Case Study
Key theme: collaborative leadership
Developing extended services teams
Extended services teams within schools reduce Middlesbrough headteachers’ workload and promote collaboration.
Summary
<p>At the start of the National College&#8217;s Promoting Collaboration project, headteachers in central Middlesbrough were leading extended service initiatives in their own individual schools. Now, they delegate to extended services teams and have developed more effective collaborative approaches to extended services work.</p>
Key learning/outcomes
Before
<ul><li>Schools primarily focused on their own children rather than locality wide. </li>
<li>Each school worked alone.</li>
<li>Headteachers led extended services work.</li>
<li>The nature of collaborative leadership was unexplored by the cluster.</li>
<li>Extended services activities were supplied on the basis of what individual schools felt they could offer.</li></ul>
After
<ul><li>Growing sense of locality wide responsibility emerging: collaborative visioning day planned.</li>
<li>Schools beginning to collaborate: extended services teams working together with/through the cluster co-ordinator.</li>
<li>Extended services teams leading the work, with headteachers keeping an overview.</li>
<li>Emerging understanding of collaborative leadership: headteachers seeing benefits of extended services teams leading the work.</li>
<li>Extended services activities broadening and extending and based increasingly on need/demand rather than supply.</li>
<li>Cluster co-ordinator gaining the trust of schools and headteachers.</li></ul>
Background
<p>Schools in Middlesbrough have historically worked in clusters, or groups of schools, which have not been natural geographic clusters. For example, two secondary schools sharing the same site have worked completely separately and have belonged to separate clusters. Secondary schools also have a different cluster arrangement to the primary schools. &#160;Many primary schools are undergoing reorganisation under the Primary Capital Strategy and some will be merging. This created some uncertainty in the town and made a culture of collaboration more challenging to establish.</p>
<p>The local authority was keen to be involved in the National College&#8217;s Promoting Collaboration project as a way of encouraging a genuine collaboration between schools within clusters. The first activity within the project was a briefing session for headteachers, which enabled them to explore their understanding of collaborative leadership and began to consider the project's enquiry questions. </p>
<p>This prompted them to look at the role of the cluster co-ordinator, the role&#8217;s relationship with the schools and the nature of the work being shouldered, in the main, by the headteachers. Slowly, a different way of working began to emerge.</p>
<p>In Middlesbrough, the collaborative leadership structure is still emerging but, led by the cluster co-ordinator, a team structure has now been set up in each school to manage the running of extended services provision. Representatives of these school-based teams have started to meet, together, with the cluster co-ordinator. Parent support advisers are also now involved in these teams. The cluster co-ordinator is employed by the local authority, which supports her well.</p>
Key challenges and issues
<p>A number of challenges remained once the decision to create extended services teams within each school had been taken:</p>
<ul><li>releasing extended services teams from each school to work together collaboratively</li>
<li>proactive headteachers keen to maintain a hands-on approach</li>
<li>lack of clearly established vision for the cluster</li>
<li>lack of governor involvement</li>
<li>communication between teams in the cluster</li>
<li>extended services offer based on what schools were able, individually, to supply</li></ul>
Solution or approach
<ul><li>Although headteachers initially encountered difficulties releasing teams for out-of-school meetings, due to workload and time constraints, the cluster co-ordinator met with each team individually and a joint meeting is now planned.</li>
<li>Lack of funding and certainty over posts has influenced heads&#8217; willingness to let go of the reins but a growing confidence in both the ability of the cluster co-ordinator and in the stability of her role (funded by the local authority) is beginning to reap rewards. For example, the cluster co-ordinator has held meetings with parents about extended services, which would otherwise have been led by the headteachers.</li>
<li>At the initial briefing, it had been hoped to do some &#8216;visioning&#8217; with the cluster but time constraints meant this was left out. Heads are now beginning to see that this would have been extremely useful and are planning a visioning day for the autumn term - when they will be reviewing the work of the cluster and planning for the coming year. &#160;</li>
<li>Small steps have been made to engage governors; for example, cluster-related issues are now regular features on the local authority governors&#8217; briefing agenda and training is being offered.</li>
<li>Relationships have been key to improving both ways of working and ways of communicating between clusters and with headteachers. The trust that has been built throughout the project between the cluster co-ordinator and headteachers and teams has been a critical element.</li>
<li>Both the local authority and cluster co-ordinator are now beginning to see that the range of extended services activities across the cluster has broadened considerably and is now closer to being demand led rather than supply led.</li></ul>
Next steps
<ul><li>Middlesbrough is now looking at this collaborative way of working with teams being rolled out to all school clusters.</li>
<li>Extended services visioning is being incorporated into the school improvement planning framework workshops being rolled out to all schools.</li>
<li>The schools in this project are now in a better position to take forward the extended schools disadvantage subsidy grant, working with a wider range of individuals/groups in providing extended services.</li>
<li>Stronger links are being made by the teams with the parent support advisers.</li>
<li>As the leadership of extended services is not dependent on just one role within the school (eg, headteacher) - and schools are using a team - the provision of extended services is in a stronger, more sustainable position, particularly as schools undergo reorganisation and staffing changes.</li></ul>
Further information
<p>For further information contact: </p>
<p>Julie McGee </p>
<p>01642 728362</p>
<p></p>