Bristol Case Study

Partnership working: Opportunities and challenges

Case study

August 2014

Contents

Introduction 3

Background 3

Leadership structures and roles 7

Distributed leadership 7

SLE model 10

Leadership knowledge and skills 12

Developing business skills and entrepreneurialism 12

Pedagogy 13

Communication 14

Organisational culture and philosophy 17

Capacity building 17

Developing the organisational culture towards a broader outlook 18

Partnership working 21

Relationship with the local authority 21

Relationship with HE and FE institutions 22

Relationships with other nurseries, settings and the PVI sector 23

Concluding remarks 25

Table of figures

Figure 1: SLE specialisms 11

26

Introduction

This case study focuses on three nursery schools (each with a children’s centre) that have joined together in an alliance to become a DfE-designated teaching school consortium. It also explores how the headteachers of the nursery schools have worked collaboratively with each other – and with their local authority (LA) as a key partner – to establish:

·  strategic leadership across the alliance

·  operational leadership within their own settings

·  partnership working

·  opportunities and challenges for their nursery schools

The case study will include material from the three nursery schools/children’s centres that form the teaching school alliance (TSA), the LA that co-ordinates the work of the alliance, and the local higher education (HE) and further education (FE) institutions that jointly support the initial and postgraduate training offered through the alliance.

Background

Teaching schools are part of the government’s drive to give schools more freedom and to enable them to take increasing responsibility for managing the education system. There is a target to establish a network of around 500 outstanding teaching school consortia by 2014 with the aim of driving significant improvement in the quality of professional practice, thereby improving the attainment of every child. The intention is that teaching schools will play a fundamental role in developing a self-sustaining system where:

·  trainee teachers learn from the best teachers, supported by a culture of coaching and mentoring

·  professional development is school based and classroom focused; teachers, support staff and leaders improve through exposure to excellent practice

·  talent development and distributed leadership are the norm; staff demonstrating potential are encouraged to lead and aregiven structured and stretching opportunities to develop

·  leaders have local knowledge and can identify where key resources and expertise lie

As well as offering training and support, teaching schools identify and co-ordinate expertise in partner schools or settings, using the best leaders and teachers to undertake six big areas of work (the ‘Big 6’):

1.  playing a greater role in recruiting and training new entrants to the profession (initial teacher training)

2.  leading peer-to-peer professional and leadership development (continuing professional development)

3.  identifying and developing leadership potential (succession planning and talent management)

4.  providing support for other schools and settings

5.  designating and brokering specialist leaders of education (SLEs)

6.  engaging in research and development activity

The first 100 teaching schools were designated in July 2011, followed by a second cohort in March 2012 and a third in March 2013, at which time the three early years settings that form the case study alliance were awarded teaching school designation. The early years nature of this collaboration, in itself, poses a challenge as nursery schools are no longer funded as schools and do not benefit from pupil premium or free school meals funding, or other school-focused funding streams, despite having the same wide remit to perform as a national teaching school.

The three nursery schools/children’s centres in the alliance are all outstanding settings with:

·  national early years training centre accreditation

·  headteachers who are local leaders of education (LLEs) and national leaders of education (NLEs)

·  staff teams, which include advanced skills teachers, specialist leaders of education and network lead teachers

·  a proven track record of delivering training to leaders and practitioners that makes a lasting difference to ethos and practice

·  national teaching school status

The development of the early years teaching school alliance has been primarily led by the three nursery school headteachers, with key partnership working and strong support from the local authority. Each of the nursery schools in the alliance has a track record of ‘outstanding’ Ofsted reports, and each is noted as offering outstanding learning and development, effective partnership working – particularly with health – and strong models of leadership and governance.

All three are also deeply connected with their local community and do exceptional work in being inclusive and in engaging those who might be regarded as hard to reach. They had previously been developing and delivering leadership and training activities individually with other settings across the local authority and beyond. With support from their local authority, these settings applied, in cohort 2, for a capacity building grant and were successfully designated as a national teaching school in March 2013. Just one year on, they are already demonstrating significant impact across the city in which they operate.

The teaching school Big 6 areas of work are key points of reference for the teaching school, and align well with the local authority quality improvement framework for early years. The Big 6 therefore provide an opportunity for a co-constructed model of system leadership, whereby expertise across the sector can be mobilised and deployed, informed by local authority priorities. The three heads also say they regularly return to them as reference points to frame the way they work and in the prioritisation of their work. The three nursery schools have each taken responsibility for one or more strands of the Big 6.

The teaching school and the local authority agree that one of the most exciting developments is the LA–TSA joint recruitment, designation and deployment of their early years specialist leaders of education. Some 11 SLE posts have already been designated, including area leads for family support, assessment and transition, birth to threes, early Maths, early language and communication, inclusion, and initial teacher training (ITT).

They have appointed their first SLEs from the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector, another groundbreaking development, as was their appointment of a social worker to one of the three family support SLE posts. The local authority early years service has commissioned the TSA to deploy their SLEs across the city, and this funding enables the very best leaders and practitioners to be released for (on average) half a day a week to provide support to identified settings, to work strategically with the development of city-wide, cross-phase provision, and to represent their area of expertise and early years on advisory or decision-making groups.

