Topics

How Strategic Communications can Supercharge your Civic Leadership Initiatives

As reflected in the theme of the recent CST Annual Conference #Truly Civic, the civic leadership role of School Trusts has never been more evident than...

Rethinking Science: Creating an Inclusive Science Curriculum

Following two years of online and remote conferences, it was an absolute pleasure to be attending this year's CST Annual Conference in person. After the...

Policy, Practice and Avoiding Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a term first coined by Leon Festinger in the 1950s and is used to describe the mental discomfort an individual feels when they...

Rethinking Governance: A Place-Based Design

With schools spanning from the Isle of Wight to Middlesbrough, Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) has one of the largest national footprints when it comes...

What do the DfE’s Digital Maturity Research and Technology Standards mean for Trust Leaders?

Digital transformation and the digital maturity journey that it represents are ideas that have percolated into many public sector organisations. Steps...

By Caroline Whitty and Luke Sparkes

An Interview with Luke Sparkes

Caroline Whitty, Editor of Trust Journal, talks to Luke Sparkes about Dixons Academies Trust’s approach to professional growth.

Building Leadership Capacity in the Post-pandemic Landscape

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted our sector in ways that would have been impossible to predict two years ago. It has been a test of resilience and of...

My Day as a Teaching Assistant

‘Are you new?’ A pair of Year 3 eyes looked up at me as I attempted to help with lunchtime duty last week in my local primary school. It was a reminder...

Priorities for your Trust People Strategy in these Challenging Times

Recently a Headteacher told me that many of her staff are now on their second, and in some cases even third, Covid-19 infection and absence is a critical...

Staff and Pupils’ Wellbeing – a CEO perspective

For Trust CEOs, Daniel Pink’s theory of intrinsic motivation based on autonomy, mastery and purpose may resonate in terms of our own wellbeing [1]. Many...

Making Education Accessible for all - Learners and Teachers

As more of the curriculum is delivered on a screen, rather than from a textbook or reading from a board, we must look at the barriers that stop learners...

CEO Core Responsibilities

As the sector body for School Trusts, CST developed a draft set of Core Responsibilities for School Trust CEOs earlier this term. This was done following...

Introduction

Welcome to this latest edition of Trust. It is the final edition of 2021 and provides a useful opportunity for us to take stock.

Educating a Generation of Environmental Inventors, Innovators and Problem-solvers

One of the world’s most popular educationalists, the late Sir Ken Robinson, said: "We’re all born with immense, natural, creative abilities. Children...

The Moment to put Child Health at the Heart of Recovery

Recovery. It’s on my mind as a head and Multi-academy Trust CEO every minute of every day. How do we ensure that every child gets back-on-track academically?...

Modern Careers Education: What it is and Why it Matters

Results days are tricky at the best of times (and that’s an understatement for the last two). Success is measured by letters and grades of course, but...

Preparing to Meet the Post-pandemic Challenges Head-on

Orchard Hill College and Academy Trust (OHC&AT;) exists to support, enable and champion the talents, skills and rights of the most complex and vulnerable...

The Way Forward - Building Trust Culture Together

There is no escaping the fact that the pandemic has caused significant disruption to the education of all of our pupils but particularly to the most vulnerable...

Staff Absence Protection: The Mutual Alternative

With increasing pressures on budgets, and staff absences increasing due to COVID, Nick Hurn discusses how we can support our schools with an ethical staff...

Understanding our Place in Nature - The Potential Impact of Environmental Education

The Dasgupta Review, an independent review into The Economics of Biodiversity commissioned by the HM Treasury, was published on 2nd February 2021.

Shifting the Narrative Around School Trusts

At CST’s recent Annual Conference, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson promoted Trust Partnerships, an opportunity for schools to have an informal relationship...

The Tham Luang Cave Rescue - A Parable for our Work with Disadvantaged Children

For those of you who were not able to attend the CST Virtual Conference last month, one of the many powerful keynote contributions was about the Tham Lung...

Essentialism and Getting Back on Track

‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.’ Stephen Covey

Winning Together: The Value of Collaborative Working

At the recent CST virtual conference, we were delighted to co-present a Masterclass session with Renaissance, one of our key suppliers. In this session,...

By Claire Hill and Kat Howard

Symbiosis: The Curriculum and the Classroom

Bridging the gap

The House of Tomorrow: The Activism and Values of Zaiuddin Yousafazi

It can be too easy to be critical of the fragmented, sometimes fractious state of English education and take our children’s right to universal state...

