27/6/2024 0 Comments Interview with Paul Brooks, Retiring Chair of Kingsbridge Community College Governing Body and the SWIFT Trust Board“When I was Deputy Principal, I used to say that every child in our school needs to enjoy our school and to come out at the end of each day and know that they have enjoyed something in their lessons. I believe now, as I believed then, that it is possible.” For this final interview of academic year 2023 - 2024, we were glad to speak to Paul Brooks, who is retiring from the Kingsbridge Community College Governing Body. Mathematician graduate Paul, started his teaching career in 1981 in Birkenhead and went onto teaching and leadership roles in Bideford, Bristol and Swansea, and gained an MEd in Maths Education at the University of Exeter. In 1998, Paul became Deputy Principal at Kingsbridge Community College (KCC) and played a key role in Ofsted inspections, culminating five years later in an Outstanding judgement. Paul led KCC’s successful bid to be a Specialist School in Science, Maths and Performing Arts and was keenly involved in the bid to become one of the first Teaching Schools, South West Teaching School Alliance (SWTSA), which he led from 2011 to 2016; growing a membership of 12 schools to over 130. Curriculum was always a key role for Paul as Teaching and Learning Lead; as well as Development Lead and Facilitator for Leading Schools South West on their NPQSL programme. In retirement from his leadership role at KCC, Paul has been a dedicated member of Kingsbridge Local Governing Body and also Chair of the SWIFT Trust Board. Using his mathematical tactical skills perhaps, Paul is a keen County Standard Chess Player and jointly runs Newton Abbot Chess Club and for many years he was President of the Devon County Chess Association. As a tribute to Paul and the work of all Governors in Schools and Mulit Academy Trusts, we are delighted to share Paul's reflections as he steps down (once and for all) at the end of this academic year. 1. What has been most personally rewarding from your involvement with the Kingsbridge Community College Governing Body? It has been most personally rewarding to continue to be involved in what I think is a really top-class organisation that has a very important role in our educational landscape. I have been involved in Teaching Schools from their very beginning and I immediately believed it was the very best way of developing teaching and learning within our schools. I think teaching at the moment is as hard as it has ever been, and maybe even harder and I am passionate that teachers from the start of the career and all the way through, have the opportunity to experience the very best training; because when we come into teaching, I think we all have an idea of what makes a good teacher, which essentially comes from our own background and provides a great starting point for our classroom practice. But developing and improving that practice can be challenging and I think the only way you can do it is if you have from the very start of your career the opportunity to experience high-quality professional development and support in your school. For me, this can come about by schools working together and learning from research and striving to ensure that their teachers benefit from such opportunities. This way, I believe that teachers can get the very best outcomes for their students. My involvement over the last few years as Chair of the SWIFT Trust Board has given me the opportunity to see and be impressed by the way in which SWIFT has developed from what was an idea of schools collaborating together by sharing data and seeking improvements in a much more structured way. Teaching School Hubs, like SWIFT, are providing opportunities that enable the very best development in our teachers and school leaders. That is why I am so excited that SWIFT is moving into initial teacher training, because I think that keeps the Golden Thread (as the Department for Education terms it) going from the start of a teacher's career with the Appropriate Body Service and Early Career Framework to National Professional Qualifications. For me, that is the very best model and I consider this to be a golden opportunity in delivering that best model. Being a Governor on the SWIFT Trust Board and working with the other Governors is a way to give back in helping to see and contribute to the work that is being done, monitoring and checking this work and supporting it to be the very, very best. 2. And what has been the most challenging? Truthfully, I have been pleasantly heartened in how well the SWIFT programmes have been progressing. The Appropriate Body Service and Early Career Framework roles are being led so effectively that targets have been exceeded in terms of the volume of participants and their feedback is very positive. I think that the SWIFT Team is doing a magnificent job in continually implementing, developing and monitoring this work. For me the main challenge going forward will be the successful implementation of initial teacher training, because that requires a much broader range of stakeholders and very thorough monitoring. The provision will be subject to Ofsted inspections and hence, the biggest challenge will be ensuring this provision is as effective and robust as possible. Indeed, I am a tad sad that I am leaving when the course is about to start at the end of August, because I think that it has the potential to be very exciting for SWIFT. The current biggest challenge for all Governing Bodies is to support their schools in what are very difficult financial circumstances. Schools are having to make decisions now much more on the basis of what they can afford, than on the basis of what is best for their students, than at any other time over the past 25 years that I have been involved in school leadership. Governors have a demanding role in supporting schools to make the very best decisions in these constrained circumstances. 3. What has been the most significant change during your tenure?
