Case study

Tidemill was in special measures for over two years following its Ofsted report at the end of 1999. The school was struggling to cope with many of the challenges associated with inner-city schools. For example, 65 per cent of pupils have English as a second language (the school has 85 per cent ethnicity), 60 per cent receive free school meals and there is a very high mobility rate with a lot of refugees, asylum-seekers and pupils in temporary housing.

Three years ago, the school was well on its way to closure. Its results and reputation were poor, pupil behaviour was often appalling and staff morale was rock bottom, with a predictable knock-on effect on recruitment and retention. It was clear that something needed to be done.

The answer came in the shape of a new headteacher. As soon as he was appointed, Mark Elms immediately set about remodelling the school. The result has been one of the most dramatic school improvements in the country. Today, Tidemill has a vital and energetic atmosphere, with a dedicated staff doing excellent and innovative work.

The school's full section 10 Ofsted inspection in December 2004 confirmed this progress, firmly establishing Tidemill as a "very good" school with "excellent leadership provided by the headteacher".

"Remodelling at Tidemill has been all about enhancing the quality of life for our teachers and support staff. The simple truth is we wouldn't have been able to keep this great team together if we'd failed to take action. As things stood the role of the primary class teacher was stressful because it was almost impossible. Now we've given teachers the time they need to reconnect with their lives. Before remodelling, their job was almost impossible; now it's still hard, but it's doable. The key has been freeing up their time," says Mark Elms.

The benefits of remodelling

It's no exaggeration to say that Tidemill's continued existence is a testament to remodelling. The benefits include:

• In terms of standard assessment tests (SATs), Tidemill is the fourth most improved school in 2003 (out of 23,000 schools) in the country.
• Tidemill has the 32nd highest value added figures of any school in the country in 2003.
• The school is top of Lewisham's league table for value added for the second year running (2004), putting it in the top 5 per cent of schools in the country again.
• An enhanced curriculum, including the bringing in of a number of external specialists to extend pupils' learning experiences. These include an international footballer from the England women's football team, music specialists and dance teachers.
• Pupil attendance and lateness is now the responsibility of a part-time attendance officer. This has made a big difference to attendance levels and to teacher workload. The school was one of the 10 worst schools in the country for truancy according to The Guardian. Now, attendance is higher than the borough average (2003), and higher than the national average (2004).
• Improved planning, especially in core subjects such as numeracy, ICT and literacy. Lessons now have differentiated levels to meet the needs of individual pupils.
• There is now time to focus properly on literacy, the number one issue in the school.
• Additional support staff and teachers have allowed the school to create smaller learning groups.
• The school's new tracking system, teacher assessments and SAT papers all point to the remodelling changes making a considerable difference to standards in the school.
• All pupils now have individual work targets, set and reviewed every two weeks.
• Attitudinal and behavioural targets are set for each pupil at the beginning of the year.
• It is now possible to make regular detailed analyses of the needs of individual pupils and plan accordingly.
• There is a very close focus on marking work. For example, pupils write on the right-hand side of their exercise book and teachers put comments in the left-hand margin, asking for changes to be made specific to outcomes. Work is marked: not achieved, partly achieved, achieved.
• Parental involvement is much greater than before - 46 parents turned up for a recent maths course, 16 to a talk about helping your child to read. We have almost 100 per cent turnout at our 'Inspire' workshops, where parents are taught to support their children's learning at home by making and playing mathematics games in workshops based in school.
• Parents attend computer and adult literacy classes.
• Over 90 per cent of parents and carers attend class coffee mornings.
• Some parents and carers also come into the school as volunteers, for example helping with reading, acting as 'number partners' or translating and interpreting for pupils with English as an additional language.
• Staff morale is much improved and stress much reduced.
• There is a growing culture of mutual support among staff and pupils.
• Teachers report that their job is now more manageable.
• Staff sickness is dramatically down. Between September and December 2003 a total of only two-and-a-half teaching days were lost due to sickness. There was a "high and unacceptable amount of sickness absence" before remodelling, according to Mark Elms. The new high level of wellness is being sustained.
• PPA is helping curriculum co-ordinators. They now have the time to carry out their roles, including whole school reviews of their subject areas (before they were teaching a full timetable).
• Seven members of staff have now brought their own children into the school - a ringing endorsement of the improvements made.
• The quality of life has improved for teachers, support staff and pupils. The range of experience in the school is much extended and high quality teaching is now the expected norm in all areas.
• Over the last three years, six teaching assistants (TAs) have gone on to do PGCEs or the graduate teacher programme (GTP) at the London Institute of Education, Goldsmiths and Greenwich.
• The school has an excellent relationship with the London University Institute of Education and has been a partner school for the last two-and-a-half years, where students on teaching practice work in the school as part of their initial teacher training.
• Behavioural problems are greatly reduced. They're now a "minor problem". The head has made just two exclusions in last six months (2003).
• A targeted recruitment policy has led to very high calibre staff throughout the school. Support staff are well qualified and include graduates. Staff are given excellent continuing professional development opportunities. The school has collaborated with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) to specifically design a course preparing teaching assistants for the higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) role. Many support staff are working to become full-time teachers.
• There's a very strong team ethos in the school. Staff work closely in teams and spend a lot of time supporting one another. There are parallel year-group teams and a large amount of staff collaboration.
• The school has a good level of ICT support and all teachers have laptops. There are online proformas for record-keeping, assessment and planning, and all plans are kept on laptops for easy access. This has helped with sharing materials and in reducing the time staff spend on paperwork.
• The school has joined the wellbeing initiative as a means of improving staff work/life balance. There have been a number of meetings and the school is currently establishing a team to gather suggestions from all staff in order to take positive action

