HC 269 Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Wellington College

Information compiled by: Cressida Henderson (Assistant Head, Academies, Wellington College)

I have worked as the key liaison between Wellington College, Crowthorne and The Wellington Academy, Wiltshire for the past three years. I co-ordinate our joint activities, organise our joint Operating Committee and sit on the Senior Leadership Team at The Wellington Academy.

Summary

Wellington College is a mixed independent boarding school for 13–18 year olds. Currently 1,040 on roll. It is the sole sponsor of The Wellington Academy, Ludgershall, Wiltshire which was formerly a failing school (Castledown) and is a mixed boarding and day secondary school with 992 on roll. There are currently 58 boarders: capacity for 100.

The Wellington Academy opened in September 2009 and moved into its new £32 million building (adjacent to the former site) in April 2011.

The governing body of The Wellington Academy includes former Wellington College governors and staff. The chair of governors and a further seven governors have connections with the College (past/current parents, bursar, senior leaders and teachers, past/current governors).

The Wellington Academy has the second highest number of service families of any secondary school nationally.

Wellington College is the only independent school to have given its name to an Academy.

The Academy is approximately 48 miles away from the College: about an hour by road.

Report

1. Sponsorship of Academies

Wellington College has sponsored one Academy but we are looking to sponsor more. Our priority is to sponsor a primary academy close to our secondary academy. We are also considering sponsoring one more secondary school and one more primary school. It is not our intention to create a large group of academies as we wish to be able to sustain a good level of support to those we sponsor and believe this would be difficult for us to do if we expanded too far.

2. Disadvantages of sponsoring our Academy

The distance between the College and its Academy has proved a challenge at times. Logistical difficulties (time taken to travel, differing length of the school day at each establishment, cost of transport) has inevitably required careful planning and budgeting.

We have also had to manage perceptions of staff and students as to the “other” sector. This has necessitated diplomacy, good communication and understanding. To minimise the perception that the sponsor is arrogant or has it easy, we have built relationships and offered support. We have also had to challenge and speak our minds whilst acknowledging our limitations. The Academy has also had to become more willing to take the support on offer and to accept feedback.

We have had to offer more support over the past academic year than previously and this has had cost implications for the College in terms of senior and middle leader hours. The Academy’s full inspection in December 2011 resulted in a judgment of “satisfactory” that was obviously a disappointment and meant that a comprehensive development plan was needed with considerable support in place from the College.

3. Advantages of Partnership—Academy

The Academy’s first set of GCSE results in August 2010 was substantially better than those of its predecessor school. It moved from being one of the lowest-performing schools in Wiltshire to the top of the table in three out of the four categories measured. OFSTED judged the school to be making outstanding progress in December 2010 (albeit with several caveats). GCSE results in 2012 showed an increase from 45% to 48% in terms of % A*–C including Maths and English, as compared to 2010.

Academy students have benefited from a range of opportunities offered: lectures and conferences at the College, sports coaching and matches, creative writing trips alongside College students, extra help with core subjects from College teachers, reading buddies, joint drama productions and much more.

4. Advantages of Partnership—College

The College has benefitted from the opportunity to send several of its teachers to the Academy as part of their GTP training (Graduate Teacher Programme) and those teachers have received the support and expertise of Academy mentors. One of the participating teachers from College said: “Working at the Academy was a real eye opener. What was interesting was to see the real range of backgrounds the pupils come from. For some of the pupils the structure they get at school was the only structure they get in their daily lives.”

The fact that we have sponsored a state school has made us an attractive prospect in the eyes of potential recruits to the teaching body. Parents are supportive of our commitment to contributing positively to the state sector. They see it as a logical part of our vision and our outward-looking approach. Students gain by collaborating with their peers from a wider social background. They learn to be flexible, welcoming and open-minded. There are some subjects and activities that we do not offer here at College that thrive at the Academy. College students have attended Academy events such as a motivational day for girls (careers), a joint Restorative Justice workshop, a talk by a local politician and a Year 9 resilience training delivered by the leaders of a specialist organisation and Academy students.

