1 Introduction
Background to the inquiry
1. In the 2010 Schools White Paper the Government
set out its vision of a self-improving education system, stating
that:
our aim should be to create a school system which
is more effectively self-improving. [...] It is also important
that we design the system in a way which allows the most effective
practice to spread more quickly and the best schools and leaders
to take greater responsibility and extend their reach.[1]
2. Partnership working and cooperation between schools
has long been part of the education landscape, whether encouraged
by government or not. Nevertheless, in recent years and alongside
the changing role of local authorities, school partnerships and
cooperation have become an increasingly important part of what
has been referred to as a "self-improving" or "school-led"
system.[2] This has
been seen particularly in the successful London Challenge and
City Challenge programmes which led to significant improvements
in the schools in the areas involved. It has also been a key
driver behind the rapid expansion of the academies programme.
3. There seems little doubt among school leaders
that collaboration can play an important part in school improvement.
Research commissioned by the National College of Teaching and
Leadership suggested that 87% of headteachers and 83% of chairs
of governors describe partnership with other schools as "critical
to improving outcomes for students".[3]
The same survey also found that a majority of headteachers (60%)
felt the policy environment is supportive of forming collaborative
partnerships, although this leaves a large proportion of school
leaders who do not endorse that view.[4]
OUR INQUIRY
4. We launched our inquiry into School Partnerships
and Cooperation on 13 March 2013, inviting written evidence on
the following matters:
- the differing forms of school
partnership and cooperation, and whether they have particular
advantages and disadvantages;
- how highly performing schools could better be
encouraged to cooperate with others;
- whether schools have sufficient incentives to
form meaningful and lasting relationships with other schools;
- if and how the potential tension between school
partnership and cooperation, and school choice and competition
can be resolved;
- whether converter academies' requirements to
support other schools, included in their funding agreements, are
sufficient and are effectively policed;
- whether academies sponsored by another school
receive sufficient support from their sponsor;
- whether school partnerships drive effective school
improvement; and
- whether there are any additional upsides or downsides
for highly performing schools supporting others through partnerships.
Evidence base of our inquiry
5. We received around 50 submissions of written evidence
from a range of organisations and individuals, including state-funded
schools, independent schools, an academy chain, Co-operative trusts
and clusters, representatives of local government, national collaborative
organisations, teaching and school leadership unions, academics,
policy researchers, Ofsted and the Department for Education (DfE).
6. We held two formal oral evidence sessions, where
we heard from a range of witnesses. These were:
· leaders
of schools and organisations involved in collaborative working;
· academics and
researchers with expertise in the field of school partnerships;
· representatives
from organisations providing the structure for schools to work
together; and,
· the responsible
Minister (Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for
Schools) and relevant DfE official (Andrew McCully, Director General
for Infrastructure and Funding).
7. This inquiry has benefited from the involvement
of our specialist advisers, Professor Mel Ainscow and Professor
Alan Smithers, and we are grateful to them for sharing their expertise.[5]
Background information
8. The forms of collaboration included within the
description of "schools partnerships and cooperation"
are highly diverse, both because of substantive differences in
the depth of collaboration and because of differences in the forms
partnership can take. The terms "partnership", "cooperation"
and "collaboration" are sometimes used interchangeably,
but the key distinction is between those partnerships which have
a formal basis and those which do not.
LEGAL STRUCTURE UNDERPINNING FORMAL
PARTNERSHIPS
Federations
9. In a Federation, schools create a single, federated
governing body for two or more schools. The federated governing
body may then choose to create joint roles, such as a single "executive"
headteacher across multiple schools, but this is not a necessary
part of federation. The Education Act 2002 initially laid the
ground for formal partnership through federation. Since then regulations
have been progressively updated so that now maintained schools
may form federations under The School Governance (Federations)
(England) Regulations 2012. A variation is statutory collaboration,
under the School Governance (Collaboration) Regulations 2003.
In these cases, schools retain their own governing bodies but
create a joint committee with some delegated powers. Only maintained
schools may form federations, just as only academies can form
chains.
Trust schools
10. Introduced by the Education and Inspections Act
2006, Trust schools allow a maintained foundation school to be
supported by a charitable foundation (referred to as "the
Trust"). In return the Trust is able to appoint some of the
Governors and bring additional expertise to support the school
leadership. They have some similarities to sponsored academies,
except that they do not entirely sever links with their local
authority. This model has been particularly popular among schools
wishing to adopt a Co-operative model, with clusters of schools
setting up Co-operative trusts with representation from stakeholders,
such as parents, staff, learners and the local community. In the
same way as academy chains, schools supported by one Trust work
together.
"Academy chains" (Multi-academy Trusts,
Umbrella Trusts and Collaborative Partnerships)
11. The term "academy chain" is often used
to describe any group of academies working together (under some
definitions, such as that adopted by the National College for
School Leadership report "The growth of academy chains: implications
for leaders and leadership", more than two schools[6]).
