Sam Bailey’s story – a teaching career with extraordinary impact

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome. Thanks for joining us for The Wellspring Way. It's the podcast where we chat to an education professional about life in the classroom and what's going on in education. Today I'm chatting to a very special guest who's preparing to pack away her pencils and sharpeners and retire this summer. Involved with Wellspring from its earliest days, she's helped to transform schools and created a legacy in Barnsley and Leeds that will continue to benefit children and communities for many, many years to come. She's going to leave some very big shoes to fill. I'm really pleased to be joined today by Executive Principal at the Barnsley and Leeds Primary Partnership at Wellspring, Sam Bailey. Sam, welcome. Hello. Thank you very much for loving words. It's lovely to have you. I can't quite believe that I've not had you on before now, really. So it's kind of final countdown. Last few weeks, how are you feeling?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I'm feeling really marvellous about it, Elizabeth, if I can be perfectly honest. I've been counting down for about the last three years, so it feels really nice to be around about 40 days to go, if I'm honest. I've achieved far more in education than I ever thought I would, if I can be honest. I didn't have any aspirations to be a school leader. I certainly didn't expect to be a headteacher and definitely didn't expect to be an executive principal. So I'm leaving really content that I've done my bit in education and I'm happy actually to hand over to leaders who are fantastic and who have all the energy and all the enthusiasm and all the optimism that I once had, if I can be honest. I've been leaving school since I was four because I was in an army school until the age of 10, so you know coming and going from schools has kind of been part of my DNA, I suppose. So it feels perfectly natural to me, and I'm just really looking forward to experiencing life without the rhythm of a school year and finding out what that entails, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah, gosh, I'd not even thought about it from that perspective. But yeah, of course, you've been in school since being a pupil and then and then a teacher, it's a very, very long time. Yeah, without even a break. Um well let's go right back to the start, not quite back to your own school days just yet, but um your career in teaching. How did you get started?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Um I started my PGCU in 1997. Uh my eldest daughter Lily was five months old at the time, and ironically, my first ever teaching practice was actually at Victoria, which is where you know I've ended my career as kind of the head teacher recently. Um, and my first job in teaching was actually as a reception class teacher, and I honestly didn't think I'd ever do anything else. I absolutely loved being the reception class teacher. Um, I cried for a month when they told me I was moving into year one, actually.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I guess that's such a special time to be involved in, isn't it? That very first experience of school.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Incredible, yeah, and I will always remember that first morning when that first child said, Good morning, Mrs. Bailey, and I kind of achieved my lifetime's ambition of being a class teacher. Yeah, really magical. I mean, reception is an incredible place, and the amount they learn and the love they give you in a reception class is incredible. So, yeah, that's where it all began for me at Robin Hood in 1998 with that first teaching position. Um, and then I did a lot of years in Key Stage One, year one, and then year two, and I loved them all, quite frankly.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, I guess those those lities. I've got I've got a little girl who's in reception, and it is it's a lovely time. Um, challenging at times, but a lovely time. Um did you know you always wanted to go into teaching?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yes. Yeah, my first um teacher, Mrs. Roberts, um, from the moment that she kind of welcomed me in and sat me on the carpet and did that first story time, I knew what I wanted to be. Um, and I was absolutely one of those kids who sat teddies in a circle and read them stories and played happy in schools. I'd done more registers than um you can imagine by the time I actually sat down in front of my first class. I just loved the whole primary school experience. You know, for me it was just joyful and an opportunity to um give my best every single day. And I absolutely wanted to be a teacher from the minute I sat on her carpet, she was she was magical. And throughout primary, I had loads of teachers that um just inspired me. When I got to secondary, there were a lot of people saying, Don't go into teaching, don't do it. Um but you know I stuck with it basically, and as soon as I got my degree, the first thing I was doing was looking for a PGC place to make it happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yeah, I think you hear that a lot, don't you? About well, teachers that stay in teaching, it's a vocation, isn't it? It's it comes from something quite deep, deep inside to want to be a teacher, right? It's not just a job, is it?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

