1.  St John’s Catholic School And St James the Great Catholic School A Soft Federation?

2. What is a soft federation  A solution for schools to manage challenges which might affect one or more of the schools in the federation  Recruitment (headteacher in particular)  Achievements (Ofsted Inspection)  School sizes  Other names can include ‘collaboration’ but this is not an ‘academy’

3. St James the Great Catholic School  Ofsted report  Weaknesses in leadership and management  Unable to recruit new headteacher at this time  Ms Babb been working to support the GB and senior leadership team to improve  Positive outcomes of HMI visit  School improving

4. Soft Federation Structure Headteacher Head of St Johns SLTteachers 2 separate GBs Head of St James SLTteachers

5. Advantages  Retention of HT and Head of School  Experience of both leaders is valuable  Teachers have parallel colleague in other school  Observations, Professional Development  Retention of good teachers and support staff  Opportunities to share ideas  Governors, teachers, leaders  School improving potential for both schools

6. Disadvantages  Headteacher is not around the school as much as usual  Staff will wait for HT to come to school and go to her rather than Head of School  Children’s learning suffers as HT not always around  Two headteachers so who is in charge?

7. 2012/13  Children are still achieving  School is still running smoothly LA advisors are pleased with the improvements in both schools  Independent verification that St John’s has maintained its quality assurance for the children and staff  No increase in complaints or challenges from any source  The two leaders ‘balance’ each other with strengths and weaknesses on both sides

8. Headteacher and Head of School  Ms Babb & Ms Jajechnyk Information about how this last year has helped your children achieve

9. Consultation  Governors keen to hear from parents about their thoughts on this proposal  Governors here …  Speak to them in groups or to me or to HT or Head of School