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Date: 9 Feb 2010
Address: http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/index/about-us/press-office/latest-press-releases/press-release-detail

New research highlights how federating schools can raise standards

21 October 2009

Research involving more than 500 schools has found evidence that links collaboration through federation to school improvement.

A study commissioned by the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services has concluded that federations of two or more schools can have a positive impact on student outcomes.

The impact was found to be the strongest where the aim of the federation was to raise educational standards by federating higher and lower attaining schools – so called “Performance Federations”.

For other types of federations, it was too early to draw firm conclusions. Many have formed relatively recently, reflecting a rapid development in the way schools collaborate.

Researchers studied 264 schools -  taken from a random sample of 50 local authorities – grouped within 122 federations, and compared them to an equivalent sample of 264 non-federated schools.

Steve Munby, chief executive of the National College, commenting on The Impact of Federations on Student Outcomes, said: “This research is fascinating and encouraging in equal measure. Fascinating because it provides a snapshot of how quickly schools are adopting and adapting different models of leadership - encouraging because it provides the first evidence that when schools collaborate in this way it really can make a difference. This is about using the best leadership talent around to benefit more and more children and young people.”

Federations are groups of two or more schools which share some or all of their governing body responsibilities between them.  This enables them to  work together to share resources and raise standards, with four out of five federations in the study choosing to appoint an Executive Headteacher shared across the schools.  

“Hard” federations are where two or more schools are governed collectively under a single governing body. Collaborations or “soft” federations are where the governing bodies delegate some but not all of their powers to a strategic group across the partnership.

The Impact of Federations on Student Outcomes is the first quantitative analysis which builds on Manchester University's previous work for the National College exploring the impact of new structural arrangements.

To carry out the latest study, researchers from the University of Manchester and University of Nottingham identified schools that federated in the academic years from 2003 to 2008. For those that had been in place since 2006 and before, they studied the examination performance prior to federating with exam performance since federation and then compared these findings to the equivalent exam results in the non-federated schools, where both federated and non-federated schools had started at the same levels.  

Based on the pupil data, the researchers identified six different categories of federation, depending on what was likely to have driven the decision to federate. The largest three of these groups were: ‘Cross-phase federations’ (or all-through) bringing together primary and secondary schools (35.1%); ‘Size federations’, bringing together very small or small and medium sized schools (18.8%) and ‘Performance federations’, bringing together low and high performing schools (15.6%).  

The importance of collaborations and similar partnerships was highlighted in the recent Education White Paper – ‘Your child, your schools, our future’. Following this the National College was asked to lead a new Leadership Models and Partnerships Support Programme to encourage schools, local authorities and governing bodies to consider new models of leadership, such as federations, where appropriate.

The National College will also be carrying out a research project looking into the potential of federations in areas of particular challenge – rural, primary and faith schools.

Notes for editors

  1. The Impact of Federations on Student Outcomes is the first quantitative analysis which builds on Manchester University's previous work for the National College exploring the impact of new structural arrangements including federations.
  2. A further research study has been commissioned by the National College to define the role of an executive headteacher  - those who lead across two or more schools, with a ‘home’ school of which they are the substantive head - and understand how it differs from the traditional model of a single headteacher in one school. It will look at whether there is one model of executive headship or whether the role is different depending on context and phase. It will also consider how the emerging role of Chief Executive Officer is different to that of an executive head teacher.  Findings from the research are expected next year.
  3. The National College has organised a number of models of leadership networking opportunities this autumn for school leaders and governing bodies. For more information go to the models of leadership section of our website.

About the National College

The National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services exists to improve the lives of children and young people.

Formerly known as the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), our remit was extended in 2009 to include the training and development of Directors of Children’s Services.

The National College continues to support school leaders with a range of strategic initiatives, leadership development programmes and policy and research activities to enable them to develop into outstanding leaders.