In general, headteachers are appointed in time to prepare for establishing the new school. Preparation time varies from 18 months to a few days. This often depends upon the circumstances surrounding the closure of the existing schools and the length of the consultation period. Where headteachers are appointed in a timely manner, they have opportunities to learn from established all-age schools and to consider how best to apply the learning to their own context. As a result, they are able to plan strategically for policy and practice and develop a clear vision for the new school. These headteachers also play a prominent part in, firstly, appointing senior staff and later appointing all other staff. These headteachers successfully establish a new ethos and culture, for example by rebranding the school, creating a whole school vision and bringing all staff together to establish a shared sense of purpose. It appears that allowing a headteacher adequate time to plan and prepare before opening the school is beneficial. Those appointed less than 12 months beforehand have noted that time for planning and preparing was very tight.
Where headteachers are not afforded enough planning time, too many decisions have to be made quickly and previous policies and procedures are adopted in the short term. They find it difficult to establish a new climate for learning that is different to that in the pre-existing schools. It also makes it difficult to consult fully with parents and staff about key changes.
One of the initial challenges for leaders is to establish a whole school, cross phase culture and ethos. To support this aim, many base leaders in different parts of the school. This approach is essential in multi-site schools. Leaders have to ensure that pupils and staff acclimatise with the new building and become used to having different school communities together. Many decide upon a new school uniform that gives a new identity to the school. In many cases, primary aged pupils’ school uniform is different to the secondary aged pupils but carries the same branding through colours and school badge. This gives pupils a sense of belonging to the same new school.
Nearly all schools changed their name, signalling a new era and new beginning. In a few cases, agreeing a name proved difficult with some opposition from the community. Schools who consulted with pupils and parents on naming the school found the transition easier to manage. Only a very few schools retained the old name of the secondary school.
Establishing a new school is mainly managed by the local authority who guide and support the governing body to appoint leaders and staff. This is in the absence of a specific national strategy or toolkit to support all-age schools’ governing bodies. Most schools found that providing stakeholders, including parents, with regular updates was helpful and provided essential information in preparing families to transition to the new school on opening. Many schools appreciated the stability of having nominated local authority officers who managed their arrangements. In a few cases, where there was no designated project manager from the local authority, the schools struggled with the burden of ensuring that correct procedures were followed and that the community were kept informed of developments.
Leadership structures in all-age schools show some similarities and are generally based on a secondary school model. This is often because the number of pupils on roll is much greater. In many cases they were predetermined by the shadow governing body but adjusted as senior leaders were appointed. Many have taken the opportunity to look at whole school staffing structures. It is now common to have a headteacher, one or two deputy headteachers and assistant headteachers. An increasingly common approach to the staffing structure and leadership is to split the school into phases. These are usually nursery to Year 4 (phase 1), Years 5 to 8 (phase 2) and Years 9 to 11 (phase 3). The sixth form, when present, would be the fourth phase. Various combinations of other leaders with roles such as phase leaders, co-ordinators and middle leaders complete the leadership structure. The number and combination of leaders varies notably according to the school’s size, location and number of sites, and general complexity.
Responsibilities designated to leaders are increasingly cross phase and whole school. In the first schools to be established, responsibilities mirror those found in the primary and secondary schools. This includes several heads of subjects, key stage leaders and co-ordinators. Over time, schools have moved towards leadership of whole school initiatives, for example the new curriculum areas of learning and experiences and pastoral care across all ages. This has led, for example, to better co-ordination of planning for pupil progression.
In establishing the first all-age schools, most senior leadership roles were filled by staff from secondary school backgrounds. Appointing a headteacher or deputy headteacher from a primary background was the exception. Over time, the balance of leaders from secondary and primary school backgrounds has slowly been readdressed and, in most schools, there is a mix of senior leaders from the different sector backgrounds.
Many schools regarded their first year of opening as being very difficult. They had to cope with problems with school buildings as well as the emotional side of bringing staff together after amalgamation. In a few cases, the new school found itself overstaffed with insufficient funding and had to reduce the number of staff.
Despite anticipating financial gains from establishing an all-age school, very few all-age schools have provided savings for local authorities. Initially they might have expected savings due to the requirement for fewer staff, selling off assets and rationalising costs but this has not materialised and in many cases local authority costs have increased due to redundancies and salary protection. Many schools have encountered unplanned financial barriers and, in 2021, a minority (22%) held negative reserves. This is high compared with the proportion of secondary schools (17%) and primary schools (4%). This is in stark contrast to the situation before the pandemic when a majority (64%) of all-age schools carried negative reserves with the secondary and primary schools also showing larger proportions with negative reserves (43% and 17% respectively). Any money raised, for example from selling unwanted buildings, has been reinvested in the wider education services of that authority, but has not always specifically benefited the new school.
Support for headteachers during the initial planning and development has varied considerably across Wales. Many headteachers noted that they would have valued more support from their local authority, and the Welsh Government. This was particularly the case for those who had very little time to prepare and plan for the opening of the new school.
Leaders generally believe that an all-age school requires at least five or six years to establish itself and to ensure that staff, parents, and pupils see the benefit of the all-age model on progress and wellbeing in particular.
