Impact of collaboration in small primary schools

This CfBT report examines the impact of collaboration across small primary schools on the development of leadership capacity. The authors point that few leadership studies focus on the distinctive needs of small schools (fewer the 120 pupils and where the head teacher has a significant teaching role). The authors also note how small schools will need to collaborate in order to fulfil the requirements of ECM and extended schools. The study is based on 72 interviews with head teachers.

Key points:
- Many of the headteachers saw school-to-school collaborative arrangements as an additional managerial burden, rather than as a strategic resource.
- Headteachers spoke almost entirely about ‘managing’ the work of collaboration and hardly ever mentioned leadership. The focus on the operational aspects, and demands, of collaboration almost completely dominated their interview contributions.
- Almost exclusively,collaboration was discussed by the headteachers in terms of the time, money and workload involved. The expanded opportunities for teaching and learning were recognised and celebrated but the headteachers’ main focus and preoccupation was the sheer hard and extra work entailed in collaborating.
- Collaboration was viewed as a way to help staff feel part of a network. However, geographical isolation was seen as a key factor in the difficulty if setting up collaborations between schools. This view was particularly expressed by new headteachers.