First steps to federation

Martin Young is executive head of one of the country’s newest federations. Here he gives his personal perspective on the nine month long journey towards federation.

In January I completed my first month as the Executive Headteacher of The Park Federation, a federation of two primary schools in West London. The journey started nine months earlier in May 2009 when a local school to mine was served with a notice to improve and the local authority was looking for a structural and sustainable response to this event. This is my account of what happened from the day the federation idea was first mooted to the day it came into being.

May 2009

Wood End Park Primary School: a very large and diverse school in West London, with nearly 800 children and more than 100 staff. On 11 May 2009 it was inspected by Ofsted. Many strengths were reported: cultural development, behaviour, and the secure environment provided for the children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. There were also clear concerns, mainly around attainment and progress in Key Stage 2. Ultimately Ofsted decided that weaknesses outweighed strengths and the school was placed in an adverse category.

Cranford Park Primary School: a very large and diverse school in West London, just down the road from Wood End Park. It has 750 children and over 100 staff. The school is a National Support School and a National Teaching School. For many years it has been involved in system leadership at local and national levels. In May 2009 it discussed with its local authority, Hillingdon, the practicalities of partnering with Wood End Park Primary School to bring about significant and accelerated improvement.

Things moved quickly and, during the May 2009 half-term break, in my role as a National Leader of Education (NLE), I met with the Wood End Park senior team and a representative of the local authority. We began to map out an improvement path for the school. It is important to note that colleagues at Wood End Park were absolutely committed to bringing about change at their school and from the start engaged positively with support. I know this is not always the case.

June 2009

Events continued to move apace. I am very fortunate to work for an innovative and supportive local authority, which is not frightened to embrace new ways of working. Chris Spencer, Director of Education and Children’s Services, and Mike Merva, Head of School Improvement Services, were instrumental in helping us make a swift and radical transformation.

Rather than a traditional school-to-school support programme, we began to plan for a newer approach: the formation of a federation. My own thinking on this subject had been deepened by my involvement in the Fellowship Commission 2008/09, a leadership development programme run by the National College for its NLEs. It was through this experience – and a visit to the amazing Amanda Phillips, an executive headteacher in Tower Hamlets – that I became convinced that, in some circumstances but certainly not in all, federation has the potential to create improved learning, care and wellbeing for children.

Next – and very importantly – came discussions with the governing bodies of both schools. No further progress should be made unless school and local community representatives are on board. This is absolutely crucial in my opinion: local democratic processes should not be ridden over roughshod when federations are being mooted. The community voice needs to be heard; this is far too important a decision to be left to the professionals alone! The professionals can up and leave if things do not go to plan; the children and families do not have the same luxury.

Benefits were more obvious for the governing body at Wood End Park than at Cranford Park Primary School. Clearly, Wood End Park needed something new and different to jump-start it to greater success. However, Cranford Park governors could ask ‘why do we want to change, and possibly jeopardise what we have worked so long and hard to create?’ I think what eventually won them over was their strong sense of community responsibility for all children in the area, not just for the ones who attend Cranford Park.

In addition to an information meeting for Cranford Park governors, I met with many governors individually. The notion of federation is new for the profession but even newer for lay governors and, therefore, a detailed exploration of the subject was essential. When the decision on federation was eventually made, I was determined that it would be an informed decision by all concerned. To the same end, a local authority led information evening took place at Wood End Park.

September 2009

During September 2009 separate governing body meetings at both schools decided to formally consult on the creation of a ‘hard’ federation (a single governing body and an executive headteacher). The consultation ensured that parents/carers and staff of both schools were fully involved in the process, and that the consultation period was lengthy (six weeks). During the six weeks I attended about 10 meetings across the two schools and spoke to parents, teachers and support staff about the proposal and spent time answering people’s questions. It was crucial that everybody had a chance to have their say: this was a major decision, which would affect the lives of about 600 families, the professional work of more than 200 colleagues, and approximately £6 million of public money – the annual budgets for both schools.

16 November 2009

This was a momentous date for both schools. The two governing bodies planned to meet separately, consider the outcomes of the formal consultation (which was broadly in favour of the federation), and then take the decision whether or not to federate. The meeting time of 6:30pm arrived and both governing bodies gathered in separate rooms in the same building. And then I waited.

Thankfully, both governing bodies decided yes to federation and then, after some skilled choreography, we eventually ended up in the same room. Local authority officers were on hand as the official midwives to the birth and at about 7:30pm the federation was born, ‘weighing’ in at more than 1,500 children and over 200 staff! All was set for the new federation to start functioning at the beginning of the spring term 2010.

Dr Martin Young is Executive Headteacher of the Park Federation. The Head of School at Cranford Park is Linda Taylor. Surjeet Johra is Head of School-Designate at Wood End Park. The Park Federation consists of two very large and ethnically diverse urban primary schools in Hayes, West London: Cranford Park Primary School and Wood End Park Primary School. The federation totals over 1,500 children and more than 200 staff. Approximately 80 per cent of the children are from ethnic minority communities and about 30 per cent are eligible for free school meals.