new chief executive Lee Wilson<\/a> has unveiled a \u201ccommunity-based\u201d approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStaying local<\/h3>\n\n\n\n He said this will allow the trust to \u201creally understand the challenges individual schools face\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trust has been criticised in the past for having a franchise-style education model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, the \u201cbig school improvement team\u201d that sat centrally will be broken up and instead be assigned to one of the new 12 clusters of four schools. It means each will have a local specialist director in English, maths, science, languages and humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The directors will spend the fifth day of each week focusing \u201con priorities for the entire trust\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within each of the 12 clusters, schools will also be identified as technology, creative arts, PE, careers and vocational education hubs. They will then support others with \u201chigh-quality provision\u201d instead of receiving it \u201cfrom a central view\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the \u201ccentral aspect will always be there to drive and champion the very best outcomes\u201d, Wilson said the trust will focus more on \u201cbuilding school-to-school support\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This \u201ccreates something that\u2019s much more empowering for the schools themselves\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The specialists will help their clusters establish their own priorities for focused support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new focus on \u201clocality\u201d will be symbolised by the logos of Outwood\u2019s schools. The school\u2019s name and its own imagery will now be the \u201cbiggest bit\u201d, instead of the OGAT logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You go through a phase where the nature of what you’re doing \u2013 turning around individual schools \u2013 comes to a point where you say ‘what does it look like when you’re mature’,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHolistically as a trust it’s about shifting your mind from the first 15 years has been about transformation, [and] the next 15 years has to be about the sustainability of the transformation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growth slowdown<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The CEO said the trust-wide curriculum would remain, along with consistent teaching and learning models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the past, [central team] people have gone to where across the family [of schools] it\u2019s felt they\u2019re needed most. That\u2019s what you do when you\u2019re in that transformation stage,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s about the equity of resource to make sure we\u2019re always driving improvement but not [be] dependent on a central source.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OGAT has also entered \u201ca period of considered, careful growth\u201d, Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has no plans to take on the typical turnaround school it is associated with.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSir Martyn Oliver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHe explained: \u201cWe can\u2019t right now take a school that needs a high level of fixing because I want to make sure this new way of working is not just words on a page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not a never [to growth] because if we have primary schools that feed into our secondaries, we of course would look at that sponsorship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But in terms of what we were in the past \u2013 there\u2019s a school in special measures, \u2018Outwood\u2019s going to sponsor it\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another big shift is placing more emphasis on \u201cfamily and community engagement\u201d within its schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previous chief executive Sir Martyn Oliver, who left the role to run Ofsted, started work on the policy by getting primaries to emulate some of the functions of children\u2019s centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exclusions focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Wilson has extended this to his secondaries. In each of the 12 clusters, schools will work with local authorities and police to run events on their premises. This will \u201callow parents to come in for different reasons, so the first call isn\u2019t going to be \u2018your child\u2019s suspended today\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cIn one of our schools we run group therapy and parent counselling. We also have wellbeing events and healthy cooking, where a company sponsors a family having a slow cooker and we take them through a series of recipes for under \u00a35 with the child there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson said this has built \u201cstronger relationships with families, particularly the most hard to reach\u201d in his primaries and improved attendance, especially at Outwood Primary Academy Woodlands in Doncaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He hopes this will also reduce exclusion rates at his secondaries. Schools Week analysis last year showed the trust\u2019s secondaries excluded twice as many pupils as other schools in some of their regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trust has been criticised \u2013 including by Ofsted \u2013 over its exclusion and suspension rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics have said a turnaround model based on high exclusion rates is \u201cnot sustainable school improvement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson said: \u201cThis is not me saying it\u2019s a silver bullet, it will fix everything \u2013 it won\u2019t\u2026 It will be part of ensuring our schools are really accessible to parents and the community and there\u2019s a shared understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Outwood Grange moves away from ‘central view’ of education – and will even pause taking on the toughest schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311204,"featured_media":201789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32],"post-theme":[2381],"class_list":["post-213361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-academies","post-theme-academies"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t
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