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CATS Conference Reports
Field Study Conference Report - 24th and 25th March 2011
This very successful conference consisted of two very busy days visiting three all-through settings and an evening session at the hotel.
The first visit was to Folkestone Academy Trust. This is a 2 academy trust with Folkestone Academy being an all-through 3-18 and Marlowe Academy, Ramsgate, currently a secondary academy. Delegates visited Folkestone Academy and were introduced to this new academy and its Norman Foster buildings by the Principal, Sean Heslop. We were introduced to their transition curriculum 'Personalised Learning and Thinking Skills' based on the work of Professor Claxton which is in its embryonic stages at Folkestone. Our thanks go to Emma Newman for her excellent presentation, to Sean Helsop and the hospitality of the academy.
Our second visit was to Dover Federation for the Arts. This is a federation of Astor College for the Arts; Barton Junior School; Shatterlocks Infant and Nursery School; White Cliffs Primary College for the Arts; KETV Film and Sound Productions and 4 Start-up business units. Astor College for the Arts also has a MOU with The Duke of York Royal Military School, an academy with a military ethos.
After an excellent lunch this visit began with the 'story' of the journey so far, followed by the federation organisation and structures and the graduate teacher programme. After this the delegates were taken to the primary phases of the federation to look at the cross phase curriculum 'RSA Opening Minds' and a bespoke curriculum. We cannot thank Chris Russell, Chief Executive and his excellent senior team enough for a superb visit and for providing the transport between the venues and the hotel over the two days.
The Thursday evening session at the Abbots Barton Hotel, Canterbury concentrated on discussing what had been seen during the day, the emerging benefits of all-through learning and the potential models of school organisation to support all-through structures. Chris Russell and Ed Pallant from the Dover Federation for the Arts were able to join us for this session and for dinner where the discussion continued.
Friday morning saw the delegates visiting the Canterbury Academy, Principal Phil Karnavas. This was a federation of The Canterbury High School and Beauherne Primary School which now form the Canterbury Academy and 3 centres - Mother and Baby unit, Pre-school unit, Youth provision and Adult Education Centre with much more coming onto the campus.
The visit focused on their journey and looked particularly at the integration of the wider workforce and the private sector; personalisation within the curriculum and working with partner schools, in particular St Nicholas School; a special school for pupils with a wide variety of learning disabilities including autism and sensory impairment. James Brooke, AST at the academy, introduced us to the 'Gifted and Talented' programme and it was interesting to note that there is no distinction between 'primary' and 'secondary' phases in the academy, the language being used was Foundation, KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4. This is a step forward in thinking for all-through education. The visit prompted much discussion over the lunch provided by the academy and the conference ended on a high note after this visit.
We would like to thank Folkestone Academy, Dover Federation for the Arts and The Canterbury Academy for their time and thought provoking visits and in particular those staff who gave of their time so expertly, not forgetting the 2 mini bus drivers who delivered us on time to every venue during the conference.
Judy Bainbridge
Administrator for CATS
March 2011
CATS Annual Conference Report - January 2011
"First event I've attended, really useful and informative. Excellent hospitality"
"... as always inspiring, challenging and re-assuring!"
feedback from conference delegates
The Annual CATS Conference sponsored by E-ACT and supported by SSAT was held at The Bridge Learning Campus, Professional Development Centre, in Bristol on 20th January 2011. Unusually this was a one day event and proved to be a very busy one.
The conference was oversubscribed and the feedback from delegates was extremely positive. It began with a visit to the Bridge Learning Campus with the senior staff from the campus taking guided tours to see the work of Early Years through to Post 16. Without exception the comments about the visit and the work of the Campus were enthusiastically favourable. We would like to thank Mark Davies and his staff for the hard work they put in to make this so. The staff joined us for lunch and delegates were able to ask them further questions.
The conference began with a keynote speech from Sir Bruce Liddington, Director General of E-ACT, with the theme 'The developing landscape for all-through learning'. Bruce has long been a champion of all-through learning and his talk encouraged much discussion among the delegates. We were very pleased he was able to stay for coffee and allow delegates to chat informally with him. In his role as Schools Commissioner, he was responsible for developing a more diverse school offer for parents and children and the development of new Academies and Trusts School projects. We were pleased he found the time to address our conference
The afternoon programme started with a whole conference session lead by Andy Shaw, Head of Wigmore Federation, now an academy, on '"Converting" Academies; rationale and legal process'. He was joined on the platform by Nick Mackenzie, a solicitor with Browne Jacobson. This session generated much discussion. After this talk the conference then split into workshops.
- School Companies, Pyramid and Locality Solutions: led by Kelvin Peel, Director of CATS, specialising in this area and supported by Nick Mackenzie
- Leadership in all-through Faith Schools: Pat Dubas, Principal of Samworth Enterprise Academy
- Challenges of creating a small all-through academy in a rural town: Rik Meek, Vice Principal of Dartmouth Academy, which is sponsored by E-ACT and supported by CATS
- Local Authority Perspective: Sue Clarke, Strategic Lead for Achievement through Collaboration and Debbie Clapshaw, Manager, Governor Services both with Devon County Council
- 'The challenges of All-Through Leadership': presented by Liz Talmadge, Director of CATS, who has written the research paper for the National College and CATS
All the workshops were well attended and delegate comments ranged from:
"as always inspiring, challenging and reassuring!"
