School Improvement
Working in Partnership with Schools
As a Trust, our mantra is that school improvement is at its strongest when all schools work together. Using the four-stage model from the DfE Multi-Academy Trust publication, ‘Good Practice Guidance and Expectations for Growth’, we grade each school as part of due diligence, prior to joining the Trust, or as part of the Quality Assurance reviews.
Our use of this model has been very successful in moving schools from Ofsted grades of requires improvement to good/outstanding.
The work of the School Improvement Team, is to establish the stage of each school within the Trust and the level of support needed to move the school forward and continue to enhance their provision.
The days allocated for the school improvement support are a minimum offer per academic year, as the nature of the support is bespoke to each school.
These reviews are written up by the School Improvement Team as a report, which is then shared with the school’s Local Advisory Board.
Reflect and Improve
We are a collaborative Trust and very proud of the partnerships we have developed in the communities where we operate, with local schools and church groups, the Local Authority, other Multi-Academy Trusts, teaching schools and alliances, and many more organisations.
As part of our mission to provide children with the opportunities they need to thrive, we collaborate with other educationalists and aim to help however we can.
Due to the increasing scope of the support we are asked to provide, we have created our School Improvement Strategy to be deployed as an effective development tool.
As a Trust, we continually self-reflect and review not only individual schools, but the Trust as an organisation; we use a variety of tools to inform our strategy.
Leaders within the Trust use the School Improvement Capacity Framework as a tool to drive school improvement.
This allows us to build and strengthen our capacity to support more schools.
Within each of the twelve key aspects, the framework includes a series of questions to consider when determining the strengths and areas to drive forward.
This tool is used to formulate the Trust’s Annual Improvement Plan.
The Core Offer
Each school allocated a School Improvement Partner, one of our Education Directors, who visits schools each half term for challenge visits and three support visits and provides the Local Advisory Board and the Trust with the flow of information they require to assess progress and allocate further resources as required.
As a minimum, once per year, each of our schools will be involved in a Quality Assurance Review of its work. QAs will be carried out as a peer review process involving members of the leadership group from within the Trust, as well as an external professional.
Schools deemed to be operating at Vantage grade 3 or 4 will have a bi-annual review visit
*The Trust Education Director is an experienced and well-respected Principal who has experience of all of the stages of development, from Special Measures through to Outstanding, with the ability to offer help and guidance.
Our Education Directors
Liz Peacock
Trust Education Director
Liz has over 23 years of primary teaching experience and is passionate about making a difference to the lives of the children in her care. Liz was the driving force in overhauling the curriculum provision whilst at SS Simon and Jude, which, under her leadership, moved from Special Measures to Outstanding. Liz provides specialist support to many schools across the North West. She sits on the Education Strategic Advisory Board for Fieldwork Education, and is an IPC accreditor, inspecting schools across the international circuit. As the Trust Education Director, she provides support and challenge to leadership teams in driving forward learning and teaching.
Rhian Williams
Education Director and Executive Principal
Rhian has over 17 years experience teaching across the Primary phase, and 6 years experience as a Principal in Manchester schools. As an LLE, Rhian has had experience in supporting schools in need, working in education settings across the North. Rhian is a Pupil Premium Reviewer and specialises in Safeguarding and Child Protection. Throughout her career, Rhian has continued to work in areas of significant need determined to make a positive impact on the lives of the pupils in her care. As Executive Principal and Education Director, Rhian provides support and challenge to schools in the Manchester area as well as serving as the Principal of the Free School in Gorton.