CONSULTATIONS It’s not all hot air


Schools often need to carry out extensive consultations with their local community. Headteacher James Haseldine had to do just that when a new building project was agreed. He offers his advice


like to give to its community. at Stretford High School ingreater Manchester we


wanted to be different. When we started exploring the possibility of new sports facilities for the school, our consultation went far beyond a box-ticking exercise – it was a process that genuinely involved the community, staff, parents, and the students.


c The background


Stretford High is a multicultural, ethnically diverse community serving Stretford and Trafford in greater


onSuLTaTion iS a vital part of the process of change in education, but too often a glossy brochure supported by an ill-attended meeting with stakeholders can dilute a consultation’s power and damage the overall message a school would


less than other proposals and provided sensible and practical advice and relied on engagement rather than gloss.


Give the people who would benefit a voice


We quickly realised that the most passionate advocates for the new facilities were the students themselves; it was crucial that they had a voice. Student ambassadors visited local primary schools


to talk to parents, produced video diaries to show the issues with the current sports facilities, and ran workshops with community groups.


Give those opposed an opportunity to be heard


it is important to be genuine. a consultation is not about imposing your plans on the community; it is an opportunity to hear their thoughts and make appropriate changes based on their feedback. We identified those opposed to the plans and invited


them to formal roundtable discussions. These were genuine platforms for us to address the issues that members of our community quite rightly wanted to raise. The effect was twofold; it gave us a holistic view of


the issues that we needed to address and gave attendees a big picture view of the issues the school and the community were facing.


Don’t forget the basics


While innovation is key, it should not replace good old- fashioned legwork; some stakeholders preferred more traditional methods of communication. Parents of next year’s new students were addressed


Site visit: Stretford High headteacher James Haseldine on-site as his school’s new sports facilities take shape


Moral support: Teacher Support Network Why do teachers need a charity?


Sadly, there is still a real need for a charity to protect


teachers’ wellbeing, says Julian Stanley


Looking back over my past columns for SecEd, there seems to be a theme: awareness days and months. World Mental Health awareness Day, World Teachers’ Day andnational Stressawareness Day have all featured and i could have written about even more: black History Month, breast cancerawareness Month,national Volunteer Week, Holocaust Memorial Day, international Women’s Day – the list goes on. i write about these days and months as they


provide a useful route into a theme that deserves highlighting. World Teachers’ Day, for example, allowed me to discuss the public’s perception of teachers and, more importantly, call for the teaching profession to be properly celebrated. Similarly, World Mental Health awareness Day led to a discussion on the disturbing rise in teacher suicide. i know that schools, in particular, are key targets


for this manner of raising awareness. There will have been and will continue to be


mailings, emails and advertisements to teachers and school leaders and you must decide what to ignore, commemorate or add to the curriculum, which in itself can be difficult. You will then also be deciding what appeals to donate to, fund-raise for or have the school “dress down” for. February is Lesbian, gay, bisexual, Transgender


History Month. There will, no doubt, be various events, publications, fundraisers and articles that celebrate LgbT communities. Teacher Support network, for instance, will be


running a series of articles from School’s out’s Sue Sanders and also Elly barnes (who is top of the Independent on Sunday’s “Pink List” of the most influential LgbT people) on incorporating LgbT into the classroom and saying “goodbye to the gay lesson”. Yet, awareness days and months as a linguistic


tool aside, why do we need them? For many charities and organisations, it is not really about the day, the week or the month at all, but an opportunity to focus people’s minds on a single objective. There is a school of thought, however, that


believes these kinds of days, weeks and months are not necessary and can even potentially harm the causes they aim to promote. These issues should not be thought about on


a day or a month once a year, but thought about or acted upon every day, every week or every month, particularly when it comes to issues around equality. Then there is the thought that, if, again in the


case of equality, all people are to be equal, then there is no need for a day, week or month to focus on a particular race, gender or sexuality. in fact, it could be argued that any efforts to raise awareness are divisive. in an ideal world, where a person’s sexuality


is not an issue or cause for discrimination, then there is no need for a special month, is there? Much the same has been said about Teacher Support network. Why do teachers need their own charity? Stress and poor wellbeing do not simply affect


teachers, but all professions – what makes teachers so different? Well, in an ideal world, there would be no need for Teacher Support network. Teachers would not need coaching, counselling, information or support to help them in their roles or to assist them in getting back into the classroom. but the world is far from ideal. in fact, today teachers face unprecedented


change, increased expectation and often, uncertainty about their future; this is why, 135 years since it came into existence, teachers still need their own charity. Likewise, sexuality can still be an issue.


