Ian Hutton – Supporting Statement
I am currently working as a non-class based Deputy Head at King’s Forest Primary school in
Kingswood. My main roles include:
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Leadership
Governor
Maths coordinator
ICT coordinator
Science coordinator
Attendance coordinator
Assessment coordinator
CPD manager
Key stage 2 coordinator
Parent support
Child Protection
Kings’ Forest Primary school was formed as an amalgamation of two other schools and I was
appointed as Deputy Head of the new school. Before I officially started I attended governor
meetings that were held to plan the way forward for the development of the new school and I
was fully involved in developing the curriculum and vision. I visited the schools on several
occasions to work with the Head Teacher on organisational matters, such as staffing structure
and the use of the two existing buildings.
The new school was initially split between two sites whilst a new building was being built.
During this time I was based at one of these sites, helping to bring a newly formed staff
together and to embed a new curriculum along with new polices and procedures. I worked
hard with the parents, ensuring that I built up positive relationships with them early on. This
made it far easier to deal with some of the inevitable organisational issues that arose with
parents having children on two sites that were some distance apart.
Moving into the new school building went very smoothly because of the strong relationships
we had developed with parents and because we had worked hard to develop a team spirit
amongst the staff. I believe that my enthusiasm, good sense of humour and communication
skills were key in developing a new school that is now thriving.
I have developed a good relationship with the parents and attend all PTA meetings. I have
run parent workshops and regularly write to parents with information to support their
children. I work closely with parents in trying to improve attendance and meet with them
regularly. I have developed strong procedures for monitoring children’s attendance, making
full use of ICT to streamline that process.
I have been a member of the governing body at King’s Forest Primary as well as the
temporary governing body. I have been a governor at Parkwall Primary and The Park Primary
School and have an excellent understanding of how governing bodies operate. I believe
passionately that the governing body plays a huge role in maintaining high standards within
schools and it is therefore vital that they are involved in all aspects of school life.
I have worked hard to develop strong relationships with the governing body at King’s Forest
by meeting regularly with governors in school and keeping them up to date with
developments in ICT, Numeracy and attendance. I have involved governors in school life by
inviting them into school to work with me in establishing a vision for ICT, developing the
Numeracy curriculum and helping to evaluate standards in mathematics.
As a teacher I have taught in four schools across two local authorities and have always tried to
develop in children a passion for learning. I believe this can only be done through a broad
and balanced cross-curricular approach. At King’s Forest I collaborated with the senior
Leadership team to develop a topic based curriculum which has been very successful and was
praised by OFSTED. I am delighted that schools are now being encouraged to take much
greater control of their curriculum and feel that there has never been a better time to develop
an inspirational curriculum that fully engages all children in the learning process. Having
visited Cherry Garden Primary School I understand that it is a school that is now ready to
develop its curriculum further and I would relish the opportunity to lead the school in this.
I am committed to the highest standards of teaching and learning and believe that children
deserve to have teachers who believe in them and have high expectations of all their pupils. I
am rigorous in ensuring that high standards are maintained and regularly conduct pupil
interviews, work scrutiny and lesson observations to ensure that standards are high. I do also
have a love of data (strange I know!) and enjoy analysing it to identify strengths and
weaknesses as well as vulnerable groups/individuals. I am a confident user of SIMS and am
skilled at presenting data in a variety of ways to a variety of different audiences. I have
presented data to OFSTED on two occasions and have a good understanding of how OFSTED
use data to make judgements about the school. I have set up strong procedures in school that
allow teachers full access to their children’s data and have supported them in using it to aid
their teaching.
However, analysing data and monitoring will only identify problems, not solve them. I am
fully committed to a supportive approach when it comes to raising standards. For example, I
have raised the standard of Teaching and Learning in maths by planning with teachers and
giving demonstration lessons. My enthusiasm for teaching maths through open ended
problems has now embedded itself across the school and children are far more engaged in
their learning then ever. In 2010 Kings’ Forest gained its highest number of level 4’s in maths
for many years – including the two old schools.
I have implemented Assessing Pupil Progress (APP) in reading, writing and maths across the
school. I therefore have a good understanding of the processes involved. I am committed to
personalised learning as I believe every child should be given the best chance to achieve and
reach their full potential. We have used APP to help teachers and children gain a better
understanding of children’s next steps. I have also worked with the Literacy coordinator on
improving our target setting procedures. Children are now fully involved in reviewing their
targets and therefore have a greater understanding of their next steps.
Children need a calm and secure environment in which to learn and I firmly believe that good
behaviour in a school has a huge impact on children’s learning. I believe that schools should
encourage excellent behaviour through positive rewards systems and that sanctions should be
fair and consistently applied. I work hard to promote good behaviour at Kings’ Forest and
have been instrumental in developing a calm environment in which children can learn.
I have been involved in conducting Performance Management (PM) reviews at two schools
and I am delighted that over the years PM has become a far more important tool in helping to
raise standards. PM should be used to celebrate the achievement of all and to identify ways to
improve and should be firmly linked to Continuing Professional Development. At Parkwall
Primary school I set up the PM procedures for the Teaching Assistants. This ensured that
they had access to training for the first time and raised their self esteem. I also worked very
closely with my Head teacher in establishing new PM procedures this year. The extended
senior leadership team now have responsibility for the Performance Management of members
of staff. For example the SEN coordinator is responsible for the performance management of
the teaching assistants. This has established a clear line of accountability and has been very
successful.
I have worked very closely with my Head teacher in setting and monitoring the school budget
which we have closely linked to the school SEF. I have always taken a keen interest in how
schools manage finance and through being ICT coordinator at two schools I have always been
fully involved in the management of resources. We recently passed our Financial
Management Standard in Schools (FMSIS) assessment and I was involved in helping to
achieve this.
I am committed to continuing professional development, both for myself and others. I have
successfully completed my NPQH and regularly attend Maths, ICT and leadership training
courses. I have attended safer recruitment training and regularly attend deputy head cluster
meetings where I have continued to develop my leadership skills. I have set up strong CPD
procedures that are linked to performance management and mentor all NQT’s and trainee
teachers. As budgets are currently very tight and there are likely to be less training courses
available, last year I have developed strong in house CPD. This has made good use of the
skills that we currently have amongst the staff and is proving to be very successful. This year
I also successfully setup an assessment group that met at Kings’ Forest to discus assessment
and target setting. This proved to be a very successful way of developing teacher’s
professional development across a cluster of schools at no cost to anyone.
I believe that a school should provide a safe and stimulating environment for children to learn
in and I am committed to the safeguarding of children. I have attended Child Protection
training courses on many occasions as well as attending several case conferences. I train all
new teachers in school in the safeguarding procedures for Kings’ Forest.
Schools should develop a love of learning in children and prepare them for a world that is
rapidly changing. In order for this to happen the school needs to be well lead and have a clear
vision for the future. Although leadership should not be seen as entirely the Head Teachers
responsibility, it is the Head Teacher who should lead the way. I believe that I have the
necessary skills and experience to achieve this.
Having recently visited Cherry Garden Primary school I was very impressed with the schools
warm and friendly nature. The school has built up an excellent relationship with parents and
the local community and staff clearly take great pride in everything that it has achieved. The
children seemed to be learning with great enthusiasm and were very keen to talk to me about
what they were doing and learning – I was even given a biscuit that they had made! (It was
very tasty!) I therefore hope that you will consider me for the new Head Teacher position.