takes a particular view of the world of assessment, from which some may diff er, but it builds on the best of what we already see schools doing.

We are not without recommendations for the wider system – not least that government should endorse the continued use of levels as an interim measure while schools grapple with the new curriculum; after all, they will continue to teach children un-der the old curriculum for some years to come. We also suggest that schools should not be expected to publicise a detailed as-sessment framework this September, but rather to publish their assessment principles now and keep working on the detailed framework. We call for better training in assessment too. And we look forward to a response on these suggestions. Michael Gove has given a measured welcome to our report, but don’t let that put you off it. One of our aims was to ensure the buy-in of those who hold schools to account, so schools could be confi dent in making more creative choices within the broad principles.

RUSSELL HOBBY

LEVELHEADEDTHE NAHT’S COMMISSION AIMS TO TAKE BACK OWNERSHIP OF ASSESSMENT FOR THE PROFESSION

Bear in mind, though, that this is about internal assessment for learning. The use of assessment for accountability is the subject of an open consultation – although it may well have reported by the time you read this. The big issues are the role of a baseline at primary and the level of the fl oor standard. Putting my neck on the line, I do not think we will see an increase in the volume of formal testing. We have been involved in negotiations on this topic and our proactive work – suggesting solutions and alterna-tives – is giving us credibility in such discussions.

Real benefi tsThis is part of our wider strategy of taking back ownership of standards and fi lling the gaps where necessary to prevent frag-mentation. It stretches the association out of its comfort zone but it also produces real benefi ts. Our school improvement pro-ject, Aspire, is another such example (see page eight). This has already helped one third of the schools on the project to get to ‘good’, in less than a year. That means that our members are pro-tected, staff in the schools are developed and the schools them-selves are not forced to seek academisation.

Our politicians are now turning their attention to 2015 and their policies for the next election. We are therefore now apply-ing our proactive philosophy to produce concrete proposals for the next government, in a manifesto for and from the profession. Look out for a draft for consultation heading your way soon.

V I E W P O I N T •

Russell Hobby is NAHT general secretary

EE “Michael Gove has given a measured welcome to our report, but don’t let that put you off it”

O P I N I O N

19 Russell column.indd 1919 Russell column.indd 19 21/02/2014 16:1321/02/2014 16:13

A year to learn code, but a day to learn to teach it Susan Young

School leaders deserve much more respect from chainsWarwick Mansell

20 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

Susan has been watching Newsnight and regretting her choice. She writes: “I’d been avoiding news shows, but then up popped up an interview with someone called Lottie Dexter, director of the government’s Year of Code initiative. Part of the deal is an hour of coding in schools in March, which is apparently going to fi re us all up before the curriculum requirement goes live in September.

“She was an interesting expert, as her opening gambit was to say: ‘I’m going to put my cards on the table, Jeremy, and admit that I can’t code. I’ve committed this year to learning how...’

“‘A year?’ interjected Paxo.“With a winning smile, she said: ‘You can

do very little in a short space of time.... you can actually build a website in an hour. Over this year I am going to see exactly what I can achieve.’

Anyone wanting an insight into the direction in which education management could be heading over the next few years would be advised to take a look at the recent submission of evidence of one of England’s biggest academy chains to the current inquiry into free schools and academies, writes Warwick.

“The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) told the Education Select Committee that it had replaced 26 of 40 head teachers at its schools within weeks of taking them over. England’s third-largest academy chain added that it replaced ‘many other senior staff’ too.

Warwick was also struck by the implicit management model. “It seems clearer than ever that school leaders are professionally to live and die by pupil performance data. ‘Education by numbers’, with heads judged by six-weekly assessments of pupils and seemingly paying for it in some cases if the data does not point in the right direction, seems truly to be upon us.”

Warwick also notes that TKAT claims to have “taken over ‘failing schools’ in more than one authority that have been failing for generations with absolutely no support or intervention.”

He says that what strikes him is the tone: “Too many times, in my experience, prominent academy chains have seemed happy to join politicians in communicating the message, without nuance, that whatever or whoever went before their arrival was absolute rubbish.

“My hunch has always been that they deserve more respect from these incoming chains. I would like to hear more statements along the lines of: ‘We appreciate the efforts of our predecessors. School improvement is tough. We don’t think we have all the answers, but we are going to try something a bit different. Please can we have your support?’”

www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/blogs/warwick-mansell

B L O G SB E S T O F T H E

VIEWS IN EDUCATION• THE YEAR OF CODE INITIATIVE• ACADEMY TRUSTS’ MANAGEMENT MODEL

“Paxo looked surprised: ‘How long does it take to learn to teach to code?’

“‘Well, I think you can pick it up in a day,’ said Lottie. ‘Um, it depends. In March we’re taking coding into the classroom for the fi rst time and if I start thinking about it now in time for September teachers should feel confi dent and people should feel really excited about learning code.’”

But, as Susan points out, it seems it’s going to take her a year to learn how to code, yet teachers are expected to be able to teach it to others after one day.

She continues: “By this point, the techie sitting next to me on the sofa, who’s been coding for decades, was practically spitting teeth. ‘Are they seriously talking about teachers going into the classroom and teaching coding after they’ve had one day learning to do it themselves? That they’d be one day ahead of the kids? The kids who are often going to be really keen and learn really fast? They can’t be serious, can they?’”

www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/blogs/susan-young

See also news, page 10.

The year of code: ‘They can’t be serious, can they?’

20 blogs.indd 2020 blogs.indd 20 21/02/2014 16:1321/02/2014 16:13

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LFO.03.14.023.indd 23LFO.03.14.023.indd 23 17/02/2014 16:2517/02/2014 16:25

PA R T N E R SM E M B E R B E N E F I T S

GL Assessment is the UK’s leading monitor of stakeholder perceptions and provider of the new Kirkland Rowell Parent Survey, developed specially for primary schools in partnership with the NAHT.

With the introduction from September of the new national curriculum and the abolition of levels, schools will be increasingly reliant on formative assessments that also enable pupils to be tested against some form of benchmark. It therefore makes sense to consider tried and trusted standardised assessments, such as our Progress in Maths, Progress in English or New Group Reading Test, in order to track progress effectively, deliver a national benchmark and provide evidence of progress and value-added to Ofsted and parents.

Attainment results can be compared with data from our Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4). This measures accurately a child’s potential, informs teaching and learning, and highlights when that potential is not being reached. It also allows comparisons on both an individual level and for specifi c groups. Furthermore, barriers to learning can be identifi ed using our Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) survey, helping to target intervention strategies more effectively.

To fi nd out more, visit www.gl-assessment.co.uk/levels or call 0845 602 1937.

Everyone loves a holiday, but sometimes, the stress of organising everything can make it feel like it would be easier to stay at home. However, arranging cover with NAHT Travel Insurance couldn’t be easier, even if you have left it until the last minute.

Whether it’s a city break on the continent, an adventure in the Outback or simply the chance to soak up some sunshine, a holiday can be the ideal chance to recharge your batteries and relax. NAHT Travel Insurance has a range of policies that include single-trip, annual and long-stay cover including winter sports, cruises and more.

We can protect you while you enjoy the soft powdery snow under your skis, blue skies and fresh mountain air or gliding through tropical waters aboard a luxury liner, watching the sun set over distant lands.• Annual multi-trip Europe prices start from £49.18 per person• Annual multi-trip worldwide prices start from £66.64 per person• Single-trip Europe prices start from £6.73 per person• Single-trip worldwide prices start from £22.81 per personTo book your insurance, visit www.naht2012.insurefor.com/travel/Index.aspx. Or, for a free quote and more information, call our friendly team on 0844 482 3390.

NAHT’s insurance is arranged and administered by Rock Insurance Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), number 300317. Prices stated include Insurance Premium Tax. All prices correct at time of going to print.

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The NAHT is committed to negotiating a wide range of high-quality, value-added benefits and services for its members. If you have any comments on the services provided by our affinity partners, contact John Randall, the NAHT’s commercial marketing manager, at john.randall@naht.org.uk.

WE M E S S A G E F R O M A S C H O O L P A R T N E R

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23 Partners.indd 2323 Partners.indd 23 21/02/2014 16:1421/02/2014 16:14

P R I M A R Y F U T U R E S

24 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

THE FUTURE SEEMS a long way off for most primary school children. The present is their priority and so getting a job, devel-oping relevant skills and building a career are a long way ahead in their minds.

Making a connection between what they learn in primary school and the jobs they might one day pursue is not easy, particularly those from challenging backgrounds where local unemployment is high and horizons may be set low.

Primary Futures is intended to change that. Developed by the NAHT and the Education and Employers Taskforce (EET), the

Primary Futures is a new initiative that brings literacy and numeracy to life and raises aspirations for primary school children. Daniel Allen reports

initiative aims to raise the aspirations of primary age children. Those behind the scheme plan to do that by introducing chil-dren to the world of work through the eyes of volunteers who can show them how literacy and numeracy have opened doors to interesting and rewarding careers.

Nick Chambers, director of the EET, an independent charity set up fi ve years ago to build eff ective partnerships between schools and employers, says Primary Futures grew out of dis-cussions with primary head teachers about how the EET could off er support. He says: “A number of them mentioned that they

Primaryfutures?

It’s just the job

24-27 primary futures.indd 2424-27 primary futures.indd 24 24/02/2014 12:4024/02/2014 12:40

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 25I L L U S T R AT I O N : I S T O C K

says. “It’s never too soon to start this process.”Steve Iredale, the NAHT’s immediate past president and a

primary head teacher at Athersley South Primary in Barnsley, says Primary Futures is further evidence of the NAHT’s intent to lead the education agenda. The launch last year of an alterna-tive school inspection programme, dubbed Instead, is another example. “With Instead we’re trying to say to government, ‘We can self-regulate, we don’t need you. We can do this ourselves.’”

One of the NAHT’s strengths, Steve believes, is in trying to create other, similar models that encourage the profession to take ownership of the challenges it faces. And one of those chal-lenges is the criticism from business leaders that young people are leaving school without the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace – which is where Inspiring the Future and Primary Futures can play an important role.

