00:00 CU
sign – Mayflower Primary School, tilt down to exterior
Geoff
Southworth, Director of Research, National College for School
Leadership walks into the school
Children
sitting at desk
Pan
and focus pull from Patrick Fielding to Sarah Blamey
CU
head teachers office sign
Patrick
Fielding and Sarah Blamey walk down corridor
CU
Co Headship document
Tilt
up from Co Headship document to Geoff Southworth
CU
Patrick Fielding and Sarah Blamey
Wide
Geoff Southworth, Patrick Fielding and Sarah Blamey
Wide
classroom and kids
CU
child displaying drawing
CU
children working
Guide Voice: Mayflower Primary School in
Leicester is a school with a difference, a difference that has
attracted the attention of the National College for School
Leadership. The old adage that "two heads are better than
one", has taken on a new meaning here, where the school has
not one head teacher, but two. Patrick Fielding and Sarah Blamey,
are the first husband and wife to job share the head ship of a UK
school. It's one example of a more flexible approach to school
head-ship, that the National College is championing in the UK.
Set up in 2000, its aim is to find new ways to cope with the
challenges of the head teacher role. With over 45 per cent of head
teachers in England over the age of fifty, there could be a
shortage of qualified and experienced head teachers in the next
five to ten years unless more radical solutions are found.
00:48 SOT: Geoff Southworth, Director of Research,
National College for School Leadership - "In
terms of the age profile of the profession there?s a demographic
time bomb ticking away right now and we need to address it. We need
to make sure that a larger number of people who are leaving
headship can be replaced by with the right people, in the right
numbers with the right quality."
01:05 Patrick
Fielding and Sarah Blamey in office
CU
Patrick Fielding
Pan
from Sarah to Patrick
Wide
– Kids in classroom
CU
teacher and kids
Wide
Sarah and Patrick in corridor with members of the public
CU
Personal Organiser being picked up
CU
Sarah using Personal Organiser
Sarah
using Organiser
Guide Voice: The National College believes that
flexible working practices, like co headship and job shares,
represent a good opportunity to fill some of this skills shortage.
However, it is not a model that will suit everyone as it introduces
new challenges of its own. With over 450 pupils, as well as staff,
parents and governors to interact with, one of the key demands of
the job share For Patrick and Sarah, is communication:
01:29 SOT: Patrick Fielding, Co-head Mayflower Primary
- "You've got to communicate in some detail every
single day, the position. We're in is that we are partners within
school and outside school so that increases the opportunity for us
to meet and debrief after a days work, not quite so straightforward
for two people who don't spend their lives together outside
school."
01:50 SOT: Sarah Blamey, Co-Head Mayflower
Primary: "You really need to have developed a
very strong shared vision for where you want the school to go to or
what your ideas about an effective school are and if that's not
truly shared it would be very difficult to share the leadership of
a school."
02:06 Pan
Patrick to Sarah in classroom
CU
Patrick and kids, Sarah in background
CU
Sarah, pull back to reveal Patrick
Wide
– Exterior Hastingsbury School, Bedford
Wide
Assembly with Julia Wynd and Martin Fletcher
Pan
from children in audience to Martin Fletcher
Guide Voice: With children of their own the job
share contributes to a good work / life balance for Patrick and
Sarah, and enabled them both to stay on the job ladder.
The added value to the school of having the input of two
talented individuals with fresh perspectives, but one shared
vision, has been recognised by both the governors and Ofsted. At
Hastingsbury School in Bedford, a different pattern of co- headship
is in place. Julia Wynd and Martin Fletcher are both employed full
time, so the school literally has two heads. They were working as
deputy heads when the headship role became vacant.
02:43 SOT: Julia Ann Wynd Co-head, Hastingsbury
School: "We just felt it was a natural thing for
us to do, to actually apply for the job as joint head teachers, and
we knew that that had never happened in the country Before, so we
needed to do a fair amount of research on it."
02:56 SOT: Martin Fletcher, Co-head, Hastingsbury
School: "It was quite interesting really because
we had to convince not only our own governing body, but we also had
to convince the DFES in the end, we had to take it right the way to
ministerial level."
03:09 Wide
Assembly
Guide Voice: The National College is arguing
for a more flexible approach in the future...
03:14 SOT: Geoff Southworth National College for School
Leadership: - "We need to be receptive to
alternatives. We need governing bodies to think about what possible
options they might have. We also need governing bodies to realise
that headship in the future might not be the same as it's been in
the past.
03:27 Wide
– children in assembly
Guide Voice: Most receptive to the co-head
approach however, are the pupils themselves...
03:32 SOT: Lyndsay O Brien, 17, Pupil:
"Because the students see them getting on so well and the
fact that they can work together even though they are two very
different people the students realize that they can do that as
well."
03:39 SOT: Joel Buskin, 13, Pupil:
"It's good because you've got two people to go
to."
03:42 SOT: Hannah Maiston, 17, Pupil:
"I think the whole idea is a good idea but you have to
have two people that can work well together."
03:49 SOT: Solomon Sota, 14, Pupil:
"It's good because both the head teachers can talk to each
other and have their own ideas."
03:53 wide - assembly
Guide Voice: From the Hastingsbury pupils'
perspective, it seems clear, that "two heads" really are
better than one.
04:03 END
OF CUT
04:06 Additional Quote:- Geoff Southworth, Director of
Research, National College for School Leadership: -
"It works well, it provides a work/life balance for many
of those who do it. It's good for women and men who want to spend
time with their families for part of the week but also want to
continue their careers to do so. It's good for energy levels.
People say they can stay in the job for longer. It's also good for
those colleagues who only want to work part of the time in schools
and the other part of the week in other schools, in other parts of
the education system, gaining wider experience, wider knowledge and
expertise and then bringing that back to their own school so it
benefits the school and in those ways two heads can be better than
one." ( Dur: 37s)
04:44
Additional
shot – pan from Hastingsbury school van to school
exterior
04:53 EOT
