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View from the classroom


View from the classroom I


n this month’s View from the classroom, we speak to Linda Davis, headteacher of Wistaston Academy, about how she has transformed her school which was once languishing in special measures.


Tell us a little bit about the school you took over


I arrived at a primary school that was deemed to be the eighth worst school in the country. We had a high number of looked-after pupils and 40 per cent received free school meals (FSM). As we are located in an area of social housing we had, and continue to have, a high turnover of children. Challenging behaviour was rife amongst a small group of children.


So you arrived with a few challenges to tackle?


Oh yes – just a few. I arrived in April 2008 and tried in vain to turn the school around, but just three months later, we were placed in special measures. It was devastating, but I simply had not had enough time to introduce all the changes needed before the inspection.


Where did you begin?


I needed to surround myself with people who shared my vision, so I recruited a teacher that I had previously worked with as my deputy head. I also brought in someone to handle all the school’s administration.


I like to work in a paper-free environment and so in addition, I brought someone into the school to scan everything and link the information to each individual child’s file. We could then store everything on our SIMS management information system (MIS). Every teacher was handed a new computer so they could enter and retrieve information on attendance and marks awarded to individual pupils too.


And how about the structure of the school. Did you do anything radical?


When I arrived, the infant and junior schools had been amalgamated. This caused a few problems – not least that there were multiple entrances for parents and so, no one place for meeting and greeting them.


I wanted to find a way of allowing everyone to get to know each other. So at the start of the


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new academic year, I decided to quite literally, mix up all the classes.


I introduced a number of other changes too. When I first arrived, there was no subject leadership at all. I recruited one member of staff, then another until they became fully integrated within the culture of the school. Now, when an Ofsted inspector arrives, every subject leader is desperate to tell them about their individual successes.


I also introduced more practical changes such as daily briefings. For five to ten minutes at the start of each day, everyone gathers together. It’s an opportunity to raise an important issue that all members of staff need to be aware of. Conversely, we can remind teachers to update our MIS by uploading photographs of children in their particular class to the science section of our MIS, for example.


You mentioned bad behaviour. How did you address the issue?


We had 11 pupils who were exhibiting extremely challenging behaviour. They were regularly throwing chairs across the classroom, throwing


March 2015


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