All in a Name
Being appointed to a newly built school would represent a dream job for most headteachers. The benefits of becoming the very first head of a school mainly revolve around staffing. It is customary practice where a new school is built for the headteacher position to be filled at least two terms before the official opening, so allowing the new encumberment the chance to appoint all their own staff. This is a hugely attractive proposition! Quite simply they can create a team from scratch without inheriting any ‘baggage’ from a previous leadership regime. A brand-new school certainly does have appeal but unfortunately, such opportunities are extremely rare.
New schools generally appear when additional pupil places generated from a new housing development are unable to be absorbed by existing schools in the area. The Local Authority then invites Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) to apply to run the new academy using rigorous, Department for Education agreed guidelines. Future Generation Trust recently followed this process for a new primary academy which was being built in Lichfield.
It was the first time we had been involved in the process and as such it was obviously challenging for the small team tasked with compiling the application. We remained extremely confident in our ability to deliver high quality education to the pupils who would attend the new primary academy but recognised that some applications on paper may well appear slicker than our own. The end goal we craved was the chance to present ‘in person’ to the panel responsible for awarding the academy to the chosen MAT. There we would back our expertise, our passion, and our professionalism to deliver the result. In the event we were denied this opportunity as we were not short listed.
I am firm in my belief that was extremely short sighted of the Local Authority. They had nothing to lose. They had a chance to bench mark the more established MATs against a relative newbie, a primary specialist MAT with an impressive track record. Our Trust may well have lost out at the final hurdle given the strength of the opposition, but we know we would have put up a good fight.
A larger, Secondary School led MAT, with a record of success did win the day. I have no doubt that they will do well.
Moving the clock forward I stumbled across a local newspaper report which revealed the chosen name of the new school. It had been named after an Eighteenth-Century Romantic Poet who has was associated with the city, a fact I was only able to discover after a quick check on google. There were other qualities that got a brief reference around being a strong female role model, as well as an environmentalist and I am sure deeper research than my cursory few minutes will paints a very positive picture. I can’t help thinking though those were responsible for the choice of name are at best misguided and at worst pretentious. It will mean nothing to the 3 and 4 year old pupils who start there as the school opens and very little more to them when they leave at the age of 11. Now of course I understand that many will immediately be suspicious that my opposition to the name is grounded in the sour grapes of an unsuccessful bid. The truth is I have never believed a school should be named after any person.
It is action securely grounded in the past when fundamentally we are preparing our pupils for a future that is becoming increasingly hard to predict. Regardless of the magnitude of the person the days when schools were habitually named after people came from a time when a far narrower view of the world existed. Today it is about as relevant as the fictional Nelson Mandela House where Del and Rodney lived in Only Fools and Horses.
Good primary teaching uses inspirational figures to motivate and guide pupils. There are many, many examples available, all with unique stories and commendable characteristics that we can all learn from. Skilled teachers delve into this significant resource to select relevant characteristics for the objectives that the lesson has. They can be creative, imaginative and present in an interesting manner. In this way they add value. Naming a school after a single person simply becomes stale and meaningless.
In the business world huge multi-national firms have long recognised the importance of a name. Education could learn from this approach which has moved far away from the habitual, outdated naming of companies after their founders. Charming and reassuring as the longevity of the brands such as Boots and Sainsbury’s are they belong to a different age. Today you don’t wait for your new Steve Jobs phone or do online shopping at Bezos e-commerce. Apple and Amazon command attention. Brand names communicate the expectation of the company to employees and the standard of service they deliver to the customer.
The very best schools develop a sense of belonging, an identity that permeates the culture and pushes the pupils forward. It is a connection that enables pupils to understand who they are and what they stand for.
Finally I wanted to mention that recently I was in the company of a highly enthusiastic teacher in only the second year of her career. She was fully immersed in her school and passionate about children’s learning. She was explaining how she encouraged, cajoled and pushed the pupils in her care through high expectation captured in the constant mantra of being a good ‘Lodge Farmer’. It was their identity that bonded them all together. It was their estate, their home, their school. Those pupils at Lodge Farm understood. They absolutely got it, and it was being driven not by some association with an historic academic but by something far more meaningful to them.
By all means build a statue, erect a plaque, name a road to honour exceptional service or outstanding achievement of local heroes, just don’t name schools after them.