Term Paper on "Superheadism Policy of the Labour Party"

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Education

Throughout the world there is an emphasis placed on education; the United Kingdom is no exception. The United Kingdom has long been revered for the educational structure that exist with the country, The country has always believed that headmasters play a vital role in ensuring that educational institutions provide students with the best instruction possible. More specifically the Labour Party has initiated a policy of Superheadism. The purpose of this discussion is to describe the aforementioned initiative and discuss what role it plays in fostering school improvement. In addition, the essay will discuss other education initiatives that have been wrought by the Labour Party. We will also discuss the likely success or failure of the superheadism initiative.

Origins of the Education problem in the United Kingdom

According to an article found in the journal, Education, the super head initiative was brought about by the labor party as a response to the educational atmosphere that they inherited from the Tories. When the Labour party came into power, the educational situation in the United Kingdom was in great need of repair (Marshall, 2001). According to the article, teachers' salaries were declining and the overall expenditures for education were also decreasing (Marshall, 2001).

The article explains that for this reason Prime Minister Tony Blair named education as a top priority for the labour party (Marshall, 2001). The author also explains that the conditions at many schools were deplorable as teachers were forced to teach in overcrowded classrooms and buildings were falling apart (Marshall, 2001).

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>Marshall (2001) asserts that one of the most significant obstacles that the labor party had to overcome was the competitive educational environment that the Conservatives pioneered (Marshall, 2001). The Conservatives supposed that they could apply the theory of competition that is used in business, to enhance the standards of schools in the United Kingdom (Marshall, 2001). The conservatives believed that the success of such a policy could be found in exam results. The author reports, "For the first time, a stock exchange of school performance, the so-called league tables, were to be published to enable parents to trade their children against a school's future success. In the event it was shrewd investors and schools already rich in cultural capital, to use the sociologist Bourdieu's term, who profited by the system (Marshall, 2001)."

The author explains that this system was extremely problematic. The author discusses the finding made by Stephen Bali, Sharon Gerwirtz and Richard Bowe, which brought into question the integrity of such a system (Marshall, 2001). The research found that "the education market privileged those parents who knew how to work the system (Marshall, 2001)." The research discovered that some schools profited from the market instead of the consuming parents. Marshall (2001) explains that As schools grew in popularity, so they became oversubscribed, and more often than not this led to selection via the back door, either because the house prices in the catchment area became so prohibitively expensive that only the well-to-do could afford them, or because the schools themselves began to introduce screening devices through entrance tests and interviews, to ensure that only the academically able or socially adjusted gained entrance (Marshall, 2001)."

Marshall (2001) maintains that over time these schools were described as grant maintained institutions. Such a label allowed the schools to govern their entrance procedures instead of being governed by local authorities (Marshall, 2001). Such governance meant that they could deny certain students entrance, which the local authority schools could not Marshall, 2001). For instance, the grant maintained institutions could deny students that were excluded from other schools and disabled students (Marshall, 2001). The author also asserts that the grant maintained institutions were allotted separate governmental funding. The author concluded that this type of structure that so badly bruised schools in the United Kingdom.

Indeed this system seemed to place all the "good" schools in wealthier neighborhoods and the "bad" schools in poor neighborhoods (Marshall, 2001). Now exist there a huge gap between those schools that were grant maintained and those that were under the control of local authorities. The parents that had the wherewithal and could afford to find the best schools for their children benefited from this system but those that could not had to place their children into schools that were suffering.

At the time, this situation might not have struck legislators as problematic, since their children would not be the ones affected. However, over time, this system has failed to educate a great number of young people who will have a difficult time finding employment; lack of employment coupled with poverty will affect everyone.

To combat the system that had been created by the conservatives the first education bill presented by the labour party was designed to bridge the divide between the grant maintained schools and the local authority schools (Marshall, 2001). This bill gave authority over grant maintained schools back to local authority. The schools were then labeled as foundation schools, and they did not receive separate funding (Marshall, 2001). In addition, they no longer had sole authority over entrance procedures or the students that could enroll in the schools (Marshall, 2001). The author writes, "for the first time in over a decade, regained some say in the allocation of pupils to all the schools in their area. Governing bodies had once more to include local representation from the political parties (Marshall, 2001)."

