Saturday, May 21, 2022
  • Login
Independent School Management Plus
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • School Owners & Operators
    • Heads & Governors
    • Alumni Relations
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Communications & PR
    • Campus Design & Experience
    • Estate Management
    • Human Resources
    • School data management
    • CPD
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Curriculum Design
    • Online Learning & Innovation
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
    • Wellbeing
    • eSports
  • Your School
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • The View From Here
    • School news and announcements
  • Jobs
    • Vacancies
    • Recruitment
    • Movers & Shakers
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The Friday Club
  • Resources
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • School Owners & Operators
    • Heads & Governors
    • Alumni Relations
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Communications & PR
    • Campus Design & Experience
    • Estate Management
    • Human Resources
    • School data management
    • CPD
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Curriculum Design
    • Online Learning & Innovation
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
    • Wellbeing
    • eSports
  • Your School
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • The View From Here
    • School news and announcements
  • Jobs
    • Vacancies
    • Recruitment
    • Movers & Shakers
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The Friday Club
  • Resources
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Independent School Management Plus
No Result
View All Result
Home 30 minutes with...

30 minutes with…Nicola Smith, joint principal, Chetham’s School of Music

Chetham's safeguarding chief discusses her 'child first' ethos and what independent schools could learn from the state sector

Irena Barker by Irena Barker
February 11, 2022
in 30 minutes with..., Heads & Governors, Human Resources, Wellbeing
Reading Time: 4 mins read
26 1
A A
0
Nicola Smith, joint principal at Chethams' School of Music, talks safeguarding
Linked InShare on FacebookShare on TwitterPin This

In her youth, Nicola Smith was a budding young musician and went on to study theatre and music technology before becoming a teacher.

For 20 years, she worked in the maintained sector, working with some of the most deprived children in the country, taking leadership roles with an emphasis on safeguarding work.

So it is perhaps not surprising, that when the job of vice-principal came up at the world-renowned Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester in 2018, she saw it as a chance to combine these interests.

Chetham’s had hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2013, as the scandal around historic child sex abuse at the school came to a head. The boarding school has worked tirelessly since then to both ensure such abuse could not happen again and to restore its reputation.

Two years ago, Smith was made joint principal of the school taking on the critical task of leading safeguarding, pastoral and wellbeing staff with musical director Tom Redmond leading on artistic matters. It is the first time the school has been run under a joint principal model but Smith believes “two heads are definitely better than one” given the complexity of Chetham’s operation.

“Our ethos has developed significantly, we talk a lot about children are children first.”

Her move highlights how seriously the school takes its role of looking after the children in its care, who are all promising and talented young musicians. Expectations of adults around them can sometimes be high.

She says: “It’s fair to say that our ethos has developed significantly, we talk a lot about children are children first.

“I think when people forget that they are children and fail to put the child first then there is a danger that decisions can be made around the child that can be driven in a way that is unhealthy.

“It’s important that they have fun and realise that music is a vital part of their curriculum and life but it isn’t the be all and end all.”

She stresses the importance of outside interests, a rounded education and the chance to develop other skills, such as laying a campfire in Scouts.

The move into the independent sector has been an interesting challenge, she says, and she appreciates the value independent schools tend to place on staff, the freedom and flexibility with the curriculum and the “unique environment” at Chetham’s.

“Independent schools’ reputations are so hard won and so easy to lose this can ‘muddy the water’ in terms of safeguarding.”

But in terms of safeguarding, she has noticed room for improvement in the independent sector more generally, in terms of some schools’ unwillingness to reach out for support from local authorities and services on behalf of their children.

Independent schools’ reputations are so hard won and easy to lose this can “muddy the water” in terms of safeguarding, she says, stressing this was not the case for Chetham’s because it had already been “forced to face the past with brutal honesty”.

She says: “Perhaps a school might not reach out in a way that they could do to third sector organisations, to working with their local authority in the way that they could, because I think there is that fear of whatever has happened getting out.

“But I don’t come from that world, I come from a world where most schools recognise they can’t fix every issue around every child and they use external support whether that’s from the doctor, the GP, CAMHS, drug and alcohol teams.”

But she appreciates it cannot always be easy for independent schools to access local services, even if they want to. It may have been easier for Chetham’s to forge links, she adds, because they are part-funded by the Government’s Music and Dance Scheme.