It's not just a job, no, and it was the whole being part of something, you know. For me, schools are just incredible communities, and um I loved being part of it as a child, and I've loved being part of it as an adult. It's just a magical, magical world actually, that you can't understand if you haven't been within it.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, yeah. Um, I mentioned that you've been part of Wellspring from early on in Wellspring's formation. Um, how did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Well, I had been um Mark's deputy. Okay. So Robin Hood, the school I started at as a reception class teacher. Um, Mark came along a few years later as the deputy and later got the headship, so I had been Mark's deputy. And then we went our different ways, and I went off to my first headship in Cookerage, and Mark went off to the Big Smoke, actually, went to London for a few years. And when he was coming back to this job in Wellspring, that he was keen to tell me all about, he'd invited me over to have a look at Forest. Right, the first school in the drugs. The very first Wellspring School, yeah. First one, and um, we had a lovely walk and talk, and basically, Mark sold me the school that was going to be outstanding, and it was a long way from outstanding, but most definitely um convinced me to apply. There wasn't a lot of convincing, if I'm honest, because you know the opportunity to work with Mark again was um enough for me to be perfectly honest. But yeah, that's where it started, and then I had the interview with Josie Firkel herself, um, who was an incredible woman. I didn't have much time to get to know her, but certainly that interview is one that I'll never forget. And um and then it started. You know, I secured the job at the Easter Point and was due to start in September, but doing a few days a week basically between then and the September. So yeah, it started at Forest in 2014, and you know, it's kind of incredible how much we've done since that point nine years ago, and incredible that it's actually only nine years.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah, yeah, gosh. Because that school's been on a phenomenal journey, hasn't it? I mean, I was speaking to Katie Pierce last time about um about what's what's gone on at Forest, and and that's a really special story that I think anyone, anyone that's been involved in that school um holds very dear.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, it's an incredible place, and I absolutely adored my years at Forest. I was the principal at Forest for five years in total before I handed over to Katie and Natalie. Um it was magical, you know, every day was um incredible, we just achieved so much together. So, you know, for the for me, those five years in my 26-year career were absolutely the highlight, I have to say.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

And then the partnership. So that was about um 2016? Right, and and and that started just with Barnsley, didn't it? It did, yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

So um a couple of years into the forest journey, um there were two schools either side of us basically that had um a bad time with Ofsted and were looking to join a trust, and um happily they joined us, and I was asked to be executive principal across the three. So, yeah, the partnership started really quite soon in retrospect. When I think about it, we were only two years into the Forest journey, and it started very much with that kind of hub model of you know um a lot of the great stuff that was going on at Forest. We were looking to roll out as quickly as possible within um Oakwell Rise and Oak Hill, but actually it quite quickly became a working partnership where there was as much coming back into Forest as there was going out. So, an incredibly powerful moment actually for all three schools. Um but you know it's it's just gone from strength to strength as a partnership. I think the the thing that was incredible about forming that partnership was the ambition, you know, combined of all of those people that we were lucky to be in conversation with them about what we could do to be better than we already were. Um and our pitch and our expectations were just sky high right from the start. Um, and there were enough people to make it happen, basically, and that's um that's the the story of that partnership, I think.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Do you think that's the secret really? It's about those expectations and ambitions. If you can get those, you can get those there, and that belief that you can, no matter what area you're based in, no matter what social challenges you might be faced with, that it's possible, then that's kind of you're almost there then. It's practicalities you've got to solve, then.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Is that well there's a fair bit of blood, sweat, and tears in in the middle, yeah. Um, but yeah, you've got to start with the belief that it's possible. I mean, you know, right back at the start we were just set on um the fact that 100% of our children would leave us able to read, write, and do maths, you know, to achieve expected standards. We fundamentally believed that that was possible to achieve. And in some of our schools, we would start with a 9% combined position. So there was quite some mindset shifting um in the schools that were involved basically to get that belief because you're right, you know, without the belief that it's possible, um you're fighting against the wind, basically. So, yeah, um, believe you can and you will, um, and then know what you're doing and have the right people on the team basically to make it happen because you know, otherwise it's just blue sky thinking, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, you can have the dreams, can't you? But ultimately you need the action to make to make stuff happen. Um what would you say is the very best bit about being a teacher? What's been the highlights for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

