Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
Int.
How long have you been here?
This is my seventh year but, in that time, I’ve had two children so I’ve had
maternity leave.
Int.
How long was your maternity leave?
The first one was from August 2009 till May 2010 and the last one was from
January 2012 till September. I’ve got a three and a half year old and a one year
old. My husband has packed in teaching and is looking after the children.
Int.
Did he work in this school?
No he worked in a school in Macclesfield.
Int.
And was the school in which he worked successful?
No.
Int.
Is this your first school?
No I used to work in a school in ( ? ? ? ? ).
Int.
So you’ll have experienced policies of different kinds: policies that may have
affected conditions of work or pension, salaries, curriculum etc. Endless policies
I think you could say without exaggerating. So what’s it been like here in terms
of the growing of success in the school and the ways in which policies have been
used or perceived?
To me this is a totally different school environment to my previous school and I
do think that, for a successful school, policy is only minimal and I do think that
it is the leadership of the school that has driven the standards forward.
Obviously they have to implement the policies that the government have put in
place but I think the driving force is the senior leadership team and then filtering
down to the middle leaders. For me a lot of it is the personnel in the school and
their personal standards and aspirations for the school that drive it forward and
not necessarily the policy.
Int.
Have you, as a middle leader, played a part in interpreting policy?
Int.
Well the biggest one that has affected us in humanities is the English
Baccalaureate and that has affected humanities as a whole. The numbers of
humanities has increased significantly at GCSE now for history and geography
because in some previous years we’ve only had thirty-five students opting to
take history and for the last three years we’ve had over seventy and that has a
knock on effect at A Level with increasing numbers. My role, within that, is
twofold really because the year we started with the E-Bacc Pathway was the
year I was actually covering a maternity leave for the head of Key Stage 3 and
so I actually implemented or introduced the E-Bacc Pathway which was quite
difficult because I’m not necessarily sure that I agree with that pathway because
I do find it quite elitist.
Is this the one that is being scrapped?
Nicola Scott
1
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
No that’s the E-Bacc qualification that is being scrapped where you have to have
your English, maths and science with humanities subjects and a foreign
language.
Int.
So you do the E-Bacc in the school?
Yeah but we don’t offer it to all. So I do think that it is elitist but, on the flip side
of that, our pathways system is tailored to ensure that students are on courses
that meet their needs. Our weakest students would probably not get a C in all
five of those subjects and so wouldn’t be able to access the E-Bacc qualification
anyway.
Int.
So why do you call it the E-Bacc Pathway?
We don’t anymore. It’s called Pathway 1 now. It was quite difficult selling it to
the parents at the time with regards to things like students taking a modern
foreign language. Not all students, who are in the higher sets, want to carry on
doing a modern foreign language and so the previous head did a lot of research
looking at what university courses wanted and sold it to parents in that way. We
struggled with it as well, from a humanities perspective, because we do the
GCSE RE course here but we only do it as a short course and so a lot of parents
were asking why that couldn’t be counted as a humanities subject but RE
wouldn’t count. So that, for me, is the biggest change that we’ve seen as a
faculty.
Int.
What influence did you have over that? Who decided to do that pathway?
The previous head. We didn’t put that pathway in until September 2010.
Int.
Could you have said that you didn’t want to do that?
No.
Int.
Why?
Because government statistics now record those students within a school who
have studied those five subjects and you’re accountable for those, aren’t you?
As a head of humanities I would not have the power to oppose that.
Int.
This is the five A Star to C.
Yeah so it’s recorded in the league tables.
Int.
So the A to C have to include English and maths.
They do.
Int.
But they don’t have to include the other three.
But that’s like an additional league table now where they look at the English,
maths and science, humanities and a modern foreign language as well.
Int.
Humanities would be either geography or history.
Some students will take both.
Int.
So you don’t have to offer both geography and history.
Nicola Scott
2
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
We don’t but we do offer them.
Int.
Why did you decide to offer both?
Because it has traditionally always been offered. The students have options and
they can choose between geography, history, art, music, business studies and a
(?)DNT option now. Some students will choose to do history and geography
because they don’t want to do music or art or something like that. So we do get
a lot of students taking both history and geography.
Int.
So was that a government policy that caused the school to adopt the E-Bacc
pathway?
Yeah.
Int.
Let’s go back to the point about elitism.
That’s my personal view though – does that matter?
Int.
I would have thought it was your professional view too.
I think you’re wrong there. My personal view is that it is elitist and my
professional view is that it has saved a lot of language teachers jobs and the
same with humanities as well because a lot of people were moving towards
media studies and business studies //
Int.
Let me rephrase my question because that is educational rather than
professional so you as an educationalist, if you like, would you still call it elitist?
No.
Int.
Why not?
Because some students would not be able to access the GCSE in history because
it is too difficult for them.
Int.
So it is elitist.
