HeadTeacher is leaving and looks unlikely to be replaced

[YourOpinionsPlease]

Does anyone have any experience of their primary school becoming a federation status school?

The HT at our small primary school is leaving and the governers have said that it is going to be difficult to attract applicants for the vacant post.

They have therefore decided to explore the idea of joining forces with another school - so each school will have a team leader role and then a super-HT who would oversee both schools.

I am concerned that it will have a negative impact on the school, but would like to hear of any positive experiences.

Thanks

bump

The problem is that there is a headteacher recruitment problem and small schools usually don't attract many applicants because the salary isn't high enough. The differential between deputies and heads can be quite small, so for example a deputy head in a medium sized school might be taking a salary cut for a headship in a smaller school.

I've been a governor at several schools and although had no first hand experience of federations, the theory is that a federation is beneficial to children because a federation superhead is likely to be very experienced, dynamic etc. (also would be well paid so would attract good applicants). Also schools in the federation can share resources eg computers and expert staff, and this can mean a more exciting and stimulating education. If a federation goes ahead, as you say, although there'll only be one head, there would be a deputy head in each school who will in charge on a day to day basis.

I believe that there is a clearly defined legal process which includes parent consultation, so there should be meetings where parents can voice concerns.

Hopefully some parents will come along here with some first hand views.

Thanks Manic

There is a local problem with recruitment, several vacant HT posts at the moment

Manicmummy has said everything I was going to say. There are several federations, for similar reasons, in our part of the county. I don't have any firsthand experience, but I do know that it is generally considered that a good federation head will be easier to attract than a head for a very small school who will start on a much lower point on the pay scale. Does the current head at your school also teach? If so, you might find that it will be more efficient for the school to have a federation head in a non-teaching role and a school-based deputy head who teaches. It all depends on finding the right people for the roles you have defined, IME, rather than the the job title.

Don't despair yet. We were told that we wouldn't get any applicants for our school but in the end got 6. OK, it's a bigger school.

Also I forgot to say, I think if as a governor I was in this position, I would be in favour of trying first to get a head, then proceed down the federation route if this was unsuccessful. Problem with this is that the headteacher recruitment process costs thousands of pounds in admin (advert in national press, services of personnel dept, etc) so the governors might be reluctant to even try if the local authority knows from experience that you're unlikely to get a good head.

More information.

I think Federations will be much more common in the future - HT pay is restricted according to the banding of the school, which in turn is dependant on the size of teh school. Small schools are really going to struggle to attract heads, and then retain them once the Head gets to the top of the scale allowed by the school's banding.

lots of schools round our way are federating - I think it works ok. However, we are also a small rural school (80-90 children) and were told it is almost impossible to get new heads - we advertised twice - didn't get many applicants but did end up with a very good new head.

We (as governors) chose to try both routes - explore federation whilst advertising for a full time head.

thanks everyone

the link looks really informative, Hassled