Leadership by example {CASE STUDY}
CLIMATE CHANGE: the time to act in your school is now We speak to HELEN BURGE, deputy chief operations officer at The Priory Learning Trust, about her passion for sustainability and why putting in place sustainable projects and actions in your school is not only good for the climate but also for your school’s budget Tell us a little bit about your trust. I work for The Priory Learning Trust, which is a relatively new multi-academy trust (MAT) in the southwest of England. It’s about four years old, we’ve got 5,000 students and about 760 staff. We’re based in North Somerset and Somerset. We have two secondaries and two primaries in Weston-Super-Mare - these include a speech and language base, an all-year-round nursery and a preschool. Then we’ve got one secondary in Burnham and Highbridge with a sixth form, and three primary schools in that hub.
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December 2021
What is your role in the MAT? I’m the deputy chief operations officer. I report to the chief operations officer and I support and work with the head of finance, head of HR, head of IT and head of estates and compliance. The operations managers report to me, so I’m the link between the central team and the operations in each school, helping the managers to deliver operations successfully. If there’s an issue, I help solve it. I’ve a got a particular focus on internal scrutiny, supporting the development of our preschool provision and, also, sustainability!