I mean, um I've spoken about being part of a community. So for me, it's the people that you work with in a school that make everyday fun, actually. You know, you've you've got a school, primary school should be full of laughter, um, and people who absolutely love what they're doing and feel kind of invigorated by it, actually. So, you know, for me to be part of that for all of this time has been definitely the best bit. Obviously, the other best bit has most definitely been the children because I don't think there's anything quite like the love of the kids, and I've been really lucky. You know, I was loved as a class teacher, um loved as a headteacher most definitely, and there's nothing quite like a child who you haven't seen for a while running down the corridor and literally leaping on you. They're so delighted to see you. You know, I I will genuinely miss the love of the kids. The love of the kids for me um has been the most special part of the entire journey.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, I can I I can imagine that, yeah, what a wonderful, wonderful thing to do to know that you've got that you've got that love from um little people.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Little people and they bring such joy, so you know, even on the days that you're turning up with the weight of the world on your shoulders, the kids are the ones that will lift that every time and just remind you what it's all about and why you're there actually, they're fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yeah, and the most challenging parts of being a teacher, because we know for all its wonder, it's not the easiest job in the world teaching.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

No, I mean, um, in terms of teaching in the classroom, you know, academically I'd had a really kind of plain sale, so um I'd just achieved great results all the way through school and made it my business to be the very best that I could be all the way through. I'd never actually experienced any failure, if I can be honest. So for me, teaching was the ideal career because it was so humbling. Um, it was the first thing in my life, I think, at the age of 22 that I actually couldn't do. It was really hard because you've got kind of those 30 kids sitting in front of you, and there are so many differences between them and one single curriculum, obviously, that you're working towards. So, yeah, just working out the complexities of your classroom, your individuals, what each of them needs, what the gaps are, filling those gaps, and all of the knowledge that you need, actually, all of the experience that you need to be able to do that. I think teaching is up there with one of the most challenging jobs that there is. That's part of what makes it magical because it's never done. You know, I'm 26 years in, and there's still more to discover. I know that. Um, in leadership, in headship, um, the challenges have been, I think, for me, um, and more acutely in the last few years, just the constant interference from outside of those schools, so the DFE and Ofsted, and everybody else who's got a view on what it is that we should be doing in schools, you're kind of almost deprofessionalised and your voice is being lost a little bit in terms of what you're being made to do within the classrooms. I think for me that's been the biggest challenge of my entire career.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah, because gosh, if the whole idea is you create these amazing educational professionals, leaders, and then you let them do it. That's surely that's that's what in any in any sphere of life, yeah, that's what you do. You skill people up and then you trust them to do the job rather than micromanaging.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

I think so, and I think you know, for me that's the thing that's been really special about working with Mark for as long as I have, because um, you know, Mark's position and Ergo, the the trust position has been one of professional trust and one of professional autonomy.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Um what advice would you give to somebody just starting out? Like you said, you know, you or those that are starting out in their career full of enthusiasm, um, having that really special moment of first being called Miss whatever it is, or Mr. Whatever it is, um, what would you say to that? Enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

It's not easy, you know. You've choosing to be a teacher, you've not chosen an easy gig at all. So just accept that and embrace it. Um and fundamentally listen to the children because I absolutely believe that the children were the ones who taught me how to be a teacher, um, and I absolutely believe that the children are the ones who taught me how to be a good leader as well, actually. So listen to them because they are incredible observers of what they need, basically, and they will tell you, you know, whatever mechanism they choose to do that. Um and I'd also say don't stress actually, because you know, when I look back now on 26 years and um I kind of think about all of the evenings where it was imperative that I did another three, four hours of work that I was absolutely certain needed to be done by the next day, and all of the holidays actually I sat in a laptop whilst my kids played in a pool around me, and all of the other kind of sacrifices I made, and every time I did that, it kind of felt really crucial that that piece of work was done and completed by that point in time. And now I look back, I think there was probably an awful lot of that that didn't need to be done, and all of that. So, you know, you you do that, you respond to that because of the kind of pressure that you're feeling at that point in time, and it's most of it in teaching is actually self-imposed. Um, that's the ridiculous thing, you know. We do it to ourselves because it's an endless job, and there is always much, much more that can be done and that you want to do to get it right for those kids. But actually, yeah, I would say to anybody coming into the profession or anybody actually who's 10 years into the job, um, try and stress less, it'll all be fine. Yeah, yeah, I think oof.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

It's good life advice for everybody, though, I think, isn't it? Just you know, don't sweat the small stuff and um and try and try and enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

