Longdendale High School and Astley Sports College

LONGDENDALE

HIGH SCHOOL

We endeavour to achieve and aspire to be successful

Consultation regarding the proposal to establish a Multi Academy Trust including conversion to Academy Status

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the proposal?

Our proposal is for two schools within Tameside to join a newly created Multi Academy Trust, named the ASPIRE+ Trust. The two schools will be Longdendale High School and Astley Sports College.

The two schools have been working closely together for some time and since January 2016 have had a shared leadership structure. Both schools have already beneﬁtted from this collaboration and partnership. The MAT will be supported by the A+ Trust which both schools already have an existing relationship with and currently benefit from the support for school development and improvement.

2. How would this proposal beneﬁt our school?

We believe that pupils and staff will benefit greatly from the formal partnership that a MAT offers, which will include opportunities such as:

 A broader and more tailored curriculum offer which suits the needs of our learners  Potential for extended learning and increased enrichment activities  More opportunities for sharing and exploring best practice within teaching and learning  Bespoke professional development for teaching and support staff  Greater accountability and responsibility for Headteachers/Governors  Cost and resource efficiencies allowing for greater economies of scale

The support of the ASPIRE+ Trust will mean the schools can draw upon expertise in school-to- school support, access a range of high-quality services and beneﬁt from system leadership. We believe that we can bring enhanced beneﬁts and opportunities to students and our whole school community by formalising these existing working relationships and ensuring greater accountability and responsibility.

3. How will the children beneﬁt?

If the schools convert to academy status within this MAT, each will still have their own identity and degree of autonomy. The students will still belong to their school as before and will be taught in the same classrooms by the same teaching staff, so initially there is much continuity. Each school will continue to strive for an outstanding education for all its students.

However, in time students will hopefully notice changes and improvements in the way that they learn, mostly as a result of new training opportunities given to teaching staff to innovate and improve their learning. They will also have wider opportunities to learn new skills and experience new activities. The new governance structure will enhance the level of accountability on the drive for improvement. Decision-making can be enhanced and provision can develop in a more accelerated way.

Executive Headteacher: Mr Bowler BA (Hons) NPQH Headteacher: Mrs A Jones BA (Hons) NPQH Spring Street, Hollingworth, Hyde, Cheshire SK14 8LW T:01457 764006 F:01457 766483 E:[email protected] W:www.longdendale.tameside.sch.uk

ACHIEVEMENT  SUCCESS  PROFESSIONALISM  INTEGRITY  RESPECT  ENDEAVOUR

4. Are there any negatives associated with joining a MAT?

As with any significant change there are things that need to be considered before being able to make a decision about which way to proceed. The common areas for concern when opting to join a MAT are:

 Potential loss of identity of individual school profile  Potential loss of autonomy as a result of central accountabilities  Potential short-term increase in costs before longer-term benefits are realised  Isolation from the rest of the system  Rapid growth of MAT causing capacity to be stretched and weakening individual schools

Governors and school leaders have considered the above issues at length and whilst we recognise these are valid areas of concern we do not feel that they are issues that will necessarily affect us. We are responsible for shaping the way in which the MAT operates and can set up a model that works for our schools. This is a unique opportunity for both schools to mould a MAT that fits in with our inclusive approaches and retains the ethos, values and vision that we have carefully crafted in the last few years.

The above concerns would perhaps feel more pressing if the MAT was a new, external body that had not grown out of our vision of what a school should look like or indeed if it was not invested in Tameside and the local community. The operating model our new MAT will implement is the one that has already brought success and is one that existing leaders have developed. Ultimately we feel the very real benefits massively outweigh any negatives and that a decision to form a MAT will support us in our vision for creating world-class schools. We will continue to be active in the A+ Trust and in the wider association of Tameside schools and have no intention of becoming isolated, on the contrary, we believe that MAT membership will enhance our position in the whole system to the benefit of our students and staff. We are very conscious of the need to not grow the MAT beyond our capacity and will ensure that we manage a growth strategy that is never of detriment to the schools that belong. Rather than weaken our capacity we feel that we have increased opportunity to confidently plan recruitment, retention, training and development of staff from within the MAT and our associated partners.

