HC 269 Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by North Tyneside Learning Trust

The differing forms of school partnership and cooperation, and whether they have particular advantages and disadvantages

1. North Tyneside Learning Trust is a partnership comprising of 34 schools (appendix 1) working with colleges, universities and businesses to improve education and life chances for children and young people. The Trust was established in 2010 with 23 original member schools, membership has increased year on year and there are six schools currently consulting to join the Trust which will increase member school numbers to 40 by October 2013.

2. The Trust works with over 20 (appendix 2) formal employer partners from private, public and third sector organisations to deliver our priorities which are:

Securing School Improvement.

Strengthening governance and leadership in schools.

Supporting outstanding teaching.

Increasing progression to Further and Higher Education.

Increasing participation and attainment in STEM subjects.

Supporting early years development.

Improving learning outcomes and life chances.

Creating a sustainable framework for long term collaboration between schools, Higher Education, Further Education and employers.

Developing collaborative partnerships with employers and other partners to enrich the curriculum.

Developing education to employment pathways.

Supporting the transformation of North Tyneside into a high wage high skill economy.

Engaging in research and development activity geared towards improving social mobility and tackling disadvantage.

3. North Tyneside Learning Trust is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee. The Trust is governed by a Board of Directors which is Chaired by the Headteacher of a member school. The Board comprises of five Directors representing schools, two Directors representing employer partners, one Director representing HE/FE partners and one Director representing the local authority. The Trust is essentially led by schools for schools and informed by business.

4. Trust membership has a number of distinct advantages for schools as the Trust delivers a range of activities and services to support Trust schools.

4.1Strengthening governance in schools—the Trust appoints 2 Trust Governors to the governing body of each Trust school. Trust Governors are generally selected from business and industry to strengthen, support and challenge and offer a business perspective to governing body discussions and decision making.

4.2Developing leadership and supporting outstanding teaching through high quality CPD for staff—the Trust sponsors a range of CPD opportunities geared towards strengthening leadership and supporting outstanding teaching in partnership with the Trust Teaching School, Whitley Bay High school and partner organisations including the National Science Learning Centre (NSLC) and the National Centre of Excellence for Teaching Mathematics (NCETM).

4.3Brokering lucrative partnerships—the Trust has entered into a range of partnerships with companies, charities and trusts to enhance and enrich the curriculum and introduce innovative new approaches to teaching and learning. For example the Trust is working with:

British Airways on a £20 million Employer Ownership of Skills bid focussing on the development of Project Management and Employability Skills within all 10 Trust Secondary Schools.

Northumbria University on a £1.3 million HEFCE bid geared towards increasing participation in Physics offering activities to support progression from pre-school to undergraduate study.

The Smallpiece Trust, Arkwright Scholarships, Engineering Development Trust and STEMNET on a £200k project geared towards increasing participation and attainment in STEM subjects and encouraging young people to consider engineering as a career option.

The National Science Learning Centre on the delivery of our Science Strategy and the development of a STEM Careers Strategy for the Trust.

The National Centre of Excellence for the Teaching of Mathematics to develop a cohort of 15 NCETM trained Maths Lead Teachers within the Trust.

4.4Negotiating Preferential Rates—the Trust is able to use its sized and strength to negotiate discounts and preferential rates on behalf of Trust schools. For example, all Trust schools are offered Association of Science Education (ASE) membership at a preferential rate based on a block membership deal negotiated by the Trust.

4.5Links with business and industry—the Trust engages with a range of businesses and Third Sector organisations to secure their involvement in Trust schools. Individual schools often struggle to secure these relationships independently. Businesses in turn benefit from having a single point of access for contact with schools. Businesses engage with schools in a range of ways including for example:

Work experience and work placements.

Curriculum support and development (delivering sessions/master classes).

Providing guest speakers for events/assembly talks.

Supporting students (Mentoring, career workshops).

