The Headteachers and Governing bodies of our four schools are committed to forging a supportive and collaborative relationship that is mutually beneficial to all our school communities.
Our ambition is for our Federation to collaboratively achieve our shared values as trusted and open-minded partners in school improvement
Our values:
- An emphasis on continual growth and development - we are all learners; we are all leaders
- Mutual support and collaboration
- A culture of kindness and care
- Promoting well being
- Championing inclusion
Collaboration through a Federation enables each school to retain its autonomy and distinctive ethos whilst benefitting from sharing ideas and practice. We believe, as a group, we are getting the very best from partnership work without sacrificing the local accountability that is so important in community schools.
A Joint Committee of Headteachers and Chairs of Governors meet half termly to provide oversight of the work of the Federation including:
- Setting the Federation’s vision, ethos and strategic direction
- Reviewing the Federation Memorandum of Understanding, which currently runs until the end of the 27/28 academic year
- Monitoring the annual Federation Development Plan
- Overseeing the financial aspects of the Federation and making sure money is well spent.
Our current Federation Development Plan has five priorities that we have committed to over the course of the current Memorandum of Understanding:
1 - Prioritise the development of a full offer of collaborative opportunities for students.
2 - Build a comprehensive CPD offer that provides opportunity for governors and staff in all roles.
3 - Develop staffing and governance sustainability and capacity across all teams to ensure readiness for practical, legal and policy changes.
4 - Collaborate and develop our curriculum breadth to provide an inclusive offer to support and challenge all students.
5 - Build a full offer of shared school improvement support mechanisms.
In practice, the Headteachers of the four schools meet, at regular intervals, to oversee Federation improvement and development, with further Joint Committee meetings between the Headteachers and Chairs of Governors of each school to focus on strategic development.
This has resulted in:
- Student participation events in Dance, Public Speaking, Sports, Music and Science
- Shared participation in an annual inset day/training activities at the different schools
- Annual peer reviews of each other’s schools, focusing on each school’s development priorities
- Subject conferences that bring together specialists to compare and share ideas
- Collaborative networks for CPD, curriculum, inclusion, finance, subject specialism, and growing number of others
- Development stronger inclusive practices and alternative provisions
- Partnership and training work between the governing bodies, exploring common themes across the schools
- Shared leadership development and coaching opportunities
- Shared work around teacher training, recruitment, and retention