Collaboration across cluster schools

Information about the school

Shirenewton Primary School is in the village of Shirenewton, four miles outside the border town of Chepstow in Monmouthshire.  It has 200 pupils aged from 4 to 11, in seven single-age classes.

The three-year average for pupils eligible for free school meals is about 1%, which is well below the national average of 18%.  Around 15% of pupils are identified as having additional needs, which is lower than the national average of 21%.  No pupils speak Welsh at home.  A very few pupils speak English as an additional language.

The headteacher became the Executive Headteacher of Shirenewton Primary School and two other Chepstow schools for a three-year period in 2015.  Since September 2018, the executive head became cluster co-ordinator for the Chepstow cluster of schools and returned to Shirenewton to share the headship with the Associate Headteacher.  The governing body appointed a permanent co-headteacher to share the headship of the school in 2017. 

The school was a pioneer school for expressive arts and now continues as a professional learning school in the EAS consortium.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The three schools within the Chepstow Primary Alliance worked closely together to create sustainable and effective distributive leadership in each school.  Leadership at all levels was supported through bespoke training, coaching and mentoring sessions.  Leaders engaged in joint monitoring across the three schools, with staff visiting each other’s schools and classrooms to share planning and practice.

The three schools share resources, such as setting up a shared library provision and joint training and more lately the use of cluster IT resources.  The executive headship came to a natural end as sustained leadership was established across the schools.  This led to sharing the learning from the alliance with the cluster of feeder schools and refocusing the work of the cluster by building on the experience of the alliance.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The appointment of the cluster co-ordinator was key to drive cluster collaboration.  This meant appointing a leader dedicated to making sure that the plan was delivered effectively within timescales and ensuring positive outcomes.  

The role of the cluster co-ordinator is to:

• drive the agreed cluster plan with its focus on teaching and learning, leadership, wellbeing, professional development, transition and moderation
• co-ordinate and manage the cluster peer reviews and collate a self-evaluation and action plan for each review to feed into the cluster plan
• attend regular meetings with a group of steering governors, with representation from each governing body, providing a report against the plan and responding to challenge in respect of the cluster working
• attend cluster headteacher steering meetings to report on the progress of the plan and amend the plan as agreed
• hold a yearly cluster staff training day allowing all staff to contribute to the cluster plan and its priorities

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

Appointment of the cluster co-ordinator

The school believes that “The existence of a dedicated role with ring-fenced time has had a real impact on our ability to work with pace as well as intention.   For example, the feedback from the peer reviews has spread into actions more quickly than may usually be the case.   We are able to implement cross-cluster strategies more effectively and with greater focus.   In terms of working as a cluster, the role of someone to drive the work of the plan has meant that we have been able to implement strategic priorities, such as middle leader training, much more rapidly.   The work of the co-ordinator has complemented the role of the chair very well and has added capacity to our group.  The cluster co-ordinator has added capacity in supporting improvement when needed and has expedited the actions discussed in the cluster head meetings, for example in ensuring greater consistency in practice around Year 6 and Year 9 moderation, and ensuring that the cluster looked after children (LAC) assistant was deployed effectively in each school, maximising outcomes for the targeted pupils especially around transition.  Steering governors representing every Chepstow governing body have a clear understanding of the role of the cluster co-ordinator and are able to inform their own governing bodies and hold the cluster co-ordinator to account for the progress of the plan”.

Cluster peer reviews

Initially the reviews were carried out by headteachers looking at strengths and areas for development of the schools and reflecting on the schools’ own self-evaluation.  This allowed headteachers to share their strengths and seek support for any areas for development.  It also strengthened the relationship between the cluster headteachers and the drive towards greater meaningful collaboration.  This soon developed into senior leaders leading reviews with middle leaders.  Recent reviews have included those for developing pupils’ skills in literacy, mathematics and science, and for the development of procedures to strengthen transition, additional learning needs and inclusion.  The impact of these reviews is:

• effective professional development and sharing of practice across the cluster
• evidence base evaluations that lead to priorities for the cluster action plan

Middle Leadership Development

A series of interactive workshops, led by the cluster co-ordinator, guide and support leadership development.  This training explores the role of middle leaders and supports their ability to create honest self-evaluations and smart development plans based on triangulated evidence from scrutiny.  Most primary, and a minority of secondary, middle leaders have completed the cluster middle leader training.  The sessions successfully upskilled middle leaders while providing opportunities to learn from each other.  Taking part in cross cluster scrutiny has allowed the leaders to share practice and identify whole cluster or individual school priorities.

Across Cluster AOLE groups

All primary staff across the cluster and a named middle leader from the secondary school are linked to an area of learning and experience (AOLE) group.  They meet four times a year, each led by a professional learning lead.  They share practice and innovations towards the new AOLEs.  These groups have developed strong relationships between staff across the cluster, leading to a useful network of professionals.  Each AOLE group presented to the cluster the work they had carried out towards embedding the four purposes and sharing pedagogy and practice as well as sharing their priorities for the coming year.  As a result of this network, the school has undertaken several successful cross cluster projects such as global learning, art and a more able and talented pupil expressive arts project.

Learning Progress From Year 6 into Year 7.

The Year 6 books became the starting point for learners in Year 7 with staff able to reflect on coverage, presentation and literacy and numeracy skills.  At the end of the first half term the cluster co-ordinator carried out joint book scrutinies and shared feedback to Year 6 and 7 staff.  The monitoring and professional conversations have had a positive impact on standards in English and mathematics, and the development of literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum in Year 7.  This has been further strengthened by the AOLE links and the peer reviews that have fed in priorities and collaborative working.  For example, the literacy review led to agreement to use ‘sticky’ notes for pupils to ‘frame a question’ to their teachers about something specific in their writing.  This is followed by teachers giving pupils feedback in relation to the question. 

Joint Business Manager

As part of their cluster plan, a business manager based in the secondary school works across the primary schools for a day a week.  As part of a training day, all administrative staff met to set up regular cluster administration sessions to share practice, and learn and innovate together.  The cluster administration team have a strong network where they share practice and seek value for money.  The schools have made some financial savings through collaborative work and renewing contracts and seeking alternative suppliers.

Wellbeing

The cluster co-ordinator is the cluster professional learning lead and wellbeing lead.  This has increased capacity across the cluster.  The co-ordinator works closely with the schools, disseminating national and regional information as well as ensuring that all cluster schools have the same quality training, such as in adverse childhood experiences and other topics.

How have you shared your good practice?

• The school has presented their peer review practice at various consortium events and schools from across the consortium.  The cluster co-ordinator shared the cluster review practice with the EAS region steering group when developing their peer review system.
• The cluster co-ordinator has delivered the cluster middle leader training across the consortium.
• The Chepstow cluster case study was shared across the EAS through their newsletter.

The cluster co-ordinator has shared the pupil peer observations across the consortium and contributed to consortium materials for school improvement and self-evaluation.