The Spring is a period where we are all hard at work at Cransley - pupils, colleagues and no doubt for you as well. Congratulations on making it through a long dark winter!
This month, in particular, has been a curious one, with the announcement that Alderley Edge School for Girls will close this summer.
As an educationalist, it is difficult when colleagues in independent schools who, for whichever reasons (and there will be many), have little option but to desperately look for work, whilst giving their every effort to a school they love.
As a busy headteacher, it has been a happy challenge to have an already-full diary pushed aside (or, if I’m honest, moved to the evening) to make way for individual tours of the school, giving me the chance to warmly welcome new families keen to visit our setting.
As a School leader, it is difficult to observe and hear about how other schools lean on traditional, high-pressure selection panels, whilst we believe that true potential is discovered through dialogue and taster experiences.
As a parent, it is heartbreaking to meet so many families, tired and affected by the questionable treatment of already vulnerable and emotionally exhausted girls, who, it appears, have simply been paraded in front of selection panels and selected by examination and presentation with only a handful of days’ notice.
It is a deeply emotional, and almost traumatic time for many - and kindness, not critique, must be in ample supply. We must be sympathetic, not selective.
We have and will continue to attract pupils to our School: Parents of daughters who intently want a small setting, where their child is noticed and known. Settings where the girls will not be put on display, but encouraged, nurtured and carefully integrated.
This is what we have done, to best support the families from AESG who have enquired: Listen; get to know the child in person; offer a bespoke individual tour; have supportive taster days, not mass examinations; initiate early friendships and support networks; aid a smooth and sympathetic transition; invite old Alderley Edge pupils to venture beyond as new Cransley pupils - or even better, to be both.
This way, the academic growth of the child is not just sustained, but boosted and enhanced.
We will reach our capacity in most year groups, as a result, and we will protect the service to existing families - those recently joining us and those with whom we have had a relationship over many years.
Small schools have the time, the motivation and the capacity to care.
Indeed, as we hosted the North West regional meeting of ISBA (Independent Schools’ Bursars Association) at Cransley, I welcomed the opportunity to remind the sector that the most innovative schools in the UK right now are those that remain agile, positive and pupil-centred.
Do not be under any illusion: small Independent Schools are utterly vital to the educational sector.
We make decisions quickly and effectively;
We innovate and are quick and flexible in bringing about change, leading the way in academic and pastoral service.
We maintain fiscal and operational agility, adapting to opportunities and challenges.
We can be intentionally the ‘right size’ for our School - not too big, not too small.
We are invariably more inclusive, meeting the needs of more;
We are rarely arrogant, elitist and selective, but rather humble, gentle and modest;
We reduce middle management, putting front-line teaching excellence first, not last, and inverting the management structure so that experienced multi-skilled leaders serve and facilitate those providing the pupils’ education;
We support each other - sharing ideas, without unnecessary and counterproductive notions of competition and rivalry;
And - most importantly - we nurture relationships. We listen and we care.
I wish the families and employees of Alderley Edge School for Girls well. I hope they are able to celebrate the rich history of the school which had (and has) so much importance in the lives of girls and women across the country.
Richard Pollock
Headteacher