As such, it has become a broad term covering a wide variety of
partnership structures of varying degrees of closeness. The following
definitions draw on pages[7]
and documents[8] from the
DfE website:
i. Multi-academy Trust (MAT): A number of schools
join together and form a single Trust and Board of Directorsthere
is only one legal entity accountable for all schools in the Trust
and there is one set of Articles which governs all the academies
in that Trust. The MAT has a Master Funding Agreement with the
Secretary of State and each academy also has a Supplemental Funding
Agreement. The MAT may set up either a local governing body or
advisory body for each Academy. The MAT can agree to delegate
some matters to this local governing body.
ii. Umbrella Trust (UT): This allows a cluster
of primary schools, or a mixture of primary and secondary, to
set up a trust which allows them to work together while still
retaining a certain level of independence and individuality. For
example, the UT may appoint a governor in each school in the chain
to provide a clear link between the schools. It can also procure
joint services to reduce costs for all of the individual schools
involved. This allows schools of mixed category (e.g. Voluntary
Controlled, Voluntary Aided, and Community) to work together.
Multi-academy Trusts can be members of an Umbrella Trust.
iii. Collaborative Partnerships: There is no
shared Trust or governance arrangement in a collaborative partnership.
A collaborative partnership is simply an agreement between a
group of Academies to work together. The Academies themselves
can decide how tight or formalised to make such an arrangement;
for example, through agreeing a contract or publicising their
arrangement.
12. MATs and UTs are functions of the structure and
content of academies' funding agreements and memoranda and articles
of association. These can only be altered with the permission
of the Secretary of State.
LOOSER COLLABORATION AND SCHOOL-TO-SCHOOL
SUPPORT
National Teaching Schools
13. The Government's primary focus for school to
school cooperation is through National Teaching Schools. These
act as hubs for both initial and ongoing training. Schools applying
to become Teaching Schools are asked for "evidence of successful
partnerships as well as excellent leadership with a proven track
record of school improvement". [9]
14. Teaching Schools act as the core of a Teaching
School Alliance. These are cooperative organisations that may
cross phase, sector and local authority lines. There is no single
model of what a Teaching School Alliance should look like. They
vary both in structure for example some are led by more
than one teaching schooland in funding strategy (as we
heard from Peter Maunder, when comparing Torbay Teaching School
Alliance with Cabot Learning Federation's Teaching School Alliance[10]).
As of May 2013, there are just over 360 Teaching Schools across
England.[11]
System leadership (National Leaders of Education,
National Support Schools, Local Leaders of Education and Specialist
Leaders of Education)
15. The National College of Teaching and Leadership
co-ordinates the "system leadership" programmes. These
encourage headteachers of highly performing schools to "use
their skills and experience to support schools in challenging
circumstances" by working to "increase the leadership
capacity of other schools to help raise standards". Outstanding
headteachers can apply to be Local Leaders of Education (LLEs)
or National Leaders of Education (NLEs). The selection criteria
for the latter are more demanding than those for the former and
the role encompasses other members of their school staff, with
the schools designated National Support Schools (NSS).[12]
There are over 800 National Leaders of Education (NLE) and
almost 2,000 Local Leaders of Education (LLE), with a third of
secondary heads and a sixth of primary heads either an NLE, LLE
or a member of a Teaching School alliance.[13]
16. Specialist Leaders of Education (SLEs) are outstanding
middle or senior leaders, with "the skills to support individuals
or teams in similar positions in other schools".[14]
Unlike NLEs and LLE, SLEs are specifically attached to a local
Teaching School alliance.
Collaborative organisations
17. Many national school to school support organisations
have sprung up in the past few years. A report from the National
Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on the role of the
"middle tier" in enabling school improvement argues
that such "national middle tier bodies [are important] for
inspiration and support".[15]
Examples of national collaborative organisations include the Whole
Education network,[16]
the PiXL club,[17] and
Challenge Partners.[18]
Unlike the programmes above, such organisations are not Government
initiatives. As such, they are particularly good examples of the
concept of a school-led system.
1 Department for Education, The Importance of Teaching:
the Schools White Paper 2010, Cm 7980, November 2010, para
7.4 Back
2
Ibid. Back
3
National College for School Leadership, Review of the school
leadership landscape, December 2012,. p 56. Back
4
Ibid. Back
5
Professor Smithers, Director of the Centre for Education
and Employment Research, University of Buckingham, declared no
interests. Professor Ainscow, Professor of Education and co-director
of the Centre for Equity in Education, University of Manchester,
declared no interests.
Back
6
National College for School Leadership, The growth of academy
chains: implications for leaders and leadership, January 2012,
p 6 Back
7
"Academy chains FAQs", Department for Education, 20
July 2012, www.education.gov.uk Back
8
"Models of Academy chains", Department for Education,
www.education.gov.uk Back
9
National teaching schools, National College Support for Schools
article, www.education.gov.uk Back
10
Q 31 [Peter Maunder] Back
11
Teaching schools get £10 million to boost quality of teacher
training, Department for Education press release, 21 March 2013
, www.gov.uk Back
12
National leaders of education and national support schools, National
College Support for Schools article, www.education.gov.uk Back
13
Teaching schools get £10 million to boost quality of teacher
training, Department for Education press release, 21 March 2013
, www.gov.uk Back
14
Specialist leaders of education, National College Support for
Schools article, www.education.gov.uk Back
15
National Federation for Educational Research. What works in
enabling school improvement? The role of the middle tier,
2013, p 4. Back
16
What we do, Whole Education website, www.wholeeducation.org Back
17
Home page, The PiXL Club website, www.pixl.org.uk Back
18
About, Challenge Partners website, www.challengepartners.org Back
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