The Journal for Executive and Governance Leaders
The Journal for Executive and Governance Leaders
December 2019 edition
Welcome to the new edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my synopsis of the range of topical subjects covered in this issue. In her lead article, Leora Cruddas, CEO of CST refers to Zook and Allen’s book The Founders Mentality in which they talk of the insurgent mission…
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In their excellent book, The Founder’s Mentality, Zook and Allen talk about the insurgent mission as one of the key features of the founders of successful organisations. I believe there are useful insights here for school trusts. In this article, I will apply Zook and Allen’s thinking to trusts, so…
The government continues to find it challenging to meet its recruitment targets for teachers – not least in shortage subjects. Meanwhile, a significant increase in the secondary school pupil population is expected over the next few years, which will create additional pressures. Since 2010, overall teacher numbers have been static,…
At the beginning of the original Academies Programme many curious school leaders looked across the Atlantic to learn from the US Charter schools movement, which was by then, much more established. The first cohorts of Future Leaders (a predecessor of Ambition Institute) would make an annual trip to the US;…
The premise of Patrick Lencioni’s excellent book, The Advantage, is that the single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organisational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders – and in education – most leadership development programmes. At Dixons, we have made organisational health central to everything we do.…
Do you know how well your school trust is positioned to achieve its goals or what elements influence its ability to implement change successfully? I’ve always been fascinated about what makes a business a success and how organisations evolve to maintain a competitive advantage. I think that’s why I studied…
To put this in some context: academisation is still relatively young. And in this short space of time, those who academised have had to formalise collaboration with relatively little support, and create the most sustainable way of existing outside of the local authority. The DfE didn’t mandate multi academy trusts…
As education leaders, but also as parents, I think we can all agree that reading is at the heart of all learning. So I found it encouraging that, since 2018, the results of KS2 SATs have shown a small but promising increase in the number of students leaving primary schools…
In a period of political uncertainty, many trusts find themselves facing forceful intervention by the DfE when one of their academies gets into trouble. However what precisely are the powers of the DfE to intervene when an academy is “causing concern”? The revised September 2019 version of the DfE’s “Schools…
October 2019 edition
Welcome to the first edition of Trust for the new 2019/20 academic year. I am pleased to provide my synopsis of the range of topical subjects covered in this issue. In her lead article, Leora Cruddas, CEO of CST, builds on her previous Trust article ‘Changing the Story’ to counter…
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Earlier this year, I was delighted to give evidence to the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to think hard about the civic role of universities and the role they play in their localities by making a strategic contribution to the greater social…
The growth of multi-academy trusts provides the opportunity for organisational added value. However it presents too, the risk of non-value-adding bureaucracy and control. This is a challenge faced by multi-unit organisations whether they are businesses, charities or public bodies. There are lessons to be learnt across all sectors. Firstly, in…
So….I used to be responsible for evaluation in Ofsted. I’ll just get that out there before I say any more as it is relevant to virtually everything that comes next. But I’d like to think I would say the same even if I hadn’t. Now that I am in Ormiston…
Reflecting on the word ‘Trust’ – the ‘T’ of our Multi Academy or Single Academy Trust designation – centres our thinking on the importance of our relationships with one another, and the extent to which they reflect our vision and values. Trust is created between institutions, teams, individuals and children,…
In 2010, the coalition Government invited parents, teachers, businesses, charities and existing schools to establish new schools across the country, and the free school programme was born. Since 2009, NSN (New schools Network), the organisation that I run, has sought to empower local groups to demand something different and better…
Teaching is stimulating. You use your brain in numerous ways: as an academic, a communicator, a parent and an actor. Teaching makes your synapses fizz and crackle like a sparkler. Those at the beginning of this exciting career have a lot of information to absorb: in addition to knowledge of…
Online technology in education is evolving, with cloud-based applications, social media, and great educational resources online all becoming commonplace in the classroom. As a result staff and students have access to a much greater range of knowledge but they are also more exposed to online threats. Earlier this year RM…
Like every organisation, school trusts are made up of lots of different teams. Whilst the board and the executive are teams within their own right, they also jointly make up an incredibly important team. In this article, I briefly explore two key areas where it is important for the board…
July 2019 edition
Welcome to the July edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my synopsis of the range of subjects covered in this issue. As we approach the end of the first academic year in which CST has been operating as the Sector Body for School Trusts, in her lead article,…
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We launched the Confederation of School Trusts on 11 October 2018. By this edition of Trust, we are thirty-eight weeks old and I thought it would be a good time to take stock of what we have achieved over this period. Let’s start with our mission – to support our…
In June 2019, I was delighted to lead alongside Leora Cruddas, the CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts, (CST) a short series of roadshows with CEOs of Multi Academy Trusts that focused upon the ‘white paper’ that CST have published called the “Future Shape of the School System in…
It’s good timing to be writing for Trust as new teachers are very much on my mind right now. I have recently started chairing the DfE expert group that has been asked to help develop guidance for ITE providers as to how to amend their curricula so that they align…
Since multi-academy trusts were created, or school trusts as we would now know them, there has been much discussion about what it is that great MATs do that transform standards and the quality of teaching and learning in schools. In 2017 a group of trust CEOs in the South West…
How do people react when you tell them you work in teaching? Do they look at you with respect and admiration, celebrating your work to benefit the future of young people and society? Or do they offer a look of sympathy for the endless pressures that are associated with being…
At the Spring CST conference on Effective, Accountable and Ethical Governance I was asked for the one piece of advice I would give to a new trustee. My answer was to invest in effective induction. I went on to say that I meant not just effective induction of trustees but…
Academy trusts’ financial circumstances are becoming more challenging and increasing numbers are now seen to be at risk of insolvency. With the fall in free reserves, and an increase of the reported number of academies running at a deficit, it is important that trustees are aware of the tipping points…
Social Value UK defines social value as “the quantification of the relative importance that people place on the changes they experience in their lives”. Social value is a concept that addresses the benefits to the wider community, as well as the non-financial impact of businesses, such as the wellbeing of…