Bellfield Marsh School: the role of school business manager in a complex special school

Summary

Bellfield Marsh School and Cotton Nursery School share a headteacher. Bellfield was one of the first schools to have a school business manager in its senior management team and the role allows the head to focus on teaching and learning.

Background

Bellfield Marsh School has 65 pupils aged 2 to 19 with severe and profound learning difficulties. Some pupils also have autistic spectrum disorders or behavioural difficulties. The school occupies two sites because it is co-located with its mainstream primary and secondary partners in order to offer pupils integrated provision.

The headteacher of Bellfield Marsh School is also head of Cotton Nursery School, a mainstream school that developed from an integrated nursery class at Bellfield Marsh. Day to day, the schools function as one but there are separate governing bodies and budgets.

Key challenges and issues

Some governors and staff perceive a problem with inviting a non-education specialist onto the senior management team.
The cost of training in school business management would be a problem if schools had to fund it themselves.

Solution or approach

Senior management team

The senior management team works across both schools and comprises the headteacher, two assistant heads, the school business manager (SBM) and three teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) roles. One assistant head is full-time in one school, the other works part-time in both. A finance officer also works across both schools.

The curriculum at Bellfield Marsh covers an age range from 2 to 19 and the school occupies two sites. It therefore looked early on at broadening the leadership structure from the usual head and deputy arrangement in order to provide more capacity.

Role of the school business manager

The role of SBM began of necessity in the late 1990s when Bellfield Marsh was in special measures and undergoing major changes. It evolved from that of senior administrator and was brought onto the senior management team at a strategic level to give the head more leadership capacity. Initially, the SBM took responsibility for finance, premises, and health and safety.

That role has now expanded to include personnel and education business co-ordinator, and staff approach the SBM on all non-curriculum matters.

“If you want to be in the business of educating children, that’s where your focus should be, on teaching and learning … you have to have the right people in post doing the right jobs.” (Headteacher)

SBM training and development

The finance officer has been working towards the Certificate of School Business Management (CSBM), mentored by the SBM.

The opportunity for senior administrative staff to progress to major roles, backed by appropriate qualifications, has a knock-on effect on the developing roles of more junior staff.

Every Child Matters

Because Bellfield Marsh provides only for pupils with special educational needs, the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda was a high priority before the national focus on it. The school tried unsuccessfully to plan under the five ECM strands and decided instead to retain its own approach.

Close integration with the mainstream partner schools also allows for flexibility in supporting pupils’ individual learning needs.

“We feel, as a school, that ECM is something we’ve always done … because of our children and their needs, every child is an individual here.” (Senior leader)’

Transition between phases

Because Bellfield Marsh caters for pupils right through from 2 to 19, it is able to support their transition from one phase of education to the next.

Towards the end of the year, pupils throughout the school go to their new classes with their new teachers once a week. The first six weeks of the new academic year are then spent getting to know the class and assessing what they remember from the previous year.

Multi-agency working

A range of therapists and outside agencies comes into school, covering physical difficulties, autism, mental health, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy. The school employs a private music therapist and a clinical nurse specialist is also based there. The school works with children’s services for social and health care as well as with other voluntary and charitable organisations.

Daily communication from outside agencies is directly with class teachers, devising and maintaining programmes of intervention. At a management level, the headteacher is responsible for deciding what services are needed and how they should be organised, and she and the finance officer liaise with the service providers.