A special kind of leadership

Sheffield City Council and the governing body of The City School, Sheffield

The background: Following an Ofsted visit in March 2007, The City School, Sheffield, was moved from ‘notice to improve’ into ‘special measures’ from which few people could see the way forward.

The challenge: From March, the school continued to see a decline in standards and morale, which prompted Sheffield City Council, and the governors of the school, to turn to Navigate to help develop a solution that would have an immediate but sustainable impact.

The solution: We needed a rapid response, but one which would also enable the school to steer its own direction in the future. Our response was to offer Associate, David Lack, as an interim Headteacher. With a powerful track record in school leadership, David led a brief that focused on tackling the challenges around attendance, behaviour, and raising the standard of teaching and learning. Along with colleagues, including a talented senior management team, David has worked to drive a range of whole school initiatives.

The result: The school came out of special measures in June 2008, only 3 terms after David joined. With the support of students and staff alike, David’s leadership led to an astonishing rise in A-C attainment, from 44% to 58%, alongside substantial improvements in behaviour, attendance, and improved quality of teaching and learning.