Proactive approach to the identification and support for future school leaders, including sectors where recruitment is challenging
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Information about the local authority
The City and County of Swansea has a total population of around 250,000. The local authority maintains 77 primary schools, including 10 that provide Welsh-medium education. In addition, there are 14 secondary schools, two of which are Welsh-medium. There are two special schools and one pupil referral unit. The City and County of Swansea is one of three local authorities that formed a new partnership, ‘Partneriaeth’, replacing the ERW consortium which disbanded in 2021.
- Over a three-year average, 22% of pupils aged 5 to 15 are eligible for free school meals, higher than the Wales average of 20%
- 16% of pupils aged 5 or over are from ethnic minorities, higher than the Wales average of 12%
- 24% of pupils have special educational needs (SEN), above the Wales average of 20%
- 117 children per 10,000 were looked after by the local authority in 2021, being ranked 12th highest amongst the other local authorities.
The local authority’s education directorate is organised into three service areas – Education Planning and Resources, Achievement and Partnership, Vulnerable Learners. The authority’s vison for “an excellent education for all by working together” is a corporate aim making good use of all teams within the three service areas. The School Improvement Team combines school improvement advisors, performance specialists and team managers within the Achievement and Partnership Service. The school improvement team is led by an experienced head teacher and employs a range of local authority-employed officers and school-based commissioned practitioners. This provides a balance that enables a broad view of the current support requirements across all sectors.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
The development of future school leaders has been a focus of the school improvement team’s work for a sustained period. The local authority takes a strategic view regarding succession planning for school leaders and through analysis, identified a requirement to support schools in succession planning. This included the identification of specific shortfalls in some sectors, e.g. Roman Catholic. In partnership with schools, the School Improvement Team developed innovative plans to support collaboration, professional learning and recruitment.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
In collaboration with the Diocesan Director, the school improvement advisor (SIA) for Catholic primary schools identified that there was a recruitment deficiency in the Catholic sector leadership pool.
Using both the Diocesan Director’s knowledge and intelligence from the local authority’s support visits, effective practitioners were identified and targeted as future leaders. Specific professional learning programmes were devised. This ensured that those identified were able to demonstrate sustained effective practice. These practitioners are utilised effectively and contribute as models of best practice across the Diocese. As a result, a pan-Wales network supports the professional learning through the modelling of best practice.
Additionally, this leadership pool is utilised to support schools where leadership vacancies exist. Aspiring head teachers have been deployed to schools where the head teacher is absent. In the best examples, these individuals have successfully led schools through Estyn monitoring visits and local authority intervention/support programmes. In addition, leadership secondments are used cross-authorities. This enables leaders to share best practice.
The impact of leadership takes high priority for school improvement advisors and features prominently in the agreed agenda for school visits. As a result, the School Improvement Team are able to evaluate the leadership capacity for all schools. Each SIA contributes to a professional discussion which highlights, by exception, schools whose performance falls short of the local authority’s expectations.
The local authority is proactive in the identification of schools that may require additional support and uses an innovate system (School Profiler) to evaluate school performance with contributions from across the council’s services. Swift multi-stakeholder action is taken through a well-planned, democratic process with clear priorities for improvement, under agreed terms of reference. School governors lead these groups who feel empowered to make rapid improvements. This helps to ensure the local authority avoid formal processes for schools causing concern wherever possible.
The local authority commissions and supports additional work to develop aspiring, new and experienced leaders at all levels. For example, the authority has supported a project that enables aspiring deputy headteachers to swap schools for a year and gain valuable experience in a school in a notably different context. Peer mentoring and coaching strategies are used effectively with new and experienced senior leaders in schools.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
As a result, all the very few schools in Swansea that have caused concern in the last five years have made strong and rapid progress.
The performance of pupils at the end of key stage 4 between 2017 and 2019 were above or well above standards in similar schools.
Between 2017 and 2019, attendance in most Swansea secondary schools was above or well above national averages.
Various school networks provide a rich source of support for practitioners to enable them to share innovative and effective practice.
How have you shared your good practice?
Good practice is regularly shared via:
- the work of the School Improvement Team
- a weekly newsletter sent to all school staff
- a range of networks/working groups
- SharePoint sites and groups established in Hwb
- Headteacher conferences/meetings