RSCs and Head Teacher Boards
Dominic Herrington
Regional Schools Commissioner, South East and South London
ASCL Conference, 20 March
Objectives
• To examine what RSCs and HTBs do
• To identify change in the academies
programme
• To talk about the future…
The RSCs….
Heads and tales: what did people say
to us about becoming RSCs…
• ‘You’re mad!’
• ‘Good luck’
• ‘Going to the ‘dark
side’’
• (Silence…)
• ‘Won’t they be
abolished?’
But…
Positive views that this can
break down walls in
education and policy, and
bring real-world
perspectives to improve life
chances for young people.
What do RSCs actually do?
1. Work with struggling academies and free schools.
2. Manage academy sponsors.
3. Make decisions on schools wanting to become
academies, sponsors, changing age-range.
4. Help explain the dos and don’ts of becoming an
academy or free school.
5. Bring coherence to system and opportunities to
network, coach and learn from one another.
6. Spend 2-3 days a week in schools and trusts,
understanding issues and solving problems.
An example of a HTB: South East and South London
Angela Barry
Executive Head,
Northumberland Heath
Primary School
Denise Shepherd
Executive Principal, The
Rochester Grammar
School
Nikki King OBE
Chair, Greenacre
Academy Trust
Mark Ducker
Executive Principal,
STEP Academy Trust
Sir Andrew Carter
Headteacher, South
Farnham Primary
Ian Bauckham
Headteacher, Bennett
Memorial Diocesan
School
Rhona Barnfield
Executive Head,
Howard of Effingham
School
How have HTBs fared?
• Provided headteacher perspective and local
context/history.
• Firm but fair: high standards.
• Managing conflicts.
• Mixing heads and civil servants.
• A model to go further: TSCs, Schools forum,
Heads as inspectors?
• Transparency to counter paranoia.
Overall, ‘end of term report’ on RSC/HTBs…
Before
With RSCs
•
Issues managing growth centrally.
•
More effective management of growth.
•
DfE ‘limited’ to LA borders with exception
of larger MATs.
•
Working across LA boundaries to provide
better solutions.
•
Limited local knowledge.
•
Decisions on new academies, sponsorship
and new schools based on local intelligence.
•
Headteachers separate from decisionmaking.
•
Fortnightly HTB meetings providing scrutiny
and firm approach to decision-making.
•
Limited capacity to develop school-toschool support.
•
Working closely with system leaders to bring
coherence and capacity to system.
•
Less resource to deal with most difficulty
cases of underperformance.
Tackling knotty issues with ‘known
supporters’ of DfE policy.
National policy applied to different
regions.
•
Senior resource directed to this.
•
Drawing upon a wider group of high-calibre
school leaders to work with RSC and HTBs.
Developing bespoke approaches from within
the regions.
•
•
•
The changing nature of academy status as a structural enabler…
Primary academies are increasingly grouping together in small MATs
2011
5% = 6-15
academies
2015
1% = 15 +
academies
12% = 15 +
academies
35%
standalone
19% = 6 –
15
academies
26% = 2 -5
academies
68% =
standalone
34% = 2 -5
academies
National figures
The changing nature of academy status as a structural enabler…
Secondary academies are increasingly forming small and medium sized MATs.
15+ academies:
10%
2011
2015
Chains of 6 to 15:
8%
Chains of 6 to 15:
5%
Chains of 2 to 5:
19%
Standalone:
66%
National Figures
15+
academies:
10%
Chains of 2 to 5:
23%
Standalone:
59%
The changing nature of academy status as a structural enabler…
Chain range
2011
1
Number of
academies
649
2
2015
%
59%
Number of
academies
2027
42%
132
12%
504
11%
3-5
128
12%
844
18%
6-10
57
5%
519
11%
11-20
31
3%
348
7%
21-30
25
2%
153
3%
31-40
18
2%
137
3%
41+
55
5%
247
5%
Total
1095
4779
%
The changing nature of academy status as a structural enabler…
School sponsorship has become the dominant sponsorship model. Others include:
Dioceses; FE; universities; charities; individuals.
70
60
55
50
Percentage
of school
based
sponsors
40
59
60
46
36
30
20
10
0
2011
National Figures
2012
2013
2014
2015
What we see on the ground – one region
• Academy status works best when leaders use the moment of
structural change to develop leadership and exploit
economies of scale.
• It sets a higher standard and opportunity in terms of
governance and finance.
• ‘Academy’ can still be an emotive word, despite the fact that
there are 4779 nationally.
• LA attitudes to academies and free schools are increasingly
pragmatic, though still exceptions.
Where next?
•
•
•
•
•
5000 academies and free schools.
Challenges facing the primary sector…
… the economics of the LA
The opportunity of a ‘self-improving’ system
Some tests for those in intermediate roles
(credible; cheap; transparent; fair; impact?)
• Your views…