Steve is leading the NAHT project team that is piloting Primary Futures in 16 schools across England. “We’re trying to link what children do in school to the world they will inherit one day. At the moment, they learn to develop their literacy and numeracy skills, but perhaps don’t fully appreciate quite why they’re doing it other than to help them get through exams.”

Inviting volunteers into schools is, of course, nothing new. The diff erence with Primary Futures is that it aims to help chil-dren see a direct connection between what they do in school and what they could aspire to when they leave it. “We decided we were going to move away from the original reading partners model,” says Steve, “to develop the link between literacy and numeracy skills and the world of work. Helping children to see that learning has real purpose is a central part of this project.’”

He says a major advantage of the programme is that through Inspiring the Future, the EET has already built an online mechanism designed to help connect schools and volunteers. E

were keen to bring in volunteers from outside their immediate communities to give children the chance to meet people from a range of backgrounds. Depending on where you’re located and the catchment area and so on, some schools fi nd that much easier than others.”

An existing EET scheme that links schools with people in work, called Inspiring the Future, is aimed at secondary stu-dents. But, says Nick, discussions with primary school leaders identifi ed a need to broaden the programme and to start earlier.

“We fi nd that even at a very early age, some young people begin to rule out options. We want to help children keep their options open for as long as possible,” he says.

NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby backs that aim. “We need to give our children and young people a vision of the opportunities available to them, so that they understand the value of learning and in doing so raise expectations,” he

WE How it worksOnce a school has registered on the Primary Futures website, teachers have access to a growing network of volunteers from a wide range of professions who are at diff erent stages of their careers. Having viewed volunteers’ online profi les, the school can then send a message to any who matches their requirements and invite them in to work with their children. When volunteers sign up they are asked whether they would be able to talk about why reading and numeracy have been so important in helping them achieve their current position.

bit.ly/PrimaryFutures

24-27 primary futures.indd 2524-27 primary futures.indd 25 24/02/2014 12:4024/02/2014 12:40

26 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

P R I M A R Y F U T U R E S

Broadening it for the benefi t of primaries is relatively simple. “We don’t have to worry about any of the technical aspects. The big challenge for some schools is fi nding volunteers if you are in an area where there is high unemployment. Primary Futures can help to widen the search for volunteers.”

Where employment is hard to come by, schools that are keen to encourage pupils to start thinking earlier about work options may have little choice but to rely on the person who guides children across the road before and after school or the local shopkeeper.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” says Steve, “but we wanted to raise aspirations and fi nd volunteers from a world the chil-dren had never heard of – chief executives of large companies to entrepreneurs who have started their own businesses, for example. That’s not being critical of this area because I’ve got tremendous respect for my community, but I want my children to see from volunteers that if they work really hard then other opportunities will open up.”

What the volunteers will actually do in schools will, to some extent, be determined by local need. Mike Wilson is head of Orrell Holgate Primary School in Wigan and secretary of the local NAHT branch. He is also a regional lead for Primary Futures. His fi rst volunteer is a senior member of staff from a major hotel chain who has off ered to come in to the school on a regular basis. “She’s done some voluntary work in a primary school near where she lives and with us she’ll do a session in the morning supporting some children with literacy and then some sessions on numeracy.”

Mike says he is “relatively well-blessed” in terms of vol-unteers he can chose from. One, an actuary, lives in London and is currently working in Geneva. Mike is working on the assumption that the young man has family connections in the north west because he has offered to do a one-off session at the school later in the year. The fact that a senior hotel employee and an actuary are among the people Mike can invite into his school, even at this early stage in the scheme, is indicative of the diverse range of volunteers Primary Futures can attract.

He insists that none of them will be thrown in at the deep end and left to sink or swim. All will work on specifi c programmes with selected individuals or in small groups. Success will be measured by taking soundings from staff , volunteers and the children – although hard evidence of a child’s improvement

W

WE What can volunteers do?The Primary Futures website suggests a number of activities that volunteers can engage in, including:� explaining their jobs and enthusing children about the range of opportunities

open to them and how important reading and numeracy were during their school days;

� discussing the diff erent backgrounds and cultures they come from, helping to broaden children’s horizons;

� reading with or listening to individuals or small groups, perhaps reading a passage from a favourite book;

� taking part in a numeracy activity; and� acting as judges in projects and competitions such as enterprise or

environment schemes.

in literacy and numeracy may be diffi cult to attrib-ute directly to a single source such as an indi-vidual volunteer. As Mike points out, the teachers also “do quite a bit”.

He admits there are other reasons for inviting volunteers into his school. “For me it’s also about getting in as many people as possible who don’t normally visit schools so they can see what actu-ally happens. Then, when they hear all the tripe that politicians give out about how rubbish we all are and not doing our jobs, they can think, ‘Actually, that’s not the case in the school I’ve been to’. Until people come in I don’t think they realise what the challenges involve.”

As a regional lead for Primary Futures, Mike is in a good position to gauge interest among other school leaders. He says that colleagues are already registering on the website ahead of the programme’s offi cial launch in May – but he accepts that for others it may appear to be just more work. “Looking at it with a clinical eye, most head teachers’ major concern is Ofsted and where they are in relation to the next inspection. But talking to people one-to-one about Primary Futures, many have realised how easy it is to register.” Once they have signed up, schools can select volunteers by looking at their online profi les and messaging those who can off er what the school is looking for.

Nick Chambers confi rms that even though the pilot stage is

P H O T O G R A P H Y : S T E V E I R E D A L E

24-27 primary futures.indd 2624-27 primary futures.indd 26 24/02/2014 12:4024/02/2014 12:40

spark. You can’t quantify it and I know I can’t measure the damn thing, but I know they’ve got it. You see in children whether there’s a desire to get involved and fi nd out more.”

bit.ly/PrimaryFutures

See also And Finally, page 50.

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 27

still running, 200 or more pri-maries have found the Primary Futures resources online and begun using them. “We’ll get more detailed feedback from the pilots, which we can use to improve the system,” he says. But views are already coming in – and are very positive. “It shows the profession can develop its own scheme rather than having some-thing developed by government and imposed on it, which we think is very encouraging,” says Nick. Based on the success of the pilots, the free scheme is already being rolled out across the UK.

In the meantime, Steve Iredale is looking forward to welcoming his fi rst Primary Futures volun-teers (see panel, right). From a list of about 25 volunteers, Steve says he got 17 responses within the hour when he asked if they would be interested in coming into his school. About half subse-quently dropped out, saying they were more interested in careers work with children in secondary schools. But the rest, including a journalist and the head of a com-pany employing thousands of people, were very keen.

“If we make it enjoyable and comfortable for the volunteers, they’ll get a lot from us,” says Steve. “I’m hoping to persuade them to come back and get more involved.” He wants Primary Futures to lead to longer-term relationships. “The key to that is how comfortable the volun-teers feel – and how excited they are about it on the day. I’m getting a pretty good feel about it.”

As for measuring success, he says he will talk to the children before and after the sessions to see whether attitudes have changed. But he admits to a degree of weariness about trying to prove everything and gather the evidence. “Sometimes it’s something you can’t describe but you just see in a child that

WE Feedback from the first pilot sessionat Barnsley’s Athersley South primary school

The childrenThe afternoon was amazing and I learned lots of new things. I never knew there was a job as a data journalist. I love maths, so maybe this could be for me. Jack

The afternoon was mind-blowing. It inspired me to become a journalist and to really work hard to improve my literacy. Chloe-Mae

The afternoon was really spectacular. I learned all about what the paramedics do and why I need good maths, reading and literacy skills. Chloe

The volunteersI was delighted to help and thoroughly enjoyed meeting your children and some of the teachers. I was a little nervous, but they are a great bunch and helped put me at ease. I’m happy to help in the future in any way. Jeff , global health and safety executive

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak at your school and for making me so welcome. I hope the children enjoyed my session - I certainly did. I told the kids that if they’d like to write up their stories and make a school newspaper, I’d love to see a copy, feed back and maybe work with them in the future. Alex, journalist

Having the informal, though structured, discussion with the children enabled them to make their own links with the ‘real world’. It makes it clear to them that they aren’t just learning things to pass exams, they are skills that can and will be used in the future. We were really impressed with the children’s enthusiasm, energy and willing participation. Some of the questions they asked and the responses they gave to our questions were inspired and I hope that we got the message over about the importance of literacy and numeracy. We are going to drop in some patient report forms so that Miss Stanley can continue to work with the children in relation to neat writing and form fi lling. Cath and Matthew, Yorkshire Ambulance Service

The staffThe children were all left engaged and buzzing after the volunteers had shared their experiences and world of work. They were inspired to write news reports and wanted to be journalists for the day. They were able to quickly make the important link between what they learn in school and their futures. Rachel

A really worthwhile and valuable experience. The children were able to see the links between literacy and numeracy and real life work. Jodie

A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. It made our children realise that school is all about what happens in their future and not just now. Jayne

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P H O T O G R A P H : R I C H A R D L E A - H A I R

The long road to freedom… from forced academisationE

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Primary head Sarah O’Boyle faced immense DfE pressure to join a sponsored academy. She tells LF how the NAHT helped her to fi ght back

IT WAS STATED recently by Mr Justice Collins – when dealing with an injunction against forced academisation – that education secretary Michael Gove “thinks academies are the cat’s whiskers – but we know some of them are not”.

If I hadn’t contacted the NAHT on 10 May 2013 and not been recom-mended to contact senior regional offi cer Rob Kelsall, Galton Valley Primary School in Smethwick would now be an academy. The decision to contact my union has been life changing. Since my fi rst telephone conver-sation with Rob, his direct and dogged determination to avert our school from forced academisation has changed the outcome for everyone: staff , children, governors and parents. His unwavering approach, which was to ensure the best possible life chances for all the children, was infectious. E

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Despite our energies being consumed with a focus on removing the school from the category of ‘special measures’, Rob revitalised us to fi nd the courage and drive to rise above the DfE’s ultimatum. Fate took us on a diff erent path and I thank God (as a practising Catho-lic) for being directed to contact him.