5. What will be the impact on staff?

Currently, all staff are employed by Tameside Local Authority. After conversion, all staff will be employed by the new MAT. Staff are legally protected to transfer under the same employment terms and conditions, including pensions. If the decision to proceed with academisation and the MAT is made staff will be provided with further information on how they are affected and a comprehensive consultation will take place. Being part of the MAT will provide greater opportunities for career progression and development. Already staff are working together on a range of teaching, learning, curriculum and pupil support projects across both schools.

ACHIEVEMENT  SUCCESS  PROFESSIONALISM  INTEGRITY  RESPECT  ENDEAVOUR

6. What is an academy and what is a multi-academy trust?

An academy is an independent state school that is run by an academy trust. The academy trust enters into an agreement with the Secretary of State for Education that sets out its responsibilities and accountabilities for the effective running of the academy. The academy is funded directly by the Government and is no longer run (maintained) by the Local Authority. The academy trust is given charitable exemption, which means it must operate much like a charity. A multi-academy trust (MAT) has two or more academies as members.

As of 1 October 2016 there were 5758 open academies (primary, secondary, special, alternative provision, post 16 and all through) in England. Of all state funded schools (excluding free schools, studio schools and UTCs) 65% of secondary schools and 21% of primary schools are academies.

In our region of Lancashire and West Yorkshire there are 565 open academies:

 295 of which are primary  233 of which are secondary  10 of which are all-through  There are 19 special schools and 8 alternative provision schools  There are currently 147 schools in the pipeline, within our region, to become either convertor or sponsored academies

In addition to the numbers above there are 63 open free schools with a further 24 in the pipeline. Although legislation to force all schools to become academies has been suspended at this stage, the momentum for all schools to be academies is a clear and unwavering expectation of government. Local Authorities find it increasingly difficult to offer the support that is required to support and challenge schools effectively.

7. How will the MAT trust and the schools be run?

The MAT will have a Board of Directors made up of a mixture of current Governors, School Leaders and people with particular skills and expertise to help it run efﬁciently, effectively and compliantly.

Although the Board would have a number of legal and regulatory powers it would delegate many of its powers to Local Governing Bodies and Committees. Local Governing Bodies would continue to have a mixture of representatives which could be made up from parents, staff and local communities.

Each Headteacher would still be responsible for running their own school. The two Headteachers along with the Executive Headteacher, would form an Executive group to develop plans for partnership working and collaboration.

ACHIEVEMENT  SUCCESS  PROFESSIONALISM  INTEGRITY  RESPECT  ENDEAVOUR

8. Would the school have to change its name, logo or uniform?

There is no obligation to change any of these things on conversion. There will need to be an element of change to the existing branding of both schools to incorporate the name of the MAT within each school. However, there will not be any need to change the name or uniform at Longdendale High School. As Astley will be a sponsored academy there is a need to consider changing the name and uniform of the school and this will be done in partnership with students, parents, carers and staff and if necessary a separate period of consultation will be entered into in order to obtain feedback and suggestions. If a change is agreed we will ensure that this process is managed and implemented in an appropriate timescale that does not adversely impact on our families.

9. Will we get more money as an academy?

Academies receive the same amount of per-pupil funding as they would receive from the Local Authority as a maintained school. They also receive additional funding in the form of the Education Services Grant to cover the responsibilities of the MAT, instead of Tameside LA receiving that money, and to cover the additional costs of academy status. The whole of the school budget would come direct to the school from central government allowing the school to control the whole of their finances and spending. As part of a multi-academy trust, we may also achieve greater efficiencies through increased buying power and joint commissioning of services; such as school equipment, catering and cleaning. The schools have already prepared future budgets and are suitably confident of the proposed MAT’s financial viability. The Education Funding Agency would not support conversion without confidence in the financial management of the school budgets and these continue to be monitored closely after conversion.

10. How will admissions to the school be affected?

The application process for parents and carers will remain the same. The MAT will become the admitting authority for the two schools and each would have its own admissions policy. Any future policy changes would need to be clear and fair and in line with the admissions law and the School Admissions Code. The Local Authority will continue to have responsibility for making sure there are sufﬁcient school places locally and to coordinate the admissions process for all schools.

