TRANSFORMING A SCHOOL INNOVATION v RISK TAKING

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TRANSFORMING A SCHOOLINNOVATION v RISK TAKING

• NAAOSEN
• ACHIEVING QUALITY, HAVING IMPACT
• Duncan Harper

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WHO DO I ASSOCIATE WITH?

• ? ? ?
• ? Brightest in the room
• people on the way up, v. ambitious but not
  necessarily very bright!
• ? highly creative but your career is in a mess!
• ? obsessed by sex drink!

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HISTORY

• 1994-2003
• EBD SPECIAL
• SCHOOL
• 40 PUPILS
• ALL PUPILS WITH
• STATEMENTS
• 16 STAFF
• 2000 Good Ofsted
• 2001 LEA - ASD

• 2003-2007
• SCHOOL SERVICE FOR
• SEBD PUPILS
• SCHOOL PRU 120 CYP
• OUTREACH SERVICE
• TO 72 PRIMARY
• SCHOOLS 12
• SECONDARY SCHOOLS
• 65 STAFF
• 2006 Outstanding Ofsted

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HEADS HAVE TO BE EFFECTIVE LEADERS!

• Give ONE SENTENCE to sum up what Effective
  Leadership in Schools today is
• IDEAS
• Passion, professionalism, manager etc. BUT.
• Think more about what YOU think the
• impact of Leadership should be.
• 5 MINUTES

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LEADERSHIPThe secret of running a team is to
keep the six people who hate your guts from the
seven who arent yet sure! Mike
Brierley. OBE

• Leadership is largely about building an
• environment in which people can flourish.
• Penny Hughes first CEO Coca Cola UK
• Leadership is not just about going out on a
  limb people
• must be willing to go with you. Doing everything
  by rules is
• not the way to run a business. If someone has a
  good idea, let them get on with it if it works
  they tell us about it. If it doesnt they stop
  doing it. That means we have loads of minds
  working on ideas. Theres too much emphasis
• on not making mistakes.
• John Timpson

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VISION MISSION

• WHAT WOULD YOUR VISION FOR SPECIAL SCHOOLS BE IN
  THE CURRENT CLIMATE.
• THINK..
• WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SPECIAL SCHOOLS?
• COULD THEY WORK DIFFERENTLY?
• COULD THEY BE MORE SUPPORTIVE? IF SO HOW?
• 5 MINUTES

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WHERE DID WE START?

• VISION
• To be the most effective
• proactive service for
• pupils with social,
• emotional behavioural
• difficulties
• If you have a dream people will
• do almost anything put up with
• anything!
• Humphrey Walters

• MISSION
• To provide the same
• standard of care
• education for all our
• pupils as we would
• wish for our own
• children

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8 STEPS WE TOOK

• Created a Vision provided a sense of direction
• 2. Established the Culture
• Established our beliefs
• 3. Lead by Example
• Always think What message am I giving staff?
• 4. Made staff feel Confident, Capable Strong

• 5. Thrive on Change
• Communicate Why we need to change
• Vision paint a picture of where we were are
  going
• 6. Everybody is a Learner
• Listen to staff engage in 360 degree feedback
• Think Progressively Push for Progress Believe
  in Progress

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8 STEPS WE TOOK contd..

• 7. Foster Teamwork
• 5 Strategies
• Always say WE
• Meet regularly with staff
• Build Trust
• Know what the challenges are
• Tell stories of collaboration

• Handle Adversity
• HOW?
• Control the controllables
• Value Persistence the relentless pursuit of
  objectives
• Appointments crucial. Make all candidates do a 10
  minute presentation references/attendance/
  capability
• Keep everyone goal orientated

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The MAIN Decision we made

• OUR SCHOOL WAS A BUSINESS
• CYP FIRST PARENTS SECOND EVERYBODY ELSE FORM A
  QUEUE!
• IOD
• Tea or Coffee
• Rings Call Back
• Customer Service

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PRINCIPLES OF PROVIDING A PROACTIVE EFFECTIVE
SERVICE

• So we set up a school
• service based on a business
• model
• SLA
• Basic membership cost
• Reduced costs for pupil placements
• Reduced costs for training meetings
• April 2006 to March 2007 we re-cycled more than
  42,000 back into primary schools to support the
  pupils.Evaluated annually

• If you have to pay for a
• service it has 2 main
• benefits
• Those buying the service expect a high standard
• YOU have to provide a high level service YOU
  are more accountable

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SCHOOLS LOCAL AUTHORITIES

• DO SCHOOLS LOCAL AUTHORITIES WORK EFFECTIVELY
  TOGETHER?
• IN WHICH WAYS ? EXAMPLES

• WHAT WOULD A TRUE PARTNESHIP LOOK LIKE?
• WHO SHOULD LEAD ON THIS? SCHOOLS OR LAs?

