Jump to content

Chesil Cove Foundation: planning for changes in school leadership

Summary

With both school leaders retiring, Chesil Cove Federation had to build a sound succession plan into its strategy from the outset.

Key learning/outcomes

  • The establishment of a governors' steering group was essential to help move the two schools together.
  • All staff took part in a series of workshops to ensure a shared ethos.

Background

Chesil Cove Federation is a hard federation of Underhill Junior School and Brackenbury Infant School and Nursery, which are located close together in Portland, Dorset. Both schools were in challenging circumstances but had achieved ‘good’ Ofsted results. The two schools had come to recognise that collaborative working was the way forward and the governing bodies decided to formalise their partnership as a hard federation.

The federated schools initially had separate headteachers but a single governing body. In 2009 both headteachers retired and were replaced with a single headteacher and a restructured senior leadership team.

Key challenges and issues

Succession planning

Both headteachers were due to retire soon after the federation of the two schools. The schools had to build a succession plan into the plans for federation.

Solution or approach

Establishing a steering group

The schools established a governors’ steering group to oversee the transition of the governing bodies and lead the work with the community.

Sharing the vision

All staff took part in a series of visioning days and helped to produce the shared objectives for the federation.

Restructuring the leadership team

When the headteachers retired they were replaced by a single headteacher with the support of a reformed senior leadership team. The senior leadership team, which includes two deputy headteachers, an inclusion manager and a school business manager, works across both schools.

Next steps

The next step is to bring the ethos and working methods of the two schools closer together. This will include moving towards a skills-based curriculum in the junior school and fostering cross-curricular development across the federation.