Sammy Crook appointed Head of Federation.
As you know, we have had to undertake restructures of support staff at both primary and secondary phases, resulting in the loss of posts at all three schools in our federation. These restructures have been difficult for all of us but were necessary because of the increased pressure on our school budgets, due to factors outside our control.
The governors have also had to go further and review the top of the management structure, which currently has a Head of Primary phase and a Head of Secondary Phase. In order to be as open and fair as possible, we shared the need for this review with both Sammy Crook and Jayne Keller. Both were aware that the review included looking at a proposed new structure merging their two posts into a single head of federation – meaning one of our existing heads would be redundant.
It was clear to all the governors that neither Jayne nor Sammy would have chosen to leave the federation at this time and so we were pleased and relieved that Jayne has been successful in securing a Head Teacher role at Sherwell Valley Primary School.
Jayne’s news has if anything accelerated the need to review the leadership structure and ensure that all of our schools know what is happening in September. We also have the very significant benefit that no redundancy is now necessary.
Governors have now formally agreed that the federation will move forward under Sammy Crook who will be the head of federation across all three schools. She will have overall responsibility for all the schools in the federation as well as remaining Head Teacher at Tiverton High School and will be responsible for the use of our resources to provide the best outcomes possible for all of our students.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jayne for all her hard work and commitment to our children over her 5 years – first at Heathcoat, then within the federation with Rackenford also and we all wish her well. Jayne will, of course, remain head of Primary Phase until the end of this term.
