Case study: New Siblands Special School

Interview

The case study below is based on an interview with Paul Casson, Head Teacher. The views expressed are those of the interviewee, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department.

School staff and pupils

The school has 74 pupils with a range of severe to moderate and profound learning difficulties. It also has pupils with autism and challenging behaviours. The average class size is between six and 10 with one teacher and two or three support staff.

NSS has eight full-time teachers, although this is to increase when the school expands in 2012. It also employs some part-time teachers to cover planning, preparation and assessment time and occasionally uses supply teachers.

Other staff include a non-teaching Head and Deputy Head Teacher, higher level and standard teaching assistants, learning support assistants and other additional support staff.

Recruiting staff

NSS recruits teachers like any other mainstream primary or secondary school. It identifies a need for a teacher and the kinds of skills required (eg a specialism in geography or history). It advertises the vacancy, applications are sifted and those shortlisted are required to give a micro teaching session and attend an interview.

However, as NSS is a special education needs (SEN) school, teachers need to have an additional qualification. Paul says this does not mean the teacher must have obtained it beforehand. If the teacher has the necessary teaching skills for SEN then the school will attach a continuing professional development (CPD) programme.

Although the school is tied to the basic competencies that are set out by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) they also look for creative people with the ability to think around issues and who are able to look at learning from different perspectives. These skills are valued because the children in the school learn in vastly different ways and at different levels.

Therefore, Paul says the school invests in people who have skills in "the science of teaching and learning. For them to have those skills they have got to be able to assess kids effectively. To assess them they must be able to match them against the blueprint of child development to see where to take the next step which will teach them geography or history".

Personality inventory

The personalities and characteristics of the school's teaching staff are extremely important and so every so often the school does a personality inventory. This involves plotting people's personalities in four quadrants:

• Warriors – are up for a challenge
• Wise kings – are calculating
• Earth mothers – are highly sensitive
• Magicians – are creative and a bit messy, mixed up and uncoordinated

Each quadrant is coloured and what you get, Paul explains, is something very colourful because most people are mix of all colours.

One type tends to be dominant in the school: green (earth mothers). However Paul says,

"most useful to us are the other colours, because we need to have accurate assessment, analytical, identification of needs and we need good organisation… We need people who can see the big picture and can take the lead, who will take chances. We need creative thinkers."

So when recruiting, the school does its best to analyse and identify where it thinks a person is on the quadrant. Eventually it will reorganise the school to balance any inequalities. Paul says it has undertaken this whole process twice. Although he says this is the most expensive thing the school does, it is the most worthwhile procedure for its optimal functioning. In Paul's opinion, many organisations make the mistake of only looking for certain types of personalities, which results in organisations being less diverse and able to cope with different circumstances.

Diversity and inclusiveness

Diversity and inclusiveness are not only about personalities for NSS, they are also about socio-economic, ethnic and many other differences. For example, NSS is funding a teaching assistant to become a teacher who would not otherwise have had the money to go through the usual teaching route. Paul says that if an organisation is to be as diverse as it could be, whether for the business case or from a more ethical stance, it should be as inclusive of all ways into the professions and workplace as possible.

One of the main benefits this route has for any school or profession is that it can assess the employee as they progress up through the organisation. Paul also noted that the school has become very astute at assessing applicants during the 20 minute micro teach part of the application process.

Paul would also like to attract more diverse applicants, but even though NSS advertises both locally and nationally, it does not attract many applicants from underrepresented groups, such as travellers, black and minority ethnic (BME) or people from other cultures (many of whom are represented by their pupils). He thinks this could be because NSS is situated in a rural, predominately white, middle class area.

Paul believes that having a less diverse teaching staff means a reduced experience for the children and an absence of certain types of role model. However, he pointed out that some forms of diversity, such as particular disabilities, need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. For example, the school tried to accommodate an employee with autism, but this adversely affected some of the students’ learning difficulties.

For NSS, diversity and inclusion is not about producing a good public image, it is about how diversity and inclusion can help the school function for its pupils and staff. It is about the experiences they receive from being in such an environment. With that ethos in mind, NSS recruits teachers that are able to bring or offer new and interesting perspectives and help in the drive to improve the school, whatever their background. Paul says the effectiveness of this ethos could be greatly increased if more diverse applicants applied.

Conclusion

Paul believes that the main barriers into teaching are socio-economic factors and social perceptions, and to that end NSS aims to develop employees where possible within the school. Although the school can have little effect on social perceptions of teaching, it can and does project a strong diversity and inclusion ethos, in the hope that it will attract more diverse applicants.

The school's diversity and inclusiveness extends further than just assistance; it aims to create a diversity of personalities and does this through using personality inventory criteria when recruiting teaching staff. Personality diversity feeds back into the school ethos, since it means that pupils learn from a multiplicity of perspectives which enable the school to develop – demonstrated by an 'outstanding' OFSTED review in 2006.

NSS demonstrates that regardless of the size of the organisation or budget, there is still much that can be done with determination and a sound ethos.

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