Long Term

By consistently implementing our short and medium-term School Improvement strategies, we will bring about long term positive change in our schools.

By appointing the posts of Director of Education and Primary Director of Education, the CEO is able to work with the team to ensure we have the necessary systems, policies, infrastructure and governance in place to support our schools into the future. Significant investment has been made into IT so our schools can develop curricula for the future. Buildings are well maintained, and we continue to invest in our estates development. This enhances the curriculum delivery in our schools. Central Team services have been developed so our school leaders are no longer burdened by many of the non-education elements of running a school. All this work supports long term, sustained School Improvement. The Central Team ensure that schools are compliant with all guidance and legislation. Smooth running HR, finance and procurement systems reduce workload and ensure efficient deployment of resources.

From an education perspective, the most crucial long-term investments we make are:

• recruiting
• retaining
• developing

We invest heavily in continuous personal development (CPD) and look holistically across the Trust to ensure everyone can access the same high-quality opportunities. Every employee of the Trust has a role to play in improving the life chances of our children and young people.

To achieve the best outcomes for our all our children and young people, we are committed to providing excellent CPD for colleagues at all career stages, and in every job function within the trust.

Internal CPD Offer

The Trust offers a number of places annually on a range of courses that have been developed in-house and are delivered by a mixture of internal staff and friends of the Trust. These courses are bespoke to the Trust and ensure that our CPD offer is tailored to the specific needs of our individual school contexts.

Secondments and Trust Deployment

Talented individuals are seconded to another school or shared between schools. This provides short and medium-term benefits for the recipient school, and developmental opportunities for our colleagues. In the longer term, this helps us with retention and succession planning, as we develop our future leaders within the Trust.

External CPD Offer

The Trust commissions numerous places annually from a range of providers to support individual School CPD offers. Places on these courses are in high demand and reflect the focus on CPD and long-term professional development. They also secure a succession planning strategy for our middle leaders and senior leaders to ensure there is internal capacity to fill management places if required. School Improvement funds are available to ensure that school budget constraints do not limit participation. The Trust partners with The National College and National Online Safety. This allows employees access to a personalised range of online CPD opportunities that forms a core offer for all employees within the Trust. This offer is further enhanced by ‘area specific’ organisations such as The National Governance Association; NSPCC and Walkthru's, where additional and more bespoke training can be delivered.