Crier Profile - Brenda Wilson
In this concluding instalment, Brenda tells us how things went wrong at Swaffham Prior School, how they got right again, and about her new life in retirement.
In 1998 Ros Aisbitt, an excellent teacher, and a Christian, left to work on one of those missionary liners, stopping off at different places - if you talk to anybody, they'll say, ah she was wonderful. I think we were her first teaching post. She was with us two, three years. It's always difficult when people leave at the end of the autumn term because most people who are wanting to change their jobs have done it in the summer. I knew she would be difficult to replace. We took on a man, who interviewed very well, a complete contrast to Ros and we had high hopes of him but it didn't work out. He had to be supported in the classroom. Then we were notified of an OFSTED inspection later that term. So OFSTED came in. They were not used to small schools. Neither of them had been a head teacher; the leader must have been a deputy in a very big school to have gained the experience to become an inspector. Very cold, no warmth. Anyway - they put us in Special Measures - too high a proportion of unsatisfactory teaching - which was devastating: one of the worst times of my life. Their decision had to be verified by HMI (Her Majesty's Inspector) so we had an HMI come to spend the day with us - who was as different again, she really was - a lovely woman. At the end of her inspection day she came in and she said 'Do you understand what Special Measures is? - I said yes. She said, 'Do you understand what Serious Weakness is?'Well no, I hadn't really thought that through, with the weight of Special Measures. We had had to make an action plan, get the governors and county involved, and all the rest of it. It's a huge weight of work. So she talked me through what serious weakness was, then she went off, and I had the strong feeling that she was going to recommend that we should be in Serious Weakness rather than Special Measures - slightly less devastating.. but Chris Woodhead, the Chief Inspector of Schools then, had apparently decided the decision should stand. The County stepped in to support us but the one Advisor, after one meeting with us, sent off a report to OFSTED, without giving us a copy until later, which contained a number of inaccuracies, presumptions about me and about the school which were just not right.
I was devastated. You feel a complete failure as it is without having things made worse. I didn't want it to look like sour grapes, so with my Chair of Governor's support I sent it off to my union general secretary and asked her what she thought - and she came back in total agreement with me, and more. It wasn't right. I don't mind taking the blame if I'm in the wrong, but this just wasn't right. So Roz Chalmers (my Chair of Governors and a tower of strength) and I wrote to the County with our complaint. I had two senior officials from County come to see me. And as they walked into school, with stern faces, I thought, they think I'm going to sue. I told them, no, I didn't want that, but she's (the advisor) got to be told, and I want them to put it right. I think she did have a very severe reprimand because we didn't see her again at school. We put our action plan forward and got on with it. As part of the process we had to be inspected every term, so come autumn we were inspected by an HMI - (who were the professionals before OFSTED, which was much more of a political appointment). She was great. She did her day, she went off. We carried on with our action plan. Then in January next year, she phoned to say she wanted to arrange an early visit, before half term, because she wanted to recommend that we came out of Special Measures in the summer term. So on the strength of one visit she had decided we were no longer special measures material. The HMI came for her second visit and made her recommendation, came back in the summer term - and (laughs) it could have been disastrous. One of the new teachers we'd appointed was on playground duty and was stung by a wasp or something. She came in and said she felt a bit woozy. She went on to teach her class with the HMI sitting in - and taught a good lesson! - came up to the office afterwards, saying she felt strange, and collapsed - anaphylactic shock. We got the ambulance out, she was whisked away and treated and had a full recovery I'm glad to say.
So we came out of Special Measures but we had to be inspected within a couple of years, as part of the terms of that. We were happily going along. David had been talking about going for a headship for some years but hadn't been getting anywhere. After the Special Measures and the amount of work involved in getting the school right, and the paperwork - he decided he wasn't going to go for a headship - that in fact, he'd had enough. He resigned in the October half term. Again, that time of the year.. I tried to persuade him to stay, but he was adamant.
