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Waterman Primary
Waterman Primary
Rochford Life: May we start with the very basics of who you are and what you’ve been brought in to do?
Head: I’m Debbie Rogan, the Head of Wickford C of E school in Wickford, and that is a National Support School designated by the National College, and I’m a National Leader of Education, one of two hundred in England. As a Christian school their mission is to share the good practice that they have in their school with other schools. That school gets School Improvement funding in order to share our leadership skills with other schools and we’ve been doing this sort of work for three or four years now. The school is contracted to provide services for other schools which is why I am here.
RL: Can you tell me a little of your background?
Head: I’ve been married for a nice long time and we have three children who are 26, 21 and 14.
RL: Do you have any hobbies? How do relax from the job?
Head: I swim, I go to the gym and I run a little. I do a lot of exercise and I read a lot and we go to the theatre. My youngest daughter really likes musical theatre, so we go to the theatre a lot. We go on holiday a lot and travel a lot, if we can, if we can find the time and the money, and of course when I’m not working.
RL: So, essentially, what were you brought in here to do?
Head: Well the school was put into special measures in June last year as a result of a full Ofsted inspection and that was, I think, the second or third time that it was in a category of need in about ten years, and the theory was that I came and supported the school to help it improve, which I did. At that time there were difficulties with staffing, as there always are with schools when they have that judgment made about them, so we found some new staff, so now all the teachers are new, and most of the support staff have either been here a long time or are new. Some people have left and some people have arrived. Some of my staff from my school in Wickford have come across to support here, and help move the school on, and then have gone back to their school and so the school is in a really good place now. We’re due for another inspection some time in this term, a monitoring visit that we have every term as a school in special measures. The Inspector that you have at the start of the process is the Inspector that you have all the way through. We have a very bright Inspector called David Jones, an HMI, and he will come back again this term and we are hoping that at that time he will take us out of special measures.
RL: While I was waiting in the reception area, just outside the staff room, there was some coming and going and there seemed a very light, relaxed and warm atmosphere between the staff I saw there.
Head: Yes, I think that is important for us; we wouldn’t want children to be unhappy or stressed and quite rightly parents would feel that was wrong in the terms of the provision that we have for the children, and therefore you can’t have or expect your staff to be stressed. We support each other. Because it is a small team we support each other very much and we apply the same principles to dealing with staff that we have dealing with children which is that happy, confident, respected people do a good job and learn well, and so we support each other and look after each other as well as looking after the children.
RL: Have you ever done this before?
Head: Yes, several times. I do it differently each time. Sometimes I work alongside the Head Teacher, sometimes I work as an interim Head Teacher when a school is in difficulties and waiting for a new Head Teacher, or I’ll do this where there is no Head Teacher in place – although there is a Head Teacher here now because Rachel is the acting Head Teacher. She is the day to day leader of the school, whereas I come in three days a week, or the equivalent of three days a week, to do strategic stuff and talk about the direction of the school in the future, and support the governors and her in leadership.
RL: If the Inspector comes and takes you out of special measures, will that mean the end of your time here or will you stay on for a while?
Head: I will stay on for a while because that has been part of the difficulty in the past, in that people have come and supported the school and then they come out of special measures and then that support has gone. In all schools, when a school has been through this process, it is very stressful, and when there are small numbers of children who need lots of support, then the Head Teacher also needs lots of support, because they are a key figure and you want to keep your good Head Teacher. So, I will stay for a little while to support her and the governors and will probably stay on the Governing body for a substantial amount of time, I would think, to carry on that help.
RL: The catchment area is often said to be quite needy. How do you cope with that?
Head: Yes, the locality has its issues but I don’t assume anyone in an area has a specific attitude, and they don’t. The parents here are very supportive. It’s taken a long time because quite rightly they want what is best for their children and they may be in an area that has issues in terms of money, or in terms of housing, and for some parents that they are supporting their children on their own, but we have had very few issues of a nature that are aggressive or unhelpful.
Some parents might find it difficult to support their children, not because they don’t want to but because the issues in their lives don’t allow them to, and therefore the relationship with us is really important, so that we can provide them with that support to help them do that. That’s what is important, because people are at different stages of their lives and have different needs. Many of our parents are what might be described as very shy and may have had a bad experience of education themselves, and so it is key that we make them feel that school isn’t he place it was when they went to school, and that their children are not necessarily going to have a bad experience. The only way to do that is if they trust you are doing what is best for their children, and they will only trust you if you have good relationships with them, so we have coffee mornings, and they come to assemblies, they chat to the office staff, and we help them with whatever they need. It is very rare that we have cross parents and where we have had issues it is because we’ve had to challenge parents about things and the vast majority have responded positively, and those that haven’t have tended to go elsewhere. It may well be for some that this has been their fifth or sixth school where they have been challenged and so they move on, and that’s fine, but then most of our parents put their children’s needs first, before theirs, and so yes, we do have issues as does any school, but some of the parents do an amazing job with the resources and the issues and the backgrounds that they have.
