'This is how we turned struggling school around'

When Damian Kenny walked into Blacklow Brow Primary school in Merseyside as its new executive head teacher in 2019, the challenge was a formidable one.

The Huyton school had been placed into special measures in 2015 following a scathing Ofsted report - with inspectors describing poor leadership and a "culture of complacency" as part of an overall "inadequate" rating.

Northern Ireland native Kenny, 45, was brought in two years after it was converted into an academy in 2017, and found a culture he knew needed fundamental change.

"We did have some turnover of staff in the early days, with some levels of accountability, holding people to account," he told the BBC.

"There was some difficult conversations that had to be had.

"There were some people that were great, got on board and there was others that decided that it wasn't for them and moved on which was absolutely fine."

Kenny's strategy appears to have paid off.

Ofsted visited in January, deploying its new rating format which gives detailed assessments on different aspects of each school rather than an one-word overall rating.

Inspectors found a "strong standard" across key areas including pupil achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching and leadership.

In stark contrast to the 2015 inspection, the latest report noted children appeared "attentive, motivated and eager to succeed" and that leadership was "highly effective and focused on achieving the best outcomes".

It added: "Positive relationships are a cornerstone of school life. Pupils feel safe, cared for and supported each day."

Kenny was already head at another nearby school, Park View Primary School, under The Dean multi-academy trust when the call came to lead both schools.

He said the strategy was a simple yet challenging one - create an environment where children "wanted to learn" and staff set "high expectations" for their pupils.

"Ultimately children, from a very young age, if they've got an adult in school, will learn best if they want to impress that adult," he said.

"That was something we had to change very, very quickly - the culture of staff coming to school and creating an environment where the children were safe and they were happy."

Kenny described keeping a school on the right track as "keeping different plates spinning", but said he was confident things were going well.

And then the pandemic struck.

Blacklow Brow was perhaps in a better position than some schools due to the backing of a large multi-academy trust with centralised IT and management support - but keeping a long term strategy in place alongside the challenges of lockdown was incredibly difficult.

Factors, such as being unable to be in the room watching his staff teach, meant the pace of progress "stalled", but Kenny said staff put heavy focus into reaching disadvantaged children.

"We really went above and beyond to make sure that the large majority of those children were in every single day," he said.

"And if they weren't, we were knocking on doors to make sure those children were safe, they were engaging in the written work that they had to complete and just making sure that every single child in the school was well cared for."

While the school tried to keep the children in a solid routine, Kenny said the academic impact after lockdown was clear - particularly in reading and writing.

"We're still trying to catch our tail with some children with that," he said.

The social impact was also significant.

"Some of the children really struggled," he said.

"We had a number of children who had a real fear of coming into school, breaking that relationship with parents in the morning and really struggling to get across the threshold of the door.

"So we had to put in lots of pastoral support for some of those children."

Now the school is rated highly for its attendance figures, with Ofsted praising how children settle into their school life.

The regulator's latest report said: "Pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), attend school regularly and arrive confidently each day.

"They settle quickly in lessons, feel safe and are eager to learn."

Knowsley has some of the highest deprivation indicators in the country.

While Blacklow Brow has a much lower rate of children from disadvantaged backgrounds than some areas of the borough, Kenny said that did not mean parents were not struggling.

"The deprivation indicator mightn't be as high," he said.

"But we have a lot of families who probably are just on the breadline and there's a little bit of stigma sometimes about falling into that category."

Kenny, who described himself as a "council estate kid", said for children from less well-off backgrounds keeping aspirations high was crucial.

"Every single child that walks into our schools, we believe they can be whatever they want to be," he said.

"It's embedded within the children that despite a background or disability or race or whatever the case may be, they can very much achieve.

"I've got a physical disability with my left arm myself, and I use that as a tool to talk to the children about being unique, being diverse, having no barriers."

He added: "Let's talk about being an astronaut or being a head teacher or being a CEO. So, you know, those things were encouraged from a very, very young age."

While the post-pandemic inspection this year was a hugely satisfying moment, Kenny said he was adamant that his staff "don't do things for Ofsted".

He said: "Even before the inspection my words to my staff were, this isn't jumping out of cupboards and putting on a big show for Ofsted, this is what you do every single day.

"Relax, be yourselves, do what you do."

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