Planning, preparation and assessment (PPA)

There has been at least 10 per cent PPA for all teachers at Tidemill for two years. This PPA time is achieved though a combination of appropriately qualified support staff undertaking specified work and enrichment afternoons involving outside specialists. The support staff at Tidemill include a history graduate and science graduate who, following appropriate training, are able to deliver specified work supporting the teaching of history, geography, religious education and science.

The support staff team also includes an art graduate and a music specialist - these individuals are deployed in order to release PPA time for teachers while maintaining educational consistency. Thorough initial and ongoing training is given to all support staff and outside specialists to ensure that high standards are attained and maintained.

Remodelling, particularly PPA time, has reduced teacher stress in the school, improved lesson preparation and delivery, and enabled staff to work more effectively as a whole-school team. Essentially, it has allowed teachers to concentrate on teaching, with a resultant improvement in teacher morale, performance and school standards.

"PPA means that teachers are teaching less, but better," says Mark Elms.

• Planning, preparation and assessment of individual performance, lessons and pupils' work on a weekly basis. Mark Elms reports that the 10 per cent figure is not enough time for teachers to do all this work at Tidemill, but it is significant. Its effect on teacher morale is even more significant.
• Teachers are encouraged to use their PPA however they see fit. This has enabled them to create a genuinely effective work/life balance, doing their PPA at times that suit their lifestyles.
• Sharing ideas, collaborating and straightforward day-to-day communication.
• Teachers have time to develop areas where they aren't experts, for example developing their understanding of multiple intelligences.
• Teachers can make more detailed and sophisticated assessment of pupils', and their own, work.
• Better planning of core subjects such as numeracy, ICT and literacy. Literacy is the number one priority in the school.
• Detailed analysis of the needs of individual pupils and groups of pupils.
• More personalised, targeted and differentiated learning, set and reviewed on a regular basis. Mark Elms explains that this is particularly critical at Tidemill, as the children are often very bright, but initially struggle because of language problems and associated issues.
• Curriculum co-ordinators have the time to do their job properly, setting up reviews, monitoring the area(s) of the curriculum they're responsible for, observing lessons and so on.
• The activities that teachers don't carry out in their non-contact time, such as chasing truants and doing administration tasks, are also important. However, Mark Elms believes that teachers are best deployed in their area of true expertise.

"I want teachers to continue to contribute to raising teaching and learning standards in the school, rather than being burdened by all sorts of other tasks," he says.