Our Trust Growth & Development Strategy 2022-2025
Ambitions Reading We will develop confident and competent readers
Oracy We will create a learning environment where pupils become confident communicators with the aim of improving their social mobility
Creative Learning We will develop creative thinkers. We will promote thinking that relates to discovery and enquiry using a blended learning approach involving digital learning
Achievement All our pupils make good progress and we support our most vulnerable to overcome barriers to learning so they achieve in line with other pupils
Impactful Teaching We grow great teachers who impact positively on pupil learning
Aspirations We want children to have high aspirations for their future through developing self-belief, valuing learning and broadening horizons (including careers related learning)
Our school improvement ambitions have been co-constructed by our headteachers. All schools set priorities linked to each of these 6 ambitions.
Who are we and what are we about? Castle Phoenix Trust is a well-established, respected multi academy trust in the Midlands comprising 6 schools, 3 primary schools and 3 secondary schools, with over 4,500 children and a combined income of £28 million. Our strength lies in our commitment to collaborate and share excellent practice between all our schools. Our unique offer is one of growing leaders. We nurture new and inexperienced leaders and provide opportunities for children and staff to demonstrate their leadership skills. We value inspirational leadership and the value this brings to our Trust. We have a long history of leadership development through national leadership programmes, bespoke leadership development and training and includes headteacher events tailored to meet their needs. We have a dedicated virtual Leading Learning Academy which schools use to challenge their thinking as leaders. We want teachers to enjoy their learning journey and to be supported to perfect their teaching so that together we
can better meet the needs of all our learners. Our online platform offer many exciting resources to complement our courses. Our Trust has 6 ambitions which we believe are the foundation for school and children’s life long success. Our schools drive school improvement through these ambitions. We embrace our mantra:
Growing Confident Learners by Leading Learning Excelling together Schools become part of our Trust because they know we value their local community and recognise the part their school can play to ensure all children leave our schools more confident as learners and optimistic about their future. As a Trust, we continue to provide an efficient, effective central team who are able to be highly responsive to the needs of our schools. School Improvement is key and we endeavour to ensure the highest proportion of our expenditure is focused on this area. Our Trust ambition for growth is to have a balance of schools at different starting points in their journey of improvement, therefore creating effective capacity for sponsorship and increased opportunities for high performing schools to thrive. We welcome primary and secondary schools who are either at the starting point of their school improvement journey or those that are high performing and want to flourish within a family of schools who are passionate about making a difference to our children and staff.
The next 12 months 2022/23 In the national/ local context of schools being asked to consider partnerships, we expect continued growth from January 2023 onwards. In 2022/23, we want to ensure that the performance of our existing schools continues on an upward trajectory and that we fully support them on their recovery following lockdown and the challenges faced by the pandemic. We intend to grow our Trust within the next 5 years to include at least 3 more primary schools and one secondary. Our trustees are open to consider the merger of single academy trusts and free schools. We intend to further develop our support and provision for SEND pupils and would welcome interest from at least one Special school to join our Trust to enhance our expertise.
Our schools have embraced our 6 Ambitions and within the next 12 months, we expect all schools to demonstrate significant impact against Reading, Oracy, Impactful teaching, Creative Learning, Achievement and Aspirations.
Growth going forward We are proud that, throughout the pandemic including lockdown, we have continued with professional development for leadership and impactful teaching. However, we recognise that we are still within a period of recovery and part of our growth strategy must address gaps as a result of the disruption to pupil learning. As we grow we have identified key areas to build greater capacity. Going Forward our plans for schools are to invest in the following:
Recovery •
Enhanced recruitment offers in our most vulnerable schools to secure high quality staff who can impact positively in the classroom and close existing achievement gaps.
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Trust leadership capacity provided for EYFS in 2022/23 as a result of the increasing challenges within this phase and to support our most vulnerable children to be school ready.
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Enhanced support for Attendance and Welfare this year to provide first line support to vulnerable families and their children to improve their attendance at school.
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Enhanced support for Behaviour and Intervention support for pupils who are struggling to adjust to a return to school following lockdown and the ongoing pandemic.
School Improvement •
We intend enhancing the role of our Trust Data Manager to oversee our new Trust MIS and subsequent reporting to our Trust board on key standards including achievement, behaviour and attendance alongside supporting the transition in our schools of the new school- based MIS.
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Further primary leadership to strengthen primary school education expertise and support for Quality of Education in our primary schools.
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Additional external challenge and support days for school improvement including SEND to offer bespoke and targeted expertise within our schools.
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Through Challenge Partners, we intend commissioning a MAT Peer Review in 2022/23 to evaluate the impact of our Trust.