11. Will our responsibilities in relation to SEND and exclusions change?

No. Responsibilities in an academy in relation to Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) and exclusions will be just the same as they are now.

12. Can a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan nominate an academy as their school of choice?

Yes. Schools converting to academy status can retain the admissions criteria they currently use. These arrangements and related processes must at all times comply with the School Admissions Code.

ACHIEVEMENT  SUCCESS  PROFESSIONALISM  INTEGRITY  RESPECT  ENDEAVOUR

13. Will academies be free from the Ofsted inspection regime?

No. Academies are inspected in the same way as maintained schools. Each school will continue to be inspected individually. The performance of all schools will continue to be monitored and if there are signs of deterioration, or other factors likely to cause concern, these could trigger an inspection.

14. What is the process to become an academy?

There are two ways that a school can become an academy:

a) Where a school is ‘eligible for intervention’, the Regional Schools Commissioner, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, can issue an order to close a school and re-open it as an academy with an external sponsor - this applies to Astley. Where an academy order is issued because they are ‘eligible for intervention’, the Education and Adoption Act 2016 has effectively removed the right to consultation over whether it should become an academy and over the identity of the sponsor, however as the ASPIRE+ MAT is evolving out of our vision and values we are still interested in hearing the views of the Astley community.

b) The governors of a school can voluntarily apply for academy status. This is known as a voluntary conversion - this applies to Longdendale. In this case, the decision to apply for academy status is taken by the governors. Having registered their interest in academy status with the DfE, the governors have to vote in favour of a resolution to convert to academy status. The application goes to the Secretary of State for Education but in practice will be considered by the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Head Teacher Board. Once the academy application is approved, an ‘academy order’ is issued which gives the school the legal right to start the conversion process, apply for the conversion grant, establish new governance arrangements, register the academy trust and so on. Once all the legal arrangements are in place, the academy trust signs the funding agreement with the Secretary of State or her representative and the academy conversion process is complete. The whole transfer process can take as little as three to four months from start to finish.

Governors, the Executive Headteacher and other senior leaders have, for a considerable length of time, been exploring academisation and MAT status. This proposal for the governance, leadership and management structure of a MAT has already been presented to both Governing Bodies. We needed to seek approval for the MAT from the DFE prior to consultation. The fact that we have approval to form the MAT does not, in any way, prejudice this consultation process. Longdendale has the opportunity to join the MAT and become a converter academy. The situation for Astley is different as the school is already under a Directive Academy Order and must convert and join a MAT.

ACHIEVEMENT  SUCCESS  PROFESSIONALISM  INTEGRITY  RESPECT  ENDEAVOUR

Following this consultation period, a report of responses will be prepared and presented to both Governing Bodies. If the outcome is to proceed with the proposal the necessary steps will be taken with the DfE in order to obtain an Academy Order for Longdendale. It is proposed that the new MAT and the conversion of both schools will take place at an appropriate point during 2017.

15. I have further questions/would like to make comments, who do I contact?

We understand that this change needs careful consideration and as our community your views will be taken into account before final decisions are made. We will also be working with the Student Union to take account of student views in this important decision about their school. The formal consultation period is to be held between Monday 14th November - Friday 24th November 2016.

‘Consultation Q&A drop-ins’ will be held on Monday 21st November at Longdendale High School and Astley Sports College on Tuesday 22nd November. These drop-ins will operate between 4- 6pm where parents, carers and members of the wider community will be welcome to come into school and meet with school leaders and governors to ask any additional questions you may have. We have also produced a questionnaire which you can return to the school and also set up a special email address for you to either return the questionnaire or send in any comments and these will be considered by the governing body. If you have any feedback on the proposal which you would like governors to consider please complete and return the attached questionnaire or email your comments to: [email protected] or [email protected] by Friday 24th November 2016.

ACHIEVEMENT  SUCCESS  PROFESSIONALISM  INTEGRITY  RESPECT  ENDEAVOUR