Marshall (2001) argues that many were opposed to the initial bill because it reeked of privatization, which has been proven ineffective in the United States and other places. Marshall (2001) asserts that privatization is seen as detrimental because when business and education are combined one always seems to suffer and it is usually education. Still others felt that the league tables were not an accurate way of measuring school success. The article contends that For Labour, as with the Conservatives before them, the league tables are a key mechanism for holding schools accountable. Yet, as we have seen, for this to make sense as a policy, the rhetoric of any government must assume a level playing field between schools to begin with, in order to suggest that these tables accurately reflect the quality of education in these institutions. Any admittance that this is not so, and that social conditions, for example, play a part, would automatically call into question the efficacy of the league tables as a measure of school performance (Marshall, 2001)."

The labor party has also admitted that the league tables are problematic and have suggested the use of value added tables. However, the Labour party continued to reply upon the results obtained by the league tables to measure the success of schools.

The author argues that many of the Labour party's suggestions for improving education in the United Kingdom have ignored the real issue of poverty (Marshall, 2001). The poorly performing schools have consistently been located in the poorest areas (Marshall, 2001). The author asserts that there is a direct correlation between poverty and poor academic performance. Marshall (2001) contends that until the issue of poverty is properly addressed schools that are located in poor economic areas will continue to perform poorly (Marshall, 2001). Others agree explaining that,

It is crucial that policy makers desist from claiming that school improvement -- by itself and in the absence of extra resources -- can solve the problems. Whilst it may be true in "advantaged" schools, it is certainly not true in disadvantaged schools... Whilst some schools can succeed against the odds, the possibility of their doing so, year in and year out, still appears remote, given that the long-term patterning of educational inequality has been strikingly consistent throughout the history of public education in most countries... We must be aware of the dangers of basing a national strategy for change on the efforts of outstanding individuals in exceptional circumstances (Marshall, 2001)."

Indeed the real issue in underperforming schools is correlated with the poverty and squalor that many students live in. The Labor party has attempted to address these issues with more breakfast and after school programs. However, some deep-seated psychological issues that poverty creates cannot be easily solved. Poverty creates resentment and a mindset of victimization. When there are huge disparities between the rich and the poor, which is present in most nations in the world, hostilities arise, and people feel disenfranchised; when you add to this an educational structure that systematically places most poor people in poorly performing schools, people are disenfranchised even further. In addition, the feelings of victimization are solidified. If children come to school feeling disenfranchised and victimized, it is not likely that they will be the best learners. In addition, depending on how old the child is, they may have some understanding that rich kids go to schools that are far better, this creates an inferiority complex, and there is no motivation to do well in school. An article found in the New Statesmen describes this best saying, "if you bundle all the children from all the poorest… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Superheadism Policy of the Labour Party" Assignment:

“

'Superheadism's Role in Fostering School Improvement

The United Kingdom's New Labour party has many Educational Policy

initiatives or trends intended to foster school improvement; explore the

role of "superheadism" (Headmasters)as part of the new labour policy

initiative/trends.

A. Find out as much as possible about the initiative.

(sources may include academic books, Green Papers/ White Papers,the TES

website and other media, "www. dfes.com.uk").

Names for Academic Books:

1. Effective School Management (Third Edition) by K B Everard and

Geoffrey Morris

2. Effective Educational Leadership by Bennett, Crawford and Cartwright

3.School Leadership for the 21st Century a competency and knowledge

approach by Brent Davies and Linda Ellison

4.Leadership for tomorrow's schools by Anne Jones.

B. Provide a description of of the policy initiative. or trend -in this

case it is "superheadism"- including its origins and relationship to

other New Labour education policies ( other new labour policies include,

for example: (Naming and Shaming trend/ The Role of OFSTED in School

Improvement)

C.Provide a discussion about the likely success or otherwise of the

initiative or trend referring to any directly-relevant research findings

and to the SESI Literature and/or its critiques.

D. The essay should have an appropriate introduction and conclusion. '

And the following links or clips might help as well:

.

MANAGING COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Issues for Leadership

Edited by Allan M. Hoffman Randal W. Summers Foreword by Dean L. Hubbard

BERGIN & GARVEY Westport, Connecticut ● London

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•

Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: Managing Colleges and Universities: Issues for Leadership. Contributors: Allan M. Hoffman - editor, Dean L. Hubbard - author, Randal W. Summers - editor. Publisher: Bergin & Garvey. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: iii.