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To build additional capacity and future proof succession planning in the event of key roles becoming vacant, we intend to recruit a Deputy CEO with a track record of excellent school improvement.
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To retain good leaders in our schools, we intend to offer extended Trust leadership roles to lead on key, focused vulnerable groups within our Trust.
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We intend extending the offer to schools from our Trust Lead for digital technology to support on line security, cyber security, use of digital technology using iPads to enhance learning and the development of our on-line learning platform (Firefly) for staff, parents and pupils. We will have centralised all our school ICT systems by the end of 2022 to aid collaboration, sharing of resources and more flexible ways of working.
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We intend entering into a partnership with ImpactEd to support the evaluation of the impact of our 6 Ambition strategies.
Our People Team
Governance
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Our Deputy of Operations leads on Governance and it is our intention to carry out a review of local governance with a view to restructuring their responsibilities in the Trust as new schools join. Local governance plays an important role in connecting to the local community which we want to retain.
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We intend to strengthen our Trust role in training, challenging and supporting all levels of governance building on the 2021 Board self- review.
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We intend commissioning an external Trust governance review in 2022/23.
Current capacity enables us to accommodate another 2 primary schools but further expansion would require an increase in our People team capacity.
Finance •
In order to ensure effective succession planning in the event that key roles become vacant and a suitable operating model for a Trust of more than 6 schools, we intend to appoint a management accountant who would act as a deputy finance director. Currently, we access management accountancy support on a monthly basis. Every school has dedicated finance support from the central team alongside localised finance staff.
Business Operations •
Estate Management •
Once our Trust exceeds 8 schools, we will look to recruit an Estates and Facilities officer to work alongside our existing Lead for Estates and Facilities to ensure that our current capacity to maintain and develop our sites to a good standard continues.
To improve the efficiency of our HR operations, once we have implemented our new MIS, we intend reviewing existing market leaders for HR systems in education.
Marketing •
We are adopting a common structure for our websites to promote both our schools and our Trust.
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We intend to develop our Trust brand, ensuring that staff, pupils, governors and parents have an increased awareness of our Trust ethos, values and offer.
Our guiding principles for growth Sustained Performance
Collaboration
Sustained high performance or improved performance from our existing schools including good outcomes from all.
We value collaboration and therefore would aim for schools to be geographically within 30 mins drive of our Central Office in Coventry. Schools can be in neighbouring local authorities. A cluster of schools wishing to become part of our Trust can be located further afield.
Balance of Schools Maintaining cross phase balance and developing special school expertise. We are open to explore partnerships with a range of education providers.
Sustainable Growth Look to be flexible in terms of number of schools joining annually but we will assess each time against current capacity to meet all school needs.
Capacity Building operational capacity and expertise to enable all schools to make rapid and sustainable progress. Balancing our capacity to take on less than good schools vs capacity to deliver sustained improvement. We value good or outstanding schools joining our Trust.
Optimal Number Building a MAT to include 10-12 schools or 7,500 students over the next 5 years. The number and rate of growth is flexible determined upon prevailing circumstances.
Our growth criteria The prerequisite for schools joining our Trust is that over time value can be added to our educational offer for children in our schools. Schools joining our Trust believe in our vision and values and want to continuously grow. They want to be part of a team committed to excel together with a true focus and passion for leadership and learning.
Feeder Schools/Established Relationships
Contribution
Our Trust Board asks that we scope out the potential of any new school joining our Trust by carrying out a risk base analysis which is ratified by the Trust Board.
All ‘good and better’ schools will be welcome to identify what expertise they can contribute to the development of our Trust alongside what they wish to gain from being part of our strong Trust.
Location All schools joining our Trust will need to be located within 30 minutes of a local cluster so they can fully integrate and be readily involved in whole Trust improvements
Commitment Our existing schools, value the support and challenge that they experience from our schools and Trust. We would expect new schools joining us to see this as a strength in growing stronger and thriving.
Priority consideration will be given to primary schools where the majority of children attend a secondary school in our Trust and vice versa for a secondary school. Or where there are established relationships between schools.
Due Diligence
Financially Viable All schools need to demonstrate they are financially viable. If a recovery plan is in place then this needs to be approved by the RSC, ESFA and our Trust Board in advance of joining.
School Estates Schools wishing to join our Trust need to demonstrate that their estates are well maintained and do not require extensive rebuilding.
Capacity for school improvement & Trust growth Our capacity for school improvement and Trust growth includes:
School Improvement Process •
Board of Trustees •
We have a strong blend of experienced and new members with a broad range of professional knowledge and skills, enabling them to robustly hold the Trust leadership to account. They are totally committed to making a difference to the lives of our most vulnerable children.