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PARTNERSHIP WITH LEWISHAM

• Work in partnership with
• Admissions
• Exclusions
• Share data outcomes to target resources where
  the priority is
• Child centred approach
• Solution based model

• Work in partnership with
• Inclusion Officer
• Multi agency meetings in schools
• Set targets for schools family
• Engage outside support
• Review every 6 weeks

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SUPPORT
3. Referred to our Outreach Teacher Who works
with student

• Model

2. School engages Strategies support
1. Student exhibits Challenging behaviour
4. Students behaviour improves
school Monitors progress
BUT
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SUPPORT..
3. Meeting of Head Inclusion Officer Head of
NW Student Parent/ carer Outside agencies TARGETS
SET
2. NO SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT

• If no progress

1. Outreach teacher works With student staff
4. Progress reviewed every 2-6 weeks
5. IF STILL NO PROGRESSAGREE WITH PARENTS MOVE
TO NEW WOODLANDS
7. RETURNS TO MAINSTREAM SCHOOL
6. STUDENT COMPLETES 6 WEEK COURSE
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TAKING A GAMBLE!

• Admissions broke the law!
• Result opened up flexibility
• Able to do preventative intervention work
• More of a positive focus on pupil

• After Outstanding Ofsted DfES held it up as a
  Beacon of Best Practice.. SO..
• After 3 years
• Applied to DfES Innovations Unit to admit CYP
  without statements

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OUTWARD BOUND AFTERNOONS

• Minimum 1 day per
• Week
• Rock Climbing
• Orienteering
• Canoeing
• Sailing
• Considering PADI

• AFTERNOONS -
• ACTIVITY BASED
• ARTS
• CRAFTS
• COOKING
• MENTORING
• SPORT

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CURRICULUM PUPIL VOICE

• Based it on RSA
• Opening Minds
• Competencies for
• Learning
• Citizenship
• Relating to People
• Managing Situations
• Managing Information
• Similar to Halifaxs main
• predicators of
• Competency!

• Mornings Literacy
• Numeracy
• Rest of Curriculum topic
• Based
• New beginnings
• Keeping safe
• My future
• Responsibilities Rights
• Delivered through creative expression

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TRAINING..

• Aim
• to impact positively on the culture ethos of
  the schools by supporting staff to understand WHY
  children and young people behave as they do

• Provide training for
• Teachers
• Support staff
• Management teams
• Governors
• LA officers
• Parents

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MAIN BENEFITS FOR LEWISHAMS PUPILS

• Every pupils gets support at the prevention stage
• Pupils can be admitted to New Woodlands for a
  given period of time for assessment
• Parents are supported
• Schools are supported
• Flexibility of provision
• Pupils are more easily integrated without a
  permanent exclusion label

• The pupil is central to every decision not the
  school
• High proportion of pupils re-integrate
• OFSTED HMI judged the school to be Outstanding
  said with regard to the Outreach it was the best
  Outreach Service she had seen.

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EXCLUSION INCLUSION

• PRIMARY
• PERMANENT EXCLUSION
• 2001-2002 13
• 2002-2003 8
• 2003-2004 3
• 2004-2005 1
• 2005-2006 1
• 2006-2007 0
• SEC 05-06 prevented 13
• 06-07 prevented 23

• PRIMARY
• INCLUSION
• 2001-2002 3
• 2002-2003 8
• 2003-2004 14
• 2004-2005 18
• 2005-2006 31
• 2006-2007 48

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REALITY the nuts bolts that work for us!

• Parental support How
• Children Learn
• paramount
• Our school is a business pupils parents are
  the customers!
• CCTV!
• Communication with home letters, phone,
  certificates, open door, coffee mornings, circle
  time etc.

• Win parental support
• Challenge support
• Be open tell them as it is.
• Electronics
• Fund uniform
• Home visits crucial to families in crisis
• School productions
• Ask them their opinion

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STAFF

• STAFF
• 50/50 Male female
• High ethnic mix
• Benenden Health Care
• Subsidised Gym membership
• Quality Courses
• All teachers provided with laptops

• Employ staff who can engage students not too
  precious!
• Induct vital
• Termly booklet
• Staff Handbook
• Monitor attendance
• Support those who try
• Challenge those who dont try

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CORE BELIEF

• WHAT WOULD YOUR CORE BELIEF BE IF YOU WERE A
  HEAD?
• short paragraph 5 minutes

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New Woodlands CORE BELIEF

• In anything we do for the pupils we must be
  thoroughly prepared, totally committed hugely
  enthusiastic because we never want to think
  afterwards What a wasted opportunity.
• We are the last opportunity so we have to be
  the best. Our desire to get better, our ability
  to try new things learn from our errors, our
  blatant refusal to stand still our commitment
  to make it happen is at the heart of everything
  we do.

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We MUST Teach Our Kids to Cope with Failure!

• The greatest glory in living lies not in ever
  falling, but in rising every time we fall.
• Nelson Mandella
• The beautiful thing about learning is that no
  one can take it away from you.
• B.B. King