While my primary school was in ‘special measures’, forced academisation was identifi ed as the only route of recovery for the school. The school was rightly placed in this category after an Ofsted inspection over 29 February and 1 March 2012. I had only been in post as head since January, but I wholeheartedly agreed with their fi ndings. I was fully committed, along with the chair of governors and with the full support of the governing body, to improve the school.

The Ofsted team recognised this, writing in April 2012: “The recent appointment of the head teacher has raised morale. She has high expectations and has secured the commitment of the governing body and teachers to achieve success. Within weeks she has evaluated correctly the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. Her judgements on the quality of teach-ing and learning are accurate. Both she and the chair of the governing body are under no illusions about the considerable challenges ahead, but they are committed to ensuring that the school improves rapidly.”

Despite this recognition, it was disregarded by the DfE, which was determined to force the school to become an academy. At that time there was no evi-dence that the academisation of primary schools would secure success for the pupils at those schools. Once the DfE had made its decision, following the Academies Act 2010, there seemed to be no other route. A DfE broker invited herself into my school and held a very one-sided meeting with me and my chair of governors.

Bewildered and bullied We were told what was going to happen and there was no alter-native. It was an intimidating meeting and we felt ‘bullied’ into agreeing everything the DfE put forward. Furthermore, we were told that the DfE had identifi ed Griffi n as the sponsor of our academy. We felt bewildered.

After we had recovered from that daunting meeting, bewil-derment turned to anger and we questioned whether not only could we be forced to become an academy, but with an imposed sponsor too.

Later that same term, a second DfE broker arrived on our door-step and apologised for the previous broker. She also insisted that academisation was the only route but that we could choose our sponsor and she explained: ‘I’ve never known the minis-ter reject a school’s choice of sponsor. Well, not so far, anyway.’

WE The NAHT campaign against forced academisation

NAHT senior regional offi cer Rob Kelsall writes: back in 2010, Michael Gove introduced the Academies Act. It was hastily pushed through parliament and presented to the country and the education sector as a permissive piece of legislation that would enable schools to apply to transfer to academy status to gain ‘freedoms’ from local authority control.

In 2011, however, following a lack of enthusiasm from primary schools to convert to academy status, Michael Gove announced that he was going to tackle underperformance within the primary sector by forcing the country’s 200 most underperforming schools to academy status.

Until this point, the NAHT had always maintained a neutral position on whether or not a school should convert. We argued that this should be a decision for the school and its community. However, we vehemently opposed the principle of schools being forced to convert against their will. And so began the NAHT’s campaign against forced academies. At our annual conferences we have pledged to support schools that were prepared to fi ght for the right to choose their own destiny and not be ‘bullied’ by DfE academy brokers into a decision that is irreversible.

Over the past three years, NAHT regional offi cers, working alongside branch offi cials and specialist lawyers, have successfully defended scores of schools at risk of being forced into academy status. As the school featured in this article can testify, when the DfE academy broker comes knocking on the door saying: “You don’t have a choice, the secretary of state

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P H O T O G R A P H : A P

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We believed what she told us and began to trust her. If we were to become an academy, we wanted to choose the

most suitable sponsor for the children, staff and local commu-nity. She also recommended Griffi n, but suggested Oasis Learning Trust as an alternative. We suggested The Elliot Foundation.

We asked for time to research these sponsored academies with the governing body and time to visit a representative school from each of the sponsors too. We were given the opportunity to do this and each academy sponsor was invited to present to the whole of the governing body with the opportunity for questions.

The Elliot Foundation (TEF) is not dissimilar from Griffi n Trust (small, new, developing) but the governors felt that TEF could off er the school a joined-up model of support to come out of ‘special measures’ as well as ensuring that the school continued to maintain its own identity. Two local Sandwell primary schools, who are federated, were in negotiations to become academies with TEF. We were already utilising support in improving teaching from these schools and it made sense to choose TEF over Griffi n Trust.

We continued to receive DfE pressure via the broker who

has the power to force you into academy status,’ we make it clear: you do have a choice.

The NAHT has built a strong and formidable alliance in successfully defending schools with our legal partners Browne-Jacobson. There is still widespread misinterpretation of the powers of the secretary of state. Schools that are below fl oor standards, or are in ‘requires improvement’ are not eligible for intervention and therefore cannot be forced to become an academy.

Schools that are in ‘special measures’ or ‘serious weaknesses’ are eligible for intervention. However, as the school featured in this article demonstrates, there is no such thing as a foregone conclusion. Galton Valley, as led by Sarah, is a testament to standing up for what’s right and remaining focused on improving your school.

The NAHT has maintained consistently that it’s not school structures that improve standards; it’s great leadership and the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom that counts. Ofsted has also supported our views and in a number of reports said that “the process of academisation has become a barrier to school improvement”.

Forced academisation has never been in the interests of pupils, parents or staff . Indeed, evidence has shown that comparable maintained schools have a better track record than sponsored academies when it comes to standards and improving schools.

Throughout the country we have hosted numerous

briefi ngs on the forced academies agenda which have equipped schools leaders and governors with the knowledge and confi dence to fi ght back against the diktat from the secretary of state. We have worked alongside governors, MPs and councillors in campaigning against the forced academisation of schools.

On a personal level, I have been inspired as I have travelled across the country by the many parent groups that have rallied to support their school when they come under siege by the DfE. Parents from Snaresbrook Primary in Redbridge, Cavell Primary in Norfolk and at Galton Valley Primary in Sandwell are some of the many parent groups that have fought for their school to remain as a community school.

We continue to support schools in a growing number of regions where DfE academy brokers are doubling their eff orts to pressurise more schools into becoming academies. With more than 90 per cent of primary schools retaining their community maintained status, academy brokers will no doubt be on the trawl for more unsuspecting victims.

The NAHT strongly advises members to telephone 0300 30 30 333 upon any contact from the DfE academy brokerage team.

There are a number of resources including podcasts and video briefi ngs available on the NAHT website: www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/campaigns/forced-academies-campaign

E

EE “We were told what was going to happen and there was no alternative. It was an intimidating meeting and we felt ‘bullied’ into agreeing everything”

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was very keen for us to choose a sponsor. In September 2012, the governors met with representatives from Oasis Community Learning. This took place after my school’s leadership team had visited Oasis Academy Bank Leaze in Bristol. The broker arrived – unexpectedly and uninvited – at this meeting.

Afterwards, she put pressure on the governors to choose a sponsor. The governors asked for more time. She allowed this but asked that the governors vote to become an academy that evening, if not choosing the sponsor. Agreeing to this was the fi rst error in our academy journey. It was all the encouragement the DfE needed to commence the journey to conversion.

For a while, things went quiet until the DfE was alerted to our decision to become an academy with TEF. A letter was received from Lord Hill, the parliamentary under secretary of state for schools in November, stating that Michael Gove had decided that Oasis Learning Trust was the best match for the school.

A letter was sent from the governors to Lord Hill, which argued that Oasis sponsorship would cause unrest within the community and defl ect from our primary concern of educating children. We told the DfE that we didn’t want Oasis as 80 per cent of the pupils at our school are Muslim. While it was denied repeatedly that Oasis academies are Christian orientated, our governors were disturbed by the fact that the teacher contract contains the line: “Our work is motivated and inspired by the life, message and example of Christ, which shapes and guides every aspect of each of our schools.”

Tackling problemsThe process of converting to become an academy, forced or oth-erwise, is a lengthy and distracting process. We should have only been focusing our energies on getting out of ‘special measures’ and ensuring our children have a good education. However, due to the Academies Act of 2010 this was not the case. This was despite Ofsted’s Lois Furness, an additional inspector, who led the section eight visit on 4-5 July 2012, recognising that: “The head teacher and senior leadership team have energetically begun to tackle the many problems the school faces. The rais-ing attainment plan is appropriate and clearly focuses on the relevant actions necessary to secure improvement. It links well with the local authority action plan. Monitoring and evaluation procedures are now in place and inform strategic planning and the training provided for staff .”

I am a strong and determined person, but fi nding the cour-age to face the DfE was diffi cult. However, I am indebted to my senior staff : Sarah, Nicola and Helen (my two deputy heads and assistant head, respectively) who fully supported my decision to fi ght academisation.

At the time I didn’t feel brave as I knew this decision would probably aff ect my future career. All of the governors were in support of this decision and the local authority (LA) too. Many letters passed between the governors and the LA outlining why

the school should not become an academy. Despite this, what was paramount for me was ensuring the children at my school receive the best education possible, which they are entitled to. This was driving my determination to lead the school out of ‘special measures’ and fi ght for the school to remain as a com-munity-based school within the Sandwell LA.

The DfE continued to ignore all letters from the governors via our solicitor, Trish de Souza, from Eversheds and from Jan Brittain, chief executive of Sandwell Council. Our local MP, John Spellar (Labour), also played a vital role in fi ghting against becoming a ‘forced’ academy. John has been active in supporting the local community (through the Save Galton Valley Campaign Group – SGVC). This joined-up support has been invaluable in raising the profi le of the school and the feeling of angst of becoming an academy. Parents as community members ener-getically embraced the campaign, incensed at the DfE making this decision without taking into consideration the diversity and needs of the local community.

The SGVC team put their full energies into the fi ght against the DfE and gathered 1,500 signatures from local residents

The local MP: John Spellar

EE “I am a strong and determined person, but finding the courage to face the DfE was difficult. I am indebted to my senior staff: Sarah, Nicola and Helen”

P H O T O G R A P H : P H O T O S H O T

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who agreed that Galton Valley should not be forced to become an academy. The campaigners were fi rm in their resolve and delivered these signatures to the DfE in early July 2013. Unfor-tunately, the campaigners were disappointed as the signatures were not considered and the DfE was still eager to convert the school to become an academy.

