Working at Sedgefield Community College

Creating a staff team that is exceptionally strong does not happen overnight.  Our school has worked hard over many years to recruit excellent people and then ensure we retain these individuals in our school over an extended period of time, allowing them to make a positive impact to the lives of countless young people. 

Our school culture results in very high levels of staff retention and for a large proportion of our staff, we are the only school that they have ever worked in.  If you visit the school, you will notice lots of staff wearing their ‘Staff Service’ badges for 5, 10 or 20 years spent in our school with pride!  Linked to this point, the vast majority of our leaders have been promoted internally and this reflects a school culture where we look to ‘grow our own’, investing heavily in our staff team to support everyone to achieve their full potential.   

We gather feedback regularly from our entire staff team and do so through the operation of our regular ‘Happiness Surveys’ – anonymous surveys that are used to make sure we are constantly shining a spotlight on staff morale.  Using these surveys, we ensure that staff wellbeing and workload are at the forefront of our thinking whenever decisions are taken as to how the school operates.  The feedback from these surveys confirms that the overwhelming majority of our staff are consistently ‘happy’ in their role and that for those staff who have worked in other schools, it is SCC where they are happiest! 

We are never complacent around staff wellbeing and we look for external confirmation about the culture that we have in place.  During our most recent Ofsted inspection in May 2022, the inspection report comments that: 

“Sedgefield Community College is not just a community in name only.  Pupils and staff feel that this is a place where they are safe, happy and valued.” 

And the report adds: 

“Staff at all levels of experience speak of the supportive climate of the school. They explain that leaders are considerate of their well being and that their opinions are listened to.  Leaders ensure that workload is taken into account. Staff are proud to work in this school and be a part of this community.” 

We were also shortlisted for the ‘Staff Wellbeing School of the Year’ in the 2024 TES Awards due to our highly effective approach to supporting the wellbeing of our staff team. 

One of the key reasons why Sedgefield Community College is an excellent place to work is that we share strong common values and a common purpose.  Our aim is to support all of our young people to achieve their full potential in every sense of the word.  We know that we can make a huge difference to our students and wider community and there is great satisfaction and enjoyment to be taken from making a positive impact on the lives of children in this way. 

Underpinning everything we do are four short statements that sum up the way we work as a staff body: 

• Be Positive (always try to enjoy coming into work and never stop other people from doing so) 
• Find a Way (we know that there are challenges that we will face, but our mindset is to always work towards a solution to these) 
• Be Part of the Solution (when there is an issue, help to solve it – never become part of the problem) 
• Take Responsibility (if we see an issue, we address it rather than leaving it to someone else) 

Making sure we always strive to uphold these sentiments and prioritising our recruitment processes to appoint people who will be able to do so, helps to maintain and continue to develop our excellent school culture. 

We recognise that the actions of leaders are crucial in ensuring that we maintain and build upon our positive school culture.  With this in mind, we have agreed our own ‘Leadership Behaviours’ that anyone undertaking leadership of any kind is expected to always act upon.  Amongst these behaviours are the following: 

• Leaders Visible – Leaders will be very visible across the school, modelling the way in which we would want all members of our school community to be treat. 
• Make Time – Leaders will make time for members of their team, adopting an ‘open door’ approach and investing their time in the development of others. 
• Acknowledge Excellent Work – Leaders will be conscious of the efforts of members of their team, making sure to acknowledge excellent work and make clear that it is appreciated. 
• Understanding and Empathy – Leaders will take the time to get to know members of their team, treating them as individuals and providing extra support where needed. 

We believe we have exceptional students at Sedgefield Community College and consequently we have very high expectations of every child.  At the time of our most recent Ofsted inspection in May 2022, it was commented that: 

“Pupils’ behaviour around school is impeccable.  Pupils treat each other with courtesy and respect.  They act maturely and are polite to visitors.  The atmosphere around school is calm yet purposeful.  Leaders have high expectations for pupils’ behaviour and academic success.  Pupils rise to these.” 

