3Es Coalition: how system leadership has improved attainment

How system leadership in the 3Es coalition in Surrey and the Midlands has improved attainment.

Summary

The 3Es coalition comprises six secondary schools in Surrey and the Midlands that have a record of successful regeneration. This case study looks at collaborative leadership within and across member schools.

Key outcomes

3Es schools have implemented radical innovations in curriculum and school organisation, and have significantly raised standards.
Previously failing or underachieving schools report a 20-30 per cent improvement in student attainment during the time they have been involved in the coalition.
Based on this case study, leaders of partnerships and coalitions could usefully consider the following questions:
- What is the right level at which to engage schools in a network? Is it headteachers? Senior leadership teams? Middle leaders? Or does your network need to reach even further into a school to be effective and sustainable?
- What resources are required to balance maintenance work (such as ensuring the network is faithful to its principles and that partner schools are satisfied with the coalition) and development work (such as looking for new ideas and new membership)?
- The 3Es coalition decided that recruiting additional schools could bring them the diversity and scale they needed to secure the future and meet their goals. How else might you extend a network?
- What insurance should networks have against the loss of a single charismatic leader?

Background

3Es is a coalition of six secondary schools in the Midlands and Surrey, created to address long-term underachievement. Its private sector partner is Faber Maunsell, an international building consultancy. 3Es schools have a history of successful regeneration and improved attainment.

The schools in the coalition are: Baxter College for Business and Enterprise, Kidderminster; Fallbrook School, Addlestone; Kings International College, Camberley; Kings College for the Arts and Technology, Guildford; The City Technology College in Kingshurst, Birmingham; Woking High School.

Challenges and issues

Coalition leadership not distributed

Few members of staff other than headteachers and senior leaders are involved in the coalition outside their own school environment. Although streamlined and efficient, this leaves the coalition vulnerable when senior staff move on.

Similarly, the 3Es coalition depends on its founder leader for much of its energy and momentum and there is no succession plan as yet.

Radical ideas now mainstream

When the coalition started out, its approach to school improvement was innovative and radical. Many of the practices that form the 3Es ethos are now mainstream. Member headteachers feel they have reached the limit of what can be achieved within the existing legislative and accountability frameworks.

Networks more efficient than adverts

For a time, the coalition focused on regeneration by planning to diversify and expand its membership. An advertisement in the Times Educational Supplement resulted in a few enquiries, but no additional schools.

In contrast, existing member schools mostly came to the coalition through informal contacts and networks in which the chief executive was active and influential.

The 3Es approach

Organisation and structure

3Es is an informally federated coalition. There are discrete leadership teams and governing bodies in each of the six schools but some governors are shared by more than one school.

Most collaboration takes place between the headteachers, who meet regularly, although senior leadership teams are also increasingly active. A chief executive, Valerie Bragg, provides the impetus for internal leadership of the coalition and brokers contact with the wider education community on its behalf.

Strategies for change

3Es schools have a culture of risk taking and innovation. In their ‘can do’ culture, leaders and staff are ready to challenge school rituals for the benefit of students’ learning. Change is transformational rather than incremental.

Distributed leadership

Leadership structures within schools are flattened hierarchies that promote talent. Leadership within and between schools is based on collaboration not competition.

Joint projects and skills across schools

Schools work together on initiatives such as the Aspiring Leader Development Programme.’ An annual conference and similar events enable shared professional development.

Skills are shared freely between schools. There is a programme of visits, and schools exchange staff to develop particular expertise. Subject leaders may lead a subject across two schools and there are joint appointments, such as for ICT across the curriculum.

Next steps

Plan and manage growth carefully to safeguard the 3Es ethos but revitalise the coalition with fresh purpose, innovative models and new ideas.