Bright eyed and Bushey-tailed

By the time I encountered Bushey Hall School in January 2009 it had significant problems. It was deemed by OFSTED to require Special Measures, was undersubscribed and performing poorly against a range of measures, including attainment and attendance. Public perceptions were poor and there were pervasive negative views about the behaviour of pupils. As I suspect is often the case, some concerns were exaggerated or myth, but others were not, and the school needed radical change. More than anything else, the students and staff needed self-belief and proof of their abilities and worth as a group. They also needed an ethos to buy into and a sense of direction. That was the first major impact of being an academy; the ability to show things were changing. People often commented – less so after four years – that “it’s just a change in name”, or “it’s still the same school called something else”. I understand those comments, but they do not truly reflect reality and at a personal level, I used to find this quite frustrating. The school had real and challenging issues, and here we were, a new organisation, taking over the site, taking on the same students and saying we would do something better than had been before.

Regardless of some perceptions, the reality was that everything changed. The curriculum, the pedagogy, the policies, practices, standards and rules. They all changed and they changed quickly, and this was possible because of the change to academy.
    
Because it was a new school we did not have to undertake lengthy consultations to change systems and structures, we just implemented new ones instead. Where we found a code of conduct we knew did not work, we replaced it; where Bushey Hall had been constrained by a budget legacy, we started afresh; where staffing structures were outdated, we put in place modern and responsive alternatives. The whole institution was being closed and a new one opened in its place. People underestimate this if they have not witnessed it, but they shouldn’t.

Financial change
Financial change was necessary. One major problem with a “failing school” is that falling rolls lead to decreasing funding, and that makes it very difficult to turn things around. The funding model for this academy helped by putting in start-up grants, and the best way I can describe these is to say they provided for the management of a larger school in the early days of start-up, and that was essential to turn the corner. A small school in Special Measures will find it hard to finance the leadership and teams it needs to get going again, so the start-up grants made a real difference. The impact was to bring in non-teaching Heads of House and a high quality Senior Leadership Team, and the impact of that was to turn the school around into one with growing numbers and a growing budget to sustain those teams. It all made sense to me, and my background is in maintained schools which were doing very well. I moved here from an OFSTED Outstanding comprehensive.
  
Our intake is still, and will remain, entirely comprehensive and we operate in a highly selective area, with local schools choosing up to 35 per cent of their intake on ability. Within that context, we have the highest value added in the town, and we are the most improved school in the county, as well as the 35th most improved in the country. Much of this is to do with the absolute dedication of the staff who work tirelessly to achieve the best for the students.
  
 We do have strong systems and structures, and I believe very clear leadership, but without the commitment and skill of all the people who work here – teachers and support staff alike – we simply could not do as well for the youngsters as we do.

Student buy-in
Opening the academy helped to get students on side too. Bushey Hall was far too focused on punitive outcomes for poor behaviour. It had what was described to me as a “point and shoot” approach to behaviour management where poor behaviour was tackled with the view that “they should know better”, rather than the idea that we could help them to learn to do better. Consequently, pupils were routinely punished for minor misdemeanours with little or no consideration of how this might impact on their future conduct. There was limited evidence of discussion with students about progress and attainment.

Becoming an academy allowed for sweeping changes to the pastoral system which could have been achieved if it had remained as a maintained school, but not as quickly.
    
Students are now routinely asked about their work and how they are getting on in their lessons and their learning. We have a clear system of expectations, rewards and consequences, and students know exactly where they stand. If they do something wrong, there is a consequence, and it is proportional and fair. More importantly it is always followed by a restorative meeting or action of some kind to ensure they can get on with learning.
    
As an academy, we have freedom and choice. We have first rate advice from people we chose to work with, having gone out to the wider market and secured the services of organisations considered experts in their fields. The key is, they work for us, they promote our interests, and they are answerable to us. Consequently, we have flexible firms who treat us as a client, apply commercial standards and are responsive to our needs.

Accountability
We also have clear lines of accountability. The Chair of the Academy Trust, David Meller, and I have a good working relationship with shared vision and values, but there is absolute clarity that I am answerable to the Trust for the performance of the school. We talk regularly, as one would with any chair, but the reporting format follows the business model  of Key Performance Indicators based around attainment and conduct, with a separate report on financial performance. David’s position is to appoint experts in their field, set the vision, let the experts deliver and hold them to account. It’s the same model he applies in business, and it works.
    
It would be remiss to not mention the most obvious change this academy has had, which is its beautiful new, £30m, building. After three and a half years in old or temporary accommodation, during which time we made the improvements and secured the outcomes discussed above, we moved in this January. It is the next major step in our development.

We were one of the last academies to secure the funding before the introduction of austerity budgets and we are tremendously grateful. The old school was in a terrible state, with teaching taking place in four giant, separate, 1920s dormitory buildings. They were so poor that we were delighted to move into temporary classrooms, where we worked for five terms while the new facility was created. Now we are in, and it is wonderful.

Starting again
The question I was asked to answer in this piece was, what are the advantages of being an academy? For us, it was the opportunity to start again with all the opportunity and momentum the academy programme brings. I am incredibly proud of what the staff and students at The Bushey Academy have created and achieved, and being an academy played a very important part in allowing us to move forward with pace and confidence.