Joseph Sparks, Principal of Bexleyheath Academy, shares insights into the journey of an 'improve' school. This is the third in a series from school leaders in each quadrant of AET’s network improvement framework.
To truly understand the improvement priorities of Bexleyheath Academy, you need to know where we’ve come from. In 2018, we were placed in Special Measures. At the time, behaviour was challenging, which made teaching difficult. Where teachers struggled to teach, they became disengaged; here begins the vicious cycle of a failing school.
While I am the school's Principal, I initially joined as an Assistant Principal. Taking on the challenge of Bexleyheath Academy was personal for me.
Bexley is the area where I grew up and went to school. It’s highly selective, with four grammar schools nearby. Inevitably, this breeds instability because of the butterfly effect on those neighbouring schools. Ofsted ratings ricochet back and forth, depending on whether strong leaders can be retained. Children that didn’t pass the 11+ often believe that they are not good enough, and it’s disadvantaged and SEND pupils that suffer the most.
Throughout the turnaround period, behaviour was our foremost priority. Through a strong behavioural team, we established systems to take behaviour issues away from teachers. Removing administrative behaviour duties allowed teachers to focus on three things: planning great lessons, teaching great lessons, and assessing their pupils’ work. This approach - plan, teach, assess - is still followed today and means there is no excuse for poor teaching at the academy.
Now, just a few years later, the school is unrecognisable. Last year, we had the highest improvement in outcomes from the 21 secondary schools in our trust. For local residents, every day is an open day. We are proud to show that no matter when you come to visit us - we have absolutely nothing to hide.
We are categorised as an ‘improve’ school in our trust’s network improvement model and looking to the next step to sustain an excellent education.
Still, the impact of the local grammar school system is acutely felt in our school. Now that we have demonstrated improvement, we have felt the brunt of an education landscape in constant shift. As neighbouring schools have become more unstable, we have become the most popular school locally. In 2019, our roll sat around 1,000. On current trends, we will double in size in two years time.
Turning around a school in special measures was considerable work. But despite the recent history of our school, the past year has been the hardest. Becoming the school of choice in the local community has been a double-edged sword. Last year, the number of in-year admissions reached the equivalent of a full-year group - around 200 - adding significant pressure without resources to match.
Everyone in education will have their unique personal drive. For me, it’s getting this school to a place where students pass the 11+ grammar school entrance test but still choose Bexleyheath Academy because our offer is stronger. That will hopefully be my contribution to this area, but to do this, our school needs clear focus on our improvement priorities.
There are many priorities that we need to focus on to move up the quadrant to become a ‘sustain’ school: improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching so that there is consistency in every classroom; equip students to secure stronger destinations; and move away from our current behaviour systems, to one where pupils self-regulate.
Our progress may be hampered in the short term by fighting the tide from our local surroundings, but these challenges will strengthen us in the long run. It means there is no room to waste resources or time on aspects of school life that do not lead to improvement. We are acting with even more precision to develop solutions to target our priorities.
Staff development is the rising tide that will lift all boats. Many of our staff at the school have been here during the turnaround period. We deployed a command and control model as a leadership team during that time, prescriptive about what we needed from our staff to ensure absolute consistency. The next phase of our improvement journey rests on how we can switch the mindset of our staff to create a new layer of highly effective middle leadership.
Considerable emphasis is on coaching and development to give our staff more ownership over their performance. Through coaching, staff are challenged and given the understanding behind our actions rather than just the methods. This has to be non-judgemental. During that turnaround period, we were the ones who constrained their ability to exercise personal judgement.
During our ebb, we tightened the bolts. As a result, our staff have an operational approach. Now, we need to loosen them so that they become strategic and are empowered to take total accountability for classroom performance.
And the timing of this improvement phase couldn't have mirrored the journey of our trust, AET, any better. For our trust, our mantra is to “pivot from turnaround to high-performance". At school, we have embraced this message to galvanise our staff.
Like it is for all of the schools within our trust, our attention is geared towards AET 490 - 90% attainment on headline measures. These ambitions, focusing on English and Maths, represent an entitlement to excellence for all students in every classroom, every day.
However, we liked it so much at Bexleyheath Academy that we built on it further. We are aiming for All 90.
AET490 is an ambitious floor standard across our network from which to build, but there is still more to be done to ensure that every young person can reach their full potential. All 90 brings a range of staff into the fold with new targets. For example, our music department is developing a music scholarship program so 90 new pupils can learn an instrument.
Targets like these mean that we can retain our commitment to equip pupils with the fundamental knowledge to succeed but that we never narrow our ambitions to recognise that a wide education offer is needed for all students to thrive.
Importantly, All 90 reinforces a sense of togetherness amongst our staff. It is connected to our shared journey. As was the case during the turnaround period, we are bringing the whole school along until we reach high-performance.
Many of our staff have been with us through the lows. A new vision to see this school become truly high-performing is everything. Collective belief will be key as we try to move from an improving school to one that sustains excellence. The challenge is substantial, but we face it together.
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Explore the rest of this series to learn more about the improvement priorities of schools at AET. Written by leaders from different quadrants - stabilise, repair, improve and sustain - of the trust's network improvement model, this series reveals the diversity and similarities of the school improvement journeys.