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Carromere Community College: collaboration and accelerated learning

Carromere Community College's rising standards are attributed to collaboration with the 11 feeder primary schools, an accelerated programme for Key Stage 4 and effective support arrangements for pupils with behavioural issues

This case study covers the period up to July 2009.

Key learning and outcomes

  • Results are improving consistently. The percentage of five A*-C grades increased from 43 per cent in 1994 to 53 per cent in 2000 and 63 per cent in 2007.
  • Carromere’s student support unit, which deals with pupils on the verge of permanent exclusion, has a 99 per cent success rate in re-integrating pupils to mainstream education. There is a zero exclusion rate.
  • The accelerated learning programme for Key Stage 4 is proving highly successful, with 66 per cent of Year 10 pupils achieving A*-C in mathematics this year.
  • Carromere is currently oversubscribed.
  • The college invested in a ‘my voice’ survey, which revealed that 41 per cent of students felt bullying was still an issue whereas most staff thought systems were in place to deal with it. There is a need to guard against complacency once systems are established.

Background

Carromere Community College is an 11-18 comprehensive school with about 1,300 pupils. The college serves a large rural area of 300 square miles, drawing from 11 feeder primary schools and a further 15 schools beyond the regular catchment area. The intake is diverse, encompassing both rural deprivation and an increasingly affluent commuter population.

Carromere is in a soft federation with two other schools – Fletchley Primary School and Tessington Primary School. The idea of trust status was rejected because Carromere did not want its governing body to lose control. An earlier case study focused on Carromere’s streamlined leadership structure. This update looks at progress since the soft federation.

Key challenges and issues

  • Some of Carromere’s excellent provision is heavy on resource, such as the alternative school and the diverse GCSE curriculum. This may not be sustainable.
  • A constant turnover of headteachers in the 11 feeder primary schools means it is difficult to keep all the schools up to date with collaborative ventures and with the shared ethos developed through the Global Institute for Student Aspirations (GISA). Federation would make this task easier.

“The big hurdle is winning people’s hearts and minds.” (Senior leader)’

  • Carromere’s approach to Every Child Matters (ECM) is built on its work with GISA, which preceded ECM. Auditing success in line with Ofsted requirements is therefore difficult.

Solution or approach

Federation and collaboration

The original headteacher and chair of governors hoped Carromere would become a hard federation with all 11 feeder primary schools. In fact, just two have joined the soft federation but the college collaborates with all the schools to varying degrees, regardless of whether they joined the federation.

Collaboration has increased since the earlier case study. It includes sharing school meals provision, library services, sports resources and resources for music, modern languages and ICT. There is also a shared mission statement, based on the eight conditions for raising student aspirations as defined by GISA.

Leadership for the interim

A new headteacher takes over in January 2009 and an interim structure was needed to cover the transition period. The deputy headteacher is acting head and is supported by a senior deputy head and three acting deputy heads, originally assistant headteachers, who have all taken on additional responsibilities.

This top-heavy structure has cost implications but has had a very positive effect on the school. All the deputy heads have a reduced teaching commitment, which allows them more whole-school involvement and enables them to maintain a greater presence around the school. The deputies have also delegated some of their responsibilities, creating opportunity and empowerment elsewhere.

Administration and management

The college does not have a school business manager. There is a director of finance and a site manager. A director of school services is responsible for personnel and manages 24 admin staff and technicians. A director of post-16 is involved in bid writing. The director of finance and director of school services are both non-teaching roles and are part of the senior management team.

Accelerated Key Stage 4 provision

Year 10 pupils select two options from a choice of 20 subjects, such as history, geography, art and drama. They also take media studies, maths and double award science and sit these six GCSE subjects at the end of Year 10. English is not examined until Year 11 because of the maturity it requires.

Immediately after GCSE exams in June, Year 10 students start the Year 11 programme. They choose from a bigger range of courses, including more than 30 GCSEs and 12 AS levels, which means that their curriculum is very individual.

“We’ve just been blown away this year with how well it’s gone … one of the most startling things is how energised Year 11 are about their learning.” (Deputy headteacher

Learning support

The Learning Support Unit (LSU) is for students at a first stage of concern who are unable to access the curriculum. It deals with hundreds of pupils over the school year, some of whom pass in and out of the unit very quickly, while others have longer-term needs and are planned for strategically.

The ‘alternative school’

The Student Support Unit (SSU) caters for just 10 students who typically spend about 20 weeks in the unit. Pupils may be on the verge of exclusion or already be excluded elsewhere. The unit is housed in a small bungalow in the school grounds with its own kitchen and bathroom and its own classroom, computer and social areas.

Students experience considerable success because staff are allowed the time to assess their needs, bring in external agency support and work with the student to change their behaviour. Removing pupils with behavioural issues into the various support units also benefits teaching and learning in the mainstream classes.  

Tutor group arrangements

The tutoring system at Carromere ensures no child is overlooked. A tutor is assigned to 16 students in each year group and holds a weekly independent learning lesson (WILL) to assess their work and attend to their concerns. All members of staff, including admin and support staff, can be tutors.

In addition to the WILL, each pupil has a monthly independent student interview (ISI), lasting 15-20 minutes, where they are taken out of curriculum time to look at their academic progress and identify their next set of targets.

Health

Carromere has a self-referral health unit on site that is staffed by volunteer health professionals, including doctors, nurses and midwives. The centre is open all week and students are assured absolute confidentiality.

Transition from primary to secondary school

A member of staff was recently appointed to improve transition from the many primary feeder schools to Carromere. The transition process spans more than a year and begins with open evenings in July for Year 5 and 6 pupils and ends with a Year 7 residential activity in September.  

Carromere has a staggered start to the school year. Only Years 7, 11 and 12 come to school on the first day, which allows staff more time to settle in the Year 7 pupils.

Liaison between Key Stages 2 and 3

Staff from the federated primaries and from Carromere work together to develop curriculum material that links across Key Stages 2 and 3. The programmes of study are piloted before being offered to the other feeder schools.

Collaboration between primary schools

Fletchley and three other primary schools share resources and swimming provision and hold joint school performances. They are considering pooling their resources to fund a family support worker, a service that is difficult to access from the local authority.

ECM in primary

Fletchley Primary School has taken the programmes of study from the national curriculum and developed units of learning that correspond to each ECM strand. This allows flexibility in how the national curriculum is delivered. Every year the units are reviewed and modified to suit the particular cohort of children.

Linking ECM outcomes to the curriculum also means they can be monitored and evaluated. If academic progress dips, it is possible to check against the ECM outcomes and address any issues that have arisen.

Next steps

  • The GISA focus needs to be re-emphasised across the collaborative.
  • Once the new head is in place at Carromere, the collaboration will need to decide whether to try to include all the feeder primary schools in a more formal federation than at present.