All Through Schools for 3 – 19 year olds

School Modernisation Programme

Two major reviews:Primary Modernisation on an Area BasisSecondary/Post-16 Modernisation

Responding to the following pressures:• Falling rolls• Economic pressures on education• Need to raise educational standards• Ageing school buildings• Surplus capacity• Need to widen the secondary/post-16 curriculum

What happened?

May 2011:Llanidloes/Dyfi Valley Area Project Board establish All Through School Workstream Nov 2011:PCC Cabinet approve following recommendations :– To actively support the establishment of an All Through

School in the Dyfi Valley; and– To explore the feasibility of All Through Schools in other

catchment areas, linked to the Primary Modernisation Programme.

All Through Schools – research to assess the following:

• advantages and disadvantages of All Through Schools;• whether the model is likely to improve efficiency and

delivery of provision • impact on post-16 education;• impact on Welsh medium/bilingual learning;• to identify the various ways that all-though schools could

be established and the steps that need to be undertaken, including an outline timescale.

• to make recommendations about the feasibility of establishing an All-Through school in the Dyfi Valley and Llanidloes areas.

All Through School - Definition

‘a school that comprises multiple phases of Education provision (usually primary and secondary) in a single institution’.

DfES All Age Schooling: A Resource

What does the research tell us?

Evidence from inspection findings in Scotland suggest that ‘All Through Schools have consistently identified the following strengths:• ‘climate and ethos, including the quality of relationships; • partnerships with parents and the local community; and• meeting the needs of young people with additional

support needs.’ • Learning Together: Opening up learning in all-through

schools - HM Inspectorate of Education, Scotland, 2009

Educational BenefitsThese are some of the potential benefits of All Through Schools:

• Different phases work together to raise standards • share specialist staff and curriculum expertise • increase opportunities for collaborative and cost-effective professional

development • share specialist accommodation and learning resources • improve transition arrangements between primary and secondary phases • share good practice, including ideas for effective curriculum planning and delivery • deliver more cost effectively a broader curriculum that respond to pupils’ needs –

possible to restructure the key phases 3- 7, 8-14, 14 - 19• take joint action to tackle inclusion in relation, for example, to pupils with EAL,

disabilities or additional learning needs, which individual schools might find difficult to sustain alone

Efficiency of All Through Schools

• reduce planning and administrative costs by exploiting economies of scale;

• extend the reach and impact of the strongest leaders, teachers and governors in the participating schools; and

• enable the employment of shared staff

ChallengesResearch from Scotland suggests ‘there are currently only a few instances where all-through schools are fully exploiting their all-through context to the full’.

• Cultural : establishing a single school – not just two schools under a single roof • creating a unified vision for the school • school leaders having equal familiarity with primary and secondary phase

practice • shared planning of the curriculum and delivering learning • shared understanding of standards and expectations • exploiting the flexibility afforded by shared staffing, accommodation and

resources • enabling pupils of different ages to work together • recognising and raising pupil achievement within each phase

Challenges

Discussions with the Llanidloes/Machynlleth ATS Workstream noted the following:

• Relationships with other feeder primaries• Create a two-tier approach• Schools become too large

Summary• Evidence of educational and financial benefit• Opportunity for leadership and management• Challenges to be overcome

The Authority should consider ATS based on the following conditions:• Where an All Through School could be established on a single site, and

therefore allow cross-phase educational and financial benefits to be realised; and/or

• Where an All Through School model would bring about a school of a sufficient size to be financially sustainable (‘critical mass’)

Other, local, factors:• An urgent need to make major investment decision in people or property, to

sustain and improve educational outcomes for pupil;• Local stakeholder support

Conditions in Llanidloes and Dyfi Valley

Machynlleth LlanidloesPossible to establish on single site

New single-sited school planned as part of Powys 21st C Schools Programme.

Yes – secondary and primary schools already share campus, and have established joint committee

Achieve critical mass of pupils

Current secondary school very small - the new ATS would have a population of approx 550.

Not a driver

Investment decisions required

Acting heads in both schools – need to establish permanent leadership

Not a driver – permanent head in High School, recruitment underway in Primary School

Local support Local solution proposed by schools in the area (June 2010) Evidence of some support (informal consultation Spring 2011)

Local solution proposed by schools in the area (Spring 2011) Significant community support (informal consultation Spring 2011)

Options for collaboration and governance of an All Through School

• Informal Partnership• Formal Collaboration• Federation• Single School, through amalgamation