Introduction

As Trust leaders move towards 2022 and beyond, the landscape looks different again, with New College Doncaster in year 5, New College Bradford starting its third full year in operation and Wingfield Academy approaching its first anniversary being part of NCLT. Due to the pandemic, New College Doncaster has still only received one set of externally published data and New College Bradford is still yet to receive any. The last two academic years have involved both CAGs and TAGs, as the primary method for assessing our students across the Trust. The Strategic Plan for 2021 – 2024 sets out a vision, strategic business objectives and over-arching educational priorities for the Trust which are based on those in previous years. Our re-formulated business objectives and priorities reaffirm our ethical decision making and our moral leadership. They identify our commitment to sustaining outstanding outcomes through implementing an ambitious curriculum to equip young people for progression and for their adult lives. The Trust’s strategic vision identifies schools as a part of our scope from 2020, and maintains our explicit commitment to “making a positive difference to social mobility”. As the country appears to be slowly coming out of the pandemic, with high percentages of people now vaccinated, the rules for education providers have been relaxed. This said, the pandemic will no doubt continue to affect us in relation to future absences and attendance and the longer-term affect it has had on our students learning. With this in mind, one particular priority remains: To identify all learning gaps which have evolved throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be achieved through diagnostic testing.

This strategic plan is underpinned by the Principles of FREDIE (Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, Engagement), as these principles are fundamental to the high-level strategy and the day to day operations of the Trust.