Intimidatory tactics I was notifi ed on 3 September 2013, via the LA, that the DfE was to visit the school on 12 September along with Oasis so they could meet with some parents and the governing body. I was told the meeting had to take place.

Shortly after this, I was accused by a minority of parents of stop-ping them from meeting with Oasis and that I had known about the Oasis meeting before the school had broken up for summer. The only conclusion I could come to was that Oasis or the DfE had informed certain parents about the meeting before I had been told.

Reverend Steve Chalke, the founder of Oasis, duly arrived along with a number of his team and the DfE. It seemed that intimidation was to be the focus. Both parents and community members attended the meeting, which was lively to say the least; passion for the right to choose for their children and commu-nity was paramount. It was somewhat disconcerting that Rev Chalke used the analogy of an arranged marriage to explain the relationship Michael Gove had organised with Galton Valley Primary School and Oasis Learning Trust.

Later, a very heated meeting took place with the gover-nors. This meeting ended with our strong minded and zealous governors fi rmly requesting that the consultation meeting be paused until the school had had the next section eight monitor-ing visit where it was hoped the school could be removed from ‘special measures’.

The governors argued that it would be a waste of public money if the consultation began and the school was then removed from ‘special measures’, where the choice of to become an academy

or not would be back in the hands of the governing body. After the meeting, nothing was heard from Oasis regarding

commencing the consultation process with parents. However, a letter was received from Dominic Herrington, director of the DfE’s academies group, where he stated fi rmly that the school would become an academy with Oasis Learning Trust and that the consultation would begin on 2 October 2013. However, an email was received from Oasis on 3 October stating that they would indeed wait until after the next monitoring visit.

We viewed this positively and were able to focus on school improvement with no further interruption from meetings con-cerning the academisation of the school. With great delight and satisfaction, the school was fi nally removed from ‘special measures’ on 12 December 2013 and is now graded as a ‘good’ school. Tears of joy and relief were wept. It is now recognised that the children of Galton Valley Primary School receive the education that they truly deserve from a very hardworking team of outstanding staff , governors, children and parents without the need for an academy sponsor.

As I fi nish writing this article, I am thinking about the year six English lesson I’ll be teaching at 10.30am and I feel excited. Despite these many challenges, I love being a head teacher and a teacher. Teaching is my vocation and I feel extremely lucky and privileged to be part of this profession. The children are at the core of everything I do and I want each and every child at my school to have the opportunity to achieve their very best.

Mr Gove, I truly hope that you are pleased that these children in Smethwick in the West Midlands are getting a good educa-tion, even if it is without becoming a sponsored academy.

WE Dos and don’ts if the DfE tries to enforce your school to become an academy:

Do:� Contact your union� Get a union representative to speak to

your governors� Seek legal advice and instruct solicitors

to act on behalf of the school� Act bravely, even when you don’t feel

like you areDon’t:� Accept the DfE’s decision� Trust any broker from the DfE� Be intimidated� Allow your governing body to vote to

become an academy

The parliamentary under secretary: Lord Hill of Oareford

P H O T O G R A P H : R E X

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WHAT WERE YOU doing in April 1994? It’s important to remember because as we approach the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide it is vital that we all acknowledge and remember what happened in Rwanda at this time. On a recent trip to the country, a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial left us emotionally wrung-out and completely drained. We were shell-shocked, which was surprising considering we had read all about the genocide that came to a head in April 1994. Nothing could prepare us for the harrowing display of the history, the facts and fi gures and the extent of human loss that was displayed with such sensitivity in this memorial.

That our driver would not come into the memorial should have indicated what we could expect. Later he told us he had lost two brothers in the confl ict and he himself had been a refu-gee in one of the schools we visited. As a child he had been placed there along with many other children while war raged. He could not face the memories that would be invoked by visit-ing the memorial. As we found out later this was not unusual. The horror of the memorial will stay with me forever. What then must it be like for those who lived through the genocide less than 20 years ago? It is incomprehensible.

The optimism and positive can-do attitude of local head teachers and personnel from the Rwandan education board (REB) had fooled us into believing that the genocide was per-haps not as bad as we thought. But it was worse than any of us could have ever imagined. The most poignant part of the memo-rial are the rooms where family photographs are displayed. One contained pictures of babies who had been killed – telling us a

Twenty years after the genocide that tore it apart, Rwanda is seeking help to improve school leadership. Kenny Frederick reports on a combined NAHT and British Council initiative

little about each child, what their favourite food was and how they had been killed. Families bring their photographs (often the last one they have) to the memorial so that their loved ones are not forgotten. This is recent history, all the more shocking because it is within our time-line. All I could think about was what I had been doing in April 1994, getting on with my normal life unaware of the horrors unleashed in Rwanda.

Our visit and our project, funded by the NAHT in partnership with the British Council, was welcomed by the REB which was very keen to work alongside us. Three head teachers (two of us recently retired) travelled with another former head, who now works with the British Council, for a fi ve-day working visit with the aim of supporting the REB to improve the quality of school leadership and the quality of teaching in schools.

There is no outward indication of what had gone on less than 20 years before. Kigali, the capital city, is well ordered and calm with people going about their normal business. The city and outskirts were the cleanest we had ever seen with not a speck of litter to be seen. This was true even in the poorer areas.

Everywhere we went there were children on their way to or from school playing and messing about as they walked long distances to get there. The school system works on two shifts changing over at lunchtime to make space for every child. All the children were dressed in uniform and every child, no matter how small, had a school bag – a proper one, as plastic bags are not allowed to be brought into the country. The roads and infra-structure were extremely good and we roamed freely and safely through the streets of the city.

A world of difference

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by people who had been their neighbours, friends and even their teachers. Many were maimed and many more were raped leaving one of the most serious HIV problems in the world. The country is still poor, but the stability of the unity government as well as support from a range of external organisations and agencies has helped the country to recover economically and physically.

The resilience of the population cannot be measured and the emotional scars will remain for many years. Much is being done to address the issues, but it is clear that most people fi nd it too painful to talk about their experiences. In recognition of this, a national memorial month is put aside every year to allow fami-lies and communities to remember.

Reconciliation has been key to the process and the country is looking forward rather than backwards. The government has managed to communicate a vision for the country that the population has signed up to and there is a tangible feeling of working together.

Determined and resilientEverybody is clear that young people are the future of the country. Their education is seen as vital. The REB is hugely ambitious and determined to improve the quality of education very quickly. Its leaders are keen to learn from the best educa-tion systems around the world and put the UK in that category.

The head teachers we met were a mixed group in terms of qualifi cations and experience. Some had gone straight into headship from university or college while others had many years’ experience, but few formal qualifi cations. The 18 heads we working with were hand-picked and seen as leaders in their profession and in their community. What stood out was their determination, resilience and their ability to manage their schools in the face of unimaginable horror.

These heads were usually excellent managers and good at organising education with very few resources. However, they identifi ed the need to improve their own leadership skills to have a greater infl uence and impact on the quality of teaching and learning in their schools. The fact that most of the heads had travelled many miles to get to the workshops in Kigali did not go unnoticed. It emerged that many of them were coping E

Having said that, we knew that all of the people we worked with had been touched in some way by the genocide, but they were determined to look forward, to learn from it and not make the same mistakes again. Reconciliation is key to moving on and a lot of eff ort has gone into facilitating this process.

Rwanda and its education system are making great strides in improving the provision and quality of education for all chil-dren. It is hard to comprehend that a country that has gone through so much less than 20 years ago has recovered and is moving forward at such a pace.

We know that one million people lost their lives – 800,000 of those within a very short time. Some 300,000 children were orphaned, often having seen their parents or siblings murdered

EE “All the people we worked with had been touched in some way by the genocide, but they were determined to look forward”

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with issues such as trying to secure funding for items such as replacing leaking roofs for their schools but this did not stop them engaging fully in the programme. These were people who saw the bigger picture and did not let management issues (no matter how urgent) get in the way.

The preliminary work for our visit involved the development of a set of inspirational leadership standards developed by Susan Douglas at the British Council in partnership with REB and Rwandan head teachers. Our task was to work with Rwandan heads and REB offi cers and advisors to fl esh out the standards and to support implementation, but mostly to ensure that these standards really help leaders and aspiring leaders in Rwandan schools to develop greater levels of expertise and eff ectiveness.

Levers of changeHowever, what the heads really wanted was for us to help them become leaders of teaching and learning in their schools. They were conscious that while structures were now in place for all children to go to school the quality of teaching was still very basic and often poor.

Our starting point was to work out how Rwanda has overcome the tragedy of its past and is moving forward at such a fast pace. So much has been achieved with so few resources and in a very short time. How did this happen? We asked two specifi c questions:• How has Rwanda transformed so much over recent years?• What needs to happen to build upon and sustain this progress?

We were all agreed that the vital levers of change included a stable government that had a clear vision for the country which was about unity and equality of opportunity for all. A vision that was clearly articulated and consulted upon so that the Rwandan population could feel part of the solution. Security and peace in the country also helped. Furthermore, good strategic plan-ning helped to realise that vision. There was an urgent need to change and great pride in the country. The principles of welfare, compassion and concern for involving people in the changes were also important elements. Finally, investors and others who could help and trade with Rwanda were warmly welcomed and seen as having a positive impact in the country.

Our Rwandan colleagues were also very clear that they needed to build capacity at all levels and for strong systems to be put in place. They agreed that getting the structures right fi rst then concentrating on improving the quality of provision was key. The importance of involving Rwandans in the solutions so they could ‘sort out their own problems’ and not rely on others was also seen as a necessary requirement for sustainable develop-ment. Finally, equality of opportunity and fairness for all has to remain the abiding principle that holds everything together. This was the only way to achieve unity and collaboration.

We then went on to apply these levers of change to the schools they were leading. Surely, what worked for the country could be used to transform schools? While the REB and schools had

W

worked hard to ensure structures were in place for all children to be educated there was still great concern about the quality of education, which was felt to be not yet good enough to realise the ambitions of the country.

