The Marlowe Academy

'Scores on the Board' by Ian Johnson

It�s scores on the board that count!

�It�s scores on the board that count Ian. Leave all that community schools stuff for the LEA to worry about!�

Of the many pieces of advice that were given to me on taking up a new challenge as Principal Designate of The Marlowe Academy in Summer 2004, this one is the one that most sticks in my mind. It probably also ranks top of the list of those that I completely disregarded!

Experience at Oxford Communiy School

I knew the importance of linking in with the community from my time as Head Teacher at Oxford Community School. The school I joined in September 1998 was judged to be failing by Ofsted, and with just 406 students on roll its future was far from secure. Rising popularity coupled with the reorganization of secondary schools in the City in 2003 meant that the school I left in 2004 had over 1100 students. But, more importantly, the local community identified with it and saw it as their resource. Open from 7.00am through to 10.00pm seven days a week and 363 days a year, the site would be just as busy on a Sunday morning as a Wednesday afternoon. Life long learning was, and still is, a reality every day.

Community activity on this scale impacts upon levels of achievement. The more community users you have, the more resources you can draw upon to support your core activities: it would be impossible to overstate the value of having the Oxfordshire Dyslexia Society based on site; the contribution of The Art Room was similarly important. But beyond these and the many other specific examples, my experience at Oxford taught me that the more your community sees the relevance and importance of learning, the easier it is to raise aspirations amongst your student population and the greater chance you have of sustaining any progress you make. Leaving �all that community stuff to Kent County Council to worry about� was never going to be an option. Quick fixes can be dramatic and hit headlines, but I firmly believe that if you are to sustain things you have to work with your community.

Planning for an extended Marlowe Academy

Of course, this very point has now been recognized through the Extended Schools programme. Having exhausted all other ways of raising levels of achievement, there is an acceptance now that we have to work in a more coordinated way if we are to build sustainable success and to support with community regeneration. In planning and implementing The Marlowe Academy, the Extended School had to be central, at the core of things. You would be crazy to spend over �25m on a building and deny the community access to it. You would be even more daft to take over a school in locality used to failure for many years without wanting to work in partnership with other agencies. I knew from the beginning that The Academy just could not succeed on its own.

Fortunately some of the ingredients of an Extended School had already been introduced before my appointment. As co-sponsors of The Academy, Kent County Council had made provision for the local library and Adult Education to be based on site; they had also facilitated access the Youth and Social Services, while the predecessor school had developed links with Kent Police resulting in a Community Police Liaison Officer working from the site. All of this made my planning year much easier; it was nice to knock at open doors for a change!

Extended Leadership Team responsibilities

At Oxford Community School, much extended activity was led by our Community Manager. Starting afresh, I realised that a greater number of Leadership Team colleagues needed to be involved in Extended School activities; the following �extended responsibilities� were written into job descriptions right from the start:

� 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 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 responsible for Finance, Administration, Catering and Premises, with managers in each area working to them. 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 an extended school day

The next stage of my thinking involved the set up of the school day. Lurking in the back of my mind for some time had been how the Extended Schools initiative links in with all the other developments going on. I first qualified as a teacher back in 1982; it�s been on-going change ever since. What has always concerned me has been how everything has been seen as an �add on� � �and now you�re going to do this!� And for me, the Extended Schools initiative is the ultimate �add on�, with schools expected to organise, or invite others to organise, activities from 3.00-6.00pm.

Running parallel with this were a number of other concerns:

� with a majority of students unable to access ICT or an appropriate place to complete work at home, I wanted to give students as much access to our new facilities as possible;

� with a host of other professionals working with us, the 9.00am to 3.00pm school day didn�t feel as if it was going to fit too well;

� I was keen to introduce longer lessons or learning sessions and to reduce movement throughout the day � I was keen to escape the �conveyer belt curriculum� if at all possible;

� and I wanted to move to a world where teachers would not normally have to take work home.

I guess at the back of all these thoughts was a desire to get people to work �smarter� rather than harder over longer and longer hours. And it resulted in a school day that started at 8.30am and finished at 5.00pm for everyone, and looks something like this:

� 7.30-8.15am Free breakfast for any students who want to access it.

� 8.30-9.00am Registration / Tutorial / Assembly

� 9.00-11.00am Learning Session 1

� 11.00am-1.00pm Learning Session 2

� 1.00-3.00pm Learning Session 3

� 3.00-5.00pm Learning Session 4

No breaks! Teachers allocate up to 20 minutes break in each Learning Session. They schedule it in to fit in with the activities and learning taking place during a particular session. Students are told when they need to get back, and may lose some of their break the next time round if they are late. Lunches are scheduled in, half an hour at a time, at 12.30pm, 12.45pm and 1.00pm. Some of our vocational classes might be scheduled over two Learning Sessions, enabling trips and visits to take place without causing disruption elsewhere. And every Year 7-11 having a two hour Study session scheduled in each day, and at different times each day throughout the week. Year 7 might be in Study on a Tuesday morning at 9.00am, and then at 3.00pm on a Wednesday. Teachers set the work, mentors supervise it, and teachers collect / mark it as they would for homework elsewhere. Extra curricular activities during the day rather than after it; and all Team Meetings scheduled during the day as well.