A lot of the stuff that you you know you lose sleep over and you fret about never actually comes to fruition any 26 years as Ken at all. Like most of what I lost sleep about never actually happened.

unknown 19:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I I read something the other day about it, is that there's absolutely no point in worrying because all you're doing is is dealing with a problem twice. So you've worried twice. If it happens, then you've worried twice, and if it doesn't happen, then you've worried unnecessarily. So just stop worrying.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah, absolutely. And colleagues, you know, the um the best bits of my career have been when I've been working really closely with um people who've become great friends basically. So seek them out, seek the people who are your kind of on the same page as you, and you know, who you you really enjoy actually spending time with and sharing the load with and splitting the workload as well. Um, find your mates, find your crew.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah, yeah. Um, what are your plans then? Because I don't think you're the kind of person to sit at home and watch daytime telly all day. You'd be surprised.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Um, a lot of people are asking me what are your plans? Um, I'm only 49. Uh, I didn't even quite make it to 50 in the end. Um, so I am young, you know, and I appreciate that people can't quite fathom that, and I have been working at 100 miles an hour for well, pretty much all of the 26 years basically. Um, and so my plan is actually just to have no plan. Okay, because I've worked to um term dates and timetables and a diary and bouncing from one meeting to the next for a long time, and actually, I just want to kind of go where the wind blows a little bit um for a while at least, you know, and who knows if I'm rocking in a corner in a in a few years' time. Who knows um what I'll go on to do, but yeah, at the moment I just want a little bit of a rest from the humdrum and the rhythm of the school year, I suppose. I have got some holidays, but I am um off to Barbados in that first week in September because you've got to do that, haven't you? Because you can go outside of holiday time, absolutely, and um we've got New York lined up, and I'm sure there'll be others. But yeah, in the main, I just want to hang about and just have ultimate freedom and be present for people, you know, like my husband and the kids, um, who you know have often been talking at me whilst I've been doing schoolwork or thinking about school or something, and I haven't necessarily always been there a hundred percent. So, you know, that's that's all gonna be marvellous, isn't it? But you know, if it goes peep tom and uh and I need a job, I'll think about. What I'm gonna do at that stage.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, just just enjoy the um yeah, enjoy the like I say, the the the freedom to do exactly what you want when you want. How lovely. It does sound lovely, doesn't it? It does, yeah. Um now you've kind of given us a little bit of a taste of this already, but we always do a quick fire round where we um find out a little bit about your own school days. Um so first up, music or drama?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

That's a hard one. It's um neither afloat my boat, but I probably have to go drama. Right. I was always very much a role in the background, that probably doesn't surprise you to know, and I do know that there was a big production in high school, for example, at some stage, and I played um the part of a table that got chopped in half, so that was kind of the peak of my dramat career, um, but I was told categorically that there was no way I was doing GCSE music, so of the two, I think I probably had more success in drama.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Fair enough. Um, school dinners are packed lunches. Oh, definitely school dinners. Did you have a favourite?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

I mean, in the army, school dinners are incredible, can I just say they were back in the day? Um, we were based in Germany, and there was a cook called Frau Schmidt, and she used to do incredible dinners and the most divine puddings. Um I I can't even begin to tell you how good they were, basically. But Schnitzel and Red Cabbage, would you believe it? Were my favourite school dinner. Wow, that's quite exotic. It was, yeah, absolutely, and the puddings were just fabulous. But actually, um, I have to say, hazelnut yogurt back in the day was one of my favourite hits on earth.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

No custard with skin on.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Oh, there was plenty of that as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Um, prior, I think we know the answer to this one already. Primary school or secondary school? Definitely primary for me, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

I mean, the the primary school experience back in the day was absolutely about reading and writing, which were my absolute favourites, um, a bit of maths, and then lovely stuff, you know. Topic was all about the painting and the drawing and the finding stuff out, but you know, without the quizzes and the accountability measures that the kids experience these days, secondary school tipped into that, you know, and it became um much harder core. And there were subjects.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Some of the joy gets ripped ripped away, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

When you when you step into secondary, yeah, and subjects that you were forced to do that you really had no interest in. I had to spend that an entire two years studying an economics GCSE because they wouldn't let me do typing. So, you know, secondary, um, I could take it or leave it, definitely, but primary I absolutely adored.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

School trip or school disco?

