Recently I had the privilege of bringing our trust’s annual consultation with headteachers and trust leaders to a close. As I stood in front of these inspirational individuals, who work day in, day out to transform lives and strengthen communities to make the world a better place, I reflected on how vital our collective conversations are to foster a culture of innovation and to enable our leaders to meet the barriers we currently face with determination and optimism. 

I finished the day with this quote, “Transforming education is not easy but the price of failure is more than we can afford, while the benefits of success are more than we can imagine.” (Ken Robinson)

There is a quiet revolution happening in trusts across the country. It emanates from the debate to define the future role of multi-academy trusts (MATs) and how the system thinks about excellence in this area. Notwithstanding the undoubted scale of challenges facing the education sector, our children and wider society, it fills me with a sense of optimism. Whatever people’s view of school trusts, the direction of travel is clear.  They have an integral role to play in the future of education and we need to take this unique opportunity to capitalise on their potential for the benefit of all children. The role of education has never been more important in society and it has never been more important to come together as a sector. Dan Nicholls eloquently articulates this uncommon opportunity for all trusts to work together for all children in Seeking a Trust Dividend; exploiting the power of collaboration.

The Confederation of School Trusts is ready to facilitate some of this work and clear on its charitable purpose and that of multi-academy trusts as "the advancement of education for public benefit.” Our role, as leaders of trusts, is to recognise this golden opportunity to effect positive change by pooling our energies as agents in a complex system.

I have the privilege to work for a values-driven, ambitious and inclusive trust of schools, founded in the belief of Ted Wragg that local schools should collaborate to be the best they can be. We have worked tirelessly in our communities to move away from a school vs school model, where league tables pit schools against each other and where children end up in a post code lottery. We have created a community of headteachers working collectively for the benefit of over 10,000 students, working in harmony and with a healthy dose of competition to drive up standards together. There are many other trusts achieving the same and we have been the beneficiary of the generosity of some of those trusts sharing their work, including Cabot Learning Federation, Reach Academy Feltham, Academies Enterprise Trust and Dixons Academies Trust to name a few. It is critical that in this next phase we do not slip in to a MAT vs MAT model, creating a similar, scaled-up lottery for children and families.

At Ted Wragg, we believe strongly that a healthy trust is one that grows great people, is relentlessly positive in its collaboration and has the highest of standards.

People

For decades, everyone has been clear that to raise the standards of education we need the best possible educators and that to achieve this aim we must elevate the appeal of education as a career of choice. The education sector has the great advantage of a clear sense of purpose for every employee (recently underlined by the designation of 'key workers' during the Covid pandemic) but trusts need to do even more to attract the very best in to the profession and keep them there.  

There could be a whole article on its own devoted to the importance of a coherent and effective people strategy devoted to growing great people. However, when it comes to being the best place to be an employee, the research is unequivocally pointing to one answer that culture is king and strong leadership is the key (Impact Ed: Working Well: exploring staff engagement and pupil wellbeing in English schools and the work done by Educators Thriving across the seas as only two examples).  

We believe that investment in developing excellent leaders in education, in particular our headteachers, is vital for the success of a culture where all will thrive. In our Trust we have committed to this idea by collaborating in the development of the SW100 and developing our own internal leadership development programme, including Future Headteachers.

In addition, we are developing a professional development curriculum that will give all of our great people the tools they need to succeed; bespoke CPD to ensure all teachers are equipped to be teachers of SEND, high levels of investment in quality incremental coaching for all teachers, apprenticeships for teaching assistants and business professionals and a suite of training for all managers in the organisation, are just a few of the developments which demonstrate our commitment in this area.

Collaboration

Relentlessly positive collaboration is also fundamental to success and is built on trust and strong relationships; internal, community-focussed and national collaboration.

In Steve Rollett’s blog, Deputy CEO CST, Hard Wiring Connections, he talks about the opportunity trusts with a shared mission have to connect staff for meaningful and effective development. This can be witnessed across all of our internal networks and it begins with the culture set with our Headteachers.  Headteachers are now supported by each other. No longer isolated, they work as part of a collective, simultaneously empowered to drive improvements forward in their own unique contexts. Suddenly it becomes more fun to be a headteacher! 

Community-focussed collaboration must start with our parents. The Public First Report (Towards a new generation of Community Schools – listening to parents of the Red Wall) highlights that, “parents want schools that are connected to them and the wider community, with ‘communication’ coming up again and again.” This can often be misinterpreted as communicating more rather than better. Whereas building school trusts as anchor institutions (Community Anchoring – School Trusts as Anchor Institutions by James Townsend, Ed Vainker and Leora Cruddas) starts with listening deeply to our communities, building trust and stronger relationships, so our communication and actions are effective and meaningful.

National collaboration brings me back to how important it is that all education institutions are outward-facing and that they put any egos to one side. School trusts and other institutions need to work together for the benefit of all, operating with a mantra of system generosity. The Dixons OpenSource Onsite offer is a perfect example of this and has been a transformative process for our trust, supporting us with the structure of our executive, providing secondment opportunities and study tours for our headteachers as a stimulus for further school improvement (https://dixonsos.com/).