•

The Practitioners Dilemma: Understanding and Managing Change in the Academic Institution

John S. Levin

College and university administrators have no easy chore. The pervasive call for planned change in the academic institution is resisted by the culture of the academy, a culture that is weighted heavily toward preservation and maintenance of the status quo, particularly the belief system of faculty and those administrators who moved from faculty ranks ( Adams 1976; Dill 1982). Additionally, the very nature of managerial work has entrenched qualities such as decisiveness, action, and control that predispose managers to favor change, indeed to stimulate change and characterize environments as turbulent or dynamic ( Crouch, Sinclair, and Hinte 1992; Mintzberg 1989, 1973). Yet the structure and patterns of managing in the modern organization require an approach that is both superficial in its understanding of organizational life and occasionally dysfunctional because of its insistence on control and the acquisition of power to maintain control ( Mintzberg 1989).

Among the many views about managing organizational change in the academic institution, two strike the practitioner with experiential realism. The first is that confrontation with change and its companions, contradiction and ambiguity, is endemic to management ( Quinn 1991). The second view is that the significance of change is socially constructed, invented, or fabricated by managers and organizational participants and based upon preexisting interpretations and understandings of organization ( Crouch et al. 1992; Ferris, Fedor, and King 1994; Morgan 1986). Unfortunately, within organizations there may be no consensual meaning or understanding of organizational behaviors, thus change whether planned or unplanned may be accompanied by diverse and conflicting values, judgments, and interpretations ( Bergquist 1992; Morgan 1986).

The dilemma for managers of the academic institution is that they are charged with responsibility for organizational action, yet the meaning and ultimately the values of action and its outcomes are subject to interpretation and dispute. Managing the academic institution in the 1990s is not a journey into the unknown, but it is a struggle not unlike jousting with windmills or opposing a dragon in mortal combat, or even facing demons within.

This chapter is based upon a review of research on managing change in academic organizations, with emphasis on administrative and management science literature and on higher education literature. The purpose here is to clarify concepts of the management of change in higher education and to identify not only forces of change but also approaches to the understanding of and coping with change. What are assumptions about the academic institution that may affect the understanding and management of change? How is organizational change conceived of in the academic institution? What are the forces of change that influence the academic institution? What are organizational responses to forces of change? And, how could the management of organizational change be reconceived and practiced differently in order to enable higher education institutions to survive and even improve in their functioning?

Scholars and practitioners for over a decade now have claimed that a management revolution is under way not only in business and industry but also in higher education. To what extent is this claim compatible or at odds with several important assumptions about higher education institutions? For example, the collegial concept of the academic institution that portrays academic institutions as academic communities, with self-governing scholars, is under attack not only as the role of faculty becomes more entrepreneurial but also as relationships among faculty change as increased competition for scarce resources exacerbates collegial and even civilized relations. On the one hand, the assumption of self-governing scholars suggests that administrators or managers are superfluous; on the other hand, changes in expectations for faculty and consequent behaviors suggest that management has a strategic and critical role to play in the academy, particularly in guiding and managing faculty behaviors.

•

• Title Page

• -Contents

• -Foreword

• -Introduction

• -1: Organizational Structure, Management, and Leadership for the Future

• -References

• -2: The Practitioners Dilemma: Understanding and Managing Change in the Academic Institution

• -References

• -3: A Memorandum from Machiavelli on the Principled Use of Power in the Academy

• -Acknowledgments

• -References

• -4: Higher Education Management in Theory and Practice

• -References

• -5: Successfully Managing Higher Education Consortia/Partnerships

• -References

• -6: The Financing of Higher Education

• -References

• -7: The Process of Setting Tuition in Public University Systems: a Case Study of Interaction Between Governing Board and Campus Management

• -References

• -8: Collective Bargaining

• -References

• -9: Student Development: Its Place in the Academy

• -References

• -10: Managing with Diversity in Colleges and Universities

• -References

• -11: Managing Evaluations in Higher Education

• -References

• -12: Evaluating Collegiate Administrators

• -Reference

• -Index

• -About the Editors and Contributors

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

Persistent Dilemmas in Preparation and Practice

Edited by Stephen L. Jacobson Edward S. Hickcox Robert B. Stevenson

PRAEGER Westport, Connecticut London

-iii-

Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: School Administration: Persistent Dilemmas in Preparation and Practice. Contributors: Edward S. Hickcox - editor, Stephen L. Jacobson - editor, Robert B. Stevenson - editor. Publisher: Praeger Publishers. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996. Page Number: iii.

