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System leadership A helping hand Helen Hyde says Watford Grammar School for Girls is happy to support other local schools - even if the work is “unrecognised, unknown and uncelebrated” Watford Grammar School for Girls (WGGS), which I am privileged to lead, is an outstanding secondary converter academy that is not a teaching school. I have a very effective governing body and an outstanding senior leadership team. My site manager leads a skilled, vibrant, enthusiastic team. My finance and office administration teams are experienced and accomplished, and both deal confidently with change. I have had many years of Headship experience. I have energy, enthusiasm and, above all, the willingness and capacity to support others. My priority, and overriding duty, will always be to ensure the continued success of my own pupils and the continuing professional development of my staff. However, I do not see any conflict between maintaining this focus on standards at WGGS and supporting other schools, because working in support of colleagues in other schools provides opportunities for everyone involved to learn and grow. The benefits of such an arrangement are mutual. With this philosophy and with the agreement and support of my various school 22 | Summer 2014
System leadership management teams, we have begun formally to assist schools in our area. The major example of this was my appointment as Executive Headteacher, for the autumn term, of a neighbouring large secondary academy, with which we already had links. During a difficult interregnum before the newly appointed Head took over, complicated by the near simultaneous departure of the two Deputy Heads leaving the school’s leadership in crisis, a local plan was devised to help. As Executive Head, I worked closely with the acting Head, a co-opted Deputy Head from Watford Grammar School for Boys, for the term. The school is now running smoothly and an unsettled staff has been able to regain their focus on teaching and learning under the new Head. I found working with another governing body challenging and enlightening; my own beliefs and management were tried and tested. Watford Girls Grammar School has also been able to work collaboratively with five local primary schools by providing support and services ranging from site management, caretaking and finance. This has increased the capacity of the schools by sharing knowledge, experience and resource which would otherwise have been difficult to obtain. This collaboration has allowed services to be provided and delivered at lower cost and in parallel allowed the sharing of good practice, with a long term benefit to the schools involved. This outreach programme has allowed the participants to benefit from economies of scale and protect the volatility in budgets of the primary schools allowing for a more efficient allocation of resources internally. We have provided active assistance with academy conversion to a number of schools and developed a generic academy guidance document that through FASNA could be rolled out to other schools. We are in the early stages of analysing the results of our approach with a view to developing a more formal collaborative approach where WGGS takes a lead role in providing a range of back office and support services. We are in liaison with more local schools to procure services from us allowing for the achievement of greater buying power and economies of scale. The scale of the support and the associated risks will be carefully assessed before we move forward but there is the potential for greater savings for mutual benefit if sufficient synergies can be identified. Support for other schools of course includes work on teaching and learning, which is a rich source of professional development for both staffs. • The music department supports a secondary school with ITT and G& T work. • The geography department has provided CPD for other schools on the use of interactive OS. They also provide master classes for Year 6 pupils at primary schools. • The head of chemistry provided support to a local school, including teaching classes for them, when they had a staffing crisis. • The second in charge of my maths department spent one day a week working in the department of a local secondary school last year. • The Latin and classics department has arranged to support another secondary school with their trainee as the school does not have any specialists in those subjects. • Our professional mentor supports other mentors and the university teacher training programme. • We regularly take additional trainees when other schools have staffing problems. • We have supported a local school by taking their Teach First trainees for up to a week each at WGGS. • Several teachers have spent a day in other schools as a subject expert to audit GTP/SD trainees, in maths, Latin, psychology and history. Supporting schools in the local and direct way we do often remains unrecognised, unknown and uncelebrated. We support these schools because we care deeply about helping our colleagues. We want to help other schools raise standards and, by doing so, to provide opportunities for our own colleagues and students. We are perhaps fortunate to have the capacity to create and manage these partnerships, to the mutual advantage of both schools. But the extent of our involvement in other institutions is carefully monitored so that we ensure this activity never results in lowering the standards of our school. Summer 2014 | 23
Page 1 and 2: cademy Volume 3 Number 3 Summer 201
Page 3 and 4: contents Volume3 Number3 Summer 201
Page 5 and 6: From the editor From the editor I a
Page 7 and 8: From the editor Ofsted The recent P
Page 9 and 10: System leadership Unlocking achieve
Page 11 and 12: System leadership and unlock real p
Page 13 and 14: System leadership of their autonomy
Page 15 and 16: System leadership Department for Ed
Page 17 and 18: System leadership will carry our na
Page 19 and 20: System leadership are stronger” F
Page 21 and 22: System leadership Priority 1: Impro
Page 23: System leadership The true strength
Page 27 and 28: System leadership Being supported a
Page 29 and 30: System leadership e or different? -
Page 31 and 32: System leadership The Trust cut its
Page 33 and 34: Political matters On March 11th Sha
Page 35 and 36: Political matters own the walls. al
Page 37 and 38: Political matters to school collabo
Page 39 and 40: Political matters UTC facts and fig
Page 41 and 42: Conference Stellar names and lively
Page 43 and 44: Conference Tristram Hunt addresses
Page 45 and 46: News from Don’t miss out - Join F
Page 47 and 48: Accountability difference. It is re
Page 49 and 50: Accountability managing, indeed car
Page 51 and 52: Accountability Using the example of
Page 53 and 54: Accountability “Striking, intrigu
Page 55 and 56: NQTs The level and speed of support
Page 57 and 58: The extra dimension Two Minute Lead
Page 59 and 60: The extra dimension Cut bureaucracy
Page 61 and 62: The extra dimension The report note
Page 63 and 64: The extra dimension exciting the st
Page 65 and 66: The extra dimension As a consequenc
Page 67 and 68: The extra dimension Following the v
Page 69 and 70: The extra dimension the faculty tea
Page 71 and 72: The extra dimension It’s not abou
Page 73 and 74: Changing structures How will CECET
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Changing structures • CECET’s d
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Changing structures a curriculum th
Page 79 and 80:
Changing structures Martin’s Acad
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Changing structures The financial i
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Finance According to the Academies
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Finance Since the academies program
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Finance What does e-invoicing mean
Page 89 and 90:
Finance have more autonomy and with
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Aon Risk Solutions A tailored appro
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