Federation – It’s School not Star Wars
Executive Head Teacher Michael Rolls of the new Our School Federation
e’re getting used to buzz words in education, but the term federation is one that seems to be sticking. It describes a joining together of schools, sharing skills, staff and costs, and according to Michael Rolls, federation is a way to keep schools at the heart of our village communities. Michael is the Executive Head Teacher of the Our
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School Federation – a triangular partnership between Stoke Fleming, Blackawton and East Allington Primary Schools. Formerly the head teacher at Stoke Fleming, a post he held for 10 years, he has had to learn to step back from the “shop floor” and take an overview of running school affairs, allowing others to flourish as the day-to-day leaders of the three schools. It’s a very new way of working, but so far it seems to be doing just that. “We started in September 2010, and
it’s going well,” Michael said. “Our main motivator in becoming a federation was seeing what was coming anyway – what was on the horizon both from the national picture and the local authority. The local authority is shrinking; we predicted that and it is happening. We wanted to create something for ourselves on our terms, before we were forced.”
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‘Our School’ Federation
‘Diversity, Community, Aspiration’
streamlines all of these processes.” The idea is to give more time for teachers to teach and children to learn, to stop the schools becoming bogged down with bureaucracy. A business manager across the federation keeps the mounds of paperwork at bay, and Michael has a strategic leadership role, working through the heads of teaching and learning in each of the three schools.
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All the primary schools in the area were involved in talks about becoming a federation, but it was Stoke Fleming, Blackawton and East Allington who were ready first and decided to take the plunge.
Michael said: “As the head teacher of a 200 place
By sharing work between schools we could make the running of the schools simpler and better.
At his side for these early days in the life of the federation has been Dave Strudwick, formerly the head teacher of Blackawton Primary School and Michael’s co- executive for the first months, in a part time capacity. Now Dave is moving on and from Easter, Michael will be at the controls.
“I have been so grateful to have Dave alongside and it has been great to have his support from the start, because this is a challenge. But this continuity of leadership is one of the benefits of the federation.”
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primary, I was all too aware of how new responsibilities were constantly piling on to head teachers. The health and safety list, for example, was getting longer and longer and more and more things were bypassing the local authority, coming straight to schools and increasing the workload. “It became obvious that there had to be a better way of working. By sharing work between schools we could make the running of the schools simpler and better. “It means we don’t have to repeat things endlessly. For example, special needs support. You would usually have one person per school trying to stay across this, often the head teacher. Now in the federation one person can take the strategic lead on this to support parents and children. It
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Dashing between the schools seems hectic, but as much as possible Michael tries to spend whole days in each place. He said: “It is very different from being the head teacher of one school, mainly because as a head you need to build strong relationships with your children, parents, teachers and staff. In this job there is not the time for those depths of relationship and I have had to learn to leave that to the heads of teaching and learning. “But I am a teacher and I want to stay connected with people – that’s always been my approach, so I still go into the classrooms. It’s important to get the feel of all three schools. I’m seeing lots of good practice across all three schools, lots of things we can share.” Each village is hugely supportive of its school and desperate to keep it at the heart of community life. Parents have backed the federation as a way of ensuring that happens. After early concerns and the realisation that change was coming anyway, they’ve embraced these home grown plans and are talking about ways they can work together. Many had been worried that the characters of the schools would be altered, but Michael said that was never the plan. “We have three very different schools, two in the
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