RL: Do you have a PTA?
Head: Yes, in fact I think it has just been given a name but I’m not quite sure what that is because I wasn’t in on that. Our Chair of Governors is a parent and she’s also a teaching assistant .She is a magnificent community-minded person so she does a lot of work in the local community for the school and she, together with one of the other T.A’s, has been drawing parents in. We had a Summer fete and a Christmas Bazaar and they helped to pay for an outdoor classroom and playground where children can go to when it’s a little bit cold, to sit and read, or to which teachers can take them, and they helped pay for that. It’s early days but it’s been good. We’ve had some help with the vegetable garden and painting fences, and things like that.
RL: If it is possible, in days to come I’d like to talk to our Chair of Governors and others about their feelings for the school.
Head: Oh yes, definitely. And we’ve got good staff here, some of whom live locally, some don’t, but a lot of people are very committed because of the circumstances of the school and, having been with it for a long time, are very committed to the improving of the school. And the children are an absolute joy. I’m aware there is a reputation but it simply doesn’t match what goes on. If you walked around you wouldn’t see anything but a normal and happy, functioning school with excellent facilities. They all learn the African drum and they all have a specialist drama teacher, and they are in small classes.
RL: How many children do you have at the moment?
Head: Forty seven, so they are in small classes of about seventeen, with one class a bit smaller. The intake this year was very high; the reception group was almost full. Small classes, and each normally has two adults in it, so the children are getting very good provision. They need that for their reading and writing, but some of them are making mammoth progress. We don’t have any big behaviour issues, nothing more than is normal with children. In fact I would say that the children here are generally very well behaved. There are some children who need support and have special needs but we don’t have any big behaviour issues.
RL: Well thank you very much. Thank you again for your time. If we can serve and help you in any way in the days to come, we’d be delighted. Thank you again.
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Head: I’m Debbie Rogan, the Head of Wickford C of E school in Wickford, and that is a National Support School designated by the National College, and I’m a National Leader of Education, one of two hundred in England. As a Christian school their mission is to share the good practice that they have in their school with other schools. That school gets School Improvement funding in order to share our leadership skills with other schools and we’ve been doing this sort of work for three or four years now. The school is contracted to provide services for other schools which is why I am here.
RL: Can you tell me a little of your background?
Head: I’ve been married for a nice long time and we have three children who are 26, 21 and 14.
RL: Do you have any hobbies? How do relax from the job?
Head: I swim, I go to the gym and I run a little. I do a lot of exercise and I read a lot and we go to the theatre. My youngest daughter really likes musical theatre, so we go to the theatre a lot. We go on holiday a lot and travel a lot, if we can, if we can find the time and the money, and of course when I’m not working.
RL: So, essentially, what were you brought in here to do?
Head: Well the school was put into special measures in June last year as a result of a full Ofsted inspection and that was, I think, the second or third time that it was in a category of need in about ten years, and the theory was that I came and supported the school to help it improve, which I did. At that time there were difficulties with staffing, as there always are with schools when they have that judgment made about them, so we found some new staff, so now all the teachers are new, and most of the support staff have either been here a long time or are new. Some people have left and some people have arrived. Some of my staff from my school in Wickford have come across to support here, and help move the school on, and then have gone back to their school and so the school is in a really good place now. We’re due for another inspection some time in this term, a monitoring visit that we have every term as a school in special measures. The Inspector that you have at the start of the process is the Inspector that you have all the way through. We have a very bright Inspector called David Jones, an HMI, and he will come back again this term and we are hoping that at that time he will take us out of special measures.
RL: While I was waiting in the reception area, just outside the staff room, there was some coming and going and there seemed a very light, relaxed and warm atmosphere between the staff I saw there.
Head: Yes, I think that is important for us; we wouldn’t want children to be unhappy or stressed and quite rightly parents would feel that was wrong in the terms of the provision that we have for the children, and therefore you can’t have or expect your staff to be stressed. We support each other. Because it is a small team we support each other very much and we apply the same principles to dealing with staff that we have dealing with children which is that happy, confident, respected people do a good job and learn well, and so we support each other and look after each other as well as looking after the children.
RL: Have you ever done this before?
Head: Yes, several times. I do it differently each time. Sometimes I work alongside the Head Teacher, sometimes I work as an interim Head Teacher when a school is in difficulties and waiting for a new Head Teacher, or I’ll do this where there is no Head Teacher in place – although there is a Head Teacher here now because Rachel is the acting Head Teacher. She is the day to day leader of the school, whereas I come in three days a week, or the equivalent of three days a week, to do strategic stuff and talk about the direction of the school in the future, and support the governors and her in leadership.