"(A highlight of the conference was) meeting such knowledgeable and lovely people ... their advice was both invaluable and reassuring"
"First event I've attended, really useful and informative. Excellent hospitality"
"Can I express my thanks to you all at CATS for the informative and inspirational conference"
One of the most important aspects of CATS conferences is networking. Despite the busy day colleagues were able to network and delegates did remark on this aspect and felt is was a valuable part of their day. The venue was excellent with the event running smoothly in very pleasant surroundings. The food and refreshments were also excellent.
CATS' directors would like to thank all those involved with the programme and The Bridge Learning Campus for their excellent hosting of the visit.
Judy Bainbridge
Administrator for CATS
January 2011
CATS Annual Conference Report - October 2009
"An excellent couple of days"
commented one conference delegate
The 2009 CATS/SSAT Partnership Annual conference was held at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea FC), London on October 15th and 16th. Once again it was delivered in partnership with SSAT and was a great success. The conference was attended by 104 delegates from such diverse areas as schools, academies, local authorities, DCSF and University of Bristol. There was also a wide spread of areas represented across England and even representatives from Wales.
The programme, as one would expect, concentrated on all-through schooling in all its guises. Keynote speeches:
- Nick Stuart, Chair of SSAT gave the welcome and detailed the support of SSAT for all-through schooling
- Pat Dubas, Principal of Samworth Enterprise Academy on 'Every Child and Every Family matter - the benefits of all-through schools'
- Barry Bainbridge, Director of CATS gave an overview of the national all-through scene
- Jody Goldsworthy, Hay Group on leadership issues
Pupil involvement has always been a central theme of SSAT conferences and our partnership conferences have benefitted from that. This year the first day was introduced by pupils from West London Academy explaining their all-through academy. They were a credit to their school and their introduction was very well received. West London Academy was the venue for the school visit and we would like to thank Hilary Macaulay and her staff for the excellent tour of the school. After dinner the Harefield Academy Gymnasts, an all age group, entertained the delegates to a stunning display which was hampered only by the low ceiling in the room. They were very brave and their contribution was extremely well received.
Workshops and networking are regarded as one of the most important aspects of the conference as nothing beats 'hands on' experiences and this year they were as diverse as:
- 'Inclusion in an all-through setting'
- 'Pupil voice in the transfer zone'
- 'A license to innovate - Dream the Dream - think the unthinkable - accelerate transformation'
- 'Supporting transition - seamless movement from school to school'
- 'The formation of cross-phase, all-through, multi-school trust'
- Models of transition from primary to secondary school'
- 'Talent for tomorrow'
- 'Using data to raise achievement'
- 'A case study of a successful all-through federation - key factors to success'
- 'Leadership in all-through'
- 'All-through on-line reporting - The Ultimate profile of a child's journey through education'
- 'Working through the dilemmas of all-through education'
We would like to give a big CATS thank you to all the presenters of these workshops.
There were further opportunities for networking as representatives from SSAT, CATS, Trust Schools, The Wigmore Federation, and Bridge Learning Campus were on hand throughout the conference. The feedback for the conference was very favourable and the visit to West London Academy was the highlight for many delegates.
Once again we would like to thank all those who took part to make this a memorable conference. We look forward to seeing you in 2010.
Judy Bainbridge, February 2010
CATS Field Study Conference Report - 26th/27th March 2009
"Inspirational"
is how Denise Coppard, Sheffield City Council, described the conference
CATS held a 2 day Field Study Conference in March 2009 in Devon to visit a range of educational structures and inform the delegates of the latest developments in all-through education. The conference was very well attended with delegates coming from as far afield as Durham, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, London and Bristol. The group included Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, Education Officers, Governors and a Business Manager.
Devon 1st Federation
This highly innovative federation of primary schools exemplified the emerging Models of Leadership for 'Executive Headteachers' and 'Heads of Teaching and Learning'. The Governance structure for this federation of four schools was also explored. Our thanks were given to Paul Jones, Executive Head of Devon 1st Federation; Scott Ord, Head of Teaching and Learning at Blackpool Primary School and Bob Alford, Chair of Governors.
Dartmouth Learning Campus
This is a small rural all-through hard federation. There was a presentation on the hard federation and its governance and plans for the future to include the wider family of schools. Our thanks were given to Chris Long, Headteacher of Dartmouth Community College and Rik Meek, Headteacher of Dartmouth Primary School and Nursery.
Wood View Community Campus
This is an exciting multi partner approach in Plymouth. A tour of the PFI new build campus was followed by a detailed discussion of how the community came about, how is it developing and what the future holds. The governance of the hard federation of the secondary, primary and special (PH ) schools was explained and the impact of this was discussed. The inclusion of other partners: Children's Centre, Health services. Child Care Nursery, Youth Club was also explained. Our thanks were given to John Butcher, Director of Wood View Learning Community for leading this session.
The group were also pleased to have a presentation from Sue Clarke, Strategic Lead for Achievement through Collaboration from Devon Local Authority. Sue has led much of Devon's work on encouraging and supporting collaborative structures and she gave delegates a great deal of food for thought on all-through schooling in the 21st Century School context.
Judy Bainbridge