Benefits
Our innovative approach to school management has the potential to yield the following benefits:
For the students in the schools
- A principal more able to concentrate on the core business of teaching and learning with other activities managed centrally;
- Access to a range of 14 to 19 courses across the group of schools.
For the Principals
- Managed induction and mentoring of the new principal in any of the group's schools;
- Immediate reference to an experienced principal for advice, support and guidance;
- Empathetic support from other principals in the group;
- An experienced principal available to handle crises, relationships with the press and local politics;
- Some managerial functions being taken over by central or group services;
- Promotion possibilities within the group and elsewhere as this model becomes more widespread.
For the senior management teams
- The opportunity to work across a number of schools;
- The opportunity to be influential in the development of new schools;
- The opportunity to participate in the development of a new management model.
For the Governors
- An executive principal who is able to act as an objective evaluator of a school's performance for governors;
- An executive principal who is able to act as an objective evaluator of the principal's performance;
- An executive principal who is an active promoter of the group's ethos acting to ensure that the climate in each school is in line with expectations;
- An executive principal who is an insurance in case of the illness or underperformance of the principal.
For each school
- Access to the expertise of staff in the whole group;
- Economies in the appointment of staff, especially non-teaching senior professionals who may be shared between the schools;
- Provision of shared services e.g. catering, grounds maintenance, financial management etc.;
- Increased opportunities for staff across the group of schools for training and for promotion;
- Opportunities for sharing expertise, e.g. in vocational education or data management;
- Increased opportunities for disaffected students to have a fresh start within the group.
For sponsors
- A person available to manage any proposed expansion of the family of schools;
- A single reference point for the group's performance;
- A person able to act so as to ensure that the sponsors' interests are represented at all times.
Brooke Weston is known for challenging the orthodox in education.
This new approach to school management represents another occasion on which the college is committed to trying a new approach in the quest to raise standards.