Sharing a building builds a sense of cross-phase community

Case study

Saltburn Primary School and Huntcliff Secondary School are exploring the advantages of sharing a single, new purpose-built school.

Key learning

Pupils in both schools access a wider range of learning opportunities, for example older students use their media and technical expertise to support performances by primary pupils. Both age groups benefit from cross-school mentoring arrangements and cross-phase activity such as the music group.
While much of the schools’ activity is not particularly innovative, co-location makes it easier to organise and allows chance ideas and suggestions to bear fruit.
It’s important to retain something of the status children attach to moving up to secondary school. While pupils like the familiarity of the site, they may object to staying in the same school as younger siblings and primary teachers.

Background

In order to save Saltburn’s small secondary school from closure, local education leaders have used the opportunity of building funds to create an innovative new school building that houses Saltburn Primary School and Huntcliff Secondary School.

Saltburn is a small town of approximately 6,000 inhabitants on the north-east coast. It is one of the most deprived 10 per cent of wards in England in terms of health and employment. Saltburn Primary School provides about half of the intake for Huntcliff Secondary School. The two schools are now rehoused in an innovative new building and enjoy the benefits of cross phase partnership.

Key challenges

Pressure of time

The new arrangements had to be put in place in a very tight timescale and both heads were keen to retain flexibility while avoiding entanglements in consultations and debates about structures.

Safeguarding

Preserving two schools for different age ranges in a single building has safeguarding implications, particularly for younger children.

Inclusivity for all

Because half of Huntcliff’s intake comes from other feeder schools it’s important to ensure that the Saltburn community doesn’t leave them feeling excluded.

Solutions

Designing for safety and community

The new building was designed to offer discreet spaces to each school but with a central area containing a communal staff room, dining hall, drama and music rooms and an IT suite. The two headteachers occupy adjacent offices.

Flexible leadership and governance

The two headteachers agreed that a soft federation, supported by a collaborative committee with a membership and delegated powers drawn from the schools’ governing bodies, offered the most efficient means of making rapid progress while retaining independence and avoiding territorial clashes. The collaborative committee makes decisions about shared staffing appointments, building maintenance and much more.

Creating a single community

The two heads have carefully fostered ideas of continuity and community through joint staff training. Targeted questions about the teaching and learning potential of cross-phase sharing are a standard part of staff recruitment interviews.

Next steps

The Saltburn experiment is still very new. The schools plan to track attainment through Year 7 and onwards, looking for impact, including differential outcomes among children from different feeder primaries. Exploration of how transition affects children within Saltburn may also have wider implications for those from outside and for other secondary schools. Headteachers and governors are beginning to consider what might be the most appropriate indicators by which to gauge their success.

Further information

For further information contact Huntcliff Secondary School by email at slc@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk.