Features

Joined-up thinking

For the past four years, Sandra Campbell has headed up a federation of two London nursery schools and was about to retire when she spoke to Caroline Vollans about this model, and its future

sandra-campbellIn 1998, Sandra Campbell (right) became head teacher at Church Hill Nursery School in Walthamstow. Then, in 2013, she was asked to also take on the headship of another local nursery school, Low Hall. Although initially appointed on an interim basis, it soon became clear that she would be asked to continue as joint head, chiefly due to budget pressures.

Tell me about your early days as being a joint head

From day one, I had to manage tricky budget decisions between the two schools, but the biggest challenge was having to deal with two separate governing bodies. So, two years later, we formed a federation, in which the two governing bodies became one, and this made a huge difference to my workload.

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