Country Federation: the benefits of federation for two small, rural primary schools

This case study looks at the Country Federation, which comprises two very small, rural primary schools. Federation has brought economies of scale, flexibility in staffing and curriculum issues, and improved opportunities for staff and pupils.

Key learning and outcomes

Federation has enabled the financial flexibility to allocate capital funding where this might not have been possible for the individual schools. There are also significant benefits from flexibility in staffing.
The two schools routinely benefit from sharing resources, such as wraparound childcare, joint after school and holiday clubs, family learning sessions, trips and other curriculum events, and a part-time home/school liaison officer.
Although parents in both schools are positive about the increased links between the two schools, they tend not to come together as a parent group.

Background

Middleton C of E Primary School and Beswick and Watton C of E Primary School are small, voluntary controlled rural primaries with around 70 and 40 pupils respectively. Middleton serves a relatively disadvantaged area while Beswick and Watton’s community, about five miles away, is more affluent.

The schools formed a hard federation in 2007 after a two-year collaboration as a soft federation. They have a single governing body and share a headteacher. Self-evaluation and improvement planning take place for the federation as a whole, but the schools receive individual school budgets, have separate Ofsted inspections and report on performance individually. They are also members of a wider network of six small primary schools that work as a soft federation.

Key challenges and issues

During the federation process, diocesan support was helpful because the diocese contains many small, rural schools and its officers have a good understanding of the leadership issues there. By contrast, the local authority’s expertise was variable and its employment policies were not sufficiently flexible to allow for federation.
Separate inspections for the two schools mean that the federation’s single governing body and leadership team experience considerable pressure. There are also discontinuities between the inspection process and the common development planning and evaluation processes that take place across the federation.

Solution or approach

Leadership arrangements

The federation’s senior management team (SMT) includes the headteacher, a teacher from each school and a school business manager (SBM). Leadership responsibilities are now pooled, and each of the teachers on the SMT co-ordinates teaching and learning across one of the Key Stages.

Role of the school business manager

The SBM’s salary was set within the scale for administrative officers, which does not reflect the demands of the role. However, the advert attracted high quality applicants, suggesting that admin officers saw it as an interesting opportunity to develop their careers.

The SBM is responsible for areas such as finance, premises, the Every Child Matters agenda, support staff, human resources, and health and safety. She has completed the Certificate of School Business Management (CSBM) and is progressing to the Diploma but has also now trained as an accountant.

Governance

By the time of federation, the two governing bodies had worked together sufficiently to know and trust one another and already felt an ‘overarching’ responsibility. The headteacher is keen not to run parallel systems unnecessarily, so self-evaluation and development planning are joint processes. Governors meet alternately at the two schools and also run termly joint workshops to monitor the progress of the federation.

The chairs of the previous governing bodies took on the roles of chair and vice-chair. Natural wastage meant that some governors were ready to step down and parent governor elections were due. Most of those elected had no experience of the schools working separately so were able to work collaboratively from the outset.

Leadership development

The federation has provided the teachers in the SMT with development opportunities that might not otherwise have been available. One teacher has been mentored by the headteacher and is embarking on the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH). Middle leaders have stepped into the shoes of more senior leaders who took on some of the responsibilities of the head.

Staffing arrangements

Staff are deployed where necessary in either school. For example, they have covered maternity leave in each other’s schools and job shared. This reduces the need to employ temporary staff and results in more continuity and consistency for pupils.

Some posts that involve only a few hours have been combined to create roles across the federation that are more attractive to potential applicants and give greater job satisfaction.

Professional development for staff

When the schools began to collaborate, there was a deliberate emphasis on team building and staff have been happy to work in each other’s schools, sharing practice and planning development across both schools.

Professional development is also supported by curriculum specialists (for example, in music, science, and art and design), brought in to work both with the children and with teaching staff. This has been made possible by pooling resources across the federation.

Next steps

The headteacher retires relatively soon and governors are beginning to make succession plans.
Governors are considering taking on a third school as part of the federation. An enlarged federation would bring further economies of scale. It would also allow the current head to be employed as a part-time consultant, working alongside an executive head to minimise disruption during a period of significant change.