Geography is different from history because it has a higher paper and a
foundation paper and it’s easier to get a C on the foundation paper than it would
be at history because everybody sits the same paper. So if you sit the
foundation paper in geography there is more likelihood that you would probably
be able to get a C in that. But I think everybody should have the option of
taking geography and history and that shouldn’t be taken away from them.
Int.
Could you say the same about music and art?
Yes, I suppose, is the right answer but then you wouldn’t be able to
accommodate them all in the curriculum.
Int.
So that is an example of a government policy which directly affects the students
options in terms of curriculum and there are a number of pathways in the school
so – is it Pathway 1?
Yeah.
Nicola Scott
3
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
Int.
So those who take that pathway would generally be regarded as the most
capable academically. Pathway 2 is //
Similar but they would still have the opportunity to pick German and to pick a
humanities subject. Pathway 1 students are told to pick German and a
humanities subject whereas Pathway 2 students have the option.
Int.
And Pathway 3 is Prince’s Trust?
No it’s a BTEC.
Int.
So Pathway 4 is Prince’s Trust.
Yeah.
Int.
To what extent are those other three pathways the result of government policy?
Let’s start with the Prince’s Trust.
I don’t really know a lot about that pathway at all. We used to offer college
courses for the Pathway 4 students and they used to do day release at college
but I think that funding has gone.
Int.
Was that driven by government policy or not?
Yes I suppose it was because the BTEC raised the results within the school for
the weaker students. BTEC in the school has been very successful.
Int.
So it was not necessarily driven by government policy but maybe the school
took advantage of government policy at that time. Would that be accurate?
Yeah.
Int.
What other things have you experienced through government initiatives which
have either enriched or not //
I think last year, when there was all the debate over the pension, that caused a
significant disharmony within the school I felt. I’m not a supporter of the
Conservative Party but it caused a lot of disharmony within the school because
some people weren’t affected by the pension due to their age; some people felt
very strongly about the changes to the pension and then there were other
people, like myself, who put it in a bracket and it wasn’t one of my priorities
because I felt that I had more concerns other the issue of Child Benefit being
taken away rather than my pension but when the staff decided to go on strike
over the pension that was the only time in seven years that I experienced the
staff not gelling together because it was quite a divisive issue.
Int.
So that’s a personal/professional issue because it’s affecting one section of the
staff in a way in which it is not affecting another section of the staff. What about
policies like specialist PE college //
I wasn’t here when it became a specialist PE college. Obviously I’ve been here
since we’ve become an academy.
Int.
And other things such as performance management or target setting might
affect the school and the staff.
Nicola Scott
4
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
With regards performance management that has changed into a more rigorous
system now making staff more accountable especially staff who are on UPS 2
and UPS 3. Personally I think that has been driven by the senior leadership team
but staff take on-board those = whether it’s the way senior leadership sell it to
the staff and the middle leaders but we can only see it as a way of driving
standards up in the school. You don’t hear a lot of staff complaining about it
because, ultimately, it’s the standard of the school that we are trying to move
forward so it’s for the benefit of everybody both staff and students. So there has
been a lot of changes of late with regards performance management and
different Ofsted criteria but, personally, I can only see it as benefiting staff and
students. I do think there is a good ethos around the school at the moment with
the staff because we’ve had some training recently on teaching and learning and
that’s open people’s eyes and made staff revisit their techniques. So there is a
lot of positivity around the school at the moment. I think a lot of my staff are
very good teachers and some are even outstanding teachers but my results
don’t reflect that. So the teaching is very good and it’s just more working on the
learning that is taking place in humanities so //
Int.
How do you separate the two?
Because we are not showing the level of progress that students should be
making at the moment in humanities and our GCSE results are poor even
though I think that my teachers are very good teachers and a lot of that is to do
with the level of knowledge that students are expected to retain. I mean we’ve
changed the exam board in geography to try and help students access the
higher grades but they’re not doing the independent learning that is needed for
the revision. It’s the same at A Level as well and it’s very difficult for them to
move to an A Level work ethic and they still need a lot of support.
Int.
What about target setting and assessment for learning and that kind of thing?
Target setting is something we’ve struggled with a little bit in humanities
because we’ve moved away from the levels to the GCSE grades in Year 9 and I
think that initially caused a lot of confusion for parents. It’s caused problems for
us with regards to = I have had staff previously upping student target levels at
Year 9 because they want that particular student to take a subject at GCSE. So
if a student has been working hard their target is an A but if the quality of work
is worthy of an A that target has been increased to an A Star. The problem with
that though is that you can’t then go back at the start of Year 10 and say to the
student that their target is now an A. A lot of factors can change even within the
space of a few months so we’ve had our fingers burnt by that a little bit and
some of the targets have become unrealistic really. We’ve also started to
consider whether this upping of targets is the right thing to do all the time
because we’ve had issues where students had a target of C but they were
capable of getting an A but students actually like knowing that their target is a C
but they are getting an A. But that goes against school policy because we would
automatically raise their target.
