David Horn is a Forum Strategy Associate and the founding CEO of the Beckfoot Trust and before that headteacher of Beckfoot School, in Bradford for 19 years. In this article, David talks about the vital role of Headteachers across a trust and why we must not lose sight of their importance and how we ensure they are fully involved with the strategic direction of the trust and its quest for improvement at scale.
I was interested to read comments by Baroness Barran, the Academies Minister, recently in Schools Week (6th Feb 24), where she said that she wants more converter schools to join ‘turn around’ trusts. She said the real challenge was changing the perception that joining a trust is a ‘punishment rather than an opportunity’.
This observation is long overdue. I think the role of the Headteacher within a trust is urgently in need of further consideration. We need to think strategically about how to make all trusts a place where Headteacher’s feel valued, can be professionally developed, and can see how their extensive knowledge on how to improve a school can be best utilised when working at scale across a number of schools. If Headteachers don’t see a positive role for themselves within trusts, they will either choose to stay within a Local Authority or continue to operate as standalone leaders within a trust. We will miss the opportunity to benefit from their extensive skill set. As Forum Strategy’s recent series of thinkpieces on thriving trusts clearly demonstrated, we’ve got to ‘make the case’ to all involved – including headteachers and governing bodies.
Convincing Headteachers that joining a trust is not a punishment is made more difficult by a long-held view amongst many in education and beyond that the purpose of a trust is simply to take school over and fix them. To impose a predetermined model of school improvement where the role of the Headteacher is simply to deliver the trust model. In other words, Trusts have too often been portrayed as top down, autocratic organisations. I don’t believe the use of the term ‘strong trusts’ has helped here. The language has rightly shifted somewhat in recent months – spurred on by this excellent article by Sir Steve Lancashire: Sir Steve’s Blog – February 2023 – Forum Strategy.