• -Title Page

• -Contents

• -Preface

• -I Understanding Educational Dilemmas

• -1 Reforming the Practice of Educational Administration Through Managing Dilemmas

• -2 Managing Dilemmas In Education: The Tightrope Walk of Strategic Choice in Autonomous Institutions

• -Conclusion

• -Notes

• -3 Persistent Dilemmas In Administrative Preparation and Practices in Underdeveloped and Developing Countries

• -Conclusion

• -Acknowledgment

• -II Societal and Ethical Dilemmas in School Administration

• -4 Administering for Diversity: Dilemmas in Multiethnic Schools

• -Conclusion

• -Notes

• -5 Suspended Morality and the Denial of Ethics: How Value Relativism Muddles the Distinction Between Right and Wrong in Administrative Decisions

• -Conclusion

• -6 Imagination and Character in Educational Administration

• -III Organizational Dilemmas in School Administration

• -7 Monetary Incentives and the Reform of Teacher Compensation: A Persistent Organizational Dilemma

• -Conclusions

• -Note

• -8 Performance Related Pay and Professional Development

• -Conclusion

• -9 Equity and Efficiency: Tensions in School-Based Management in England and Wales

• -Conclusion

• -Notes

• -IV Role Dilemmas of School Leaders

• -10 Principals' Dilemmas: Intraorganizational Demands and Environmental Boundary Spanning Activities Jack Y. L. Lam

• -Conclusion

• -11 New Principals' Experiences With Leadership: Crossing the Cultural Boundary

• -Conclusion

• -12 The Dilemmas of Exercising Political Leadership in Educational Policy Change

• -V Dilemmas in The Professional Development of School Administrators

• -13 Problem-Based Learning as an Approach to the Professional Development of School Leaders: A Case Study

• -14 Boundary Mentoring: A Solution to the Persistent Dilemma of How to Educate School Administrators

• -Conclusion

• -Notes

• -Acknowledgments

• -15 The Need for Mentoring in a Developing Country

• -Conclusion

• -VI Dilemmas of Shared Leadership in Decentralized Schools

• -16 Reframing Educational Leadership in the Perspective of Dilemmas

• -Conclusion

• -Notes

• -17 Devolution and the Changing Role of the Principal: Dilemmas and a Research Agenda

• -Conclusion

• -18 Knowledge-In-Use: Reconceptualizing the Use of Knowledge in School Decision Making

• -Conclusion

• -Acknowledgment

• -References

• -Index

• -About the Contributors

1

Reforming the Practice of Educational Administration through Managing Dilemmas

Larry Cuban

I begin by outlining my argument. Without a practical understanding of the value conflicts deeply rooted in educational administration and the varied ways practitioners have learned to tame these perpetual struggles, schools and districts will continue to be administered as they are and face dim prospects for engaging in either meaningful or substantial reform. Such a practical understanding constitutes knowledge and survival skills for those principals and superintendents who hope to continue in their posts and, of equal importance, to improve their schools and districts.

To extract that essential knowledge and apply those survival skills requires disentangling value conflicts that are deeply embedded in the practice of educational administration, reforming schools, and reconciling their competing claims. Hence, I will first distinguish among the common types of dilemmas facing administrators over the purposes of schooling, over strategies in making improvements, and in ascertaining results. Then I will analyze the fundamental dilemma of conflicting role expectations that generates these more obvious and visible struggles. By concentrating on the tight coupling between surface and underlying dilemmas, I will argue that attention to both in preparation programs and for practicing administrators will help principals and superintendents figure out more clearly what they can and cannot do as administrators and why. In analyzing the dilemmas that administrators face, I hope to provide a more realistic platform for reshaping the practice of educational administration and coping with school reform.

-3-

Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: School Administration: Persistent Dilemmas in Preparation and Practice. Contributors: Edward S. Hickcox - editor, Stephen L. Jacobson - editor, Robert B. Stevenson - editor. Publisher: Praeger Publishers. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996. Page Number: 3.

11

New Principals' Experiences with Leadership: Crossing the Cultural Boundary

Robert B. MacMillan

People inside and outside of school settings have preconceived ideas about the principal's role -- ideas that are based on their previous experience with individuals in that role and on community and societal expectations and assumptions. Unfortunately, unless they are principals themselves, these individuals have limited means to test their understanding of principals' work. Even candidates for the principalship who have acquired a knowledge of the role through experience in other positions and through administrative training programs do not have knowledge of administration in practice or of the increasing complexity of the role created by the meshing of contextual variables in unexpected ways ( Cuban, 1994).

