Bellthorpe Federation: separating teaching and learning from administration

Summary

This case study looks at a hard federation of two rural primary schools, Belton Primary and West Park Primary, formed in 2006. The schools share a governing body, an executive headteacher and a school business manager. The federation is poised to expand.

Key learning and outcomes

Since federation, there has been a rapid improvement in all areas of one of the schools, which has gone from ‘requiring significant improvement’ to being a ‘good school with outstanding features’. Leadership and management obtained an ‘outstanding’ rating in the 2007 Ofsted inspection.
The role of headteacher is now a more attractive proposition. There were 17 applicants for one of the roles and all the candidates said they would not have applied if it had been a traditional headship.
The heads of teaching and learning in both schools feel supported in their roles.

“… having an SBM and an executive head makes me feel like I have a safety net underneath me and when you feel like you have a safety net you take more risks, and if you take more risks, the children benefit.”

The schools feel they overcomplicated the transformation to federation. They spent too much time in consultation with the diocese and local authority, and with parents and governors. These discussions detracted from the central question of whether the move to federation was the right thing for the children.
The wider educational, health care and social care community needs to become more familiar with the nuances of federation so that the children get the best possible service.

Background

The Bellthorpe Federation was formed in 2006 from two rural primary schools, Belton Primary School and West Park C of E Primary School. This hard federation shares a single governing body and an executive headteacher.

Belton is a larger than average voluntary controlled primary school of 317 pupils. West Park is a small voluntary controlled primary school of 74 pupils, identified by Ofsted in 2006 as needing “significant improvement in both the achievement of pupils and the long term stability of leadership and management in the school”. As a result, the two schools federated.

Approach

Senior leadership team

An executive headteacher works across both schools, supported by a school business manager (SBM) who deals with finance and budgets, premises, personnel and so on. A head of teaching and learning in each school focuses on the main aspects of the job, such as dealing with children and parents, and raising standards of teaching and learning.

Having four leaders working alongside each other has greatly improved the schools’ capacity to implement initiatives successfully. The variety of roles also brings fresh perspectives to discussions.

“I never wanted to be a head, the job scared me. I thought you’d have the small-scale stuff like sorting out roof tiles which have fallen off and also the large-scale stuff such as Ofsted inspections, social services and budgets and they would stop you from being a decent teacher and raising the standards of learning.” (Head of teaching and learning)

Shared vision

Senior leaders feel that a ‘shared vision’ is key to a successful federation. They each welcome the increased opportunity to contribute to strategy.

Governance

Since federation, the governing body is smaller and more strategic. Governors have reduced to an experimental group of six, which the heads of teaching and learning attend. There is also a larger group which meets without the teaching and learning heads.

Sharing good practice

Good ideas about systems or classroom practice are shared between the schools. For example, West Park Primary is currently experimenting with a new reading system which will soon also be in use at Belton.

“… schools don’t share anything with each other and that’s down to the funding … Whereas in a federation you’ve actually done away with that.” (Head of board of governors)

Next steps

Bellthorpe is involved in a six-week consultation with another two schools about joining the federation. One is 18 miles away and the other 35 miles. The federation anticipates improved funding and a broadening of horizons as benefits for pupils, and improved development and career opportunities for staff.
As the federation and learning community grows, it will develop more spending power and may look at buying in the services of an educational psychologist or speech and language therapist.
With further growth, it will become essential for the SBM’s role to be more strategic and to lead on business issues, including income generation. It may also be necessary to re-evaluate the premises aspect of the role because of the distances between schools.