Case study
Key theme: collaborative leadership 
Renewed focus on collaborative leadership revitalises cluster co-ordinator’s role
Thanet’s Quartet in the Community - Margate Extended Schools Partnership cluster revisits its understanding of collaborative leadership in practice to support and enhance its extended services provision.
Summary
<p>Involvement in the National College&#8217;s Promoting Collaboration project prompted the four schools in the Thanet cluster to revisit and re-evaluate their understanding of collaborative leadership and to alter some of their processes and practices. The schools sought to more effectively support &#160;both their extended services work and their very able cluster co-ordinator.</p>
Key learning/outcomes
<p>A highly effective co-ordinator makes for successful extended services provision. She:</p>
<ul><li>has extensive knowledge of the community and is highly visible</li>
<li>enjoys high levels of trust from both headteachers in the cluster and the community</li>
<li>has a clear job description that scaffolds her work</li>
<li>takes full responsibility for the management of the programme of extended school activities</li>
<li>liaises with partner organisations on behalf of the quartet</li></ul>
<p>The cluster co-ordinator reduces headteachers&#8217; workloads as they are able to place trust in the work she does. However, collaborative leadership goes deeper than sitting with one person; wider responsibility can be encouraged through:</p>
<ul><li>support and continuing professional development (CPD) for the co-ordinator</li>
<li>stakeholder forums giving voice to parents, pupils, governors and the community</li></ul>
<p>Relationships are key and regular attention to people and processes is critical.</p>
Background
<p>Quartet in the Community - Margate Extended Schools Partnership, a cluster of four schools in Thanet, Kent, came into the National College&#8217;s Promoting Collaboration project as an established cluster set up through a local authority-sponsored pilot project in 2004. The quartet is based in an urban setting that has high levels of deprivation and serves a defined geographical area.</p>
<p>The four schools employ a part-time cluster co-ordinator, based in the secondary school and funded by the local authority. The co-ordinator is highly effective, well grounded in the community and much respected and trusted by both the schools and the community. As a result, the cluster&#8217;s sense of collaborative leadership had come to reside almost entirely with the co-ordinator as the headteachers had delegated much of the running and responsibility for extended services provision to her.</p>
<p>In Thanet, the collaborative leadership structure involves a steering group, originally representing four schools, but now representing eight schools, as well as forums that have been set up to ensure stakeholder voices are heard. The cluster co-ordinator reports to the steering group on progress. She is employed by the secondary school, funded by the local authority and line managed jointly by the school and local authority. </p>
Key challenges and issues
<ul><li>Isolation of the cluster co-ordinator: linked to the limited evidence of collaborative leadership between the schools; initially, three of &#160;the four headteachers were new to the schools.</li>
<li>The need to develop strategies to enable the voices of pupils, parents, governors and the community to be heard: steering group met twice yearly but dealt mainly with formalities such as reporting and presentation of the actions plan.</li>
<li>The need to develop an evaluation strategy.</li>
<li>The doubling of the cluster to eight schools during the life of the project.</li></ul>
Solution or approach
<ul><li>A review and action planning day was held in February 2009, facilitated by the project consultant.
<ul><li>Relationships within the quartet have been revitalised.</li>
<li>Support and CPD for the cluster co-ordinator are now established.</li>
<li>Regular meetings between the co-ordinator and the family liaison officers, for each of the schools, now take place.</li></ul></li>
<li>A structure has been set up to give quartet stakeholders a voice. The quartet co-ordinator consults with stakeholders. Stakeholders are:
<ul><li>school councils - in conjunction with school staff</li>
<li>parent councils/groups - in conjunction with family liaison officer</li>
<li>board of governors - with a dedicated governor for extended services</li>
<li>quartet network group - with staff members from schools and centres, as well as key external partners</li></ul></li>
<li>The quartet is also represented on the Thanet Partnership Council, a district-wide forum for young people, and the Thanet Parents Forum, a district-wide forum for parents and carers.</li>
<li>The cluster co-ordinator has, as a result of working with the project consultant, devised an evaluation strategy. She has visited each school to share this with the headteachers prior to taking it to the steering group.</li>
<li>All eight schools (including a special school and children&#8217;s centre) attended the review and action planning day in February and are becoming fully engaged in the work of the cluster.
<ul><li>All eight schools are now represented on the steering group.</li>
<li>Auditing of provision has enabled a clearer view across the cluster of the need to inform planning.</li></ul></li></ul>
Next steps
<ul><li>regular review of new processes </li>
<li>induction of the new extended school co-ordinators</li>
<li>implementation of new action plan</li></ul>
Further information
<p>For further information contact Nicola Wood, Senior Extended School Co-ordinator: 01843 221877 or 07845 979024; <a href="mailto:nicola@hartsdown.kent.sch.uk" title="nicola@hartsdown.kent.sch.uk">nicola@hartsdown.kent.sch.uk</a>.</p>
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