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Central Leeds Learning Federation

How the Central Leeds Learning Federation used system leadership to improve attainment in two secondary schools.

Summary

This case study explores Central Leeds Learning Federation’s use of collaborative governance and system leadership to tackle persistent under-achievement among students at two inner city secondary schools.

Key outcomes

  • In the federation’s three most recent inspections (2006, 2007, 2008), inspectors noted the impact of collaboration within and between the schools, and with outside partners, as making an important contribution to raising standards.
  • Shakespeare Primary School has been recognised as outstanding in its partnership work to promote learners’ wellbeing.
  • City of Leeds School has been able to offer students a broader range of resources and expertise as a result of federating.
  • Primrose High School has significantly increased learning opportunities and the availability of placements.
  • Staff training has been enhanced through the partnership arrangements.
  • Based on this case study, leaders of partnerships and coalitions could usefully consider the following questions:
  • How can leadership and governance in newly forming federations be organised to respond to future development and needs, but still respect the past?
  • Where is the balance between valuing and building on the identities of individual schools and establishing a vibrant and shared identity for a new federation?
  • Who in your federation has the high level project management skills to ensure that planned innovation can continue even when there are new challenges or changed circumstances?
  • What skills and attributes does an executive headteacher need?
  • When is the right time to begin engaging stakeholders?

Background

Central Leeds Learning Federation caters for 2,000 students. It is a ‘hard’ federation of two inner city secondary schools in a ‘soft’ federation with a primary school and early years centre. The primary school shares a new build, private finance initiative (PFI) campus with one of the secondary schools, offering 0-19 provision.

The secondary schools serve a disaffected community and have struggled to raise standards. In the run-up to federation there was a sharp increase in the number of children from refugee and asylum-seeking families. They brought an enthusiasm for education but many children joined the schools with poor levels of literacy, and attendance was low.

The schools in the federation are: Primrose High School, City of Leeds School and Shakespeare Primary School and Early Years Centre.   

Challenges and issues

Poor attainment

In 2006, 19 per cent of students at City of Leeds and 30 per cent at Primrose High achieved five A*-C grades at GCSE.

Disaffected community

The area has traditionally served disaffected and vulnerable white and black working-class communities.

Increase in refugee families

There was a significant influx of asylum-seeking and refugee families before federation.

They brought an enthusiasm for education and its power to increase social and economic mobility, which had the power to re-energise the schools. However, they also made new demands since attendance was low and many children joined the schools with poor levels of literacy.

Lack of clarity about leadership roles

Staff at the two schools have sometimes found the federation’s lines of authority and accountability unclear.

Threat of closure

Persistently low standards in the two secondary schools have marked them for closure on more than one occasion.

Schools in different organisational areas

Although the schools are both central to Leeds, they are in different organisational areas. This has led to difficulties over distribution of resources and the deployment of services.

Separate identities of the two high schools

In the early days of the federation, stability and continuity seemed important for reassuring staff and parents. The two schools therefore retained their discrete identities and leadership and governance arrangements.

Maintaining and servicing these traditional structures, at the same time as planning and implementing new ones, has affected the pace at which the federation has been able to develop.

History of working together

Staff, leaders, governors, the local authority and the community had a history of working together. This familiarity set the context for the executive headteacher’s strategic development of the federation and tended to slow the pace of change.

For example, there was anxiety about the proposed federation and hostility to the use of teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payments. Plans to use workforce reform and TLRs to review the roles and responsibilities of teachers and middle leaders were therefore shelved because they had the potential to put a strain on new leadership arrangements and relationships between schools.

Time-consuming new build project

Moving one of the high schools and the primary on to a new build shared campus consumed more leadership energy than anticipated, particularly for the executive head. This may eventually be beneficial, however, because it has helped create a sense of community in the new school and helped staff to identify more closely with the federation.

Engaging stakeholders

The federation’s determination to consult the community, genuinely and without offering ready-made solutions, has had significant benefits. However, it has also been difficult to plan for and manage in a systematic way.

The Central Leeds Learning Federation approach

Leadership arrangements

Each of the two secondary schools in the ‘hard’ federation has a headteacher to lead learning and teaching. An executive headteacher takes responsibility for the strategic and organisational development of the federation and for brokering external support. Contacts include consultants, the local authority, the Innovation Unit and the National College.

All three leaders are conscious of the need to clarify their roles and responsibilities for staff and to take further opportunities to distribute leadership. They also try to ensure that the executive head does not become simply another layer in the federation hierarchy.

Adopting a coaching model of leadership

Federation leaders have adopted a coaching model of leadership after extensive training with the Hay Group and through use of Coach in a Box. Coaching and training have helped to give a framework and provide practical ways of thinking about roles and accountabilities.

Fighting the threat of closure

The repeated threat of closure for the two secondary schools has needed the federation to model the way in which both schools could survive and add value to one another through collaboration.

Governors played a significant role in campaigning to protect the schools and to get the best possible deal in the federation.

Engaging with stakeholders

The federation decided that the traditional way of consulting – inviting responses to centrally made suggestions – would not suffice. Instead it wanted to engage with young people and their families to understand the issues that were important to them. The federation hoped to harness the optimism and enthusiasm of new migrant families and revitalise relationships with the wider community.

Governors from all three schools have taken responsibility for formulating and leading a systematic strategy to engage stakeholders. Consultation has included parents, the community, business leaders, children and young people. One of the deputy headteachers has also been appointed to a community-centred role.

Next steps

  • Radically redevelop the role of the two governing bodies and the federation’s executive board along less traditional lines.
  • Channel governors’ campaigning energy into the leadership of learning in order to raise standards.
  • Consider the possibility of introducing professional, remunerated governor posts.
  • Use changes in leadership and governance structures to change the schools’ context and thus improve post-16 retention, attendance and engagement in learning, and aspirations and expectations for pupils.
  • Encourage federation governors to develop an internal brokerage role to engage stakeholders, mirroring the external role of the executive head.