In my role as Chair for the SWIFT Trust Board, I would say that, the most significant change has been the move to initial teacher training and as previously mentioned, I think that this has the most significant potential in terms of SWIFT developing further as a leading provider. In terms of education as a whole, I think the whole Teaching Schools movement has been the most significant development for me and it certainly made a step-change in my role within school, when back in 2011 funding was made available for a few schools to develop structured opportunities for collaboration, training and development, alongside a professional development programme for senior leaders. It was an inspired decision and I think those participating schools have certainly benefited more than any other innovation. Previously, there was lots of chatter about how schools could work together, but without a real structure. It can only be a good thing now that we have the joined-up approach through Teaching School Hubs from the start of a teacher’s career to the end with opportunity to grow and develop and access high-quality professional development. Hence, I believe the Teaching School Hubs initiative has been the most important innovation over my past 40 years in education. 4. How has your position as Chair of the SWIFT Trust Board benefitted you? It has been the opportunity to see the excellent work that is going on and to feel as though I am a small part of the machinery in developing the brilliant organisation of Education South West and SWIFT. I have also valued keeping up-to-date with what is happening and the way in which here in the local area we are providing so many opportunities and the enthusiasm in which those opportunities are being embraced. To me, this has been a very positive personal development, because I am passionate about the idea of learning from other professionals and research and the fact that we have a successful organisation that is leading on this development work. 5. What would be your number one wish for schools in the future? I would wish that every school and every teacher in the country has the opportunities to grow ultimately to support the best learning of our students. I only hope that the future Government has the wisdom to continue to develop and strengthen the role of professionals learning from other professionals and to give schools the funding to do so. The other big elephant in the room for me, is the appropriateness of the curriculum for the modern student. I think that some content for Year 6 English lessons is reminiscent of my first year at grammar school in 1969. It might be useful, but it is not going to motivate and enthuse those students who find academic learning difficult. When I was Deputy Principal, I used to say that every child in our school needs to enjoy school and to come out at the end of each day and know that they have enjoyed something in their lessons. Not only the social side, but from a course of study that they loved and I believe now, as I believed then, that it was possible. What I hope for the future is that more common sense comes to the fore and we recognise that if we wish to have “a world class education system,” we need to resource it as a world class education system. Particularly in terms of the curriculum. My role in school was to oversee the curriculum and I think that it is impoverished at the moment for a large section of the school community. I would say that at least a quarter of the school population has a curriculum that is not really fit for purpose. I would like to see a big rethink about the curriculum, the way in which it is taught and what is on offer for our students, particularly for those who are not as academic, and who would thrive with more practical learning opportunities. I believe that many of the problems we currently have with attendance and behaviour would be alleviated if we got the curriculum right, and enabled more students to enjoy and achieve success in their learning. As an example, we used to bus some of our students to South Devon College for one or two days a week to study practical subjects that they were genuinely interested in, such as car mechanics and beauty therapy. This encouraged buy-in to the school as they really wanted to go there and it had a big impact in improving their behaviour. However, the narrowing of the curriculum by the new Progress 8 school performance measure and tightening budgets meant that we regrettably had to stop this provision. I would like to see politicians and school leaders get together to devise a curriculum that actually suits the students in school. Because at the moment, when I look back to when I started teaching, the curriculum now is only slightly better than it was then because now we have the National Curriculum and everyone has an entitlement and the teaching quality is much higher than it was 40 years ago. Also, the way in which teachers are developed is much better than it was at the start of my career. But the school curriculum itself hasn't changed with the times and still has lots of room for improvement. I remain hopeful and know that school and Trust leaders are working hard to provide the best education for their students and the work of SWIFT is supporting this work as one of the backbones for professional development. We warmly thank Paul for his commitment and loyalty on the KCC Governing Body over the past 25 years, including his recent membership of the SWIFT Trust Board and we wish him a happy and fulfilling retirement. Interview by Jude Owens, SWIFT Executive Assistant
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