MAY 2019 CHIEF EXECUTIVE NEWSLETTER

As we are about to enter the full exam season across both It is this behaviour policy in our primaries, where they primary and secondary academies I would like to thank proactively teach young children how to behave well, which you all for the tireless work you do to put our children has influenced our latest behaviour policy for our secondary first, raise standards and transform life-chances. A special academies. You may remember that in our Trust Sustained thanks to all those who go above and beyond running Improvement Plan back in 2017, we highlighted that we after-school sessions, holiday sessions, taking trips out but were working on a new behaviour policy and I’m pleased to also for turning up every day and delivering high-quality say that after a couple of years of collaboration, and bringing Martyn Oliver, CEO opportunities to our children to learn. together teams from across all of our secondary academies, we are now in a position to begin training on the new The last few months have been exceptionally busy for the system. My thanks go to Mark Hassack who has led on this Trust with even more Ofsteds! In my last newsletter, I work for the Trust. Secondary teachers, rest assured that told you we had four inspections between November and the changes have been minimalised for you in the classroom December 2018 (Darfield – Good, Brumby – Good, Danum to ensure that we do not add to your workload: you will – Good and Littleworth Grange – Good). Since January see when the training takes place that much of what is most 2019, we have had a further seven inspections: Acklam, successful about our current system remains exactly the Carlton, Bishopsgarth, City, Portland, Adwick, Ledger Lane. same, but there will be a greater emphasis on teaching good I genuinely believe that it is crucial that the school system behaviour using the primary model of Be Safe, Be Respectful has an independent regulator who can report directly and Be Responsible. Teaching behaviour then comes to the to parents, but as this has taken me to something like 58 forefront along with praise systems and generally a much inspections in my career to date I can tell you that I’ve had greater flexibility for principals to develop and use the enough of them for a while! systems which work best for their academy. We continue to work hard to develop our own alternative provision and/ It will take up this entire newsletter if I write in any length or collaborate with good local providers. To facilitate the about each one so I will leave it to you to go to each report training in this new policy and because we listened to you via our academy websites if you are interested in the details. all about how much has to be covered at the start of any Here is the summary with just a few short comments: new academic year, we have agreed to hold two INSET days back to back at the start of September so you get off to a Acklam had a no-notice short inspection that saw the flying start and we can free up more time in weekly L&P academy stay as Good. We expect a full inspection to take sessions to departments rather than whole academy issues. place shortly. Again, we have done this with workload in mind. Lastly, on this, we will soon also be able to demonstrate to you how had their first inspection since sponsorship and we have considered your workload in all of our systems and Portland remains an got Good. policies through a new plan which we can all use to ensure Outstanding school. that we can all maintain a healthy work/home balance. Bishopsgarth had their first inspection since sponsorship and got Good. I mentioned Mark Hassack above and I would now like to share with you all that Mark, along with Lynn James, has City had their second inspection since sponsorship that has been promoted to a full Executive Principal position with been a journey of Special Measures before we started to each of them running a ‘secondary region’. Mark is in charge Requires Improvement, to now Good with Outstanding of the Tees Valley region (north) with Andrew Wappat Leadership. supporting him as Associate Executive, Lynn is North Yorkshire, Wakefield and (central) with Sabiha Portland had a monitoring inspection and remains Laher supporting and Dr Phil Smith remains in our southern Outstanding. region (North Lincolnshire, Doncaster, Nottinghamshire, Sheffield and Derbyshire) with Carolyn Blundell in support. Adwick had a monitoring inspection which turned in to a full Please do congratulate both Mark and Lynn when you see inspection – I can’t comment on the outcome yet as it hasn’t them around. In the ‘north region’, we soon expect to start been published but look out for this in the next week or so. supporting Hillsview Academy which is currently with AET MAT. Hillsview has had some significant difficulties which Ledger Lane had their second full inspection since saw it achieve the joint worst Progress Score in England sponsorship and they achieved… Outstanding. last year. We have been approached by many stakeholders as the only ones who can solve this seemingly intractable All academies have areas that we continue to improve on problem. We are also expecting an announcement shortly but there are countless strengths and some wonderful on whether our application to deliver, for Middlesbrough quotes, allow me to give you just one from Ledger Lane, LA, a new 11-16 secondary Free School because the LA “pupils’ exemplary behaviour and positive attitudes to is short of pupils places and, again, stakeholders wanted learning contribute substantially to the strong progress they another OGAT academy in the area, has been successful. Outwood Primary make… The School’s expectations, Be Safe, Be Respectful, Academy Ledger Lane, Be Responsible, promote a highly positive culture.” an Outstanding school. Whilst I have been talking about behaviour in our If you have any questions relating to the job evaluation academies, and I will make the general observation that process, these can be sent to [email protected]. we are now dealing with more extreme behaviours than I Remember, this affects support staff only NOT