The Headteachers and Governing bodies of our four schools (Imberhorne, Downlands, Oathall and Sackville) are committed to forging a supportive relationship that focuses on improving outcomes as well as securing the very best pastoral care and opportunities for outstanding personal development for all our students. Staff working together in order to learn from each other and improve our practices is the model that we believe secures meaningful and lasting change.
Collaboration through a Federation enables each school to retain its autonomy and distinctive ethos whilst benefiting from sharing ideas and practice. We believe, as a group, we are getting the very best from partnership work without sacrificing the local accountability that is so important in community schools.
A Joint Committee of Headteachers and Chairs of Governors meet half termly to provide oversight of the work of the Federation including:
- Setting the Federation’s vision, ethos and strategic direction
- Reviewing the Federation Memorandum of Understanding
- Monitoring the Federation Development Plan
- Overseeing the financial aspects of the Federation and making sure money is well spent.
In practice, the Headteachers of the four schools meet, at regular intervals, to oversee school improvement and school development; our CPD group look for opportunities to support professional development for teaching and support staff, our curriculum group work on identifying and sharing areas of strength and discussing areas for development whilst our governors meet to discuss common themes of strategic development.
This has resulted in:
- Shared participation in inset day/training activities at the different schools
- Subject conferences that bring together specialists to compare and share ideas
- Identifying areas of outstanding practice as well as areas for improvement across the schools that enable teams to share and learn from each other
- Partnership work between the governing bodies, with the possibility of exploring common themes across the schools
- Shared middle leader development
- Opportunities for coaching
- Opportunities for student leaders to work together
- Sharing ideas about enrichment / extra-curricular provision to support students’ personal development