Interesting week at school

Wednesday saw the Management Team leave school for the day to join a seminar run by the Hay group to look at a vision for the proposed new school as part of the Local Authority bid. There is a real possibility the new school opening when ours closes along with Millbrook, will be outside authority control running as an Academy for example. It seems strange that the best results we achieve will be rewarded in this way but that's the result of increasing parental choice. The Government wants greater diversity amongst the schools available for parents to choose from and that means they are actively promoting the competition element of bids for the running of the new school. The outcome is likely to lead to a major shift in emphasis regarding the ethos and values of the school but who is to say it won't raise standards in the longer term.

The outcome for teaching staff is fine as long as they feel able to subscribe to the values of the new school although you might argue that teachers aren't so highly principled as to be motivated by that kind of philosophical approach. Paying the mortgage is a higher priority. I don't know that is actually the case with many but there are some.

The day was about working with other stakeholders (this really is the language of education!) to ensure a distinct vision is put forward as part of the bid and it was a very useful addition to the NPQH, the Headteacher qualification.

I will probably hang on for another year into July 2008 and seek a position as Head in the run up to the school closure. My job is protected in the new school but I'm not sure I want to stay when the place will change so much unless the authority's bid is successful. By staying I would qualify for a retention bonus of at least 10% of annual salary which makes staying for another year a more attractive proposition.

The next day we had something of a bombshell when an English teacher announced she wouldn't be coming back after half term and learnt that a Maths teacher is heading into a private prep school at Easter. Given the fact a key member of Maths is already on long term sick leave, things are not going to be easy to resolve. That matters a great deal because Maths is the weakest subject in the school and our results have to rise significantly. Should be a piece of cake with no staff!

This was followed by meeting with Local Authority representatives about attendance. DfES has expressed concern about attendance in Southampton and 4 schools are being targeted. The structures in place at school are models of good practice apparently but our attendance is only 87% although the figures are 'clean' i.e. not manipulated at all whereas the suspicion (putting it mildly) is that the figures are massaged frequently.

At least there's a week's holiday to look forward to now. Maybe some more football photos?