Employability skills support (CV writing, mock interviews).

Educational visits.

Sponsorship (providing materials for projects, prizes for event, running competitions).

How highly performing schools could better be encouraged to cooperate with others

5. School to school collaboration within North Tyneside Learning Trust is essentially voluntary. Indeed cooperation is arguably likely to be more meaningful and effective if the relationship in entered into voluntarily. Cooperation should therefore be encouraged rather than enforced through a duty in law in order to preserve the general spirit and ethos on which school to school collaboration is based. There are potential benefits of cooperation for all schools (even highly performing schools) therefore perhaps more needs to be done to highlight and promote the two way learning opportunities that exist. Schools should essentially be supported to “drive their own improvement” rather than “forced to cooperate” with an externally imposed approach to improvement.

Whether schools have sufficient incentives to form meaningful and lasting relationships with other schools

6. North Tyneside Learning Trust is now one of the largest Education Trusts in the UK. The success of the model of collaboration adopted by North Tyneside Learning Trust has served to attract new member schools year on year. This suggests a strong and growing commitment to the approach adopted.

7. Other local authority areas have approached North Tyneside Learning Trust for support and information and there are a number of smaller Trusts beginning to emerge based on the collaborative partnership approach pioneered by North Tyneside Learning Trust.

8. Schools have a range of motivations for joining the Trust and there are many potential advantages (as outlined in 4.1–4.5 above) which serve to act as incentives.

If and how the potential tension between school partnership and cooperation, and school choice and competition can be resolved

9. The entire education landscape is changing. The type and range of institutions providing education is changing dramatically. New types of academies are emerging (Free schools, Studio Schools’ University Technical Colleges). This “marketisation” of education presents a real risk of fragmentation. The model adopted by North Tyneside Learning Trust provides some protection against fragmentation.

10. North Tyneside Learning Trust operates on a collaborative model with schools essentially supporting other schools to secure school improvement by sharing skills and expertise. Membership is voluntary and schools joining the Trust essentially adopt the spirit and ethos of the Trust which places collaboration and the interests of local children and young people at the heart of everything we do.

11. Whilst academies have provided a model through which to secure school improvement where systems failure is evident, in areas like North Tyneside where there is no systems failure in terms of results or capacity, sporadic structural changes serve only to destabilize good and outstanding school by creating an unnecessary surplus of provision.

12. On joining North Tyneside Learning Trust partners schools sign up to a number of “key commitments” and this covers their approach to admissions as a Trust school and their new responsibilities as an Employer. Partner schools must agree to work within the national code for admissions and must not seek to individually alter admission arrangements. Similarly all Trust schools commit to honouring national agreements on School Teachers Pay and Conditions.

13. Historically in North Tyneside a very strong collaborative relationship has existed between schools. The creation of North Tyneside Learning Trust essentially provides a formal structure to support long term strategic partnerships between schools, employers, further and higher education partners and planning authorities. There is a strong focus on school to school support in raising standards with an emphasis on schools supported by the Trust to drive their own improvement. Choice and competition exists within a sustainable framework of partnership and co-operation.

Whether converter academies’ requirements to support other schools, included in their funding agreements, are sufficient and are effectively policed

14. There is limited experience of support from converter academies in North Tyneside. The only academy that exists currently is St Thomas More Roman Catholic Academy. The Trust does work in partnership with St Thomas More.

Whether academies sponsored by another school receive sufficient support from their sponsor

15. There are no examples of school sponsored academies in North Tyneside. The Trust does provide financial support to North Tyneside Academy Foundation which supports Grasmere Academy. This has enabled the school to remain working alongside and in partnership with our family of schools and benefit from many of the opportunities, activities and services offered to Trust schools.

Whether school partnerships drive effective school improvement

16. School improvement is a key focus of the work of North Tyneside Learning Trust and sharing skills and expertise is a common feature of school to school collaboration within the Trust.

