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schools in focus CASE STUDY
New beginnings
Drapers’ Academy is a £24m new-build academy in the heart of Essex, which opened to replace a struggling local authority school. CArriE SErviCE meets principal MAtthEw SlAtEr to find out how he became involved in the project and how the school has transformed
D
rapers’ Academy in harold hill, near romford, Essex, opened in 2010 on the site of what was once Kings, wood School. Approached as part of the labour academy scheme, Kings, wood was a struggling school in need of help, as principal Matthew Slater explains: “Kings, wood had
always struggled – struggled in terms of funding, struggled in terms of pupil numbers and struggled in terms of reputation. the school was operating really well within its given circumstances, but because it was always undersubscribed, it was a place for excluded children to go to in the area.” this pupil demographic caused problems with the school’s performance – and in turn its reputation. “there were many children coming in who weren’t ready to learn, who didn’t want to fit in with the expectations and so the school was always fighting to establish a good reputation,” adds Slater. Because of this negative image, many of the local children would choose to go elsewhere. in 2012, it was transformed into a £24m state-of-the-art academy, named Drapers after the Drapers’ Company, one of its co-sponsors with Queen Mary, University of london. “they had identified that they wanted to open an academy together and they found the school in havering that seemed ready for academy transfer. i was then brought in and started working almost a year before we took over the running of the school. i was part time initially and then went full time before we opened,” recalls Slater. he had been head-hunted for the role because of his previous experience of setting up brand new academies – the sponsors were keen to get someone on board who had seen a large-scale building project through from start to finish. “in my last job before here, i was the first deputy of Yavneh College, which is a Jewish secondary school in Borehamwood. i went there before the school had even opened – a new school in a £90m new-build – and i had the responsibility for the building,” explains Slater. “i’d been there for three-and-a-half years and i was then approached about coming to look at an academy. the recruiters brought me to a school called Kings, wood…and the next thing i knew i was being interviewed and offered the job as principal.”
A FRESH START
Slater was keen to shake off the stigma attached to Kings, wood and start afresh. But that didn’t mean ousting all of the current staff, as he didn’t believe that they were the problem. “Obviously for the staff who were working at Kings, wood it was a time of great uncertainty,” he reflects. “we went through the tUPE process, but we made a commitment for no redundancies – because the way we saw it was that everybody who was already working here were part of our core staff. we valued what they’d done and we didn’t want to lose that expertise and that knowledge. we were able to then add more staff as the school expanded and developed, but we made a genuine commitment to
september 2013 \
www.edexec.co.uk
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