The heads and REB offi cials then identifi ed the next steps needed to sustain the improvement journey. These included ensuring professionalism among teaching and school staff through quality training and development. It was felt to be par-ticularly important to radically improve the English language skills of teachers following the Rwandan government’s decision to replace French with English as the country’s offi cial language. This was part of the country’s plan to join the East African com-munity and to ease economic relations with its neighbours and South Africa. However, the issue is a sensitive one as the leaders of the Tutsi army that ended the genocide and took control were largely Anglophile having been in exile in places like Uganda. The transition to English still causes political controversy as well as practical problems in implementation of the policy.

Language policy in Rwanda has revolved around three lan-guages – Kinyarwanda, the indigenous language of Rwandans, French and English. Kinyarwanda unifi es the population because unlike most African countries Rwanda only has this one indigenous language. Estimates suggested that in 2008 most of the population spoke it, with just eight per cent speaking French and four per cent English.

Children now begin their study in English from the fi rst grade. However, the implementation of English as the offi cial language of instruction has led to serious hurdles in the education system, not least the establishment of a teaching force fl uent in the lan-guage. In 2009, only 4,700 of Rwanda’s 31,000 primary school teachers were trained in English. We could only wonder what would happen in the UK if it were announced that French was to be the language of education from now on. What sort of lead-ership skills would we need to get staff and children on board?

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of the school and they were the future school leaders. Their development and training was paramount and is something they wanted us to support them with. Similarly, heads agreed that they needed to empower teachers to collaborate and work together to make the best of what little resources they had. There were many examples of exceptional teachers in schools so they needed to fi nd ways that teachers could support each other in a more coherent way.

The heads were vocal about the need for them to articulate and model their vision and revisit it often so that others could contribute to it. Furthermore, the vision had to be central to the strategic planning for the school. They needed to know what they were aiming for. In addition, the value of monitoring and evaluat-ing the work of the school on a regular basis was seen as essential and appropriate systems to do this needed to be developed.

Roots of improvementAll were agreed that some sort of benchmarking needed to be developed so schools and the REB would know how well they were doing and could identify what they needed to do to improve further. Each school needed to identify measurable indicators of success that were applicable to their school and to similar schools. Most importantly, the heads were clear about the need to reduce the ‘island mentality’ and work in collaboration with other heads and schools as this was seen as the best way to share ideas, resources and expertise. They needed to work out mecha-nisms to enable them to do this in a coherent fashion.

During our visit we set about developing mentoring and coaching relationships between ourselves and the 18 heads who attended our two-day workshops. This involves us communi-cating regularly via email with each other to help the Rwandan heads implement the leadership standards in their schools and introduce them to colleagues in their districts. We hope to extend that model in the future involving more UK and Rwan-dan school leaders and we are confi dent that this will enable improvements in the school leadership of both countries.

We will return to Rwanda in a few weeks to see how things have been going. We know that measurable step change is not possible in such a short time but we will be keen to see that the seeds of improvement are sown and identify what else we need to do to build capacity further and sustain that development.

For ourselves, we are humbled about the work that is going on in Rwanda. If we had been faced with any one of the enormous obstacles that face the head teachers and education service in this country we would probably have run a mile. Yet these lead-ers of education have focused on fi nding solutions and working with what they have got. They don’t complain about what they don’t have. These heads have a great deal to teach us about our own practice. The expertise, raw ambition and determination evident in Rwanda is expertly modelled by its school leaders. They have much to be proud of.

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 37

What sort of support and training would be needed?All the people we worked with were aware that developing

leadership was key to the success of the education system and that the country needs to develop aspiring leaders who could take over when current heads retired. Heads needed to develop a vision for their school and to persuade school staff to sign-up to this vision so they could contribute.

The heads and REB staff struggled with the enormous task of transferring their vision for their schools into action in the classroom. In a country where teachers are paid poorly and have had limited training and where there are very few teach-ing resources, where classes of more than 60 are not unusual, the task is colossal. They were desperate for ideas to empower their teachers and to give them the tools to deliver consistently good lessons in the classroom.

The need to develop middle leadership in the school slowly emerged as a theme for moving forward with our partnership. Heads acknowledged that middle leaders were the backbone

P H O T O G R A P H Y : P H O T O S H O T

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N A T I O N A L Y O U T H O R C H E S T R A

TALKING TO MEMBERS of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO) is an uplifting experi-ence. Musical talent aside, they all appear bright, polite, articulate and enthusiastic. Interestingly, they claim that much of that is down to studying music.

Ermos Chrysochos, a 16-year-old violinist, declares: “Music is life changing. No matter what standard you are, it will change the person you will become and how you approach life. I know how cheesy that sounds but it is true.”

Jenny Whitby, 18 and a fl autist, adds: “I just found out I’ve got into Cambridge to study medicine. I would not have got there without my music. Music has taught me dedication. I realised I was never going to get my grades if I didn’t put the hours in and I applied that to my other sub-jects. It scares me that people are talking about taking music out of the curriculum. It teaches you far too much for it to be lost.”

The pair are in the middle of a two-day residency at Highbury Grove School in north London along with approximately half of their 165-strong orchestra. At the school they are mentoring students and giving them tips before playing two classical pieces in a concert in the main school hall.

Highbury Grove head teacher Henry Jones explains that “music plays a great role at the school”, which is part of the

Members of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain hit all the right notes on a residency at Highbury Grove School in London. By Steve Smethurst

M A I N I M A G E B Y J A S O N A L D E N . O T H E R S : S T E V E S M E T H U R S T

Benefits of a classical education

reason it was selected for the NYO residency. The school has invested heavily in music for several years, thanks partly to fi nancial support from the Wolfson Foundation and latterly the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (see p40). Every student in years seven to nine is given a classical musical instrument and all students are able to access free instrumental lessons. High-bury Grove also has a range of orchestras, choirs and ensemble groups that have built up over time.

Henry tells LF: “Music has been a key part of the growing popularity of the school, along with our new building and our

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and a similar number of languages. “A substantial number of students come from very disadvan-taged backgrounds,” says Henry, although he concedes that the school is now attracting a number of students from more advantaged back-grounds. But that simply means the school is now “truly comprehensive”, he says.

“We don’t want to be an elitist academy. We want to be a school that serves the whole com-munity. We are a local authority, local community school and we want to show that a school like this can do something diff erent. What we have always set out to avoid being, in Alastair Camp-

bell’s immortal phrase, is ‘a bog-standard comprehensive’.“We would like to be able to off er the same opportunities that

young people are given in private schools and we are some way down that line. That is what we aspire to.”

Having more than 80 of the country’s most talented young musicians invade the school off ers a taste of this. Henry says: “I’ve loved watching our students get this amount of personal attention from their peers. To give an example, we had three double basses playing with the NYO double bass section, and the NYO players were teaching our kids how to spin their

Ofsted ‘outstanding’ in 2010. We benefi t from the discipline of practising and learning an instrument and through the experi-ence of working within ensembles and orchestras where you have to develop social skills to work with others. We fi nd it has a massive positive spin off in the development of social skills and also attitudes towards academic work.”

Don’t be fooled into thinking that Highbury Grove is the preserve of the middle classes; it is an inner-city secondary with more than 50 per cent free school meals, pupil premium running at 66 per cent, more than 50 diff erent ethnic groups E

WE About the NYO Orchestral manoeuvres

� The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is made up of 165 young musicians. Members are aged 13-19 years and are selected from a series of auditions that take place in the autumn each year. All members must audition for their place annually. The minimum standard is grade eight with distinction.

� The orchestra – founded in 1948 – comes together at new year, Easter and summer for two-week residential courses. Each day involves instrumental rehearsals with workshops addressing all aspects of musicality including voice, movement, composing and improvisation. Performances are also a regular feature of the courses.

� In 1998, the NYO started to hold open days as a means to enable young musicians to experience the fun of working with other musicians of the same age. More recently, these became ‘inspire days’ where the NYO’s current members spend the day with younger players, sharing their insights and inspiration. In the future, the plan is to work more closely with partner schools, such as Highbury Grove in Islington.

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N A T I O N A L Y O U T H O R C H E S T R A

double basses in jazz fashion. They were loving it.”

Sarah Alexander, chief execu-tive and artistic director of the NYO, stresses that it is a two-way relationship. “To give an exam-ple, I was talking to our principal clarinet earlier,” she says. “He said to me: ‘I didn’t realise that I could be interesting and engaging to another musician when I wasn’t just playing the notes on the page. I can be professional. I can do a range of these things and it is not diffi cult. Why have I never done that before?’ And it’s a good ques-tion, why hasn’t he?”

Sarah says that the aim for NYO is for its members to cascade what they know. “They need to be encouraged to take responsibility for their artform, for encouraging the next generation of musicians.”

The visit is also a tacit acknowledgement that the NYO can’t aff ord to end up as a private school enclave. Current membership is a 50:50 split across state and public schools, although of those paying fees 87 per cent do so through bursaries and scholarships.

“We have a vision,” says Sarah, “one that sits above every-thing else – which is to be the most inspirational orchestra for young people. That means young musicians wanting to be in the NYO, it being inspiring for them when they are in the orchestra, and then the impact that they can have on every other young person that we can reach.”

Interestingly, Sarah says that her musicians are nervous about the concert they are to give at the school. Yet two days earlier, they’d performed to a packed house at the Barbican with much less anxiety.

“It is very diff erent. They are used to performing to an older audience made up of people who have decided they already like classical music. This afternoon they have to convince their peers about their art form.

“If our orchestra can pull it off and perform successfully to

their peers in a secondary school they will develop as artists, it will unlock a bit of pride that they dare not have at the moment. What they do as a hobby can sometimes seem a bit unusual to other teenagers. It’s will be a hugely valuable and positive expe-rience for the orchestra to perform to 200 of their peers and be cheered for their performance.”LF readers will be glad to know that the performance went

without a hitch, despite one of the NYO fl autists dropping out of the concert at a late stage. Fortunately, Highbury Grove had a ready-made replacement.

