How one school in Leeds is hoping a new identity will secure its future

But in day two of a Yorkshire Evening Post look into education in Leeds, Emma Ryan takes a look at what’s in store for the Khalsa Science Academy near Moorallerton when the lockdown is finally lifted.

Required Improvement

Less than two years ago, the Khalsa Science Academy had had two ‘Requires Improvement’ Ofsted inspections within as many years.

The headteacher had resigned, in fact there had been five since 2017, staff turnover was high and pupil numbers were down.

Yet within a year, and by the end of 2019, there was more than just the Christmas break to celebrate.

It was during the school’s Christmas play that the results of yet another visit from school inspectors, held just a couple of weeks earlier, came through.

Head of school, Jordan License, told the YEP: “It was in the middle of the Christmas performance that we found out [the school had been rated good].

Deborah Kenny, the executive headteacher, was rounding it off and I was printing off Ofsted reports and shoving them in people’s hands.

“Parents were quite emotional, pupils had travelled through the school and been loyal despite the changes. We got lots of chocolates that year.”

Radical change

Within a year the changes at Khalsa, which started as a free school in 2013, had been radical.

Mr License, a year five class teacher was appointed head and an executive headteacher, Mrs Kenny, drafted in from Manor Wood which is an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ school.

Khalsa is the only free school in Leeds that is partnered with a local authority-run school.

Mrs Kenny explained: “My job here is to help this school have its own identity using skills that I have used in other schools. I am near the end of my career and Jordan is at the beginning of his. We need to create the leaders of the future as it is hard to recruit headteachers these days.”

Mr License said: There had been staff turbulence, staff turnover and lots of temporary staff. There was too much on the principal so we created more roles within the senior leadership team, we worked with leaders from across the city.

“From there we knew the curriculum needed re-vamping and everything else did.”

New term

By the start of the 2019 summer term, a new senior leadership team was in place, there was a 22 strong staff list and a new curriculum, which had been entirely re-written, based upon what the school wants the children to know by the end of year 6.

It was linked to national objectives with community interests at heart and also the Sikh religion ethos upon which the school was originally founded.

Each year group has a theme to its learning from Romans to pirates and Asian civilisation. Pupils also work with students at Allerton High School to make them more equipped for the transition and staff from Manor Wood and Khalsa also ‘swap places’ to aid variety, best practice and development.

While it has since outgrown its original concept and moved into a new building in 2017, the school stresses it is based on Sikh principles but is not a faith-based school.

The demographic of pupils is testament to this - and also shows how diverse a learning environment Khalsa is.

During the YEP’s visit, in one class there were children from Cameroon, Chile and Romania. One child who is South America couldn’t speak English when they joined in year 3 - but is now on course to meet expected standards for year 5.

Mr License said: “We don’t want to lose the ethos, we want to keep that as it is how the school was set up and parents have invested in that.”

New name

However, when Khalsa returns to the classrooms, whether it be in a few weeks or later in the year, it will continue with its plans to make the school more of a community base - and that starts with a name change.

Mr License said: “It is about building the reputation and brand and having an identity. People think it is a Sikh school because it is a science academy and we are trying to dispel that myth by changing the name.

“We want to tell people what we are rather than what we are not.”

Over recent months the school has been asking for name suggestions and these are currently with the school’s trustees. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak it had been planned that the new name would be effective from September 2020 and at the moment this still remains the case - and the new name is still under wraps.

Community

The school is also going to be opening itself up to the community to both integrate itself and help other groups.

Before the lockdown on events and gatherings there had been plans for the local Co-op to have its community day in the school grounds and talks with a local football team for it to use the school field at the weekend, as well as coffee mornings and open door events.

Already there are signs that it is working. At the time of the December 2019 Ofsted there were 132 pupils on the school roll and inspectors noted it was smaller than the average primary school.

Since the good grading, the school population has increased with children joining from other schools and siblings of current pupils also joining.

When asked what he thought had put people off the school he said: “Not knowing, misconceptions, lack of understanding, identity and what it means. It is exciting, it is a blank canvas. It is the beginning of a journey and we have a long way to go.”