EAST SUSSEX PRIMARY HEADS MEETING

1. EAST SUSSEX PRIMARY HEADS MEETING Development of Area Groups, Alliances and School to School support Margaret Coleman and Anne Radford 20th June 2014

2. Agenda for today’s discussion • Background and context - our local alliance work to date • Where next – why develop Area Groups? • What will the Area Groups do and how will they do it? • What are the potential benefits to schools? • What are the next steps and timetable?

3. Where we are in the development of school alliances • In response to the changing role of the LA and move towards school-to-school support, many existing strong partnerships have evolved into alliance groups • Since 2013 most schools have engaged with a local alliance ` • There are some very strong alliances across the county and good practice is underpinning the moves forward in supporting school improvement • Impact is difficult to demonstrate at this stage but there are some good models to share and develop

4. Why establish new Area Groups? • To build on good practice that already exists in the county in many alliances • Aim is to ensure all schools are part of groups with sufficient size and capacity to: • Make school-to-school support effective • Work together on a range of common issues and challenges • Develop a valuable CPD and professional development offer • Model is based on research from Teaching School Alliances and other partnerships at national level, which suggest geographical proximity and sufficient size are critical • Area groups should strengthen local alliance partnerships and build on and develop existing good work. Schools will continue to work within local alliances • Area Groups provide the structure through which the LA can increasingly devolve resources and responsibility for school improvement to groups of schools

5. What will Area Groups do and how will they do it? Area groups will need to be able to: • Accurately identify school needs • Build capacity for school to school support • Commission support from a range of providers • Evaluate the impact of support & interventions The new area groups will need: • schools with expertise & capacity to lead the work to build sustainable capacity • a level of coordination to achieve results • a ‘pool’ of system leaders • a collaborative operating model and clarity of purpose • Shared responsibility for outcomes • We expect the area groups will have: • Representation from each of the alliances • A mix of cross-phase representation • A Headteacher leading/chairing the group • In terms of funding: • Co-ordinating capacity provided inititailly by the Local Authority through both financial and staffing support • Core funding will be provided from the Local Authority on agreement of a plan setting out key area priorities • Additional funding may be provided to support work with RI or SM schools

6. What are the potential benefits of this approach for schools? • Ensure no schools are isolated and can access support when they need it • Strengthen the capacity available to meet support needs of individual schools • Enable schools to work together on a range of common challenges and issues e.g. leadership development, teacher recruitment, initial teacher training • Enable East Sussex schools to be commissioned to provide support to other East Sussex schools including schools requiring improvement or in special measures • Development of sustainable models that enable schools to provide school to school support

7. What are the next steps and timetable? • Alliance Executive Committee proposals for Governance and Funding - July • Confirmation of the membership of the Area Groups - July • Nominations from alliances of representatives for Area Groups - July • First meeting of Area Groups - September • Plans and funding for Area Groups agreed - October