Deronne White, 16, auditioned for the NYO last autumn and reached the second round of auditions before falling at the fi nal hurdle. Having passed his grade eight with a distinction on the fl ute, he needed little encouragement to join the NYO, if only for an afternoon.

Deronne is one of Highbury Grove’s many success stories. He started studying the fl ute at 12, having taken up the cello the previous year, and his only lessons have come at the school.

He says: “Once I fi nish my A levels here, I want to go to a conservatoire, such as the Royal College of Music or the Royal

WE The Music in Secondary Schools Trust Continuing the work of Truda White

In April 2013, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and the Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust announced that they were to donate £2 million over four years to establish the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MISST). Its role was to roll out the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme to schools across the country and it was to be led by Truda White, who had spent 11 years as head teacher at Highbury Grove.

The programme gives every child at participating schools the opportunity to study a musical instrument as part of the compulsory curriculum to ‘improve discipline, commitment to learning, team working skills, academic attainment and to enrich the lives of the students’. It is modelled on the scheme introduced by Truda at Highbury Grove in 2006, which allows students with no previous experience to study, play and perform in ensemble and orchestral groups.

As Lord Lloyd Webber told the Evening Standard in 2012: “Highbury Grove is a school that has turned itself around through music. It is becoming very clear that what the government does not understand is that every penny that you put into music education or education in the arts across the board comes back into the country 10 times over.”

MISST says that it costs £500,000 to fund a school for four years. Currently, Highbury Grove and the Lister school in Newham are registered, with plans for two more schools in 2014.

www.musicinsecondaryschoolstrust.org.uk

W

EE “We don’t want to see any arts squeezed out of the curriculum. If schools are frightened of symphony orchestras, they don’t need to be frightened of us”

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Academy of Music. But I will be applying for the NYO again.”Asked if he has a message for NAHT members, he says simply:

“All heads should let their students know about the NYO and if they have musical students that would like to take their musical career further, then the NYO is a good option to choose.”

This [excuse the pun] is music to the ears of Sarah Alexan-der. She tells LF: “I’d love it if school leaders could look at the musicians they have in their school and ask them if they know about the NYO. They can show them the short fi lms we have on the NYO website and take students to concerts. They’re wel-come to contact me and we can work out a strategy. It might be that we have an NYO member in the area who could visit and do a session with them.

“If schools feel they have got talented young people but they don’t know what to do, then obviously we would hope that they are connecting with their music education hub, but if they feel they aren’t able to do that, they can see us as an organisa-tion that can give them guidance.

“We have the most exciting symphony orchestra for young people in the country and school leaders have young people. If they are not sure how to introduce them to symphony orches-tras; we can help. We don’t want to see any arts squeezed out of the curriculum, we want young people to have a balanced edu-cation, but if schools are frightened of symphony orchestras, they don’t need to be frightened of us. We can help them.”

www.nyo.org.uk

WE Peer mentoringOvercoming shyness

The second day for the NYO at Highbury Grove starts with conductor Tim Steiner taking questions from the previous day’s mentoring sessions. “What if someone in the group won’t stop talking?” asks one. “It’s distracting,” concedes Tim, “but don’t get angry with them. You need to engage with them, involve them. Sit next to them, talk to them. It’s never going to be silent, it’s a school. Silence is actually more diffi cult to deal with. You need a frisson, some energy and excitement. Some teachers insist on discipline so strict that there’s silence and it acts like a straitjacket.”

Another NYO member asks what to do if pupils are too shy to answer? “Use metaphors, not specifi cs,” says Tim. “I might use an example of a spiky or a moany child to get across sounds. You might also try: “This is an A - can you see another one?”

Once the review session has fi nished, it’s back to the classrooms for another workshop (see photo). Epsie Thompson, 17, Jenny Whitby, 18, and Ellie Blamires, 17, show no nerves as they lead a group of young fl autists that includes NYO stand-in Deronne White.

The session starts with a clapping game that gets the blood fl owing, then students have to say their name and ‘something interesting’ about themselves. Epsie gets the ball rolling with a story about a friend who had a dead dog stolen at a Tube station. It’s a tough act to follow.

Practical tips come next with advice on posture and they play a game of copying the note the previous fl autist has played. They also work on altering the tempo of music from funereal to upbeat, then shortening notes and lengthening them.

Mentoring is still new to the NYO members. Ellie says: “My school has a wind band and I will take the fl utes and the clarinets aside to help them with their parts, but really

in terms of workshops it has been the fi rst time I have done anything like this.”

Epsie, who goes to Chethams School of Music, has more experience. She recently returned from Sri Lanka with the Commonwealth Resounds team, an outreach group. She says: “There’s no music tuition out there so we were teaching self-taught students who had no books. Not many could speak English either.”LF ventures that today must be a doddle. “It is still diffi cult,”

says Epsie. “Even here, we had a couple of people in our younger groups for whom English wasn’t their fi rst language.”

The NYO members clearly enjoy the experience. Epsie says: “There was one boy who was really shy and he didn’t say anything, but when we gave him the opportunity to play a diff erent part he was really keen.”

Jenny agrees: “It’s just shyness. I remember being in year seven and the sixth form seemed so old. Most of us are around that age now and when the students are told that we’re really good musicians too, it is quite intimidating.”

Violinist Ermos Chrysochos adds: “One girl in my group couldn’t read notes, so we had to do it by ear. I had to put things up an octave so there would be an open string and by the end of it I felt – what’s the word? Fulfi lled, I think.”

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现在是英国看待外语更认真的时候 Or, in Eng-lish: It’s time for the UK to take modern foreign languages seriously. At least, that’s what our best eff orts at translation come up with; LF cannot pretend to be a gifted linguist.

But if all goes according to the government’s plan, things will be diff erent for the generation of pupils just starting primary school. From this September, foreign languages will become a compulsory part of the national curriculum in an eff ort to ensure English children do not grow up speaking only one language.

One of the reasons the UK is falling short in this area is that everyone else makes it easy for us to avoid learning new lan-guages by learning English themselves, says Chris Harrison, a former president of the NAHT and vice-president of the European School Heads Association. “This allows us to be com-placent,” he says. “It doesn’t matter where you go in Europe, people will be learning English.”

But this isn’t just about communicating with Europe. China is becoming more important economically, which means those countries that are serious about building connections with it need to start learning Mandarin if they are to stand out as poten-tial trade partners. Chris says: “I was at a school in Paris recently – and it wasn’t an advantaged area – but it had 1,500 pupils, 900 of whom were learning Mandarin and had been for a decade. We are

Carly Chynoweth discovers the benefi ts of a bilingual education as she meets three head teachers passionate about learning diff erent languages

Lots in translation

going to�have to play catch up.”

The DfE has recog-nised the importance of Mandarin by including it on the list of languages that should be seen as a teaching priority, says Chris. “These are the languages, which include French and Spanish, that will help people suc-ceed in later life.”

While Chris supports an increase in modern foreign language (MFL) teaching, simply telling schools they have to teach a for-eign language won’t fi x anything. “It makes sense to start this in primary school because the earlier you learn a foreign language the easier it is, so the government has a very strong case. But the problem is that we can’t just switch it on and expect everybody

M O D E R N F O R E I G N L A N G U A G E S

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to be able to teach a MFL and to do it well. There

are logistical issues.”The most obvious of these

is staffi ng, but there is also the question of what happens after primary

school. For example, it’s not very effi cient for a primary school to teach Italian if the secondary

school it feeds only teaches French – and vice versa, says Chris. “There needs to be a strategy and some joined-up think-ing. There also needs to be the money to train people.”

Clare Kelly, the head teacher at Dane Royd Primary in Wakefi eld, agrees. Her school currently teaches French and Mandarin. “You have to think about sustainability,” she says. “We have an excellent relationship with our pyramid school, which off ers French, and there is a group of primary schools in the local area that now off ers Mandarin. We will need to decide how far we are going to go with this – is it a project or is it something we are going to embed?”

The ultimate way to embed language teaching, of course, is to become a bilingual school and incorporate language into eve-rything rather than limit it to specifi c lessons. It’s an idea that’s popular with parents, says head teacher Sebastien Chapleau, who will open the Bromley Bilingual School (BBS) in south-east London this September. “There is a great demand for school places,” he says. “There is a large Francophone com-munity, both European and West African, and there are also many applications from non-French speaking parents who want their children to experience a diff erent education. They see it as giving them an advantage in life.”

The free school will open in stages, starting with reception, year one and year two; by 2020 it will have all seven year E

EE “We will need to decide how far we are going to go with this – is it a project or is it something that we are going to embed?”

现在是英国看待外语更认真的时候

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groups and 525 pupils from all sorts of back-grounds. Every classroom will have someone who is fl uent in each language in it, although that may be a teaching assistant rather than the teacher.

Pupils who learn a language this way have a very diff erent understanding of it compared with those who are not immersed, says Julie Sullivan, head teacher at the London Welsh School. For a start, they think diff erently about language. “We were talking about translation recently and it was really hard for (the children) to understand what it meant because it is so natural for them to have both languages.”

They also have a deep understanding of how culture and language interact, says Julie, whose pupils celebrate Welsh saints’ days and participate in eisteddfods. “When you teach both language and culture they each reinforce the other,” she says.

But setting up such a school is not easy. The big-gest hurdle is likely to be fi nding enough people who have the qualifi cations needed, says Sebast-ien. This is will get easier as more of the population learns a second language because it will mean that more teacher trainees are bilingual even if they are not specifi cally training as MFL teachers, but for now it is tricky.

Traditional schools are likely to face similar challenges as MFL becomes part of the curriculum, he added. “There is a diff erence between schools being told to do it and being able to do it well,” Sebastien says. There’s a real risk here: if schools cannot do it well they could put a generation of children off learning a language. “If they do it in a bad way it means that kids won’t enjoy languages as much.”

He hopes to help counter some of this problem by off ering training sessions at BBS so that other schools can develop both their approaches and their staff . “There are lots of teachers who could potentially teach MFL in a primary setting – we are not talking about teaching to GCSE level.” This does require both pedagogical and linguistic skills, says Sebastien; having some ability in a second language does not automatically mean that people can teach it.

