Leadership library

• Leading schools
  • Leading change
    • Understanding your school context
      • Models of leadership

West Exmoor Federation: protecting the viability of rural primary schools

Summary

Forming the West Exmoor Federation has helped to secure the future viability of three rural primary schools with falling pupil numbers.

Key learning/outcomes

• An Ofsted survey in January 2009 highlighted the positive impact that the new model of leadership has had on areas including achievement and standards, teaching and learning, curriculum quality and inclusion.
• The schools are able to provide more extra-curricular and curriculum enrichment opportunities for pupils.
• Pupils have benefited from interaction with a wider group of peers.
• Transfer to secondary school has become a less daunting proposition for Year 6 pupils.
• The schools share resources including a special educational needs teacher and a minibus.
• Federation has secured the future of each individual school.

Background

West Exmoor Federation is a hard federation of three small primary schools located within nine miles of one another in rural north Devon. The schools are Lynton Church of England Primary, Parracombe Church of England Primary and Kentisbury Primary.

The federation has an executive headteacher and three heads of teaching and learning, one of whom is also the deputy headteacher of the federation.

Key challenges and issues

Falling pupil numbers

With falling numbers of pupil enrolments, all three schools were concerned about their future viability and being threatened with closure.

Succession planning

In light of forthcoming headteacher retirements, the schools wanted to develop their own leaders in order to address future succession planning issues.

Solution or approach

Distributed leadership

The federation follows a distributed model of leadership. The heads of teaching and learning take full responsibility for the day-to-day running of their base schools, while the executive headteacher focuses upon the strategic leadership of the federation.

Strengthening subject leadership

All subject leaders have specialist knowledge of their subject area. Subject leaders for core subjects work in pairs to further increase their capacity.

Monitoring and assessment

The schools have introduced rigorous processes for assessing pupils and tracking progress. They also monitor standards of teaching and learning to ensure that the needs of all pupils are being met.

Sharing pedagogy and resources

The three schools have developed a shared pedagogy and also share resources including a special educational needs teacher and a minibus.

Extended school activities

Economies of scale help the federation to develop and offer a wide range of extended school activities to pupils. Children from all three schools benefit from interaction with a wider group of peers.

Further information

For further information contact West Exmoor Federation.