RL: If the Inspector comes and takes you out of special measures, will that mean the end of your time here or will you stay on for a while?
Head: I will stay on for a while because that has been part of the difficulty in the past, in that people have come and supported the school and then they come out of special measures and then that support has gone. In all schools, when a school has been through this process, it is very stressful, and when there are small numbers of children who need lots of support, then the Head Teacher also needs lots of support, because they are a key figure and you want to keep your good Head Teacher. So, I will stay for a little while to support her and the governors and will probably stay on the Governing body for a substantial amount of time, I would think, to carry on that help.
RL: The catchment area is often said to be quite needy. How do you cope with that?
Head: Yes, the locality has its issues but I don’t assume anyone in an area has a specific attitude, and they don’t. The parents here are very supportive. It’s taken a long time because quite rightly they want what is best for their children and they may be in an area that has issues in terms of money, or in terms of housing, and for some parents that they are supporting their children on their own, but we have had very few issues of a nature that are aggressive or unhelpful.
Some parents might find it difficult to support their children, not because they don’t want to but because the issues in their lives don’t allow them to, and therefore the relationship with us is really important, so that we can provide them with that support to help them do that. That’s what is important, because people are at different stages of their lives and have different needs. Many of our parents are what might be described as very shy and may have had a bad experience of education themselves, and so it is key that we make them feel that school isn’t he place it was when they went to school, and that their children are not necessarily going to have a bad experience. The only way to do that is if they trust you are doing what is best for their children, and they will only trust you if you have good relationships with them, so we have coffee mornings, and they come to assemblies, they chat to the office staff, and we help them with whatever they need. It is very rare that we have cross parents and where we have had issues it is because we’ve had to challenge parents about things and the vast majority have responded positively, and those that haven’t have tended to go elsewhere. It may well be for some that this has been their fifth or sixth school where they have been challenged and so they move on, and that’s fine, but then most of our parents put their children’s needs first, before theirs, and so yes, we do have issues as does any school, but some of the parents do an amazing job with the resources and the issues and the backgrounds that they have.
RL: Do you have a PTA?
Head: Yes, in fact I think it has just been given a name but I’m not quite sure what that is because I wasn’t in on that. Our Chair of Governors is a parent and she’s also a teaching assistant .She is a magnificent community-
RL: If it is possible, in days to come I’d like to talk to our Chair of Governors and others about their feelings for the school.
Head: Oh yes, definitely. And we’ve got good staff here, some of whom live locally, some don’t, but a lot of people are very committed because of the circumstances of the school and, having been with it for a long time, are very committed to the improving of the school. And the children are an absolute joy. I’m aware there is a reputation but it simply doesn’t match what goes on. If you walked around you wouldn’t see anything but a normal and happy, functioning school with excellent facilities. They all learn the African drum and they all have a specialist drama teacher, and they are in small classes.
RL: How many children do you have at the moment?
Head: Forty seven, so they are in small classes of about seventeen, with one class a bit smaller. The intake this year was very high; the reception group was almost full. Small classes, and each normally has two adults in it, so the children are getting very good provision. They need that for their reading and writing, but some of them are making mammoth progress. We don’t have any big behaviour issues, nothing more than is normal with children. In fact I would say that the children here are generally very well behaved. There are some children who need support and have special needs but we don’t have any big behaviour issues.
RL: Well thank you very much. Thank you again for your time. If we can serve and help you in any way in the days to come, we’d be delighted. Thank you again.
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Waterman Primary School,
The Boulevard, Rochford,
SS4 1QF
Head: Mrs.Welch
01702 546237
www.watermanprimaryschool.ik.org
admin@waterman.essex.sch.uk
admin@waterman.essex.sch.uk
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“Meet the Executive Head”
Interview with Debbie Rogan, Executive Head of Waterman Primary School
Interview with Debbie Rogan, Executive Head of Waterman Primary School
(4th November 2010)
This was the first of the schools in Rochford or Ashingdon that we have been into and the easy access to the two Heads and the warmth of their welcome spoke volumes about the present state of this school which is still, for the moment, in special measures. Debbie Rogan is the ‘Executive Head’ (and you’ll see what that means as you read the interview). As we sat and talked I was aware of a sense of care, competence and confidence, which suggest that ‘special measures’ may not be around for very much longer. (NOW read the later articles!) The impression that I was left with said that, if I had children at this school age, this would be a school where I would be quite happy to send them. It felt good. We’d like to thank Debbie for her warmth and openness to us. (Note: as at the end of the 2010/2011 academic year Debbie is now no longer executive head but Chair of Governors)