Sandwell Academy: collaboration across two academies to improve outcomes for students

Sandwell Academy collaborates with Grantley Academy to improve outcomes for students through extended services and effective safeguarding. The collaboration is in its early stages and there are opportunities for significant joint ventures ahead.

Key learning and outcomes

It is important to hit deadlines during the change process, even if that means providing additional support to enable people to achieve.
The perception from many staff is that academy status improves results, nurtures staff and provides buildings that are better looked after. It therefore offers better career opportunities for middle leaders and staff to develop as leaders.

Background

Sandwell Academy opened in September 2007 and serves a social and economically disadvantaged community. It has around 1,300 students, of whom 76 per cent are from minority ethnic backgrounds and 58 per cent speak a home language other than English.

Sandwell works in collaboration with Grantley Academy under an executive principal and the Collegiate Academy Trust board, which is the ultimate decision-making body for both academies. Teaching staff work across both sites and post-16 students have lessons in both academies.

Key challenges and issues

It has been difficult for staff to accept that the academy is now a different legal entity and must think differently. The old school closed on 31 August and opened as an academy on 1 September. Because the buildings, staff and pupils were the same, it did not feel as if the school had changed significantly.
The leadership structure for the academy is fairly complex and inefficient. This slows the decision-making process compared with a conventional arrangement of headteacher and deputy head.
Academies in general are closely scrutinised and new systems and processes are monitored closely, which can deter leaders from proposing improvements.

Solution or approach

Academy leadership

Each academy has its own associate principal and community board, which includes parents and students. The academies share finance and human resources services.

Role of the finance officer

The appointment of a finance officer at Sandwell has been an important step. The academy is a charity as well as a limited company and the finance officer takes on these aspects of management. The academy is also heavily scrutinised in terms of audit and the finance officer removes a large administrative burden from leaders.

Developing future leaders

There are opportunities for staff to work across both academies in order to gain experience and for them to take up promotion across the academies. Sandwell itself has a future leaders programme for young staff which is in its first year. Staff work directly with the associate principal.

“We’ve taken some of our young staff and given them projects to do and they’re running with it and I’m watching them absolutely grow in confidence, in self-worth as they do it because I don’t have to work through a hierarchy of people to get to those young staff …” (Associate principal)

Extended schools programme

An extended schools programme has taken time to build but provides a mixture of opportunities, such as theatre trips and study support. The academy is open every Saturday and every holiday, which increases opportunities for performance and sport.

Sandwell has introduced academic coaching to selected students in small groups, in order to raise standards. The academy also provides financial support for coaching and other activities.

“Some of our children are dealing with horrendous issues both at home and on the streets.”

“If they are left unsupported to just try and get a maths GCSE it is not going to happen so we have all the other structures in place which is obviously extremely expensive.”

Safeguarding

The safeguarding team is led by the assistant principal and consists of three team members, an administrator and the school nurse. A counsellor is also available to pupils, though not officially part of the safeguarding team. At the outset, the team worked closely with the local authority’s specialists who advised on the best structures and procedures to put in place.

If teachers have concerns about particular children, they contact the safeguarding team, who contact social services if necessary and follow up any referrals they make. Members of the team attend multi-agency meetings for each safeguarded child and carry out joint visits to pupils’ homes with social workers. The team also works with the police service, which has an officer based on-site who is involved in intervention and reconciliation work.

“The community work that we do is really important because you can’t deal with children without a context and if we don’t understand the child’s context how do we know we’re doing the right thing, how do we know we’re actually helping.”

Next steps

The collaboration between Sandwell and Grantley academies is in the early stages and is expected to grow over the next two or three years, progressing to joint ventures and timetabling across the two academies.