Newly appointed principals face a difficult dilemma: while learning to be administrators and how to cope with the complexity of the role, beginning principals often must do so without the luxury of time to reflect on what they are learning (for example, Roberts, 1992b). During entry, then, beginning principals face the difficult task of confirming or rejecting their preconceptions of administration while adjusting to new sets of responsibilities and expectations.

At the same time, new principals must try to unravel the complexities and implications of the culture of their new schools ( Schein, 1989: 299) and make decisions based on their understanding of that culture. To be judged effective by teachers and other stakeholders, however, these decisions must be acceptable, or at least understandable, within the context of their organization ( Blau, 1964: 201-202).

-137-

Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: School Administration: Persistent Dilemmas in Preparation and Practice. Contributors: Edward S. Hickcox - editor, Stephen L. Jacobson - editor, Robert B. Stevenson - editor. Publisher: Praeger Publishers. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996. Page Number: 137.

Outstanding School Administrators

Their Keys to Success

Frederick C. Wendel, Fred A. Hoke, and Ronald G. Joekel

PRAEGER Westport, Connecticut London

-iii-

Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: Outstanding School Administrators: Their Keys to Success. Contributors: Fred A. Hoke - author, Ronald G. Joekel - author, Frederick C. Wendel - author. Publisher: Praeger Publishers. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996. Page Number: iii.

•

• -Contents

• -Introduction

• -1: Educational Philosophy

• -Summary

• -References

• -2: Values

• -Summary

• -References

• -3: Visionary Leadership

• -Summary

• -References

• -4: Institutional Leadership

• -Summary

• -References

• -5: Commitment

• -Summary

• -6: Interpersonal Relations

• -References

• -Summary

• -7: Innovation and Quality

• -Summary

• -References

• -8: Risk Taking

• -9: Communication

• -Summary

• -References

• -10: Selection

• -11: Personal Development and Professional Organizations

• -References

• -Index

• -About the Authors

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A new way of bringing schools together is being encouraged by ministers, reports Jim Kelly

Tuesday December 16, 2003

The Guardian

Labour is beginning to grapple with a very big idea. The problems faced by schools in cities continue to defy most of the reforms that have been thrown at them since the party came to power in 1997. The failure of this government to break the link between poverty and underachievement, highlighted last month by ***** Bell, chief inspector of schools, prompts a question: are schools, the traditional building blocks of education, up to the job?

"I don't think the urban comprehensive, or any urban school, can really meet all the needs of the pupils inside it," says Professor Tim Brighouse, the man credited with turning round Birmingham's schools, and now installed as the first commissioner of the capital's school system. So if the school in its classic form is not the answer, what is? The answer is, apparently, "collegiates" - groups of schools working together.

But this was not Labour's first answer. Originally ministers wanted to group schools into "federations". Legislation to support federations - complete with presiding superheads and single governing bodies - formed part of the last Education Act. Federations could range from informal partnerships to single "corporate" bodies - in effect single, multi-site schools. But Charles Clarke, the education secretary, is not fond of complex, structural solutions. He said he wanted to see a more informal, locally driven culture of collaboration.

There is another reason for Clarke's wary stance. Taken to the logical limit, a federation would be able to impose a single admissions policy on an area, requiring parents to apply to the group, not their favoured school. Clarke, anticipating middle-class uproar and electoral suicide, has said he will not allow this. Nor for that matter will he let federations report exam results "corporately", instead of individually.

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Clarke's caution disappoints those who think federations were the right answer. The logic behind this view is brutally simple. A single admissions point for several schools would help to reverse the damage done by the urban hierarchy. "The creation of escalators of schools ... will take some schools down as others rise," says Professor Brighouse. Competition between schools, hardly the desired hallmark of a post-comprehensive system, would be impossible inside a federation. Exam results could be published for the group, not the individual schools, undermining the hierarchy and forcing the best schools to help the others to improve.

But Clarke will not have federations - at least not in their most extreme form. Instead, a different idea is being harnessed to Labour's reform agenda - the secondary school "collegiate". Unlike the federation, this is based on developing the differences between schools, but within a close-knit, cooperative group. There is no suggestion of a superhead, or the "takeover" of poorly performing schools by super-performers. Governing bodies may inch together over time, but no mergers will be imposed. Again, Downing Street is enthusiastic. Collegiates were endorsed by Tony Blair, the prime minister, during the recent announcements about the future of London's secondary sector.