Int.
Do you and your colleagues teach more to the test now than you did prior to the
regime of target setting?
Yeah. For the results.
Int.
So if you didn’t teach to the tests your results would fall?
I think it’s more about the students’ understanding of the success criteria. They
need to know why they are learning a topic in a lesson and how that then
Nicola Scott
5
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
translates to examinations technique and practice. I wouldn’t say that lessons
are entirely taught to the tests and we will give them the ins and outs of the
topic but, at the end of the lesson, we will talk about how that will link into an
exam question.
Int.
So there’s more of that now than there was when you first started.
Yeah. And in Year 9 what we’ve started to do is we’ve implemented alternative
GCSE courses that are not studied at GCSE but to give them a taste of GCSE.
For example, in history, we do crime and punishment through time in Year 9
whereas the actual GCSE course is medicine through time. So it gives them a
flavour of looking at a cross section of historical periods but also we can start
setting GCSE style questions to give them a flavour of the exam.
Int.
What role does the senior leadership team play in mediating or influencing
external reforms such as the one you’ve just mentioned?
When we are doing lesson observations senior leadership like to see how it links
to exams.
Int.
So they encourage you to teach to the tests.
That sounds too harsh. I wouldn’t say that you are encouraged to teach to the
tests it’s just that the students know what the success criteria is. Your learning
outcomes need to show that you’ve got higher order thinking skills in them. That
definitely comes from the senior management. A lot of learning outcomes were
very vague and they were just being put in in lessons for the sake of being there
and we have been encouraged by senior management, across the school, to
make sure that our learning outcomes are achievable but also challenging. So
that has been a big focus from senior management and I wouldn’t say
necessarily to teach to the tests but there is a lot of assessment taking place so
that the students know where they are and SLT want us to make sure that the
students know what to do in order to improve. So a lot of questioning that goes
on in lesson observations are: what’s your target; what do you need to do to
achieve it?
Int.
Is there more or less harmony amongst the students as a result of this labelling
which is a consequence of all this?
I don’t think so. Only initially because Year 9 have just been told this week
about their pathways and sometimes that causes a few problems. When I was in
a pastoral role I think we only had, out of a Year group of two hundred, six
students who felt very strongly about that.
Int.
On a scale of one to ten, with ten as the strongest, to what extent do you feel
that you are able to influence the implementation of external policy in your
faculty?
I’m quite lucky in that, within my faculty, I’ve got two senior leaders and I’ve
got an ex-head of history and I’ve got a learning manager so I don’t have the
issue of people not getting on-board with policy change because the majority of
people within my faculty are people with extra responsibility.
Int.
That wasn’t the question I was trying to ask. The question I was trying to ask
was about whether you mediated or whether you felt that you could influence
certain policies.
Nicola Scott
6
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
Well I would obviously speak to people within faculty about these changes and
then we have the middle leaders meetings and that’s where I bring up issues
that have been raised within faculty and that is then used as a forum for
feedback and we have senior members of staff chairing those middle leader
meetings.
Int.
And who takes the decisions at the end of the day?
The SLT. But I still have the opportunity to raise concerns and put forward
recommendations.
Int.
What’s the difference between this school and other schools?
Standards. I think it starts right at the bottom with the uniform. I’ve seen
students in other schools – because we live in the local area – and the uniform
is shocking and I think that’s where it starts from. Students know what our
expectations are and that creates a more focused learning environment when
they walk into school. It’s the same kind of clientele in the local area but this is
a far better school.
Int.
Just because of the uniform?
That’s where it starts and then it goes to behaviour in lessons.
Int.
How is that different?
We’ve introduced a totally new behaviour system with warnings and follow up
sanctions and we have clear behaviour strategies within school and behaviour is
very good. I think that is down to the staff but also students know what is
clearly expected from them. But that has taken years to develop and when I
started seven years ago I heard that the school wasn’t at the stage it is now
because it does take time to develop those strategies. I sometimes think that
staff who have only taught in this school don’t necessarily realise how lucky they
are to teach here because the learning can’t take place if behaviour in lessons is
poor.
Int.
So it’s down to the staff and the systems and consistency management. So
would you say that the sense of job satisfaction here is high?
Yeah.
Int.
And commitment and morale?
Usually.
Int.
And self-confidence high?
Yeah and that comes from the middle leadership team being very supportive of
each other and people within their faculty.
Int.
And the communication between senior leaders and middle leaders is good?
Very good. We meet regularly. I meet with my senior leadership person once a
week for fifty minutes. That’s formally but I meet her every day because she’s in
my faculty. It’s called a line management meeting and we have one of those
once a week.
Nicola Scott
7
Colebrook HIGH SCHOOL
Int.
Have things changed between Phillip and Simon?
Not massively. I don’t think it’s necessarily down to the change. I think the drive
for teaching and learning would have taken place under Phillip as well as Simon.
Int.
Thank you.
Nicola Scott
8