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Definitely a trip. You like a trip. Yeah, um, I mean we like a disco and we'll do them, but I think trips are incredible, you know, and you can go to some fantastic places and the kids remember the trips. Attendance is always great on a trip day. Amazing that yeah, it tells you how much the kids love them, you know. Trips are incredible. Can you remember any of your own that you went on? Um, do you know? Probably the most memorable trip for me. I went to the theatre for the very first time on a school trip. Um, we went to see the one with the plants, the the talking plant, I can't remember what it's called now, um, when I was at Garforth Comp, as it was then, and it was my first experience at the theatre. Yeah, and I will always remember it because I've never even knew it existed actually as an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

I bet that's true for a lot of people that their first first experience of theatre is through school, isn't it? Probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

I mean it's not something we do enough of, probably in our school days, but yeah, for me that sparked a love of the theatre that um that's still there basically. You know, we go to New York and the first thing we do is book what shows we're going to see and stuff. Yeah, um, and it's something that yeah, I hope I'll do more of when um when I'm living the free life.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yeah, be able to get like cheap tickets when you know nobody else is available to go, you have to be picked. Yeah, yeah. Um English or maths?

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Definitely English. I love it, um, and particularly writing actually. Um, I just as a child absolutely loved a blank page and a sharp pencil. Um, and I still do as an adult, you know, mostly it's on their laptop now, but yeah, I I love writing and I loved teaching writing. I think you can really unlock kids very easily in that sphere. Um, I love reading and I read a lot as well, but um for me it's it's writing all the way.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Um were you a hand straight up to answer the questions or avoid the teachers eye contact?

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Um actually more of an avoid the teacher's eye contact because um I've never been one at the front of a crowd you know buying for kind of that kind of attention actually. I still still aren't, and I you know, still don't seek that. I sought my approval in the classroom through you know the quality of the work, and that was really important to me. You know, that the the teachers' feedback and getting kind of great marks and test results and all of that was was really important to me, but it was very much quietly in the corner, getting on with um doing my very best.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

And my last question, which is what we ask everybody that comes on. If I gave you a magic wand and you could change absolutely anything you like about the education system in this country to make it better, it doesn't matter about budgets, you can do whatever you want. Um, what would you do?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

I mean, the list is long, um, and I have to say, if I was Secretary of State tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

It could well happen, it seems to be going through that many people.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

It would be a really, really busy day for the Department of Education, let's just say. Um, I would most definitely stop this nonsense that is ongoing at the moment with the Secretary of State seemingly ignoring the entire teaching profession and all the unions and resolve the issues around teacher pay because that's just silly, um, and support staff pay actually, which is equally silly. Um, and I'd have a longer term plan than they seem to have because you know they they seem to kind of come back to this issue of pay every single year. Why can't they just determine what it's going to be for the next five years and fund it? And then they don't have to focus on that, they can start looking at some of the other stuff instead, can't they? So I'd definitely do that. I would most definitely um abolish Ofsted by lunchtime. Um, that'd give loads of capacity back into schools anyway, because I'm sure Ofsted would value a restructure and an opportunity to get back into schools and um practice what they preach. Um, and do some kind of other silly stuff, um, like you know, uh make swimming free for every child all the time, not just via school. Um, put a transport network in place so that schools aren't paying ridiculous sums of money to get kids out of the buildings and out to see things and places. Um, but I have to say, you know, in terms of magic wand, the thing that I'd most be looking to do is kind of eradicate um trauma from children. You know, I think if there's magic at play, then what we should be able to do as a society is kind of make sure that it's a human birthright, that any child is safe and free from harm, basically, and that childhood trauma becomes something that we talk about in the past when we weren't getting it right for these kids. Um it's it's criminal, you know. The the the kids that we teach that we know classrooms have experienced some of the things that they have experienced. So if there's magic at play, you know, that's absolutely where I would be uh casting my spell.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

I think that might be the best answer we've ever had for Matt ones, have oh lovely. Um that's been really lovely. I'm so pleased that you found the time to kind of have a chat to us before you um head off to Barbados. I'm not all jealous about that. Um have a have a fabulous time doing whatever the wind takes you. Um and best of luck with it all. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Um join us next time when we'll be chatting to somebody else about what's going on in in their world in education.