While bilingual teaching off ers pupils some real advantages it won’t be a realistic options for most schools, says Clare. For a start, ensuring that children make the required progress in all subjects when teaching in English is a signifi cant challenge in itself. Then there’s the question of resourcing: fi nding enough teachers who speak both French and English to staff a school would be hard, but fi nding that many who have Mandarin and English would be virtually impossible in the current environment.

WE Pupils learning a language have an advantage in job hunting

Nearly a fi fth of job vacancies are proving diffi cult to fi ll because of a shortage of language skills in the UK, according to new research. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) found that the number of job vacancies in England has returned to pre-recession levels but that the number of businesses that cannot fi nd candidates with the right skills is increasing twice as fast.

This is a real issue for the economy, according to Geoff rey Bowden, general secretary of the Association of Translation companies, who criticised the lack of importance given to foreign language skills in the country.

“The need for foreign language skills will only increase, as economic globalisation increases and businesses focus on the opportunities in exporting, not just to the EU, but across the world too,” he says.

“With youth unemployment still a major issue, the journey from education to employment needs to be addressed and, as today’s British Chamber of Commerce ‘Skills and Employment Manifesto’ states, we must tackle the skills mismatch. However, we cannot play a ‘blame game’ with the education system and the private sector must also realise its position here in training and up-skilling employees.”

bit.ly/BCCskillsmanifesto

bit.ly/UKCESworldofwork

W

It’s time for the UK to take modern foreign languages

seriously

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www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources

“How many Mandarin speakers are going in to teaching? And if they do, are they going in to primary or secondary? It’s more likely to be secondary, because that is where the market will be.”

She adds: “I admire totally bilingual schools but that’s not a path that’s feasible for us at this time. Learning a foreign lan-guage cannot take over our timetable. We have to get the core values in place of a broad and balanced curriculum.”

But this does not mean that schools must limit language teaching to specifi c lessons; there are ways to gain some of the benefi ts of immersion without actually going bilingual, says Clare, who weaves French and Mandarin throughout the 300-pupil school’s activities.

“With French, which students start in nursery, we deliver the local authority’s scheme of work, which is particularly success-ful,” she says. “In a week, pupils will typically do three 15-minute sessions, two 20-minute sessions and a 10-minute top up: it’s little and often. And we use French across the curriculum, so we might do the register in it or when we ask children to take books back we might ask in French, for instance. It’s not immer-sion but it is repetition.” Songs, rhymes and games are all used to help pupils become fl uent, while a French language assistant supports the development of accent and pronunciation.

Mandarin, which is taught to pupils from year three, follows a similar pattern but teaching is led by a Chinese language assistant and sup-ported by the British Council (see links) rather than the local author-ity, says Clare. Classrooms contain displays in all three languages.

Clare is a keen supporter of activities such as a joint curriculum project with Dane Royd’s school in Chengdu, China. “The children might be connecting in English rather than Mandarin, but they will be thinking about what other chil-dren their age think about the world. It’s all about cultural understanding, not just language.” Even if pupils do not study Mandarin in secondary schools they will still come away with more knowledge about peo-ple’s diff erences – and similarities – in other parts of the world.

A focus on MFL also benefi ts staff development, says Clare. Staff learn Mandarin alongside their pupils,

which in turn makes it easier for them to incorporate the lan-guage into other lessons. “They fi nd it exciting and have reacted positively to it,” she says. “This year I have four NQTs who will take part in a visit to our partner school in China in their holi-days as part of their development programmes. They will do team teaching with Chinese NQTs.” This will give them early experience of another educational system and a chance to think about new ways that they could teach languages, including Eng-lish as an additional language.

All three heads who spoke to LF are thinking about where their pupils will go after primary school. “Obviously, I would love to see them go to a bilingual secondary school. One issue we are grappling with is that they should be at GCSE level by the time they fi nish year six, so when they start year seven there needs to be provision for them to be challenged,” says Sebast-ien. Julie’s pupils face a similar challenge, as those who stay in England will not be able to continue learning Welsh at school to the same level.

One strand of Sebastien’s work is building relationships with schools that off er the international baccalaureate. He is also exploring possible links with a bilingual secondary school that has been approved in Greenwich and, should it ever prove possible, he loves the idea of joining forces with a German bilingual school in south London to create a trilingual sec-ondary school.

This may sound ambitious but free school providers such as the CfBT Education Trust, which is behind Sebastien’s school, are keen to add more bilingual schools to the English mix in response to parent demand.

Chris Tweedale, CfBT’s UK director, says: “With the advent of bilingual free schools, parents are able to secure a truly bilingual education for their children, without having to resort to paying for additional language lessons beyond school hours.

“While most demand comes from London, we have been approached by groups in Bristol and Manchester, with the most requested languages being French, Spanish, German and Man-darin. Parents increasingly see fl uency in more than one language as a prerequisite for success in today’s global economy.”

EE “In a week, pupils will typically do three 15-minute sessions, two 20-minute sessions and a 10-minute top up. It’s little and often”

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THERE HAS BEEN increasing recognition that the level of co-operation between the NAHT and a range of research organisations (both in the UK and abroad) could be of benefi t to all those working in schools.

With this in mind, for the past two years, the policy and campaigns directorate at NAHT headquarters has worked closely with Cambridge Assessment to explore aspects of school accountability, the curriculum, assessment arrange-ments, monitoring and inspection, and their connectivity to the day-to-day work of school leadership.

Cambridge Assessment is one of the UK’s oldest major examination groups. It also boasts one of the largest research capabilities of its kind in Europe, with up to 80 researchers

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N A H T R E S E A R C H

NAHT members are invited to take part in an exciting research project on schools and trust, reports Chris Harrison

A question of trust

I M A G E : A N D Y B R I D G E

conducting enquiries at any one time. Its aim is to publish auth-oritative research to validate, improve and develop the wide range of assessment materials and services to schools, while at the same time infl uencing thinking and policy-making on edu-cational assessment nationally and internationally.

The keys to school improvementIn addition to the work with Cambridge Assessment, last autumn the NAHT joined a major international research project exploring the issue of trust and verification. The project requires NAHT to send a comprehensive question-naire to its membership in England, while at the same time working in parallel with six other school leadership organi-

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 47

the present debate on school improvement in ways that can enhance the prestige and professionalism of school leader-ship and the teaching profession itself.

The starting point for this research focus was the observa-tion that countries that ranked highly on international trust surveys also performed exceptionally well on international assessments of student performance. Conversely, students from schools in lower-trust nations tended to perform at mediocre or unsatisfactory levels.

Based on this evidence, one could conclude that policy makers at all levels of the educational enterprise should develop policies that trust teachers, school leaders and local authority officers to get on with the job of educating their students in schools. There is already abundant data that dem-onstrates that organisations and institutions that extend trust to their employees can unleash their initiative, creativity and innovation more effectively than those that attempt to main-tain strict control on what happens each day in our schools.

At the same time, the collective experiences of students, parents, and educators, as well as a considerable body of literature, reminds us that not all teachers, school leaders, local authorities and DfE officials are sufficiently competent, motivated or energetic to create optimum learning environ-ments for all students.

Distrust, therefore, becomes a logical and perhaps even a necessary aspect of policy making at all levels of educa-tional systems. In schools we know only too well that this then shows itself in an overbearing process of verification, monitoring and accountability systems supported through standardised tests and a rigorous external inspection process focused on the work of both schools and teachers.

sations in Europe, North America and Australasia. The intention is to understand – at a very deep level – why trust between policy makers and policy implementers appears to be a key factor in enhancing pupils’ achieve-ment – making learners more resilient and helping them to overcome the challenges of poverty, the economic chal-

lenges of world recession and social deprivation.This questionnaire will ask about the importance of trust

in doing your jobs, as well as inquiring into your perceptions of the trust culture in your working environment. With this information we intend to determine what aspects of trust make a difference to the efficacy of leaders and teachers and to student achievement in both positive and negative trust environments.

Educational research teams in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden and the United States are all par-ticipating. In the UK, Tom Whittingham leads the project. Tom is head of external development at the University of Worcester and has an extensive record of successful practice as a primary head and a local authority adviser. The initiator and overall coordinator of the project is Dean Fink, a Cana-dian professor, author, speaker and consultant.

The goal is to collate all the research outcomes and pro-duce a book in 2015 entitled Trust and verify: the real keys to school improvement. It is the project’s intention to influence E

WE What the research will askWhen all seven participating countries complete their respective national surveys it is anticipated that the research report and the fi nal book (to be published by the Institute of Education Press) will address the following questions: � How are trust and distrust manifested in schools and school systems? � Are verifi cation systems inherently low trust? � Are some national contexts intrinsically high trust? � What educational policies demonstrate high trust or low trust; and high distrust or

low distrust? � Is the connection between high trust and student achievement real or illusory? � What verifi cation systems support rather than undermine trust? � How do high trust/low distrust nations balance trust and verifi cation? � How does an educational system move from low trust/ high distrust to high trust/

low distrust? � Should this direction be the goal of educational change? � When is high trust/high distrust appropriate and wise? � Must low trust/high distrust school systems or schools remain dysfunctional

or are their strategies to ensure some degree of cooperation and even trust? � Are low trust/low distrust schools or systems hopeless? � Can a high trust/low distrust school exist within highly distrustful policy

environments? If so how does that happen? Can it be sustained? Can it be verifi ed?

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Defi ning trustThere are many defi nitions of trust to be found in literature reviews on the topic but almost all seem to have the common threads of three fundamental concepts: honesty, reliability and caring. Consequently, key questions can be asked:� Do individuals and their institutions have integrity?� Do staff walk their talk?� Do they say what they mean and mean what they say? � Are they open and transparent or secretive and calculating? � Are they consistent, competent and have the interests of others in mind? � Are they benevolent and recognise the vulnerability of others?