We advertised, had a limited choice of applicants and appointed the most experienced. Unfortunately we had the same sort of situation as when Ros Aisbitt left. The class was very unsettled by the change and found it difficult to relate to their new teacher. It took quite some effort to get them to accept that whatever happened David was not coming back. SATs were coming up, lots of practice work.. a bit deadly dull for them. But they got on with it.
There were more changes, both from County and Government...Then, in 2002, we were told we were going to have another OFSTED, in the second week of September. This was the one that should show that things were going according to plan. However, one of my teachers was on maternity leave; we had a jobshare that was working very well, just over half the week each so that they had time to work together, we had Sue & I in the infants, a full-timer in class 2 and in class 4. One of the jobshare people tripped in Tesco and broke a toe, so her leg was in plaster; then deputy head was on a training course to do with dance, and she snapped her Achilles tendon. She was confined to bed; then in the middle of June I slipped and broke my leg. Three of us in plaster and one maternity leave. That was the Monday. We had a governors' meeting on Wednesday night. One of the governors said 'you shouldn't be here Brenda, you should be on sick leave.'We were planning for the OFSTED in September. The Chair asked if we could defer it. We got the answer by Friday: no: if the head were in post they wouldn't defer. So I thought, that's it - I'm not going to put the school at risk and go through all that with half my staff out for the preparation period so I put in my resignation. And then they deferred it. The inspection was in the Spring of 2003 and I'm glad to say the school did well, but I hadn't planned to leave then - I'd intended going on another four years, up to about now really.
The first year after that, because I hadn't prepared for retirement I didn't know what I was going to do, I'd worked virtually all my life - trying to find something that suited.. But gradually I began to realise there is life outside school. A neighbour whose children I had helped advise with some problems her children had had and whose children subsequently transferred to SP school, worked for the WEA - the Workers'Education Association. Started in 1904 as a means of educating workers who hadn't had a formal education, it does some accredited courses but it also does some classes to respond to local demand, non-vocational classes, and a lot of work with the handicapped. And she said they needed somebody to run a course for volunteers in schools, to give them background information and training. I met the woman responsible for the classes and it was just tailor made for me. The students do a course of 10 weeks - one day of study plus a minimum two hours a week in school, plus the associated work putting their file together for accreditation - it gives them background knowledge so that they can better help the children that they're working with as volunteers. The ultimate aim, for most of them is to get a paid position as teaching assistants. It is an accreditation but you have to be realistic - the average number of people in a class is 15 but I've had 30, and there are more people there than there might be jobs available. But it gives them insight into helping children learn. It's a very good course. and it's great for me. It's like going home, after all the work I've done with adults, and teaching a subject I've got a vast experience in. So: that first one was in Burwell - since then we've taken it all over the county, even Romsey St Mary, which is up on the farthest north-western reaches of the county. I'm doing my eleventh one now.
And I draw, I go to painting classes - art was one of my main subjects at training college. And I haven't broken my links with SP. I love being an 'honorary villager'. When I came I wanted to make the school part of the community and we always did lots of things to encourage the children and to bring the community into school - we always made sure that everybody knew what was going on and I wanted to feel a part of that village. And when I stopped - people were really very kind, and I got asked to lots of things - Kate Child asked me to get involved in functions, then I was asked if I would be treasurer to the church, which I did - with much trepidation - we were in the black the year I did it! we'd been in the red the year before, and money's been pretty tight since then too.. then I was asked if I would be churchwarden and I said I would do that on condition that I gave up the treasurer. And I get involved in other activities, I read my stories at the variety show, I'm good at selling raffle tickets - My step-granddaughter accused me of being cheeky when she accompanied me selling raffle tickets at the Jazz on a Summer evening one year! But it's all in good fun
I'm still involved with the church; I've got a lot of good friends there. I still hope to do some voluntary work abroad. I always planned that when I retired I would do some work for VSO. I've got one or two things like that I wanted to do - I was going to go to Palestine in summer, to do some language work, taking the place of a friend who had broken her wrist but then my son and his family came over from Kenya and I broke my leg so I didn't go. But perhaps next year. Who knows? Life is very full and you don't know what's going to turn up do you?