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Global academy: combining business and education expertise

Case study

Summary

This academy aims to bring together best practice from business and education to improve performance.  Encouraging cultural changes are evident in the community with the hope that results will follow.

Key learning/outcomes

• The overriding feature of this account is the role and importance of high quality leadership from both business and education; to date the strongest elements from both have been successfully integrated.
• The sponsor is highly committed and takes a keen interest in the organisational and management issues. However the education issues are left to the experts.
• The sponsor acts as a mentor to the chief executive and empowers the leadership team to implement change and raise educational standards.
• The business education partnership has sharpened the accountability process, providing all staff with clear indications of their performance and the organisation's expectations.
• The financial input from the sponsor is viewed as the “tip of the iceberg”. The expertise, time and support for project planning, financial management and delivering change have been invaluable.
• As yet there is little indication to suggest that the academy has begun to raise attainment but there are encouraging signs of cultural change demonstrated by a very positive student satisfaction survey, a Healthy Schools Award and a reduction in youth crime in the local area.

Background

Global Academy is a newly designed ‘state of the art’ 11-19 academy which opened in September 2006. In keeping with the background of the sponsor, the academy has a business and enterprise specialism and it places a strong emphasis on information and communications technology across the curriculum. Situated on the edge of a major conurbation it serves a community of higher than average socio-economic disadvantage.

Since the academy opened there have been changes to the organisational structure. The principal of this academy has been moved to chief executive and has been responsible for the development of a second academy in a neighbouring city.

Key challenges and issues

• There has been a history of low expectations and educational failure in the local community.
• The contextual value added (CVA) for Global Academy is 993.7 compared to the local authority average of 1001.6 and the percentage of children achieving five or more good GCSEs including English and maths is 19 per cent compared to a local authority figure of 53 per cent.
• In this short timescale it is difficult to assess the impact of the academy, beyond acknowledging the impressive buildings and innovative vision.
• High levels of commitment from all of those involved will need to be sustained in order to make this project a success and break a long-standing cycle of educational underachievement.

Solution or approach

• The sponsor has created a team, within their company, dedicated to supporting the vision and ethos of the academy.
• Innovative approaches include the move towards individualised learning pathways and the development of a thematic SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) curriculum based on skills and competences including communication, problem solving and enquiry.
• The senior team separates education functions from business activities. It is composed of the principal (responsible for education issues), a director of implementation, a director of business, community and ethos and a director of finance and operations.

Next steps

The continued smooth integration of business practices within an education context is paramount if this approach is to be sustainable.

In order to maintain and develop trusting relationships between the ‘education workforce’ and the sponsors it is likely that the leadership team will need to continue to focus on the social and emotional aspects of change in this complex and challenging venture.