At the southern end of the Cowal Peninsula lies the village of Toward, with its primary school that last year had 21 pupils. Head north, pass through Dunoon and skirt alongside the Firth of Clyde, slingshot around Holy Loch, and - after a half-hour drive - you’ll come to Strone, another village with a primary school similar in size to Toward’s. In between, you pass close by another six schools including the area’s secondary, Dunoon Grammar.

Got a sketchy mental picture in your head? Right, how would you like to be headteacher of all eight of these schools - with a combined roll of 1,450 - at the same time?

That is exactly what was proposed in radical plans presented earlier this year by Argyll and Bute Council, in a move quite breathtaking in its - depending on your point of view - ambition or shortsightedness.

In short, the plan was for “executive headteachers”, who would oversee several schools at once. As we first reported in June, the council had proposed three “early adopter clusters”. As well as the Dunoon cluster, there would be two others, on the Kintyre peninsula (one secondary, six primaries - a combined roll of 885 pupils) and on the Isle of Bute (one secondary, two primaries - a combined roll of 649).

At the time, a petition against the plans appealed for the preservation of what it described as the “stability and security” for pupils of “the existing, proven model with a dedicated headteacher in the school and trusted, familiar teaching staff around them”.

In November, the EIS teaching union started its own petition against what it referred to as “cost-cutting” plans, saying that they would result in 84 headteacher posts being reduced to about 14. Other educators have told Tes Scotland that their concerns are about more than numbers, that they fear executive head posts would likely be filled by secondary heads - meaning a block on the career pathways of aspiring primary heads.

Scotland’s large swathes of land with tiny scatterings of population mean there are many small schools that are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of depopulation and staff recruitment. A pragmatic move has often been for a primary headteacher to work across two schools: in 2019, a Tes Scotland freedom-of-information enquiry found that the number of heads working across more than one school in Scotland had risen from 118 in 2010 to 194 in 2017. There are examples of heads responsible for several schools (see box, below), but these have been relatively rare. A paper on career pathways by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) found that, in 2019, schools with a headteacher who worked across more than one school accounted for 20 per cent of all primaries, 3 per cent of secondaries and 13 per cent of special schools.

The Argyll and Bute plans for executive headteachers, however, were only one part of wider proposed changes to school leadership in the authority. Now, a council video presentation that emerged last week (as did amendments to the initial council paper published in June) suggests the council has listened to concerns over some of the changes (see a new council website explaining the plans at EmpoweringOurEducators.co.uk).

One amendment, for example, has addressed fears over there being no single point of contact for each primary school. Aside from the plan for executive heads, it appeared initially that principal teachers or depute heads might be responsible for certain stages of schooling (perhaps divided into early years and P1, P2-4 and P5-7) across every school in a cluster. 

The new presentation, however, suggests there will be a “head of school” for each primary (except some of the smallest schools) with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the school. Nevertheless, the proposed new role of head of school will need to win approval from teaching unions, who may have hard questions to ask over job sizing for this new position.

There were also concerns about the idea of classroom staff being part of a cluster, moving around schools to provide cover as necessary. But the new presentation suggests teachers will continue to be employed in a single school, because “the continuity of … relationships is absolutely key”.

During last week’s presentation, Argyll and Bute Council heads of education Jennifer Crocket and Louise Connor explained that the plans were part of a commitment to keep all schools open despite recruitment difficulties. Since January 2018, the council pointed out, 15 per cent of advertised headteacher roles had failed to attract any suitable candidates.

The council also insisted that there were sound educational reasons for the changes. Heads in small primaries may be teaching for up to 70 per cent of their time, which is “not cost-effective and not a good use of their skills”. The plans aim to overcome “geographical barriers” so that there is “equity” in the school experience of all pupils. Each child would have “the same level of support and quality of learning and teaching” - a teacher who specialised in science, for example, would now be freed to work across several schools. The proposals will “help schools work better together” and ensure “no reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio, no reduction in pupil-teacher contact and no removal of unique school identities”.

The proposals will be reviewed in the spring of 2022 with a decision on whether or not to go ahead made later that year. If they do, the council envisages a “transition period” of five years or more.

One objector to the plans, a retired Argyll and Bute headteacher, told Tes Scotland that they still had serious concerns despite last week’s changes.

“The proposed executive head post isn’t a leadership post - it is a management post, a job divorced from the everyday reality of school life, seeing as the executive head could be responsible for schools which are several hours’ drive (and/or ferry rides) apart. Yes, we can communicate using technology, but a good head is a steady physical presence in a school, a human being who acknowledges, challenges, supports and celebrates.”

The same former head said there was “undoubted value in bringing schools’ staff together to share ideas, to moderate youngsters’ achievements, to plan learning resources, to learn together”, but there was “also great strength in close connection with their communities”. Schools’ autonomy to find their own ways to improve, meanwhile, could be undermined by “concentrating power in executive heads”.

Argyll and Bute has come up with a radical solution for longstanding problems faced by rural schools - but many questions have still to be answered satisfactorily. 

Henry Hepburn is Tes Scotland news editor. He tweets @Henry_Hepburn

This article originally appeared in the 10 December 2021 issue under the headline “One headteacher to rule them all”