What can local authorities do to support small rural primary schools? Historically this group of schools has relied a lot on council support. National government policy and unprecedented cuts have made it difficult for local authorities to maintain this support. The Government encourages all schools to become academies but small primary schools have been particularly reluctant to embrace academy status, and put themselves outside the local authorities family. So what is to be done? Increasingly forward thinking councils are attempting to resolve these dilemmas by encouraging and supporting partnership working across small schools.
One local authorities that has taken a particularly energetic approach to small school collaboration is Lincolnshire County Council. The county has almost 300 primary schools, and about a third of them have fewer than 100 pupils on roll. As in many other parts of England, there has been a serious headteacher recruitment crisis in the sector, and a concern about the relative underperformance of the small schools compared to other primary schools.
In 2012 the county council decided to make support for small schools a priority. With assistance from the local authorities school improvement partner, the education charity CfBT, small schools were invited to join new partnerships or to deepen existing partnerships. Although the scheme was voluntary, most schools chose to participate. There was no single blueprint for action. Some schools introduced relatively modest changes through joint teacher training and improvement planning. Others agreed to ‘share’ specialist staff, such as business managers. Others went much further and have formally federated a group of schools into a single entity, with a single governing body and an executive headteacher.
The results have been dramatic. Headteachers and governing bodies are positive. For the new cadre of executive headteachers there is now a possibility of professional advancement for ambitious school leaders without abandoning the small school sector. Test results and Ofsted grades have both improved. 65 small schools in Lincolnshire have had an Ofsted inspection since the introduction of the new partnership arrangements. Compared to previous inspections, the percentage considered good or outstanding by the inspectors has risen from just 40% to nearly 70%. Patricia Bradwell, executive councillor for children’s services in Lincolnshire, has no doubt that these improvements are a consequence of the new partnership arrangements.
So what should local authorities do to encourage effective partnership working among small schools?
The starting point has to be for local authorities to communicate effectively and consistently the purpose of partnership working to headteachers, governors and parents. They need to spell out and provide examples of the educational, economic and leadership benefits. In Lincolnshire, and other pioneering local authorities, it is clear that it can be counter-productive to insist on one particular form of partnership model. So setting out a menu of options is helpful and can enable schools to feel a greater sense of ownership of the decisions they are taking.
Local authorities can, of course, use their influence with governors at any time to explain how executive headship works and to encourage them to consider it as an option. Councils can be more assertive still when schools are failing according to Ofsted or schools are struggling to recruit a new headteacher. Every primary school headship vacancy is an opportunity to encourage executive headship, reinforce the development of local clusters and provide a more sustainable model for recruiting and retaining high quality school leaders.
A report on the Lincolnshire experience is available on the CfBT website. In an accompanying report there is a survey of the way other shire counties are attempting to meet the same challenge. The lesson from Lincolnshire and elsewhere is that partnership can make small village schools both viable and more effective. In these difficult times, it is good to have some grounds for optimism both about an important group of schools and the potential enabling role of the local authorities.
Tony McAleavy is the research and development director of CfBT Education Trust.