The teaching school alliance collectively offers a very wide range of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities across the city and beyond. This includes over 50 foundation and advanced CPD courses over the last year, as well as its ITT offer. The TSA also has a strong and very visible commitment to research, and works in close collaboration with the LA on developing a website platform for practitioner research. The alliance supports research hubs and circles, and disseminates research through publications and conferences as a key aspect of its TSA development work. As one head stated:

“Research is the thread that will make the difference in all we do. For example, in terms of confronting practice, stimulating innovation and securing long-lasting improvements.”

The journey from operating as three individual nursery schools/children’s centres to one teaching school alliance has posed many challenges and has required a continuous process of reflection and development to overcome the demands on time, knowledge, capacity and skills of the three leaders, their leadership teams and the staff within their respective settings. This case study will capture key aspects of this journey and is organised into four sections, each with a theme that has been highlighted as significant in the development of this co-constructed approach:

1.  Leadership structures and roles

2.  Leadership knowledge and skills

3.  Organisational culture and philosophy

4.  Partnership working

Leadership structures and roles

A shift in role for the leader

It is clear from all three heads that the pressures on time and capacity involved in establishing a TSA, whilst ensuring the highest quality of provision within their own setting, meant that maintaining the status quo in terms of leadership roles and management structures was not an option. All three heads have had to become more executive and strategic in their roles within their individual settings. One head said:

“The challenge to my leadership from this ongoing agenda is huge as you do have to learn how to lead to ensure inward [school] robustness, and also learn to operate and be outward facing.”

This shift in role and function, to be more externally focused and strategic, has been both energising and demanding for these three heads. As one head stated:

“I was energised by this work... I was already working at a high level across settings, across agencies and in the LA… this work took me to the next phase, working at National College level. And then there were opportunities to do other national things, particularly in politics, for example, to speak at Education Select Committee meetings, to take in round-table discussions with the minister. You learn how to keep up to date, to read up on policy. We’re operating now at that level and we’re getting calls from MPs and civil servants asking for our view on things.”

Another noted:

“The three of us are hugely resilient. We have risen to some enormous challenges as a result of the rapidly changing local and national landscape. We keep on reflecting as we go forward and we have all chosen to stick with it.”

The local authority has been able to provide some additional capacity to support these challenges.

Distributed leadership

Whilst one of the key roles of the TSA is to support the development of the quality of provision across all early years settings within a given locality, it was recognised that this needs to be balanced against the challenge of maintaining outstanding provision in their own specific setting. As one head said:

“In an interview for a new deputy head, one of the questions I asked was, ‘How do you maintain standards in the nursery school whilst fulfilling the demands of a teaching school?’ I need that competence in my school, backing me up, because as soon as you lose that ‘outstanding’ status, that’s it – the game’s up.”

The three heads soon realised that if the TSA was to succeed, and not at the expense of the quality of their own nursery school/children’s centre services, then not only would they need to share the TSA leadership responsibilities equally between the three of them, but that each of them would need to extend and expand a strong model of distributed leadership within their own settings to build capacity. Also, as one head said:

“It is important to note the number of staff working at each of the three settings; they each have at least 60 staff on the payroll.”

The response of the headteachers has been to restructure the senior leadership roles within each of the nursery schools/children’s centres. For example, in one, the head has been reassigned as executive head, focusing a greater share of her time on the TSA and delegating more responsibility for operational management within the nursery school/children’s centre amongst the senior management team. The team now distributes its leadership tasks as follows:

·  Headteacher – executive functions

·  Deputy – family and community

·  Deputy – learning and achievement, teaching school

·  Deputy – inclusion and special educational needs (SEN)

·  Early years consultant – quality of teaching

And in terms of the additional demands of the TSA, the team has the added support of:

·  A bursar – teaching school legal status

·  An additional administrator (0.4 days FTE) – bookings and SLE deployment

One head described their management structure as follows:

“A fairly flat structure, and we take turns to chair the [senior leadership team] SLT meetings, and together we lead the centre. It is vital that any one [member] of the SLT team can step in to take over as we lead on the teaching school agenda.”

She went on to explain how she had developed her management structure over time:

“We have restructured three times; three years ago, we appointed three assistant heads and, this year, I became an executive head to lead development in the teaching school. But I am still involved in teaching and learning and children’s welfare. It was imperative that we also appointed an associate head, to take over my role, being responsible for day-to-day management. The associate head leads the weekly SLT meetings and I, as executive head, lead the strategic meetings one day every month. We have also retained two assistant heads: one leading under-threes curriculum development and literacy and food across the centre; the other assistant head leads family services and child protection.”

“We are constantly developing staff into leadership roles and, therefore, we have a fifth and emerging member of the SLT who is responsible for enhanced day care and the new two-year-old offer. This year, in our development plan for leadership, we have significantly budgeted to develop our middle leaders. Capacity is vital right across the centre; for example, our admin staff are strong, reliable and constantly steer teaching school development right across the alliance.”

In this nursery school, each member of the SLT has at least an undergraduate degree, all the assistant heads are currently completing a Master’s degree and the executive head is undertaking a PhD. The head is confident that this model of distributed leadership provides a robust structure to ensure stability for her setting and the TSA.

Similarly, the third head has added two new assistant heads to her SLT in order to ensure she has sufficient capacity for the expanded role of the nursery. However, this has not been an easy process and has been dogged by difficulties, as she explained:

“I had my two senior teachers leave: the SENCO and deputy head, last summer; one retired and one is currently on long-term sick leave and seeking ill-health retirement. I also had middle leaders leave: one on maternity leave, one has taken a year out to look after his daughter, and one has been off work unwell since the second week of the autumn term and is on a phased return to work now.”