Gail Weir, Headteacher of Waverley School, spoke to us about the school’s experience of partnership with Challenge Partners, including the Growing the Top (GtT) Programme, the Quality Assurance Review (QAR) and membership of the London Special and AP Hub.
Located in Enfield, London, Waverley School is an Outstanding complex needs special school for children and young people aged 3 to 19. The school has been partnered with Challenge Partners since 2017.
When did you first hear about Challenge Partners, and why did you join? How long have you been partnered with us?
I have a close friend who also works in a special school and is a part of Challenge Partners. She said undertaking a QAR was the best CPD she has ever had which piqued my interest. I’ve been partnered with Challenge Partners for a number of years now.
When did you join the GtT programme and why?
We were actively involved in Challenge Partners for a period of two years when I first learned about GtT. I was interested in understanding the exemplary practices employed by schools demonstrating Outstanding practice because I wanted to make sure that we were challenging ourselves. I wanted to avoid becoming insular and really wanted to challenge our school and actively seek opportunities to incorporate strategies that other successful schools were using.
I was really happy with the outcome of GtT because it allowed me to be grouped with other headteachers who were in a similar position to ourselves. We found we were able to speak freely with each other as we weren’t reviewing one another, so to speak. Instead, we were paired up to share. It was an excellent experience and if I have a query I still reach out to the headteachers in our trio to bounce ideas off them.
How did taking part in the programme support you in moving forward with any challenges you face? Are there actions you took as a result of the conversations during visit days?
Waverley is a busy school and we were judged as Outstanding at our last Ofsted, however, we know that there is always room for improvement. We’re also quite self-critical so we were aiming to use the GtT visits to monitor that.
The feedback we received was really useful because before they visited us, they weren’t sure if we were impressive because our website didn't accurately showcase the great things that we do. As a result, we looked at other Outstanding schools’ websites and noticed a common denominator: There was a headteacher and staff member interview. We decided we needed to introduce this to our website too! We hired a film company to video what we do in school and it was probably one of the nicest things we did last year. To watch the video and say ‘that is our school’ was great. The company captured what we do really well and while we were nervous about creating the film it was an excellent experience and all came about as a result of GtT.
Where were the schools in your trio for GtT in 2022/23? Was there anything you saw in the visit days to these schools which you wanted to bring back into your own school?
We were paired with one school in central London and one in Kent. One school was similar to our own, they had introduced phonics and at this time we weren’t sure which scheme we were going to introduce within our own school. The school was able to tailor this theme for our visit; the headteacher called and asked me what we would like to see and I was able to say that we were about to choose a phonics scheme. The school demonstrated the programme really well for us, we spoke to the Literacy Lead who explained how they decided on the scheme, demonstrating how they brought it into the school and the impact it was having on the children. It enabled us a far better understanding of what we needed.
The other school was very different from our own. It was helpful to have an opportunity to look at a different school which allowed us to ask questions about funding, philosophies and policies.
In the feedback you noted the programme has caused heads of department to review practice in their departments - has this brought about any change?
The heads of departments are very self-reflective and they sometimes lack a bit of confidence in their own abilities. Allowing them to speak and explain what it is they do and how they lead their department enabled them to develop their confidence and to reflect on what they were doing and why they were doing it. The programme built them as leaders and allowed them to be professionally curious and ask questions and then share these with the other staff in their department.
What do you as a school use the QAR for and what is the value of it for you?
For our school leaders, it allows the deputy heads to be involved in an analytical way as they look at the quality of teaching and learning. They bring the analytical approach back into school and I don't know where I'd get this from if not from Challenge Partners. The way the review is organised and the way the Lead Reviewer encourages Reviewers to speak to members of staff enables our staff to bring back ideas and challenge to our own school. It creates great leaders. There is a real danger within schools that we are so busy with the day to day that we end up doing what we have always done. While there is some merit in that, I think it’s important to challenge ourselves and not become stagnant.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
The London Special and AP Hub meetings are incredibly useful and were especially helpful throughout Covid. I find the meetings a really good opportunity to meet with other school leaders and ask questions. The hub is a proper network of people who are in similar positions and we can ask the hub lead questions which provides us with a supportive arm.
We thank Gail Weir for taking the time to talk to us. If you are a partner with Challenge Partners and would like to share your story, contact partnershipsteam@challengepartners.org and we would love to talk to you!