Facilitation of consultation meeting regarding the amalgamation of two schools

Objectives
To facilitate the change management in amalgamating two schools into one.

Solutions
24 people attended, including head teachers, governors, teachers, staff and pupils. The day was facilitated by our Head of Training, James Wright. The key issues were identified, which included education, administrative, community integration, transport, parking and entrances and building works, and then structured discussions led to the identification of goals, common ground, differences and challenging issues. After the meeting, James prepared a comprehensive report which covered all comments, discussions and conclusions without any interpretation.

“Insightful exercise that raised good thoughts and left people feeling positive about the future. A key benefit was listening to the staff and involving them to make difficult change.”

“It was good to recognise assumption that affect decision making.”

“As a result of the workshop I am going to challenge my own assumptions and engage more with my peers.”

“It was thought provoking and valuable to gel as a new group.”

 “It was exactly what I wanted from the day!”

 “Very excited about meeting new people and making new friends.”

 “The future is bright for our new school and events / meetings like today are very important and need to keep happening.”

 “I was scared to come at first but I enjoyed the games and talking to new and different people and feel proud to be part of it I feel a lot better about it than I did this morning.”

 “It’s good to be part of making something bigger and better.”

 “I now feel I have a greater affinity with peers, both those directly, and those within our wider department.”

 “The facilitator had a wide knowledge and skills to tease out various issues.”

 “Excellent opportunity to develop relationships with colleagues, and the opportunity to think, reflect and discuss issues was valuable. I would like a second day to move to action planning as a group”.