Once you get beyond colleagues asking you why on earth you are doing it, an Academy’s Principal Designate gets all sorts of advice. I look back and smile at the comment of one particular consultant who told me to ‘leave all that community stuff to the LEA’; my job was to achieve transformation and get ‘scores on the board’! Good advice if you are looking for a quick fix, but spectacularly naïve if you are looking for sustainable transformation for a community that has been denied opportunity over a long period of time. At the Marlowe Academy, we have begun to get the ‘scores on the board’; but we have also engaged with our community in a way that is not yet common across the Academy movement. It needs to be!
I’m writing this article on a Sunday morning in my meetings area at school. So much for the work/life balance I hear you cry! But I can focus here, I’m off to play golf in an hour or so, and I wanted to chat to our newly elected Parent Trustee about last week’s HMI monitoring visit. He’s linked to a local community church, right now currently winding up for its Sunday service in our theatre - a good chance to catch him away from the hurly burly of a normal working day.
The Thanet Community Church is just one of the groups making use of our facilities. During the past week we have welcomed Charlton Football Club working with local youngsters, Loop Dance, Margate Cricket Club, Christ Church Canterbury University’s performing arts students performing their end of year 1 assessment and over 800 Year 3-5 primary school children taking part in an ICT conference; oh, and we had eight or so Primary School Heads in for an LA organised INSET session as well. In their own way, each of these activities contributes to our crucial task of raising aspirations.
Partnership with other agencies also enriches our work. As co-sponsors of the Academy Kent County Council made provision for the local library and Adult Education to be based on site; they have also facilitated links with other services: we have our own Youth & Community Worker and Social Work Assistant. Through Kent Police we benefit from a Police Community Support Officer. Growing links with our health colleagues are providing nursing and other specialist input. Add to this the contribution made by various voluntary agencies, Connexions and Kent & Christ Church Universities, and our community benefits hugely from a wide range of resources deployed in a coordinated way at the Academy.
There’s an assumption that extending your school places additional demands on Head Teachers / Principals. It doesn’t have to be so. At The Marlowe Academy responsibility for extended activity runs through Leadership Team:
· Team Leader for Art/DT &Year 7: Oversees all links with Primary Schools. Works with other Team Leaders to get our students working on Primary School sites and to create opportunities for the younger students to access our facilities. Responsible for Transition.
· Team Leader for Business/ICT and Years 12-14: Leads on the vocational curriculum and links with Business / Industry. Links in with local colleges and universities to ensure progression routes and transition.
· Team Leader for Performing Arts: Responsible for developing links with local Arts groups; partly to enrich the curriculum, but also to encourage outside groups to access our facilities in and out of school hours. Performing Arts Team to support use of theatre and other facilities out of school hours.
· Team Leader for Physical Education: Responsible for developing links with local sports clubs to provide coaches to enrich the curriculum. Also responsible for encouraging sports clubs to access our facilities in and out of school hours and monitoring health and safety issues.
· Team Leader for Support and Guidance: Responsible for links with the Health, Social and Youth Services, as well as the Police, Child Protection, Connexions and charities and voluntary groups. An emphasis upon providing opportunities for parents as well as supporting and guiding our youngsters.
· Business Development Leader: Overall responsibility for Finance, Administration, Catering and Premises, with managers in each area working for her. The linking of these areas enables us to coordinate community events and activities during and outside the school day.
· Learning Systems Leader: Leads on our ICT network and strategy, ensuring that Adult Education and other community users have full access in and outside the school day, providing technical support as required.
And then there’s that other key resource – time! Why do the overwhelming majority of schools run a manic, conveyer belt sort of day that finishes around 3.15pm? Bells, queues, timetables – when is there time to talk and to think? Our school day runs from 8.30am to 5.00pm. Learning sessions are two hours long with a break in the middle. One session a day for each year group is a study session, supporting our goal for no one routinely to take work home. Our structure provides time for the various professionals to access our students appropriately, rather than rushing to get it all done. An extended day for an extended school. Seems logical to me, and thankfully to HMI as well! But, that’s a different story.
Ian Johnson
Principal