Collegiates are emerging fast, in large numbers, and are able to "cherry-pick" bits of the law on federations that suit their ambitions. They may well prove as radical as the "hard" federations Clarke opposed, but he appears ready to live with their proliferation because they offer a real chance of helping Labour to deliver on three flagship policies - breaking the link between underachievement and disadvantage, offering a much wider 14-19 curriculum, and making the specialist schools system much more responsive to parental choice.

The Oaks Collegiate Academy, Birmingham, was set up when Professor Brighouse was chief education officer for the city. It has been operational for a year. It embraces six very different schools, including high-status former grammars, a special school, and two that recently emerged from special measures. Several of them do not serve their local communities but rely on pupils being bussed across the city. They have come together because they are different, not because they are the same.

Progress in the first year has been fast. Already they are developing a single post-16 offering for their pupils. The next phase will see pupils moving school, at least for part of the week, post-14. Dave Beards, the academy's full time coordinator, says the schools already collaborate on curriculum, training days, textbooks and teachers. The organisation gets £100,000 from the government, £150,000 from the philanthropic Gatsby Foundation, plus 1% of each school's annual budget. "That is going to have to go up," says Beards.

The idea is to offer parents and children the best the six schools have to offer, and in the process break down the existing pecking order as standards rise. The collegiate is based on mutual self-interest. "This is very different from a federation," says Graham Ridley, head of Selly Oak, a special school with beacon status. "The big idea here is that we are all very different. A school is a lovely thing in itself. This is an organic approach. A lot of what goes on does not go through the heads - two-thirds of what is happening I don't know about. Federations were about engineering a structure - this is more like gardening."

The academy's big problem is geography. The schools are spread across a large area of suburban Birmingham. The heads, who meet regularly, as do governors, are considering a joint timetable that would leave students post-14 on their "core site" for two days, with two days for taking up options at other sites, and leave Fridays for work-related vocational education. The collegiate has burgeoning links with an innovative skills-training centre called Quinzone, which teaches craft trades. There are also plans to use computers more widely. The academy has its own IT manager, as well as three advanced skills teachers it can deploy across the organisation, with plans to expand that to a team of 18-20.

With joint access to IT systems, teaching staff, and assets like libraries, labs and workshops, the six schools are much better placed to respond to two big government initiatives - the widening of the post-14 curriculum and the need to bring order to the sometimes haphazard specialist schools system. Critics of specialist schools say that their "focus" - on one of a series of subjects ranging from technology to languages, business to manufacturing - means local parents have little choice. What if a child is fascinated by performing arts but ends up at an engineering college? Physically swapping pupils post-14 offers a way out of this conundrum.

"We are a specialist technology college," says Lesley Brooman, head at Dame Elizabeth Cadbury, one of the schools in the Oaks Collegiate Academy: "We can look to Frankley for performing arts, Bournville for business and enterprise. Meanwhile, Lordswood is applying for specialist sports college status and we are very short of facilities for those activities." She sees a range of other benefits to membership of the collegiate, from professional development for staff (using the collegiate's own centre at Selly Oak), to joint bids for government cash. "Before, we were all competitive little industries, spending goodness knows what on things like marketing. Now, we don't have to reinvent the wheel six times."

But will the collegiate try to push ahead to single admissions at 11? Many of those involved in the movement believe this is inevitable as resources - for example language teachers and labs - become linked to certain sites. Brooman says any changes must be carefully managed and will rely on progress in raising standards at all the schools. "The notion of belonging is very important to children - especially at 11-14," she says.

The model emerging at the Oaks is one of children entering a "home school" at 11, spending much of their time at other schools 14-16, and then entering a common sixth form. But such is the speed of developments that single admissions may one day be common at collegiates. "My dream is that one day there would be single admis sions," says Brighouse. "This is a softer system than federations, but a much more flexible model," he adds.

But isn't that Clarke's problem? If collegiates can be what they want to be, won't they begin to test Labour's patience, and its commitment to the theory of "new localism", in which the power to innovate is ceded to those who work on the frontline in the public services? A close political adviser to Clarke is surprisingly unfazed by the possibility of single collegiate admissions at 11. "It doesn't seem like a mad idea - but it is a long-term aspiration. We don't like laws and we don't want to force things on schools. It is much better from the bottom up than the top down, and clearly this could evolve over time."

Perhaps it is an idea that can be added to that basket marked: Labour's Third Term.

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