5. Scope of the Partnership—Academic

The Academy and College collaborate in a number of ways. On the academic side, we have paired key departments (departments where there has been underperformance at the Academy) and have asked our middle leaders to work together on improving standards. This has included a review of the Schemes of Work, lesson observations, sharing of ideas, modelling of teaching. The departments where most work has been done are Maths, Humanities and Languages but there have been visits and collaboration in Art, DT and PE too. College teachers have added to the year 11 intervention programme. For instance, Geography teachers are visiting on a rotation basis to offer direct help to a class which does not have a specialist teacher. Maths intervention involved key groups in Year 11 (borderline candidates at B/A and C/D) coming to the College for workshops. Heads of Maths have been working together for several months across all age groups. The Heads of Wellbeing follow similar schemes of work and are in regular contact. There have been visits by many Academy staff to the College to observe lessons, particularly at KS5 (the predecessor school had no 6th Form). The Academy is following the College’s lead in using Harkness methodology for post-16 classes in English and Humanities. Two senior leaders have had substantial input this year: the Academic Deputy has been line-managing a number of middle leaders and putting systems in place to improve the monitoring of teaching and learning. In addition, my role has expanded to include some Year 11 teaching as well as line-managing the languages department and the literacy co-ordinator this year. Both of us have spent 2–2.5 days a week at the Academy from February through to May. If the Academy asks for help in any area, we can generally provide it. I would say that the Academy feels supported by the sponsor.

6. Scope of the Partnership—Pastoral

On the pastoral side, the College’s Pastoral Deputy inspects the boarding house every six months to check it is compliant and following best practice. There has been a visit to the new boarding facilities by the matrons of the College (at their request). This has begun a dialogue among support staff and a sharing of ideas. Academy boarders attend some College events (for example, our Fireworks Spectacular in November), joining our boarders in houses for supper beforehand. Academy boarding staff have been buddied with boarding staff at the College.

7. Scope of the Partnership—Other Activities

There has been a huge variety of activities over the past three years that reflects the range of experiences of students in each establishment. Joint activities include a joint musical (some solos from each school, chorus and solos rehearsed separately then brought together in final two weeks, music provided by College musicians, performed for nights nights at each school); participation of the Academy in an event at the Royal Albert Hall (flag bearers, film showing school life, narrators, choir); Year 9 plays based on fairy tales for Year 6/Year 8 transition pupils for each school in modern languages (Mandarin and French from the College, Spanish and German from the Academy); attendance at each other’s productions (pantomime at College, annual musical at the Academy); joint sporting activities, usually coaching and match play in football (with seniors and with our prep school), rugby, swimming and cricket; joint lectures and conferences. The experience of attending lectures, events, productions and so on at College, means that the Academy students get through the gates and are aware of the level of aspiration of others. Some of the children whom I accompanied on the Royal Albert Hall performance day had never been to London. When they saw where they would perform they were amazed. But the experience is equally beneficial the other way. Of particular value recently was the year 9 intervention programme “Humanutopia” which saw College year 9s attend, as an entire year group, and experience some powerful resilience and anti-bullying training co-delivered by Academy Year 10s. One of the College boys said: “It was the best thing in terms of learning that I have done this year at Wellington and I really enjoyed interacting with the Academy students.” Another example of the benefit of the Academy to the sponsor school is in the example of a service project which has been made available to our students. A group of Lower 6th Formers spend Wednesday afternoons learning how to deliver live radio as the Academy has its own radio station on site. One participant from College said: “I have found the radio experience to be extremely valuable. Not only have I had an amazing time with my friends but I have also gained a really valuable insight into the media industry under the guidance of the radio staff. I strongly recommend this experience!”

8. Challenges

There are a number of challenges which we are working to resolve. As The Wellington Academy bears our name, we are hugely invested in its success. The fact that its most recent OFSTED rating is “3” is something we all want to change. We will know whether our partnership has helped produce school improvement when GCSE results come out in August and when the result of the next inspection is known. The turnover of staff is fairly high and is a factor in its planning and success. Recruiting and training the right quality of senior leadership has been a key challenge. The location of the school has an impact: rural Wiltshire, fairly isolated, with little in the way of cultural/academic stimulus. The students themselves often have low aspirations and nearly half of them come from army families. This means that there is a transient school population which also impacts on learning. The relationship of the Academy with the sponsor continues to need work. As one GTP teacher said: “There appeared to be two schools of thought. There were some members of staff that believe Wellington had no right to come and tell them how to run their school. There were, however, others who were very grateful for the impact and benefit that Wellington was having on their school. Some were even envious of the fact that we work in such a great school.”

9. The Future

Our intention is to continue our commitment to our Academy. There are plans to sponsor a primary Academy close to the secondary one in Wiltshire. Further down the line, we hope to sponsor another primary and another secondary but closer to us geographically. We are committed to investing resources (time, support, advice) to the Academy that bears our name. As a Teaching School, we will be supporting other secondary schools locally but will be supporting our own Academy above all. In order to underline our credentials as leaders in education we are firmly committed to helping our own Academy with school improvement.

October 2013