To be very clear, this does not mean that we do not face challenges relating to student behaviour.  Our students come from a very wide range of backgrounds and at times we will be faced with some very challenging behaviours, as is the case for every school.  However, we are able to address these challenging behaviours in a highly effective manner due to the systems and processes that we have in place: 

• An experienced and highly effective pastoral team that is comprised of non-teaching Senior Pastoral Leads, non-teaching Year Managers and a range of other supporting roles.  Using non-teaching staff in these key roles, we create the capacity to respond in a rapid and highly effective way to pastoral or behaviour matters. 
• A culture where teachers and other staff recognise it is the role of us all to ensure an excellent school climate.  We think carefully about the way in which we plan and deliver lessons to support exceptional student behaviour. 
• A centralised school system to support the effective management of student behaviour using the online ClassCharts software package.  This system allows us to respond rapidly to any issues, often resolving these before they can escalate. 
• A centralised school system that ensures students are rewarded for their excellent behaviour (through high profile initiatives such as regular prize draws and our own ‘Sedgefield Rewards Shop’) and clearly understand the consequences that will apply where inappropriate behaviours are demonstrated. 
• A senior leadership team who all appreciate their central role in ensuring an exceptional school climate.  Our senior leaders do not remain ‘trapped’ in offices and are a familiar and high-profile presence across the school. 

Our highly effective approach has seen the school asked to support multiple schools in recent years around how best to create an exceptional school climate.  We were one of the first schools to be asked to become a ‘Behaviour Hub Lead School’ by the Department for Education in a programme that operated in recent years.  As one of only two secondary schools in our region asked to take on this role, it was a huge honour and demonstrative of our success in this area. 

Whilst we have a brilliant staff body who work very hard to make a difference to our students, we are conscious of the challenges around excessive workload that are widely understood in education.  Consequently, we are pro-active in taking steps to manage workload and adopt practices that support a positive work-life balance for everyone at Sedgefield Community College.  At the foundation of our approach is a mindset where we are all encouraged to continually reflect on workload.  For any action that a member of staff is asked to carry out, the time that will be necessary to complete the action must be justified by the positive impact that this will have on our students.  Rather than continually introducing new initiatives that can increase workload over time, whenever a new initiative is considered, a focus on the impact on workload (including how existing workload can be reduced to create time) must take place.   

Linked to the points above, we are very aware that all of the staff team at SCC have a life and commitments that go beyond school.  We know that there are times when ‘life’ might mean somebody needs extra support and we will always do everything we can to provide this. 

A sample of just some of the ways in which the school manages workload and supports a positive work-life balance are provided below: 

Staff retention at Sedgefield Community College is exceptionally strong and a key reason for this is the school culture where professional development is central to the way in which school operates.  We have enjoyed a strong reputation for our innovative and highly effective approach to many elements of school operation (such as teaching and learning and developing a positive school climate) over many years and have been asked to support many schools within our region and beyond as a consequence of this. 

We are very clear that Sedgefield Community College is a brilliant place for those working in education to develop and fulfil their professional potential.  The vast majority of leaders within the school have been promoted internally (many joining us at the outset of their educational career) and this reflects the culture of ‘growing our own’ previously mentioned.  For those colleagues who do not have aspirations to undertake a formal leadership position at this time, they are able to operate in a culture where we remain professionally curious, continually reflecting upon and refining our approach and this allows people to become the best teacher, Year Manager, etc that they can possible be. 

Whilst we recognise the importance of professional development throughout a person’s career, we also have a particularly strong track record in supporting Initial Teacher Trainees and Early Career Teachers in those vital formative years in the classroom.   

We have been heavily involved in initial teacher training for many years, working closely with both Durham University and The University of Sunderland to make a real difference to the development of the next generation of teachers who will provide children in our region with the best possible learning experience in our schools.  The Laidlaw Initial Teacher Training Partnership is based at our school and there is the opportunity for people to apply to train to become a teacher here at SCC.  Further details are available at this link: https://www.laidlawschoolstrust.co.uk/527/why-laidlaw-teacher-training  

We hope that the information on our website has helped to explain why we are very confident that Sedgefield Community College is an excellent place to work.  If there is a vacancy at our school or you would be interested in finding out more about the Laidlaw Initial Teacher Training Programme, please do contact the school and we will be delighted to welcome you for a visit where you can experience for yourself what it is that makes SCC such a special place to work and develop.