Two words permeate literature on the subject – confi dence and vulnerability. It is in trusting others that one makes one-self vulnerable to other people, organisations, institutions, or even to an ideology, with the result that the more one trusts the more one has confi dence in others. At the same time, the more vulnerable one becomes if that trust is betrayed and par-ticularly so in the workplace.

The project team needs to know what schools in England think about these issues. On a practical level, researchers would like as many school leaders as possible to access and complete an online survey (it takes approximately 15 minutes). Details are at the top of the page. If a large number of NAHT members complete the survey it will give the report the abil-ity to say publicly what the English school workforce thinks.

The research also needs to include as many teachers as pos-sible from a variety of settings to complete a separate survey, which designed only for teachers (see above). If every head teacher could persuade fi ve teachers to go online and spend 15 minutes answering their survey we would have an impres-sive and formidable sample.

International reachPolicy makers need to find a balance between trust and distrust, and to determine appropriate approaches to veri-fication. In the world of education, blind trust can leave policy makers vulnerable politically and professionally, but too much verification can strip policy implementers (schools and their staff ) of autonomy and which can then only stifle their creativity and innovation.

48 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

N A H T R E S E A R C H

Any members, or teachers at their schools, who would like more information about the project should email Tom Whittingham (t.whittingham@worc.ac.uk) or Professor Fink (deanfi nk@cogeco.ca)

For more information on Cambridge Assessment, please visit: www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/our-research

TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY:

School leaders www.surveymonkey.com/s/trust_brit_leaders Teachers www.surveymonkey.com/s/trust_brit_teachers

To address these and the many other trust/distrust related issues, Professor Fink has assembled an international group of educationalists across seven very diff erent national systems. Each researcher is looking at the nature of trust and distrust on a system-wide basis in each setting - at the school, the area or region and at national levels.

In England, Tom’s starting point is that over the past 20 years England’s educational system has experienced rapid change where successive governments have issued a con-stant supply of initiatives to schools, even before previously adopted strategies have been fully implemented or explored. The nation has therefore become a hot-house of new and old ideas. Some are ideologically driven, while others are well thought out and researched.

For the most part, change has been driven by central gov-ernment as the traditional role of the local authority has diminished. The English educational system is perhaps the most highly centralised of any of the seven nations within the research study and our system would seem to have evolved rap-idly from high trust to low. In contrast to other UK countries, England remains focused on external verifi cation, through an extensive system of inspection that is unique in the world of education in its activity and intrusiveness in schools.

Additionally, we know that there is an extensive centralised examination system subject to annual public scrutiny and com-ment in the media. Over recent years, inspections have become more focused on ‘failing schools’ and those requiring improve-ment, however, the examination system has been the recent focus of the coalition to drive up standards, through raising the levels of expectations for each grade in an examination.

Over the past three years, we know that huge eff orts have been made by policy makers to create increased autonomy through the academies and free schools programme with seemingly scant regard for evidence-based research to under-pin and inform such policy making and system change.

This research opportunity will show how the new ‘audit’ approach to change has aff ected levels of trust and – perhaps more importantly – reveal whether recent attempts to ame-liorate some of the worst features of the verifi cation approach have been mitigated.

We hope as many of you as possible will respond positively to this opportunity to inform policy making through the evidence-based research outcomes coming from this survey.

W

EE “This research will show how the new ‘audit’ approach has affected levels of trust”

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M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4 l LEADERSHIP FOCUS 49

W H AT ’ S N E WWE T H E L A T E S T B O O K S A N D R E S O U R C E S

Leading and Managing People in Education

By Tony Bush and David Middlewood. Sage Publications, £25.99

The third edition of this tried

and tested book covers

leadership and management

of people at all levels in

educational organisations. It

contains up-to-date research

and literature and deals with

issues such as succession

planning, leadership

development and diversity,

along with an enhanced

focus on international trends,

examples and research.

It also acknowledges the

changing English context,

including the shift to system

leadership, academies and

free schools.

Dyslexia Pocketbook

By Julie Bennett. Teachers’ Pocketbooks, £8.99

A second edition of this

illustrated guide which

outlines what dyslexia is and

ways to recognise those ‘at

risk’. There’s information

about the learning profi les

of dyslexic students and

it offers some practical

solutions. Chapters are

devoted to raising self-

esteem and using the six

Ls for written and verbal

communication (legibility,

layout, language, links, large

picture/little chunks, let it

settle and look again). The

author is a former primary

teacher with mild dyslexia

who draws on her work with

children and adults with

specifi c learning diffi culties.

How to... research guidesBy NFER. Prices range from £4.80 to £7.20 per guide

A new range of fi ve ‘quick

and easy’ PDF guides on

research projects that go

from planning (pictured)

through to how to develop

a questionnaire and ask

the right questions. They

introduce readers to

defi nitions, methods, benefi ts

and pitfalls to ensure that

research is based on sound

professional advice. Helpfully,

the guides are succinct and

jargon-free and designed

for busy practitioners who

want to carry out their own

school-based research to

improve practice. They are

not designed for those

engaging in formal academic

research. The series takes the

reader from planning through

to writing up research.

National Pet MonthApril (and a bit of May) make

up pet ‘month’, which doesn’t

end until 5 May. The website

claims that “school pets have

been found to motivate pupils

to think and to learn. They

also lead to the development

of hobbies and careers in

animal care and to improved

academic achievement.”

www.nationalpetmonth.

org.uk/schools

April Fool’s DayThe fi rst is a school day this

year, so watch out for drawing

pins on your chair and other

such delights. LF has heard

that in Italy, France and

Belgium, children stick paper

fi shes on each other’s backs

and shout “April fi sh!”. It

sounds much more civilised.

www.theguardian.com/

news/datablog/2012/apr/01/

guardian-april-fools-list

International Children’s Book DayHans Christian Andersen’s

birthday (2 April) is used

by the International Board

on Books for Young People

to inspire a love of reading.

The annual British highlight

is a conference at the

National Centre for Research

in Children’s Literature at

Roehampton University.

www.ibby.org.uk/index.php

World Health DayThe birth of the World Health

Organisation is marked on

7 April with publicity about a

health problem. The topic for

2014 is vector-borne diseases,

such as malaria. But catching

up fast is dengue, with a 30-

fold increase in incidence over

the past 50 years.

www.who.int/campaigns/

world-health-day/2014/

event/en

D I A R Y D A T E S

www.nfer.ac.uk

This document is designed to be read with Adobe Acrobat

How to…

Pla n your resea rchMeet your objectives

49 What's New.indd 4949 What's New.indd 49 21/02/2014 16:1521/02/2014 16:15

50 LEADERSHIP FOCUS l M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 4

F I N A L LY… W e ’ d l o v e t o s h a r e y o u r s t o r i e s w i t h L F r e a d e r s . E m a i l S u s a n E educationhack@gmail.com

WE T E L L U S A B O U T Y O U R S C H O O L

Expanding children’s hor-izons is a key task for pri-mary schools. As Miles Wallis-Clarke, head teacher of Hotspur primary in New-

castle, puts it: “By secondary school it is too late.”

Building aspiration, particularly among the pupil premium-eligible children at his school, is important. “We are in the 20 per cent most disad-vantaged schools in the country, with 42 per cent of our children eligible for the pupil premium. While many of the families are artists, actors or professionals, others aren’t. We have children who’ve been to New York sat next to those who’ve never been anywhere.”

The scale of the challenge was highlighted on a trip to the near-by Sage Gateshead centre. “As we walked over the Millennium Bridge two children said they were terrifi ed: what if it collapsed?”

Last summer, Miles led a whole-school project on the Ouse-burn Valley that was designed, in part, to widen their horizons. “It’s fi ve minutes away and is being regenerated,” explains the head. “It used to be a big industrial area and is now full of small businesses. There must be 200 artists’ workshops and studios there. It’s rich in stuff we can use.”

The project was two years in the planning, involving many outside organisations, some of whom volunteered help and ex-pertise after Hotspur started to discuss the project on its website and Facebook page.

The local CBI, for instance, suggested the project shouldn’t just look at the area’s industrial history but its future prospects. “As a result, we looked at renewable energy and the digital fu-ture. Everything is past, present and future,” says Miles.

Each year group had a diff erent focus: year two’s was the wildlife and city farm, while year three had entertainment and leisure – running the independent cinema for a week and putting on a performance in one of the pubs. Year four looked at art, creating a huge textile piece that now has pride of place in school. Year fi ve investigated the environment, the quality of the soil and water, the im-pact of industrial heritage and the re-

construction of the watermill. Year six looked at businesses.There was also a maths challenge where children worked in

mixed age groups to build a boat, spending three separate morn-ings in the valley, before dropping the vessels from a bridge into the river to see if they fl oated. “It was a very simple thing, but great to see them working with children they wouldn’t normal-ly,” says Miles.

Some aspects are ongoing. Year one worked with a developer, architects, builder and lawyers on the construction of 76 eco-houses in the area and continues to follow the work. Many chil-dren learned that the valley was there for them to visit and enjoy and the school gained a new understanding of how to use it for curriculum work. Miles says: “Lots of much stronger partner-ships and collaborations came out of it. It is an area of real crea-tivity and generosity. The idea is to show children life and not be preoccupied with health and safety.”

“Children aspire to what they know: if they don’t know about jobs they don’t think they can do them. We wanted to get all of the children engaged with business in Ouseburn,” says Miles.

“There’s a company roasting its own coff ee, an architect and a Rolls Royce garage. The children have spent time there, interviewed people and produced amazing pro-jects about working in the valley. It had a huge impact on their own as-pirations, saying things like: ‘I didn’t know what an architect was but I want to be one now’.

“It is very easy for them to say they want to be a pop star or a footballer, and we’re the very best chance of af-fecting the outcome of their life.”

EVENT HORIZONS

S U S A N Y O U N G

See also feature, page 24.

P H O T O G R A P H : H O T S P U R P R I M A R Y

50 And finally.indd 5050 And finally.indd 50 21/02/2014 16:1621/02/2014 16:16

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