Trust School Improvement Strategy

The strategy outlines our Trust vision, values, and structured approach to enhancing educational outcomes across our academies. It establishes a clear framework for evaluating current performance, setting future goals, and sustaining excellence through support, quality assurance, governance, professional growth, and strong community relations.

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Key Aims

Enhance and sustain educational excellence.
Enable early identification and resolution of challenges.
Foster a culture of professional growth and pride.
Develop resilient leadership at all levels within the Trust.
Strengthen governance for accountability and strategic oversight.
Establish the Trust as an employer of choice.
Contribute Trust expertise to the wider education sector.

Improvement Process

The strategy is structured into three phases:-

Understanding the Present - Where are we?

Conducting self-evaluations and peer and external reviews
Use evaluations, reviews, outcomes information and risk matrices to support early identification and resolution of concerns
Strengthening governance and community engagement

Building for the Future – Where are we going?

Supporting the implementation of improvement plans and providing structured support for underperforming academies
Investing in leadership development and staff wellbeing
Contributing to local and national policy and practice
Growing the Trust by building new schools and encouraging schools to join

Sustaining Excellence - How high can we go?

Ensuring long-term succession planning
Strengthening community and employer partnerships for pupil success
Supporting MATs and schools outside of the Trust
Influencing national education policy and research

Implementation and Monitoring

The strategy integrates a quality assurance schedule with regular reviews, data analysis, and external evaluations
A risk identification process ensures that early signs of underperformance trigger targeted interventions
A Team Around the School Plan provides structured support for struggling academies, reviewed at regular intervals

Indicators of Success

A successful strategy will be measured through:-

Academic, therapeutic, health and social and emotional outcomes
Improved or sustained inspectorate ratings
The resilience of academies
Contributions to education research and policy
Civic impact

The School Improvement Strategy is a comprehensive, evidence-based framework designed to drive continuous improvement and to sustain excellence across all academies within our Trust. It balances structured oversight with autonomy, ensuring high standards while fostering innovation, collaboration, and long-term sustainability.

Trust Transformation Model

We prioritise our support and resources carefully to maximise the impact of high-quality leadership at all levels and harness expertise in order to add the greatest value for all our pupils to have every opportunity to flourish and thrive.

Our Executive Leadership Team uses our Trust School Improvement Matrix of Need to effectively assess where school improvement support should be targeted across *10 areas of need relating to:

1) Education

2) Health & Safety

3) Risk Management

4) Estates & Premises

5) IT Infrastructure

6) Digital Transformation

7) Finance

8) Human Resources

9) Civic Responsibility

10) Governance

*These areas are continually reviewed to ensure comprehensive oversight & ongoing relevance for impact.

Evaluation of progress in relation to these areas is informed by external and internal quality assured evidence, specialist reports, audits and reviews.

Executive reporting to Trustees describes progress towards achieving our agreed key performance indicators for each area.

Academy support is accurately pinpointed using the outcomes of our matrix of need, with each school moving through our trust transformation model as outlined below.

(Based upon the principles from Sir David Carter’s Four Stage School Improvement Model)