Academy Improvement Approach

Our Trust is passionate about academies retaining their individual identity. We believe that the best academies grow from the personalised provision led by talented leaders who best know their children, their staff and their community.

Within this context, all of our academies recognise that we have key accountabilities and benchmarks that inform judgements and qualify outcomes. Collectively, we believe that these are best met with evaluative support, guidance on improvement, the eliciting of targeted provision, and the sharing of best practice from across our Trust and beyond.

Through our academy improvement approach we provide:

Academy Improvement Intranet

Our planning is meticulous and carefully laid out on our Trust intranet so that all leaders are crystal clear about the planning, scheduling and delivery of every strand of our extensive academy improvement package. Within this, all accountabilities are mapped in, there is a coherent structure, and the planning enables systematic and effective implementation of all initiatives.

Academy leaders have plenty of challenges that crop up day-to-day, so the more that can be scheduled and organised in advance, the better placed everyone is to deal with the immediate and the long-term.

Executive Leaders Meetings

Our academy leaders meet every 3-4 weeks to contribute towards Trust developments, to report back on academy improvement strands, and to inspire and plot new developments and initiatives across our provision.

Every executive leader takes on cross-Trust responsibilities and everyone has a real voice in our collective. We believe this marks us out as an inclusive team rather than a distant, top-down organisation.

Education Health Checks

Each academy benefits from termly improvement meetings which evaluate our key benchmarks, the implementation of agreed Trust foci, and the implementation of the setting’s School Improvement Plan (SIP).

The agendas are a mix of Trust and academy led foci and include feedback from the Trust Safeguarding and SEND Leads. The final reports include a clear barometer on where things stand and a mapping of opportunities for development and support as we jointly seek to implement academy improvement priorities together.

Data Dashboard Checks

To supplement academy self-evaluation, our Trust provides a detailed analysis of key data which informs developments and paints a picture to inform internal and external reviews. This support is very much from the standpoint of a ‘critical friend’ and uses the realities of the data set to help identify the key priorities for the future.

Academy-Led Reviews

Our academies are open in running reviews in order to evaluate and develop best practice. These reviews are academy-led in terms of focus and timing, are tied to clear accountabilities and foci in School Improvement Plan, and take in expertise to develop approach, whether that be from within the setting, within the Trust, or from external experts who work with our organisation.

Tiered Support

Our Trust offers tiered support to academies depending on their position, their needs and their stage of development. This could relate to their stage in their OFSTED cycle, the priorities to addressed after an OFSTED visit, or where any self-evaluation determines that support is required.

All of our academies have areas to improve upon, none of our settings stand still or settle for what is, but where there is a clear cause for concern then naturally a clear, supportive and appropriate plan is rapidly and jointly put in place to bring the swift improvement all our stakeholders deserve.