teaching have noticed at any other time in my career, I am sure that staff. Although it may not be possible to respond to all it will not have escaped most of your attentions that the questions individually, we can include common questions education media in particular have been running numerous on future updates of the FAQ document. stories about the Trust. Much of them follow on from the coverage we received last summer about exclusions and Lastly, and to finish on another positive, here are a few good how we manage extreme behaviours when we go in to news stories from around the trust in the last few weeks predominantly special measures schools that have often and months: been failing for many years. I don’t want to waste your time or energy on this negativity except to say that I and We were delighted that the Year 11 boys team at Outwood my colleagues in the central team have been working hard Grange Academy beat Saddleworth School 30-16 in the Members of the newly to try and minimise any impact on you in your academies. final of The Rugby Football League’s National School formed Outwood Academy It is unfortunate that despite our best efforts, much of Championships. Brian Kelly and the academy community Brass band. the media goes for sensationalist ‘clickbait’ headlines and were delighted with the win, which followed on from the stories, and pays little or no regard to what we have told success of the current Year 11 girls team, who won their them. I would like to thank the dozens, even hundreds of academic year’s competition both last season and the you, who have either written to me or stopped and told season before. me about the transformations your schools have undergone through our collective efforts as a trust. Your positives far, I am pleased to say that Outwood Academy Shafton have far outweigh, both in importance and in number, the tiny a newly formed Outwood Academy Brass band: they are number who seek to cause dissent. Of course, any criticism incredibly talented students and we are delighted with their of our work is taken seriously; we can all always do better achievements so far. They are committed and enthusiastic in and we should be humble in striving to do the best that we every rehearsal and are extremely proud of their trophies can for children. As a reminder to us all, to facilitate good, from the Youth Championships and their performance with open and honest conversation we have a host of ways for the acclaimed Grimethorpe Colliery Band that followed as all staff to communicate concerns whether it be through a result. The National Youth Championship in Warwick was your line managers, through your trade unions (we regularly an incredible experience for the students and a day that meet the national trade union representatives at our Joint they will treasure. They did a fantastic job of representing Consultative Committee (JCC)) or through our policies and their community and are great ambassadors for keeping systems such as our Dignity at Work or Whistleblowing the tradition of ‘Brass Bands’ going for another generation. policies. We also will continue to use our staff survey Outwood Academy Brass have been nominated for Young system, which is carefully designed to guarantee complete Team of the Year - Entertainment category in Barnsley’s anonymity to ensure that we get to hear your honest views Young Champions’ awards: we wish them the very best Year 11 boys team, National and so we can act upon them. Your views count. of luck. School Rugby League Champions. Support staff pay and job evaluation: received a lovely letter from an On a very different topic now, I have written to you through MEP following a recent trip by Valley students to Brussels: these newsletters before that the Board and I have been ‘They were a credit to the school and the wider community determined to see our lowest paid staff attain at least the throughout the visit. They all contributed positively to real living wage threshold. I am now delighted to say that the programme and were excellent ambassadors for your our Board, even in these very challenging and austere times, school.’ fully implemented the new National Joint Council (NJC) pay scales for support staff on 01 April 2019. This was As some of you will know, we are currently building a brand something that was negotiated and agreed over a two year new school for Outwood Primary Academy Kirkhamgate period by the NJC (which includes the trade unions) and and have reached a stage of development where the whole enabled a number of the lower scale points to be deleted school community can see the reality of the plans taking in order to achieve the real living wage (note, deleted the shape. The two storey building is now well underway - and points, NOT the posts). This also linked to the new pay can even be seen from the M1 - and the roof established. scales being released and the re-classification of the Spinal It is a very exciting time for the academy, who will move Column Points (SCPs) from 6 to 49, to 1 to 43. There was into the building in the autumn term. Kirkhamgate is already an uplift of a minimum of 2% per year for all SCPs with an outstanding school and the new building will bring to the larger percentage increases for the lower SCPs. community the outstanding learning environment that it deserves. As this was such a significant and national change, we felt it important that it did not overlap with the work that we I wish you all the best for the summer term and, as we say Building an outstanding are undertaking internally on support staff job evaluation in replace of the phrase ‘Good Luck’ because it really isn’t learning environment at and made the decision to delay the implementation of job anything to do with ‘luck’, ‘Do Well’ to all our students Outwood Primary Academy evaluation until the new academic year. Further updates will in primary, secondary and Post 16 in the upcoming Kirkhamgate. be communicated in due course regarding job evaluation, examinations. and your trade union representatives will continue to be updated and consulted about the process.

Martyn Oliver CEO, Outwood Grange Academies Trust