Digital Assessment in Trusts and their Schools

Digital technologies have been a saviour for many Trusts and their schools throughout the pandemic. With lessons over Zoom, collaboration work via Google...

Mentally Healthy Schools: Opening up Conversations about Mental Health

The pandemic, and successive lockdowns, will have impacted on children and young people’s mental health in a number of significant ways. They may have...

Introduction

It’s a privilege to welcome you to this latest version of Trust Journal. As you will see, once again we have another edition packed full of thoughtful...

An Overview of Current Reforms - and the Case for Unprecedented Collaboration and New Forms of Leadership

This is a significant moment in the history of education in England. The policy reforms that are about to be implemented will shift the strategic picture....

By Sara Collins and Richard Dunne

Children Need Nature Now

Whilst COVID-19 caused us all to pause and radically changed our lives, many people rediscovered the power of being outside in nature.

Together we're Stronger

The Compass Partnership is a group of seven schools; six primaries and one all-through special school. As a group, we have existed since 2011 and have...

Education for a Changing World: Lessons from the Pandemic and the Power of Virtual Learning

‘This school is not the million bricks, but the thousand hearts who carry more dreams than the night sky has stars.’ Anonna, Year 7, January 2021 taken...

Introduction

This edition of Trust is about building the future together.

By Peter Fonagy and Jaime Smith

Wellbeing: The Impact of the Pandemic and what Schools can do to Support Mental Health

In the wake of the pandemic, wellbeing has become something of a buzzword. This may seem paradoxical given the circumstances seem to be shrinking the possibility...

Introduction

Welcome to this December edition of Trust, which is the final edition of 2020. In some ways it would be nice to describe this as a bookend to what has...

The System: Some Reflections

40 years ago, I received an A-grade for my Y5 school holiday project on "The Solar System”, which reflected my early promise as a knowledge-rich analyst...

A Leadership Baptism of Fire

Starting a new leadership role is an exciting challenge at any time – but how does it feel to have taken up a new CEO role during lockdown and the subsequent...

Learning the Post-Lockdown Lessons of a More Agile Workforce

Back in February this year, I was physically present at a meeting with several HR colleagues from academy trusts. We were discussing the challenge of...

Journeying Through a ‘New Normal’ Together

It would be fair to say that Covid-19 has turned education on its head.

Introduction

Now that we are adjusting to the new normal, this edition of Trust builds on the last by offering examples of approaches to strategic planning to mitigate...

Supporting Remote Learning

Since March, schools have risen swiftly to extraordinary challenges, including logistical, cultural and emotional challenges – to support pupils and...

Leading Ethically During COVID-19

We have seen some magnificent examples of civic leadership exercised by local authorities, schools and trusts during COVID-19 – leaders acting with professional...

Introduction

In this edition of Trust, as you would anticipate, we continue to focus on the impact and longer-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on our sec...

Succession Planning and Leadership Recruitment: a Crisis Not to be Wasted?

Trust boards discover they have a leadership vacancy in one of two ways. But whether planned or unexpected, it’s a supremely valuable moment, where the...

Introduction

Welcome to the new edition of Trust. With the ever present backdrop of some of the key challenges facing the sector, not least the issue of teacher recruitment...

The Work of School Improvement at Scale – Learning Lessons From The US

At the beginning of the original Academies Programme many curious school leaders looked across the Atlantic to learn from the US Charter schools movement,...

Two Things Boards and Executive Teams Should Be Working on Together

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...

Expanding the Reach and Influence of Educational Leaders of the System

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...

Introduction

Welcome to the May edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my synopsis of the topics covered in this issue.

Delivering Organisation Results

There 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...

Introduction

Welcome to the April edition of Trust. I am pleased to provide my taster of the range of topics we address in this issue.

The Four Most Common Questions asked about Executive Pay Setting…

Not 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...

Building Character and Resilience

What 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...

Introduction

Welcome to the third edition of Trust the digital professional journal for executive and governance leaders. This publication is one of the many outcomes...

Asking the Right Questions: Being the Chief Learner When It Comes to SEND

One 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...

What Does It Take To Lead An Effective MAT?

MATs are still new, complex and evolving in the education sector, which means leaders can often find themselves reacting to what is happening around them;...