Like the current administration, I am agnostic about structures for school improvement and much more interested in implementation on the ground in localities and schools.
Of course, though, over the last 20 years, we have had a lot of focus on structures with the concerted drive to grow multi-academy trusts (MATs)
Some of these trusts are fantastic and doing innovative and exciting things. But - and we all know it - there are also many trusts that have not particularly added value to their communities, especially to those pupils with barriers such as special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) or poverty.
There is also a much smaller category who, if we are honest, have done a disservice to their communities, taking away far more than they have ever given. Again, this can be seen most starkly when looking at SEND and inclusion.
Working at the local level
As such, while the Department for Education’s new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) approach to school improvement has unsettled some in the sector, it seems too early to come to a firm view with much of the expected detail yet to have landed.
To my mind, though, fantastic trusts should have nothing to worry about. Real and enduring impact will always trump ideology. But those who have been operating in those greyer areas are right to feel a bit wobbly.
But regardless of how the sector is feeling, at the core of RISE appears to be a fundamental proposition that could be useful for school and system leaders to support effective implementation at a local level.
The notion that key stakeholders commission support from providers that best fit the needs of the locality or individual schools is especially compelling.
While school improvement appears much simpler when a struggling school joins a MAT, for those schools that have been stuck for a number of years, the challenges stretch out way beyond the school gates in a complicated nexus of interdependencies that needs a broader approach to unpick.
Reaching out
One of the challenges for the sector is that we all too often fall into the trap of “learned dependency”, tending to wait for the central government or expert groups to provide solutions.
At Turner Schools, we’ve tried to guard against this by kicking off a locality-based conversation in Dover, a town with a number of persistent and profound educational challenges.
This October we brought together a group of 34 primary, secondary, further education and local authority leaders to share an analysis of the outcomes at different ages and stages and across schools.
Fundamentally, children in Dover get a good start in key stage 1 but by KS4 and consequently in KS5, pupils perform well below the national average, at all ability levels, and significantly below for those pupils who are in receipt of free school meals.
As a cohort of local leaders, we have tentatively identified a number of priorities that we can collaborate on to improve the experience of pupils in the district. These include attendance, suspensions and reading.
However, this is only the starting point for this collaboration as we expect to work together through this year to establish a more concrete vision, a clear strategy and to begin to commission the right support for those schools and pupils that need intervention.
Furthermore, there is already more school-to-school support across phases from within this group that came together as a result of this developing network of leaders.
While not unique, with a host of local collaborations existing across the country, this locality-based work hopefully provides some food for thought for the DfE and RISE teams on commissioning school improvement at that local level where it can be most effective.
Leave the ego at the door
Of course, to do this effectively, leaders have to leave their egos at the door.
No one can be bigger than an initiative to improve outcomes for children - it has to be about recognising that if someone else is best placed to take something on, or do work that others would benefit from doing, too, that comes first.
Just as important is that leaders, or anyone delegated to represent an organisation involved, commit the time required to make it work - both in terms of attending any meeting but also following through on projects, plans or developing initiatives.
Overall the power of local edu-ecosystems genuinely working together - local authorities, maintained schools, academies, academy trusts, nurseries and further education providers - promises collective results that are greater than the sum of their parts.
It’s up to everyone to get involved and make it work.
Seamus Murphy is CEO of Turner Schools Academy Trust
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