Taking a partnership approach improves standards

Case study

The Canterbury Campus, including Canterbury High School and Beauherne Primary School, is the product of partnership working, which addresses the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes.

Summary

The Canterbury Campus has faced the challenges of low achievement, students’ low self-esteem and poor attendance. It has done this by forming partnerships and by adopting a multi-agency approach.

Key learning/outcomes

In 2007 Canterbury High School’s contextual value added (CVA) for Key Stages 2–4 was 1063.0 and for Key Stages 3–4 1059.4. The percentage of students achieving the equivalent of 5A*–C GCSE passes was 72 per cent, having risen every year from 39 per cent in 2004.
Beauherne Primary School’s Key Stages 1–2 CVA was 99.4. Aggregate test percentages for level 4 and above at Key Stage 2 have risen from 152 in 2004, after a dip in 2005, to 189 in 2007.
Beauherne encourages pupils to participate in out of school learning: 66 per cent of pupils attend at least one club, 47 per cent of whom are on the special needs register.

Background

The Canterbury Campus federation comprises Canterbury High School (a comprehensive school), Beauherne Primary School, a nursery and pre-school, Canterbury adult education centre, a gym, tennis centre, plus academies for 16- to 18-year olds.

The primary school and the high school are at different stages of development. In 1992 the high school was named one of the 20 worst schools in the country. But by 2005, when the federation was established, Ofsted identified the high school as outstanding. Half the high school’s students are on School Action or School Action Plus, with seven per cent having been statemented. A total of 25 per cent of students have active social services case files. The primary school’s difficulties are more recent; serious weaknesses were identified in 1997–98 and special measures ensued from 1998–2002.

Key challenges and issues

Low self-esteem: Kent is an authority that maintains selection at age 11. The student intake, in the words of the campus principal, “has been failed by the system, or worse, see themselves as a failure”.
Poor attendance: In both schools there is a longstanding problem of poor attendance by a small proportion of pupils, giving overall absence rates of seven per cent for Beauherne and 9.1 per cent for Canterbury High School.

Approach

Supporting learning: there is study support for both primary and secondary pupils (for example, breakfast clubs, use of the Playing for Success study centre at Kent County Cricket Club and extensive holiday provision).
Working with parents: the campus offers parenting support programmes, including targeted sessions for children who are on the special needs register and those with casework support from social services. Parent and toddler provision is supported by a health visitor.
Meeting childcare needs: after-school childcare is deliberately limited only to children whose parents are working. There is also nursery provision, with priority given to school-age mothers.
Community links: The community has access to sports provision, a designated community room and to school facilities on a community and commercial lettings basis.
Multi-agency work: There is an effective referral to external support services for pupils and an extensive range of longstanding relationships with child and family support agencies, both statutory and voluntary.
Taking collective responsibility: A vital component of the leadership approach in these schools is the creation of functioning teams that accept collective and individual responsibility to plan, monitor and change work practices for which they are responsible. Staff development has a high priority in both schools.

Next steps

Both schools aim to find ways to continue to be agents of community development and further their work on the ECM programme.

For further information see:

School leadership, Every Child Matters and school standards: case studies