Darlington Education Village (federation)

How the Darlington Education Village federation provides inclusive 2-19 education.

Summary

This case study looks at models of leadership and governance for the Darlington Education Village federation, offering 2-19 inclusive education on a single site led by an executive director.

Key outcomes

Students in Darlington Education Village are beginning to experience measurable improvements in teaching and learning, and in behaviour. There are higher expectations from staff and students, and there is extended learning beyond the school day.
Ofsted inspections of the special and primary schools in 2007 described the leadership and management of both as good, with outstanding vision.
Based on this case study, leaders of federations could usefully consider the following questions:
What support can be put in place for existing headteachers to help them engage positively with extended leadership arrangements that introduce an additional layer of accountability?
What leadership learning opportunities could a federation offer to help existing school leaders make the transition to federation leadership, particularly in relation to cross-phase working?
How and at what stages can parents be involved in developing a vision for their children’s education?
What is the role of the federation leadership in monitoring and holding to account the leadership of member schools? Who should take responsibility for remedial action if things go wrong?

Background

Darlington Education Village was the first fully federated and integrated education village. It serves 1,400 children and young people aged 2-19 in the north-east of England.

The village was formed from Springfield Primary School, Haughton Community School and Arts College, and Beaumont Hill School Technology College and Vocational College. It occupies a single private finance initiative (PFI) site, which encourages interaction between children of different ages, and between mainstream pupils and those with special educational needs.

Challenges and issues

Poor standards

One of the first major tasks for the village’s new senior leadership team (SLT) was to help the secondary part of the village improve standards quickly. This consumed much of the SLT’s energy and meant some loss of momentum for work to develop collaborative capacity and ownership across the whole village.

However, the collaborative practices have already had a positive effect on the capacity of the village to improve.

Unequal representation on SLT

Relocating the three schools on a single site prompted a new federation leadership structure beyond that of the individual schools. The executive director and local authority worked with the Hay Group to develop a rigorous and transparent selection process for the new leadership roles.

The outcome was that leaders from one school achieved greater representation on the new SLT than the other two. This initially created some tension, which the SLT has worked hard to overcome.

Cultural integration

Bringing three schools together in one community raises issues about integrating their cultures. The leadership team believes that a focus on the processes that support cultural integration would be helpful for the education system in general.

New leadership competencies

The village’s radical structure has required a revised community of leadership that needs to draw on new and specific competencies. There is potential for a field trial to track and stimulate these as they emerge.

Resistance from parents

The village has a radical vision for inclusion and some parents have found it difficult to support. A small number of parents whose children previously attended the primary school have expressed anxiety about their children interacting with secondary school students.

Village leadership has dealt sensitively with this issue. As children progress successfully through the village, and as the inclusion and community strategies take effect, it is expected that the anxiety will subside.

The Darlington Education Village approach

Establishing a leadership structure

Darlington Education Village is led by an executive director, Dame Dela Smith, who is also the statutory headteacher for the three schools. Six directors form the senior leadership team (SLT) with roles for inclusion, teaching and learning, project development, engagement and pupil wellbeing, business strategy and community.

Progress leaders across the three schools report to the directors who operate a distributed model of leadership. A single governing body has strategic responsibility and accountability for the federation, which includes a subcommittee for each of the SLT directorates.

Putting the child at the centre

The education village’s leadership and management arrangements are designed to put the child at the centre of provision. This has involved developing holistic approaches to multiservice delivery and to meeting the five Every Child Matters outcomes for children.

Personalised learning

The village enables personalised and extended opportunities for 14–19 education. This is achieved through a diverse and meaningful curriculum offer where pace and learning are matched to pupils’ readiness and abilities.

Sharing a clear vision

To establish the federation, the village has needed a clear and collective vision. Without it, forums are no more than talking shops. This has required a good understanding of the cultures of the partnership schools and the support of external facilitators.

Using technology as a bridge

The village has had a focus on supporting home-based learning and part-time schooling through a range of new technologies, particularly for the most vulnerable pupils. This work is taking place in partnership with the local authority in order to maximise impact.

Lack of engagement

The federation is working towards improving attendance, engagement from parents and attainment at all key stages. It also has a focus on reducing exclusions, staff wastage, and the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET).

Next steps

Gain a deeper understanding of governance issues to follow up the progress that the federation’s governing body has already encouraged.
Build stronger links with the community.
Aim for fuller integration of local authority provision into the village to enable greater effectiveness and efficiency and to stimulate a shared ability to bring Every Child Matters to life.