She says: “You do have to go out though and be a little bit bold and often make the case for why your school should be included…there were conversations that I had around funding but fundamentally the argument that we come back to is that when these children are in this boarding school they are the largest group of children in the centre of Manchster, they are Manchester children.”

“Schools need to give young people knowledge about how to handle the world that they inhabit, not the one we inhabit.”

So Smith works daily to ensure that safeguarding at Chetham’s is beyond reproach and that children are fully supported in terms of their wellbeing. But what new challenges lie ahead for schools in these respects?

The everchanging nature of safeguarding, she says, is a key concern.

She says: “The way that children communicate with one another has completely and utterly changed, and the way that people have access to children through their communication devices has completely changed.

Much of what schools need to do is inform young people, give them knowledge about how to handle the world that they inhabit, not the one that we inhabit which is a very different thing. The way I use social media is nothing like a 16-year-old child would do.”

She is also concerned that the polarisation of debates and discussions in wider society may make children afraid to ask questions, for example around gender or consent issues, out of fear of being labelled prejudiced in some way.

School should be “a safe space for honest conversation without children fearing they’re getting it wrong, or getting it wrong and being allowed to change your mind,” she says.

There was an important training opportunity for teachers in this regard, she says, as not all staff feel confident bracing these issues.

“School should be a safe space for honest conversation without children fearing they’re getting it wrong.”

“We worry so much around that that we don’t actually have the conversation,” she says.

This challenge aside, Smith is extremely pleased with the progress Chetham’s is making in terms of increasing diversity and lifting the barriers for talented children to develop musically. Ninety per cent of pupils receive some sort of support, and the school’s outreach schemes reach thousands of children.

She says: “Children can come not on their ability to pay but on their musical ability and that then opens up a real diversity of backgrounds, of ethnicity, of nationality and it makes it a very very vibrant place.

“Everybody is looking at their diversity and inclusion agenda for schools and that is something that for us is a real strength.”

Don't miss out!
Subscribe To Newsletter
Receive top education news, lesson ideas, teaching tips and more!
Invalid email address
Give it a try. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
Tags: Manchestermusic schoolssafeguarding
Share6Share34Tweet21Pin8
Irena Barker

Irena Barker

Irena Barker is the digital editor of School Management Plus. She also works as a freelance journalist and copywriter specialising in education.

Video

  • All
  • Video
Podcast: Eddie Mensah – The right to dream
Nicholas McKie

Podcast: Eddie Mensah – The right to dream

May 17, 2022
76
The British School in the Netherlands wins prize for environmental film
School news and announcements

The British School in the Netherlands wins prize for environmental film

May 10, 2022
50
The Friday Club: Cameron Perry, Uni Shoots
The Friday Club

The Friday Club: Cameron Perry, Uni Shoots

May 10, 2022
48
Podcast: Chandini Misra – The journey of a new head
Nicholas McKie

Podcast: Chandini Misra – The journey of a new head

May 3, 2022
325

Latest News

Covid has had an impact on COBIS international schools
International Schools

Covid impacts recruitment in two thirds of international schools

May 9, 2022
195
Oxford university
Assessment

Students with B grades to access Oxford’s new foundation year

May 5, 2022
121
Colin Bell writes about the Cobis annual international schools conference
Admissions & Marketing

‘A showcase for the resilience and creativity of international schools’

May 5, 2022
103
TES Schools Awards
Latest News

Independent schools shortlisted for TES Schools Awards

May 3, 2022
268
Brighton College's first campus will be in Hanoi
International Schools

Brighton College signs agreement for Vietnam international school expansion

April 22, 2022
145
international school chains are growing
International Schools

International school groups booming despite Covid

April 15, 2022
224
Independent School Management Plus

© 2020 Independent School Management Plus.

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
  • Educators
  • Your School
  • Jobs
  • Video & Podcast
  • Resources
  • About

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • School Owners & Operators
    • Heads & Governors
    • Alumni Relations
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Communications & PR
    • Campus Design & Experience
    • Estate Management
    • Human Resources
    • School data management
    • CPD
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Curriculum Design
    • Online Learning & Innovation
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
    • Wellbeing
    • eSports
  • Your School
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • The View From Here
    • School news and announcements
  • Jobs
    • Vacancies
    • Recruitment
    • Movers & Shakers
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The Friday Club
  • Resources
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us

© 2020 Independent School Management Plus.

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Linked In
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.