Welcome to the July edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my synopsis of the range of subjects covered in this issue.
Read moreWe 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...
Read moreIn 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...
Read moreIt’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...
Read moreSince 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...
Read moreHow 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...
Read moreAt 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...
Read moreAcademy trusts’ financial circumstances are becoming more challenging and increasing numbers are now seen to be at risk of insolvency. With the fall...
Read moreSocial Value UK defines social value as "the quantification of the relative importance that people place on the changes they experience in their lives”....
Read moreWelcome to the May edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my synopsis of the topics covered in this issue.
Read moreThe term ‘autonomy’ is a highly contested and misunderstood concept. The whole question of the practice of autonomy needs more careful thought and...
Read moreEvery trust executive needs to prioritise taking care of their teachers and leaders. The evidence on exit rates shows that we cannot afford not to do ...
Read moreThere are growing numbers of people – teachers, parents, students, employers – who believe that our current education system and the debate around...
Read moreYou will not have missed the continuing dialogue concerning challenges in school funding. Impassioned reactions of education leaders and the concerned...
Read moreChairs of multi academy trusts (MATs) are spending an average of fifty days per year – or approximately one day a week – carrying out the role, recent...
Read moreThere is so much that has been written on the subject of clarity of purpose and vision and how that should shape and drive everything done in an organisation...
Read moreFor Multi Academy Trusts, the matter of accountability and transparency remains a growing concern with parents calling for greater clarity on decision-making...
Read moreOnce upon a time, schools were schools. Some of them were good, some of them less so. But they were all schools – and they were all called schools, whether...
Read moreWelcome to the April edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my taster of the range of topics we address in this issue.
Read moreAt the legal and ethical heart of what we do as academy trusts lies something bold and aspirational – our core charitable purpose is to advance education...
Read moreAs I write this article, UK politics continues to be dominated by Brexit, which is crowding out everything else, and distracting attention from other key...
Read moreRecently we passed a major milestone in the history of English education which, given everything else going on, received relatively little attention. More...
Read moreThe poet John Donne famously wrote that ‘no man is an island’. In education we can extend that metaphor to say that no school or education system is...
Read moreThe placement of students with the most extensive Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in mainstream schools continues to be a significant challenge...
Read moreLearn-AT launched in September 2016 – a mixed Church of England and Community multi-academy trust of seven primary schools, all aligned around a vision...
Read moreGovernance in MATs is an evolving beast – rightfully so, because if it continued to function only as it did before, we’d be doing our schools a disservice....
Read moreWith the economic crash in 2008 and the government’s subsequent commitment to reduce the national budget deficit, the country has suffered ten years...
Read moreOne of the primary roles of MATs is to create a culture of collaboration across the organisation that transcends all levels from the Executive to the frontline...
Read moreWelcome to the third edition of Trust the digital professional journal for executive and governance leaders. This publication is one of the many outcomes...
Read moreLast month, the Department for Education launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, and the Early Career Framework (ECF). There was an astonishing...
Read moreWhat gives us character? What makes us resilient? These are two of the questions I look forward to grappling with as I chair the group announced by the...
Read moreI won’t pretend to be a governance expert, but I’ve served on the body of an independent school, as the chair of a single Academy trust, now as a chair...
Read moreIt’s that time of year again when schools are beginning to consider what their curriculum and staffing structures might look like in September. The process...
Read moreAs part of a huge swathe of policy on teacher recruitment, retention and development, the government has announced a new suite of National Professional...
Read moreWithout a curriculum, a school is just a building full of teachers and pupils.
Read moreNot a day goes by when there isn’t something in the press about executive pay. Whether it’s a piece urging ethical governance or a piece challenging...
Read moreStrong governance is vital to the success of any organisation and it is essential that those people employed to implement good governance practices in...
Read moreThroughout 2018, the threat to schools from fraudsters has compounded – not only are schools’ finance teams being targeted through malicious emails...
Read moreWelcome to the second edition of Trust, our Journal for Executive and Governance Leaders.
Read moreReminding ourselves of our core purpose in education is undoubtedly one of the most important elements in building a strong and resilient school system....
Read moreI wanted to join Ambition School Leadership and the Institute for Teaching (IfT) for the opportunity to work alongside people I trust and respect. Also...
Read moreI am lucky enough that each working day, I get to drive throughout the whole of Teesside, Yorkshire, the Humber region and the East Midlands, beautiful...
Read moreThe challenge the sector faces in teacher recruitment and retention needs little introduction; increasing pupil numbers, fewer teachers joining the profession,...
Read moreOne of my favourite phrases in leadership is when the CEO of an organisation brushes away the ‘executive’ part of their job title and replaces it with...
Read moreSince its earliest days, the academy movement has provoked fierce debate on the merits of centralisation. For some schools, a centralised management model...
Read moreA New Year brings with it renewed vigour for the months ahead and that vigour is going to be needed as 2019 is again going to be a busy year for schools....
Read moreWelcome to the first edition of our Journal for Executive and Governance Leaders. We call it ‘Trust’. We aim for Trust to be a regular, digital, periodical...
Read moreOver the past decade, academies have become a powerful force in education reform. With half of our children and young people in England educated in the...
Read moreI’ve been around from the beginning of the academy movement. Academies have seen a huge transformation of the system. When we started, academisation...
Read moreA new school year presents us with the perfect opportunity to set out priorities and build on existing developments, to ensure every child receives an...
Read more"Can I borrow your school field please?” That question led to a life in governance locally, regionally and nationally. The trade-off for using the school...
Read moreMATs are still new, complex and evolving in the education sector, which means leaders can often find themselves reacting to what is happening around them;...
Read more"Governance” is not a word or topic that typically sets the pulse racing. However, we all know that effective governance practice is critical to the...
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