Discrimination still exists. Teachers must still decide how or whether to come out to their colleagues and pupils, and homophobic language still runs rife in the playground. For all these reasons, LbgT History Month


remains of great importance; it helps raise awareness of the need for equality, understanding, and crucially, the need to accept difference and to celebrate it.


• Julian Stanley is chief executive of the Teacher Support Network. Visit www.teachersupport.info or call 08000 562 561 (England), 08000 855088 (Wales).


Manchester. it is a school that has had its fair share of challenges, emerging from “special measures” in 2005 and having its proposal to become a sponsored academy defeated. it is now an outstanding school, and was named the Specialist Schools and academies Trust’s most improved school in thenorth West – 2008 to 2010. Despite providing first class PE teaching and


creative uses of local facilities, sports facilities at the school are barely satisfactory. Stretford is a hotbed of sporting talent, but the state of sports facilities impair the experience of sport that young people are entitled to. The school currently uses pitches in a nearby


park, but these are barely fit-for-purpose. Dog fouling, poor maintenance and water-logging are major issues. on-site sports facilities are limited; students have to cross a busy road for their PE lessons in Stretford Leisure centre or travel to other venues. This is expensive and reduces the time available to do physical activity. as a result, we opened a consultation to explore the


possibility of creating a sports hall, including a gym and dance studio and two outdoor pitches, one grass, one artificial and floodlit. For this to happen, the school needed to build on one third of a community park. When the idea of the sports facility was first mooted,


we anticipated that there would be issues regarding our proposals. There was initial outcry, particularly as it affected land that was open to the public. This elicited a deeper challenge; it became clear that


we had to convince others that we were a community school. We set about explaining the need for the facilities and the long-term benefits to the community as a whole, to enable people to see past short-term inconveniences and have an opportunity to buy-in to the project. by adopting an innovative and engaging


consultation process, the outcome was overwhelmingly positive – 97 per cent of the 409 respondents agreed with the proposals and Trafford council received no formal objections and positive interest from local residents – a staggering result given the outcry over previous developments and consultations in the local area. We also developed some key partnerships and


relationships as a result that will help to further improve the school. below are some of our key learning points, which could apply to any school, college or academy.


Get the right support


We worked alongside a communications consultancy with wide-ranging experience in the area to establish how best to work with local people and get across our arguments about the need for new development. What became clear is that it is not just what you


say, but how you say it. We previously relied on glossy brochures; spending a fortune but getting very little by the way of responses. However, our consultancy presented us with a plan that cost about 60 per cent


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at a transition event and encouraged to respond to questionnaires. We distributed paper surveys and communicated details of online participation at student assemblies, sending them home with stamped addressed envelopes to encourage responses. Leaflets and questionnaires were also distributed to


the four key feeder primary schools in the area, and we displayed our plans and proposals in the local leisure centre and in the school for the fortnight following the leaflet drop. Members of the governing body and leadership team also visited local residents to speak directly about the project.


Use figureheads to support the campaign


building relationships with current and potential partners was another key to the success of the consultation. We met with organisations including the


Manchester united Foundation, Lancashire county cricket club, Sport England, Trafford college, Trafford Leisure Trust, Salford city Reds, north Trafford Sports Partnership, and Sport Trafford Football Development, as well as with Trafford council. building an influential body of support was


important not only when talking to planners, but also in showing local people that the weight of opinion was in favour of the proposals.


Innovation is key


Stretford and its surrounding areas have strong and well respected local newspapers. We kept journalists constantly updated with the progress of the consultations and the work we were doing. This included research by the students to promote Stretford’s sporting heritage, which culminated in the unveiling of blue plaques on the homes of two of the busby babes.


Understand your audience


appreciate it is not you versus the community and acknowledge that a consultation will never succeed with a one-size-fits-all approach. We communicated with different people in different


ways, whether through a doorstep visit, a paper survey, a link to our website, a personal phone call, or a chat with our students. crucially, we ensured every stakeholder was


updated with progress so that everyone had the same information at the same time. We also had to appreciate that members of the public may change their opinion throughout the process. clear lines of communication, consistency and a touch of resilience is also something to bear in mind.


Give it a finishing point


We gave the project a finishing point with which every stakeholder could identify. in our case, this involved bringing in representatives of Lancashire county cricket club and Manchester united Fc to cut the sods of turf on the playing fields following the positive planning application decision. Rounding off the consultation and making sure the community is aware of it brings the whole discussion to a satisfactory close.


SecEd


• James Haseldine is headteacher of Stretford High School in Trafford, Manchester.


SecEd • February 9 2012


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