Concerns about our staff

Plainly our greatest concerns lay with our pupils and their families. Actions in pursuit of this principle probably meant that many staff minimised their own real concerns. We recognised, however, that without staff goodwill, their intensive and continuing logistical planning and additional efforts, the aim of achieving one community could never be achieved. Some aspects were already favourable:

East Ayrshire is not a large authority and a number of staff had already worked in both schools so knew one another

staff members in St Joseph's Academy are sociable; departments and the whole staff have taken opportunities to get together both formally and informally over the last four years and there is no doubt that those occasions play a not inconsiderable role in cementing relationships. Trips to Glasgow and Edinburgh to shows including Cats and Phantom of The Opera are well supported by staff from both campuses.

Formal plans still had to ensure working conditions that enabled staff members' work. The management structure of the school included one AHT in charge of the Cumnock Campus but all other members of the SMT spend part of a day weekly on the Cumnock Campus. They make contact with their stage responsibilities and liaise with the staff members of their 'link' departments. A cross-campus liaison group was set up under the chairmanship of the Depute HT and produced a comprehensive policy on cross-campus communication and liaison - for example, the Cumnock-Kilmarnock Box was introduced. These distinctive red boxes are transported between the two campuses by the travelling staff, ensuring that Pupil Reports, memos and communications between Heads of Department and their staff all reach their relevant destinations safely.

Heads of Department were to be given time to visit the Cumnock campus fortnightly but this has not always been possible to timetable. As part of our communications system we have telephone conference calling and this is often utilised by Heads of Department to hold a meeting with members of their departments. It is also used for working groups to confer when arranging cover and travel is not feasible. The Senior Management Team use it if the AHT (Cumnock Campus) is unable to come to Kilmarnock for a meeting.

Planned Activity Time was used to address departmental development matters and, of course, whole school issues. In-Service days were also vital in playing a part in ensuring that all staff felt they belonged to one school and one community.

Over the last four years some staff members have commuted to teach in both campuses while some have moved to the campus in which they had not previously been involved. This has allowed all staff to teach post-16 courses and this flexibility has ensured delivery of the curriculum to all pupils. Mobility has also applied to non teaching staff members including a librarian, clerical and technical staff.

As we write this, the timetable for session 2003-2004 is being worked on - or rather the timetables, as each Campus has a separate timetable and, of course, the constraints of staff travelling between and teaching on both campuses makes time tabling a particular challenge.

Conclusion

A measure of the school's success in meeting its aim of 'creating one community' is the active participation of the Cumnock students in the whole life of the school. Cumnock students have become prefects and played important roles in the senior school (see picture 3), taking up positions of responsibility including that of Vice Captain. Two Cumnock students represented the school in Summer 2002 in Toronto, Canada, at the World Youth Conference. Selection for this and for the post of Vice-Captain was by letter of application and competitive interview. Cumnock students continue to represent the school at all age levels in the football teams and participate in the activities (Art, Drama and Enterprise) offered under the NoF scheme. In addition, our Cumnock students are well represented in the annual school trip to Paris (residential) and to Alton Towers (day trip) and the many other excursions organized in the course of the school session. Senior students from Cumnock have assisted in the running of the school discos and pupils now socialise more easily, mixing in year groups rather than mainly geographical groups.

The Art, Design and Technology Department (made up of Art, Technical and Home Economics) had previously held an Open Night when displays and live presentations of work in the Department were on display to the public. This session Music and Drama also participated and staff and students from both campuses worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to put on a memorable and thoroughly worthwhile evening.

Looking to the future?

As we write this we are aware that under the Authority's PPP Bid, there is a proposal for a new St Joseph's Academy, which would involve the closure of the two current buildings and a new school near the site of the Kilmarnock Campus. Clearly, this is an exciting development and we look forward to having a building ' fit for purpose' and for the 21st Century, and indeed to being one community on one site rather than two.

This will present us with a whole new set of challenges and there is no doubt that as a school we will be only too well aware of some of the issues that might arise, having lived through a merger.

Looking back, we are aware that it would have served us better to have a Cross Campus Liaison Policy before we merged, one that would have been proactive rather than reactive. It would also have been helpful to have call conferencing in place pre-merger, as this would also have eased communication. Much of our work with staff in terms of curriculum, reporting policies and practices would have been better served if there had been a longer time scale in which to prepare for the merger. However, as one member of staff commented, 'More time to prepare would also have given us more time to worry about it. Sometimes you're better just to jump in to the deep end'!

Mergers are never easy but there is no doubt that our greatest asset in meeting all of the challenges since 1998 has been our staff. Without their hard work and willingness to 'jump in at the deep end' it would have been almost impossible to achieve our aim of 'One Community'. We do not have all the answers and we have not solved all of the problems but we can point to real progress on the way.