William Barcroft School Vision March 2010

Introduction

William Barcroft School is now part of the Cleethorpes Federation of Primary Schools (CFPS).

 

Since 1996 primary school headteachers across Cleethorpes had met regularly to respond to local and national initiatives, to plan, to share ideas and to support each other. Until 2005 relationships across the schools were cordial but not deep. For example, there was no cluster development plan, no sharing of staff and little sharing of other resources. Each school procured its own goods and services. Competition around issues of admissions and attainment meant that some pupils with needs and problems were moved between schools. There was an unspoken culture of shifting rather than solving problems. 

 

2005 was a significant year. The LEA published its plan to remove surplus places in the primary sector. Initially the plans included closures, junior-infant mergers, and some amalgamations of schools. At a stroke, the cordiality of inter-school relationships was suspended, replaced by the drive to ensure individual institutional survival. The LEA modified its plans but what had been said in those desperate times had been said.

 

With the threat of school closures removed and mergers still for consideration, headteachers reflected on the position over the summer break. Individually they came to the same conclusion. What was really important was to build the best possible provision ACROSS THE CLUSTER.

 

The workforce remodelling agenda along with the extended schools agenda were seen as powerful tools to build a cluster-wide collaborative. The cluster heads agreed to an initial two-day workshop to engage in "futures thinking" and to recapture control over planning their own destiny.

 

Even now, in 2010, headteachers will tell you this was one of the most significant events in their career. It set the scene for one of the most radical transformations of primary school provision in the Country, and was subsequently reported in a number of educational journals. During 2007 it was the subject of one regional, two national and one international conferences.

You will have read the detail - countless times! But here are the key outcomes of that initial two-day event 
1.  They agreed to collaborate and co-operate. 
 2. They agreed a broad vision (the plot) of how schools might work in 2010 but left individual schools to write the detail (the script).
3.  They agreed to operate as a Federation that would:
a)  retain headteachers in each school but form a single executive board headed by a chief executive
b)  pool a proportion of budgets for the purpose of procuring goods and services 
c)  share staff with particular expertise
d)  co-ordinate the admission of 'hard to place pupils' including those excluded from schools within the cluster
e)  co-ordinate efforts on three major fronts of progress, namely 
 (i)  children learning
 (ii)  staff learning
 (iii)  family learning
The two-day workshop of headteachers was quickly followed by a full day conference with all governing bodies. Here the constitution of the Cleethorpes Federation was drafted and all governing bodies signed up to the Federation.
The Federation Board, with its Chief executive included the headteacher and chair of governors from each constituent school.

 

As a Federation the CFPS set its five-year strategy with the Children Act at its heart. Targets in each of the five outcome areas were set by the Federation with individual schools defining their own areas of distinctiveness.

 

What follows is a description of life in one of those schools in March 2010.

Sophie   Year 3 pupil who recently joined the school 
Barry  Year 6 pupil 
Dr Caley   Headteacher
The school council  
Mrs Devlin Deputy Headteacher and Staff Learning Co-ordinator (SLC) 
Mrs Charles  Family Learning Co-ordinator (FLC) 
Miss Abbott  Children's Learning (CLC) 
Mrs Barber  Additional Needs Co-ordinator (ANC) 
Mrs King   Supervisor 
Mrs Langley  HLTA 
Mrs Jones  Cook 
Mrs Smith  Sophie's foster mother 
Mrs Chowdry  Key Worker in Children & Family Support Unit 
   
Annex Early thoughts on job descriptions for the new key responsibility post-holders
 
Staff Learning Co-ordinator Family Learning Co-ordinator Children Learning Co-ordinator

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