Teach Secondary Issue 14.8

could we do in another three? The job is as motivating now as it’s ever been. The location of the school is quite unusual in that we’re situated right beside a major film and TV studio. MasterChef is filmed just along the cobbled street outside. At the start of this academic year, there was a film being shot just around the corner fromwhere we are. There’s an extra layer of leadership and community relations that’s needed here – we’re part of a complex ecosystemmade up of ourselves and other users, in what’s a very special area. Disciplined decision-making The school where I was a deputy head underwent a similar transformation journey – having gone from being a fairly average comprehensive to being ranked among the top 10 schools in the country for progress – so I already had a fairly clear idea as to what the stages of school transformation should look like. What was transpiring at the school when I arrived clearly couldn’t continue. It wasn’t serving the students, who were feeling unsafe due to inadequate behaviour and safeguarding policies, nor the staff, many of whomwere having to work twice as hard as their professional peers but achieving less than a tenth of the impact. An early move was to try and bring people together, draw a line under how things had been, and resolve to move forward. When taking on a school that’s in special measures, everything needs to change immediately – though we needed to be disciplined when deciding on the order of those changes, We were fortunate, however, in being able to call on a real depth of experience from within the Harris Federation; for those first 18 months, it was very much a real team effort. Amajor priority in the first termwas to get the school back to being safe and legal, and address a long list of compliance issues around safeguarding. We had to improve our site security, review our protocols and processes around keeping children safe, and review our processes for reporting and following up on concerns. I was able to work alongside an executive principal with considerable experience of Ofsted inspections, who was prepared to sit alongside me and work through all of the things that needed doing. It was that, along with other instances of support from the Federation and external providers that helped us to resolve those problems quickly, and get on to a more stable footing. There were some other ‘quick fixes’ we were able perform, but many of the students in that first year were pretty browbeaten. They knew they didn’t go to a good school, and I was conscious that the change process shouldn’t make them feel as though they’d done something wrong. Ultimately, students respond to their immediate environment and the people around them. My job was to try and perform the most extensive work during that first year and boost overall morale within the school. I stressed to the students that they were worthy of going to a fantastic school, had the potential to help create one and that making this fantastic school a reality would be a team effort. Over a series of assemblies I talked about the need for us to share a common mission, ethos, set of values and vision, and how that vision was for all of our students to go on and become leaders in whatever they choose to do. We wanted a powerful and uplifting vision with social mobility at its heart, affirming that such things weren’t just possible, but likely and probable if we successfully work together. Positive recognition In September of the second year, all students received a brand new uniform – that was a real ‘ You are part of something new and special ’ moment. It was important that older cohorts, who had attended the school both before and after the changes, were able to tell Ofsted and others the story of what they went through in Y7 to Y9 – not having teachers for different subjects, being set CHARACTER EDUCATION “At the end of each term, students take two days off timetable during which we’ll organise trips, in-school guest speakers and other activities. If, say, students haven’t chosen any creative subjects for their GCSE options, our Character Education Days can show them how there’s still value in those skills. Making sure that every child can get at least some access to a huge range of different activities and opportunities can cause some students to suddenly realise how much they might like a field of study they’ve never sampled before. It’s a way of giving our students a real breadth of skills, keeping their horizons open and helping them envisage more creative possibilities for their future careers.” – Isobel Harvey, head of art and character education C L A S S R O OM L I F E 23 teachwire.net/secondary