The Voice
Published: 16th March 2009

How Viv Grant turned problem school around and coaches black teachers to the top.

A SCHOOL once deemed so bad it was almost closed down, was saved through the never say die’ attitude of a new black head teacher, who helped to turn its fortunes around. In 1998, school inspectors Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) condemned St Andrews primary school in Stockwell, south London, for its poor standard of education and the low achievement level of its largely black pupil population.

However, when new head Viv Grant was brought in, she was determined to raise the attainment level of the school. And through hard work and tough strategies she managed to steer the school back on to the right path. Now, the former head teacher is on a quest to get more black teachers in to top management positions. Viv Grant has set up her own consultancy organisation, Integrity Coaching, to offer guidance to black teachers who want to take on more senior teaching roles.

“I do leadership coaching with the specific focus on teaching black and ethnic minority teachers to achieve their full potential and move successfully into senior leadership positions,” she explained.

The 42-year-old says she wanted to go into teaching because she loved working with children and wanted to give back to her community. She quickly moved up the ranks, becoming deputy head teacher within the first five years of starting her career.

“I was very fortunate when I entered the profession and I moved up quickly. This was because of other people who saw things in me, that I didn’t see in myself. I was fortunate to have mentors who were behind me,” she said.

Grant was appointed head teacher at the troubled St Andrews primary school when she was 32. She admits it was a challenging job, as the school was under ‘special measures’ after failing its Ofsted report. “It was a daunting task but I really cared about that school. When the school went into special measures, I remember one of the pupils saying to me ‘Are we failures?’ It just broke my heart and I knew that I could make a difference,” she said.

Viv set about implementing her plans to change the quality and attitude of learning from teachers, as well as changing the behaviour policy of the school to focus more on rewarding good behaviour. Despite this, she faced opposition from white teachers who didn’t support her vision.

“One of the hardest challenges was changing the attitudes of the staff. None of them lived in London. They were commuting from suburbia every day and their attitude was ‘we do our little bit for these black children off the estate, and if they can hold the pencil, that’s fine,’ “ she said. However, Grant was determined not to let this become a major stumbling block. Slowly the school started to show improvement and was eventually taken out of special measures.

“It was amazing, I couldn’t really believe it. It meant that all the work that I did beforehand really counted. To know that we bucked the trend of urban underachievement was incredible,” she declared. Grant was on a career high, but felt that it was time to hang up her head teacher’s hat and concentrate on other pursuits, as well as devote herself to motherhood.

“I always said to the staff that I wasn’t a career head teacher, as it wasn’t always in my plans. I got the school to a point where someone else was able to take over the reigns. I had a child that was going to start school and I wanted to be there for him,” she explained. But it wasn’t long before Grant was itching to start a new project. Armed with her own personal teaching experiences she wanted to address a major personal concern, the severe lack of black teachers in the school system.

Grant’s concerns are wellfounded. A recent report stated that Britain’s local education authorities are not doing enough to support the career progression of black and ethnic minority teachers. The result is an acute shortage of black people in leadership positions. The report, commissioned by the Training and Development
Agency (TDA), says that fewer than three percent of head teachers are from ethnic minority backgrounds. They also tend to leave the profession earlier than their white counterparts.

Grant made the decision to undertake a coaching qualification and began preparing ethnic minority teachers for leadership roles. “I got interested in coaching because I wanted to empower them. I realised what the education sector was missing, was how to promote black and minority ethnic teachers to develop their careers,” she said. Grant is determined to ensure that local authorities give ethnic minority teachers in senior positions the support that they need. “When black teachers get to the top, local authorities just clap their hands and feel that they’ve done it. We want to ensure that when they are in these positions the local authorities put in a programme of support. So we are looking to implement that,” she said. The feedback from many black teachers has been largely positive, and Grant is overwhelmed by the difference she has helped bring about.

“It was so moving in terms of what individuals have said. One individual told me the programme has helped him construct a vision for what he wants to be in the future. So it has just been amazing,” she exclaimed.