Strong Governance •
We have a well-established Trust Governance committee structure supported by local governing bodies who focus on curriculum, standards and safeguarding for their schools. Our lead for governance supports these committees and has an oversight of their performance alongside centralised policies. We have produced our inhouse governance handbook which includes details of our Trust approach to risk management and our accountability and support framework.
Standards in our Existing Schools •
4 of our 6 schools have Good Ofsted ratings. 2 further inspections are pending. We commission professional inspection support and external specialists to review, challenge and support our schools. All our schools can demonstrate areas where they are making rapid progress and have expertise and good practice they can and do share.
We have a Trust school improvement framework which is welcomed and embraced by all our schools. This provides a consistent and clear framework (based on the work by Professor Robert Hill and Professor Toby Greany) for schools to work within. We have guiding principles but schools adopt different approaches dependent on their school context. We provide a framework for all schools, no matter where they are on their school improvement journey, to be stretched, challenged and supported to be better.
Trust Networking •
Our schools are subscribed to Challenge Partners and we chair the local Coventry and Warwickshire Hub. Many headteachers take part in local and regional networks. We operate a schedule of cross phase and single-phase forums to support our Trust ambitions and key areas of priority such as safeguarding, SEND, attendance and assessment. Collaboration and networking for us is very important as a vehicle for sharing best practice. We have a network of external consultants that we commission based on need.
Marketing & Communication Strategy •
We pride ourselves in offering schools access to our on-site graphic designer who undertakes projects for schools and our Trust that include redesigning websites, brochures, learning documents, promotional materials.
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We have an effective recruitment strategy and are in the process of developing our marketing strategy.
School Improvement Team
Business Operations
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We are constantly reviewing our policy on autonomy versus alignment through consultation and discussion with our headteachers and Trust Executive team. We aim to improve our efficiencies and effectiveness through the decisions made.
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Currently, we are embarking on a centralised ICT infrastructure that provides greater flexibility for working collaboratively and includes the Cyber Essentials audit.
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All our headteachers have agreed to move forward in 2022/23 to adopting a common MIS (management information system) which is really exciting.
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Our Finance systems are aligned across our Trust which enables Trust networking for finance and HR groups.
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All catering contracts have followed a procurement process and deliver good, consistent meal provision for all pupils attending our schools.
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We provide an annual support and admin conference which provides further opportunities for well-being, networking and training.
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Our schools have well-being committees and our Trust has a ‘Thrive at Work’ reference group. Their feedback alongside surveys informs our Trust Thrive at Work principles.
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Our estates are very well managed and we have invested in our school sites to ensure they are vibrant places for pupils to learn.
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Currently we have a Lead for Quality of Education with a specialism in Reading and Oracy, a Strategic lead for Digital technology, two primary specialists in learning and teaching with specialisms in English and Maths, and leaders from within our Trust with a focus on leadership development, initial teacher training and secondary maths specialism. Increasingly we are looking at extending our trust capacity through offering school leaders the opportunity to expand their roles to include Trust responsibilities and secondments. We pride ourselves in our offer to trainees and teachers new to the profession. We have strong partnerships with renowned and successful trainee providers such as the University of Warwick. Early Career Teachers are attracted to our Trust as a result of our high quality induction offer. We provide an annual learning and teaching conference with contributions from all our schools and additional training specifically for our Early Career staff.
Central Support Teams •
Our People (HR) and Finance teams are centralised with localised admin support adopted by schools. Our People Team (HR) lead on employee relations and compliance, health and well-being, recruitment and professional development. There is dedicated support for each school. Our Finance teams support salary management, budgeting, contracts and financial management of resources.
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Our Trust ICT manager has oversight of cybersecurity, and our centralised ICT infrastructure.
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Our Facilities and Estates manager has oversight of all school estates and facilities.
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We are proud of the impact we make as a Trust.
Summary of growth proposal - timeline September 2022 • • • • •
Enhancement of primary leadership. Appointment of an attendance and welfare officer Extended leadership Trust roles for Pupil Premium and Safeguarding. Extended leadership Trust roles for Early Career Teachers (ECT). Extended leadership Trust roles for EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage).
January – April 2023 •
Appointment of a Deputy CEO.
September 2023
dependent on number of schools joining our Trust • •
Appointment of a Deputy Finance Director / Management Accountant. Appointment of an Estates and Facilities officer.
Contact Details If schools want to discuss potential future partnerships, please email one of the contacts below. Website
www.castlephoenxtrust.org.uk CEO
Michele Marr
Michele.Marr@castlephoenixtrust.org.uk
Finance and Operations Director
Helen Harrison
Helen.Harrison@castlephoenixtrust.org.uk
Deputy of Operations including HR & Governance
Karen Steele
karen.steele@castlephoenixtrust.org.uk