Coverwood Village College: exploring trust status

Case study

Summary

Ambitious plans to increase capacity, open a sixth form and even take the lead in local education delivery have inspired this governing body to consult on trust status.

Key learning/outcomes

Horizon scanning of local and national events has enabled this school to seize opportunities and secure the best options for its future.
High quality governance and leadership, and in particular distributed leadership, has created the circumstances in which the trust option can be confidently explored.
The process of consultation has been instrumental in gaining enthusiastic support for the idea of trust status.
The circumstances at Coverwood are unique and learning from the consultation cannot be readily exported.
It is too early to reach any conclusion about the impact of the proposals on young people.

Background

Coverwood Village College, described as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, is a secondary foundation school with over 1300 pupils aged 11-16. It is located in a village about 6 miles to the west of a major university city and serves a relatively prosperous rural area with the vast majority of students being from white British backgrounds. It has sports college status and additional specialisms in languages and vocational education. The college is a training school and a leading edge school and embraces a wide range of educational initiatives.

Three key factors have drawn the school into a consideration of trust status:

The overall capacity of the current site is soon to be filled.
The opportunity to open a sixth form.
Pressure for more secondary school places and possibly a new secondary school if Hatherton, a predominantly new settlement located four miles to the west of Coverwood, grows faster than was originally forecast. In particular, a new trust could bid in a required competition to establish a new secondary school at Hatherton.

Key challenges and issues

In this already high performing school there is a sense of risk that the proposed changes might not have a positive impact.
It is felt that much of the success of any proposal would depend on the current principal, who is highly regarded.
The senior leaders face a challenge of sustainability, making arrangements to guarantee the quality of education within what will be a ‘minority’ trust.
Support and advice from government was extensive and high quality but to some degree, overwhelming.
Parents are not always comfortable with the distributed leadership that has enabled this vision and planning – sometimes they just want to talk to the person in charge.

Solution or approach

Effective distributed leadership means that the principal has capacity to be involved in national initiatives.
The regular absence of the principal is allowing school leaders to ‘step up’ and contribute to the school and their own development. Staff feel that the training and support is available to allow them to do this with confidence.
An efficient committee structure allows the governing body to be disciplined with meetings and deal only with important issues and forward planning.
Proposed trustees include representatives and specialists from universities, feeder primary schools, and the local community.

Next steps

The plans for the leadership and governance of Coverwood and the new school at Hatherton are unresolved, and a single governing body and executive headteacher structure is being considered. However, the vision is to nurture a sense of identity between each of the school communities while taking advantage of opportunities for collaboration. The intention is that the new sixth form should have its own sense of autonomy too.

Informal consideration has been given to the expansion of the trust activity even further, particularly in relation to the need for a new primary school.