What does Collaboration mean?

This involves two or three (perhaps more in appropriate circumstances) schools staying as separate schools, with separate governing bodies, but usually sharing a headteacher.  Another possibility would be for formal joint arrangements for some aspects of management and/or curriculum delivery but retaining separate headteachers. The governing bodies retain their individual powers, as now, but can if they wish decide to delegate certain functions to joint committees.  Initially at least, there does need to be a joint steering group of governors from all schools to hold the arrangement together, carrying out some duties, working on policies to recommend to the individual governing bodies, and promoting the collaboration (or confederation) to the community outside the schools.

It is important to note that each school within such a collaborative arrangement or confederation would retain its own status and character.  The legal agreement allows for any school within such an arrangement to withdraw after giving an agreed period of notice.

One example of schools beginning to move in this direction is St Peter’s, St Francis Xavier’s and St Mary’s in Doncaster.  There is no rush and there are no sacred cows!  The aim is to gently explore the options with a view to forming some form of formal arrangement for September 2006.

What does Federation mean?

This involves up to five schools (this can just be primary schools or it can be a mixture of primary and secondary) coming together under one or more headteachers, but under one governing body.  A federation can include any or all categories of schools.  Each school would retain its own status and character.

There are strict regulations on how such a governing body would be formed, to ensure that representation of all communities involved is as it should be.  Any group which would be represented on an ordinary school governing body will be represented on the federated governing body, which can vary in size between 9 and 20 members (or more if there is more than one headteacher)

Each school in the federation would continue to receive a separate budget under the LMS formula BUT the federated governing body could decide to pool these budgets, provided that they have fully documented financial structures in place and are able to maintain an audit trail for each school budget.

Since there would be only one set of governing body meetings, the decision making process under federation is simpler than under collaboration (or confederation), with the scope for faster decision making.

The regulations allow for any school in a federation to withdraw from the arrangements if it is not working satisfactorily, but this would be a far more complex arrangement than withdrawal from a confederation agreement.

One example of schools beginning to move in this direction is the Dearne Valley cluster of St Helen’s Hoyland, St Michael & All Angels Wombwell, and Sacred Heart, Goldthorpe.  Again, there is no rush and there are no sacred cows. The aim is to continue gently exploring the issues, getting to know each other and each others schools better, with a view to entering into a federation in September 2006 or 2007.  It is perhaps interesting to note that the three schools are now sharing one priest!

What are the likely advantages of collaboration or federation?

• Offers opportunities for enriching the curriculum for children by staff sharing expertise and experiences across a number of schools
• May produce savings on planning and administrative time, and assist in workforce remodelling
• Offers the opportunity for joint staffing arrangements, including specialist teachers, wider career opportunities and broader staff development and formation – helping us to “grow our own”
• Gives scope for even higher quality, stability and parental confidence in an era with fewer Catholic children
• Enables school communities to retain a distinctive Catholic curriculum by working together with other Catholic schools
• Is cost effective – providing economies of scale
• Has impact on the quality of education offered – OFSTED strongly supports links with other schools
• Offers opportunities to resolve some of our current headteacher recruitment and retention difficulties.  We believe we will not be able to sustain the number of schools we currently have in the future without this strategy – the status quo is not an option!

What is happening in other dioceses and in other parts of the country?

Some dioceses are starting to reduce the number of Catholic schools they have due to the decline in the number of baptised Catholic children and because of increasing concerns regarding the recruitment and retention of headteachers and deputy headteachers.

A small number of dioceses are moving in the same direction as we are and are actively moving towards collaboration and federation.

All dioceses face similar challenges to our own diocese of Hallam.  In June, officers from all our 22 diocese in England and Wales gathered at a national conference with colleagues from the CES and the DfES to explore the implications of collaboration and federation.  The conference also explored arrangements for collaboration and federation with Community and Church of England schools. At the present moment the diocese of Hallam is seeking to encourage Catholic schools to explore collaboration and federation with other Catholic schools and has no plans for other arrangements.  However, in September 2006, we will open our third joint Catholic / Church of England School.

Most LEA’s are exploring collaboration and federation. In North Yorkshire a number of confederations have been running for a number of years. Recent Ofsted inspections have judged these schools to be very good and the joint arrangements a success.  Three secondary schools have formed a confederated arrangement to enable them to manage certain curricular and administrative functions more effectively.  A number of schools in other parts of the country, faced with either a current headship vacancy, or expecting one in the next couple of years, are making enquiries.