The new building opens in September 2006, and so the whole of The Marlowe Academy�s first year was based in the old Ramsgate School�s buildings. But starting as we meant to go on, we have operated our extended day in a 1960s, flat roved, asbestos ridden monstrosity! And it has worked, already bringing real benefits to our community:

� benefits for students:

o they get a more varied and unpredictable day with a greater emphasis upon practical learning activities;

o they also gain real access to ICT to complete their work, and the time to do it;

o Learning Mentors support them outside the classroom;

o they do not normally have to take work home;

o and good learners are rewarded with more freedoms and responsibility.

� benefits for teachers:

o they have the same amount of contact time but over a longer school day; consequently their breaks are longer, giving them the chance to mark, plan and prepare during the day rather than at the end of it or at home;

o the extension tasks they set are real, not just created to satisfy a homework timetable;

o and more experienced teachers are finding that they do not normally have to work from home; at 5.00pm they are out of the car park and enjoying quality family time � it�s a miracle!

� benefits for associate staff:

o they enjoy a real responsibility for supporting learning, a responsibility that goes beyond the classroom;

o we have had to create a management structure within the Learning Mentor Teams; there have been opportunities for promotion;

o associate staff can now take part in extra curricular activities as part of their normal working day.

� benefits for other professionals:

o up and running until 5.00pm, they find that our working day is in line with theirs; communication is easier;

o students are also more easily accessed � during Study rather than lessons

� and benefits for parents and the wider community:

o all those arguments about homework are gone;

o parents can work until 5.00pm and still be at home to meet their children from school;

o our students tend to go straight home at 5.00pm; time for cruising the streets is reduced and you cannot make it to another school gate!

It wouldn�t work here!

I am sure you are now thinking of all the reasons why you could not bring such a day into your school:

� What about teachers� contracts? They are not affected. Teachers still teach the same number of hours and they are allowed to sign out if they are not teaching and not needed at a particular time. Colleagues acknowledge that the amount of work they are doing at home has been significantly reduced.

� Will it work in our building? We made it work in The Ramsgate School premises. You still have the same number of students and the same amount of space. You may want to reorganize things to create more flexible learning spaces; but then schools are moving in that direction anyway. And with Building Schools for the Future . . . ?

� Ah, but it must cost more? Not necessarily. What it does involve is a reorganisation of the roles of support staff and their deployment. And aren�t we doing this as a result of Workforce Reform anyway?

� And in a Primary School? Well, we�re busy thinking about what happens from 3.00pm. Why can�t some of the activities currently being planned for the after school slot be scheduled earlier in an extended day, thereby giving students a more varied experience?

But what about those scores on the board?

It is of course early days. But, ultimately any innovation must see increased levels of achievement to be worthwhile. The same applies to extended activity. We are educators; our aim has to be to give people the qualifications and skills to help them to go on to fulfill their potential. When The Marlowe Academy was first announced four years ago, the 5 A*-C GCSE performance at The Ramsgate School was below 5%; it had risen to just under 18% when the predecessor school closed in August 2005. The 29% 5 A*-C achieved by our GCSE students at the end of our first year was more than encouraging. I firmly believe that our extended day with all that it means is having an impact on student achievement.

And it is making us more popular. We had just 31 Year 6 first choices for September 2005. It has risen to 132 for September 2006, and this before the impact of the new building is felt. As in Oxford, our local community has begun to identify with what we are trying to achieve and to share in the responsibility for its success.

Learning Points

Working with your community is essential if we are to raise standards and create sustainability.

Working within a multi-agency framework is crucial if teachers are to be able to focus fully on teaching and learning.

Time is probably our most important resource. It can be used creatively and flexibly to support school improvement.

Longer sessions are essential to developing student learning skills.

A lot of what we currently consider homework can be completed during an extended school day.

It is possible to reduce the demands being made on teachers� time beyond the working day.

We don�t need new buildings and facilities to fundamentally change the way an institution works.

Biography: Ian Johnson

1982: Qualified as a History Teacher from Exeter University and took up a post in a West London School

1985-1993: Moved on to two other schools, gaining promotion as Head of History, Head of Year and Head of Humanities.

1993-1995: Senior Teacher at Brentside High School in Greenford, London Borough of Ealing.

1995-1998: Deputy Head at Longford Community School near Heathrow Airport in the London Borough of Hounslow.

1998-2004: Head Teacher at Oxford Community School in East Oxford. During this time the School grew from 406 students to 1100+.

2004: Appointed as Principal Designate to the Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate, Kent. The Academy opened in September 2005.