61 BRYONY ROAD, LONDON. W12 0SP
Interim Headteacher: Tony Rawdin
Tel: 020 8735 0980 Fax: 020 8811 8837
Email: admin@cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk
Website: www.cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk
Dear Candidate,
Thank you for your interest in the headship of Cambridge School. We look forward to
learning more about you, and to you learning more about our school, our aims, and our
remarkable students.
Cambridge School is a special school for 11-16 year old students with moderate learning
disabilities from across West London, with a £1.8m budget and a current capacity of 75 with
ambitions to grow both numbers and age range in the medium term. Our students’ learning
disabilities are often in combination with speech, language, and communication needs, or
EBSD. We share some facilities with the large mainstream secondary next door. In common
with most MLD schools we are moving towards taking students with more complex needs.
The school is currently RI and improving with interim leadership, considerable CPD, and an
enthusiastic governing body of which I am chair.
The role presents an exciting challenge: to cement best practice, and then move the school
towards ‘outstanding’ in the full knowledge that there is some way to go – which presents
both a real challenge and the opportunity to shape the school in order to deliver the
governors’ broad vision, sketched below. The summer term will be two years from our last
inspection when the school was judged to ‘require improvement’, so our plan is to have a
substantive Headteacher in place while our current interim Head leads a possible inspection
as a part-time Executive Head.
In terms of our vision: we’ll be successful when our students have the same choices and
chances in adult life as any young citizens in London, because we have succeeded in
equipping them with the tools to overcome any barriers put up either by their learning
disability or by people’s assumptions. We want to close the gaps in adult outcomes
between adults with learning disabilities and without – we want as many of our alumni as of
their peers from mainstream schools have a job, a hobby, a circle of friends, a well-used
Oyster card and an up-to-date rent account. And so that our students’ lives reflect their
choices and preferences. This is a developing vision, and we are looking to our new Head to
help shape as well as deliver it.
The governing body anticipates that some steps to get there will include further shaping our
curriculum and provision around this vision and in the middle term extending to post-16. It
will be for the Head to define and develop how we do these things and what other enablers
61 BRYONY ROAD, LONDON. W12 0SP
Interim Headteacher: Tony Rawdin
Tel: 020 8735 0980 Fax: 020 8811 8837
Email: admin@cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk
Website: www.cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk
and partnerships need to be in place. The governing body has the backing of the local
authority to take these aims forward.
This is an excellent opportunity for an existing Head to deliver a distinctive vision;
experienced senior leaders will also be considered. Because our vision relies on integrating
our students into the wider world, we welcome applicants from both special school and
mainstream settings (we expect mainstream candidates to have some SEN experience). The
right candidate will also have school improvement experience; a good understanding of
data; resilience and great positivity; and a drive to make his or her mark. In return, we offer
a competitive salary; staff who bring warmth, talent, and a dedication to developing; the
support and challenge of the governing body; and students who will make you proud.
I strongly encourage all candidates to visit the school. Please email
head@cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk to arrange your visit.
Yours sincerely,
Marie-Elise Howells
FAQ:
Governance structure? Cambridge School is currently a standalone maintained school and
we use LA services in a way not dissimilar to the challenge, support and resilience we would
expect from a large MAT, but if we and our new Head determine another governance
context will better promote our aims, the GB and LA are both entirely open to that.
Support for the Head? We will tailor this to the prior experience and identified
development needs of the right candidate. For mainstream candidates, we expect some
SEN experience but can (for instance) provide a thorough induction into special school data.
If we are able to appoint from April, the summer term will be alongside the executive
headship of our current interim Headteacher, Tony Rawdin, a NLE with both special and
mainstream headship experience, before going solo from September 2015. The level of
61 BRYONY ROAD, LONDON. W12 0SP
Interim Headteacher: Tony Rawdin
Tel: 020 8735 0980 Fax: 020 8811 8837
Email: admin@cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk
Website: www.cambridge.lbhf.sch.uk
support from Tony and other colleagues will be dialed up or down depending on our Head’s
areas of need, and we expect to maintain longer-term links, support, and monitoring from
these colleagues. The Head will also be part of the tri-borough network of SEN Heads
Research base? A useful port of call for research and experiences germane to the vision of
enabling our students to be independent learners and responsible citizens is
www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk. It links to previous government strategies including
‘Getting a Life’ (part of ‘Valuing People Now’) and ‘Valuing Employment Now’ which are
both aligned with the governors’ vision and a useful compendium of research references.