17. The Trust works in partnership with the Local Authority School Improvement function to complement and enhance school improvement support to Trust schools.

18. The Trust has appointed a Primary Maths Lead to increase capacity within this important area of the curriculum and share effective practice across Trust schools. Primary English Leads for each key stage have also been identified from within Trust schools and seconded by the Trust to work across all school to share skills and experience and increase capacity particularly with our more vulnerable schools.

19. Local and National Leaders of Education from good and outstanding Trust schools have been seconded to increase leadership capacity within more vulnerable schools. Additional teaching support has also been offered to support vulnerable schools in preparation for SATs. Over the past two years one Trust secondary school and six Trust primary schools have moved from an Ofsted rating of satisfactory to good.

Whether there are any additional upsides or downsides for highly performing schools supporting others through partnerships

20. School to school collaboration and support is the key to effective and sustainable school improvement. Schools themselves driving their own improvement with the support of the Trust/good and outstanding schools. Within a collaborative model highly performing schools have a duty to share skills and expertise and often gain valuable learning from the schools they support. Cross phase school partnerships have proven to be particularly effective, in easing transition and accelerating/ensuring continuous progression.

APPENDIX 1

NORTH TYNESIDE LEARNING TRUST MEMBER SCHOOLS

Secondary School Partners

Burnside Business College

Churchill Community College

George Stephenson Community High School

John Spence Community High School

Longbenton Community College

Marden High School

Norham High School

Seaton Burn College

Whitley Bay High School

Monkseaton High School*

Special School Partners

Beacon Hill School

Benton Dene

Silverdale School

Southlands School

Woodlawn School

Middle School Partners

Marden Bridge

Monkseaton

Wellfield

Valley Gardens*

First School Partners

Rockcliffe

Appletree Gardens*

Primary School Partners

Amberley Community

Battle Hill Community

Benton Dene

Burradon*

Carville

Denbigh*

Fordley

Forest Hall

Grassmere Academy

Greenfields Community

Hadrian Park

Hazlewood Community

King Edward*

Monkhouse

Redesdale Community

Stephenson Memorial Community

Wallsend Jubilee

Western Community

Westmoor

*New schools currently consulting over membership of the Trust and conversion to trust school status.

APPENDIX 2

NORTH TYNESIDE LEARNING TRUST FORMAL EMPLOYER PARTNERS

Balfour Beatty Workplace Ltd (Joint Venture Partner)

Barnardos (Third sector)

Capita Symonds (Joint Venture Partner)

IBM (Digital Technologies)

Kier Construction (Joint Venture Partner)

Nexus (Engineering)

North Tyneside Council (Public Sector)

Northumbria Healthcare Trust/health partners (Health & Care)

Northumbria Police Authority

Procter and Gamble (Science Pathways)

Shasun Pharma (Science Pathways)

Shepherds Offshore (Renewables)

Swan Hunters (Engineering/Marine Design)

Tribal

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority (Public Sector)

North Tyneside VODA (Third Sector)

Further Education (FE) Partners

Newcastle College including associated Higher Education (HE) partners

Tyne Metropolitan College including associated HE Partners

University (HE) Partners

Newcastle University

Northumbria University

Strategic Planning Authority Partners

North Tyneside Council Trustees

Diocesan Authorities

APPENDIX 3

NORTH TYNESIDE LEARNING TRUST BOARD OF DIRECTORS

David Baldwin (Chair & Secondary School Headteacher)

Alison Shaw (Director—Secondary Schools)

Simon Ripley (Director—Special Schools)

Emma Overton (Director—Primary Schools)

Paul Mitchell (Director—Chair of Governors)

Jane Delaney (Director—HE/FE)

David Hodgson (Director—Employer Partner, Shasun Pharma

Ian Wilkinson (Director—Employer Partner, Capita Symonds)

Ian Grayson (Director—North Tyneside Council, Cabinet Member)

October 2013