Supporting local schools

Knaphill Lower and Knaphill Junior Schools federated in March 2016. A federation is one step short of a merger and is aimed at bringing schools closer together to share resources and best practices. Like many organisations that come together, getting them to integrate and work together is a challenge and so Surrey Business School hosted a workshop for all staff from the two schools – including teachers, office staff and governors – with the aim of starting to build an ethos of working together. 

In the afternoon we worked with them on three issues using established methodologies we have employed elsewhere. Underpinning it was the work around building positive learning organisations which has been used with the police, the NHS, Vistage and the Chambers of Commerce.

The three issues were:

• Building organisational trust
• The pupil journey
• Developing a shared vision.

The outcomes of the day were a much more positive organisation, a set of values that all staff in the school have signed up to, the leadership of the Junior School being rated as Outstanding by Ofsted and the development of a federation strategy.