To be an academy or to not be an academy, now that is the question! Tricia Wilkin updates us on her COO secondment journey
Great news! Our new admin lady has finally started at our one school. It has been such a relief to everyone and with her training now complete, she is up and running and is doing amazingly; to be honest it is like she has always been there.
Her arrival has meant that the member of staff who had been covering the school has been freed up to move back to the larger school to continue her role as the Trust administrator in the mornings and to support the office manager in the afternoons.
Role Reviews
However, she will continue to support both sites in her Trust role helping the schools work collaboratively. The new arrangements seem to have made a huge difference with the admin team now feeling more settled and they are being less reliant on the management teams. With this, the executive headteacher and I have begun the process of reviewing all their roles in the office. This is something I like to do regularly with my team as it gives everyone the chance to think about their role and also be able to have open conversations about aspects of their role that they are enjoying or perhaps having difficulties with. The first meeting went well, and we are looking forward to reviewing this in our next meeting in the coming weeks. From doing this with other teams in the past, it has in my experience improved staff retention and morale.
Returning after the new year meant it was time for my next Governance Professional briefing with the Local Authority. The biggest news to come out of this was that as an authority they were no longer looking to actively encourage schools to join academy trusts like they had been doing – and that the authority would be looking to strengthen their offers to their maintained schools.
Lifting the Pressure
This was personally bittersweet as the maintained school I work for were not looking to go down this route unless forced and therefore the pressure from the local authority had for now been lifted. On the other hand, however, I was now close to being halfway through my secondment that I had committed to due to the possible impending push on academies and I was left wondering if I had just wasted a year of my life.
The truth is we do not know what the future holds for the education sector and as quickly as the academy strategy can go off the table for the authority I work in, it can go back on. A neighbouring authority who are currently experiencing financial difficulties are however continuing to encourage schools to join Multi Academy Trust’s for the support that they can offer. With all this uncertainty still in mind, I took the decision to still future proof my career and I have enrolled on the CIPFA Diploma in Schools Financial and Operational Leadership course run in conjunction with ISBL, after being lucky enough to have been successful in being awarded a bursary through the DfE. I begin my first module next month, so I’ll let you know how I get on.
On that note, remember that new year’s resolution I made where I would enjoy the lack of financial control more for the rest of my time at the Trust? Well unfortunately it did not last long as sadly the CEO is currently off and the Trust are looking to temporarily promote the CFO to Acting CEO and have asked me to become the acting CFOO. It’s now just waiting to be agreed by the ESFA. So, watch this space!
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