Standards

Standards need to be driven by ensuring we are championing our most vulnerable at all times, and all systems need to be implemented with children at the heart of every decision and with social justice at their core. Having the highest of standards is a balance between implementing consistent systems and enabling excellence in each unique context. Systems need to support us in holding each other to account, they need to be evidence-informed, share best practice, have transparent data and measure the collective impact of our endeavours.  

We have just taken part in a valuable pilot Ofsted for our MAT. It demonstrated that we are all still grappling with the question of what does, or should, a strong MAT look like. If we are brave we have an opportunity to hardwire in to our core quality assurance framework those performance indicators that we believe will have the biggest potential to truly transform lives, one of the most important being the gap for our most disadvantaged.

So, what now? I am uplifted and enthused by the conversations among educators today as we move beyond the academisation debate. I see the system being close to finding a new and exciting pathway for education which tackles some of the hard-wired issues that have been facing us for over 80 years. If you are in a privileged position of working on strategy for a trust please do get in touch. Together we have an opportunity to rise above short-termism and lead the way towards a long-term vision of a stronger system for all children.

Tickets are now on sale for QE Theatre Academy’s next production, Legally Blonde – The Musical. The show runs nightly from Tues 31^st January until Saturday 4^th February with a matinee and evening performance on the Saturday.

Legally Blonde is a 2007 musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and a book by Heather Hach. It is based on the novel Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown and the well-known 2001 film of the same name starring Reece Witherspoon.

The show tells the story of Elle Woods, a sorority girl who enrols at Harvard Law School to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner. Throughout the show, very few characters have faith in Elle, but she manages to surprise them when she defies expectations while staying true to herself.

Legally Blonde premiered on Broadway in 2007 and transferred to the West End opening in January 2010 at the Savoy Theatre. The West End production was nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards and won three, including the Best New Musical award.

Directed by Head of Drama, Vicky Evans, with musical direction by Head of Music, Lucy Welsman, and the chorus being put through their paces by Emily Morgan, rehearsals are in full swing, and this year’s cast are whipping themselves into shape to be ready for February’s performance.

This is a truly uplifting and energetic show full of great show-stopping numbers that can’t help but brighten up a dark February evening. Tickets are available through our online booking service, scan the QR code on the poster or follow this link to select your seats. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/qe-theatre-academy (Adults £12, Students £10).

Matford Brook Academy, part of the Ted Wragg Trust, will provide students and the local community with state-of-the art facilities.

The brand new, all-through school being built on the edge of Exeter within the Haldon Reach development will be opening in September 2023.

Covering approximately 9196sqm, the state-of-the-art building will provide excellent facilities such as a fully equipped theatre with raked seating, activity studio, spacious learning and resources centre and two recreational halls in addition to a dedicated dining hall. 

The extensive sport facilities include a traditionally built four court sports hall, a large 3G artificial turf all-weather flood lit pitches, netball courts, a full sized adult football pitch, a cricket square, a full sized adult rugby pitch, 400m athletics track and field provision, an outdoor learning environment including woodland area and a four-court tarmacadam multi-use games area (MUGA) parking and amenity space.

The construction of the 2 storey and 3 storey element building will provide space for 59 nursery places, 630 primary pupils and 750 secondary students and the opportunity for extensive community use.

Headteacher Emily Simpson-Horne comments: “It’s a hugely exciting time as we start to welcome students, parents, carers and staff into our Matford Brook family. Our all-through school will provide an excellent education that empowers children to believe they can, and should, change the world around them. Our values of scholarship, kindness and community are reflected in the opportunities our students, their families and those around us will have. With the incredible facilities that Matford Brook has available, there really is no limit to what we can achieve here together as we write our story.

I look forward to meeting families and members of the local community soon during open evenings and site visits and welcoming our first cohort of students for September 2023.”    

Moira Marder, Chief Executive of the Ted Wragg Trust, said: “We are delighted to have reached this milestone where we can share the excitement of these facilities with the local community. The school will provide a huge amount of opportunity to students and wider afield. As part of our ambitious and inclusive Trust of schools, strengthening communities through excellent education, Matford Brook Academy is set to have the best platform from the ground up, working in collaboration with our other schools and its local community to be the very best that they can be.”

Open evenings will be taking place in September 2022 for 3 levels of intake, with admissions opening in September for secondary places and November for primary places. Visit the website www.matfordbrook.academy to book your space.

Secondary focus:

• Monday 26^th September
• Tuesday 4^th September  

Primary and Nursery focus:

• Thursday 3^rd November
• Tuesday 8^th November

Head teacher at Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton, Rupert Poole said “today we have had the absolute pleasure of celebrating with all our wonderful Year 11 students their really impressive results.

“We are very proud of the achievements of our young people who have worked so hard, today is all about them and their chance to relax and reflect on their achievements.  They have worked very hard to achieve these results.”

Rupert went on to say “after all of the turmoil caused to the exam system by the pandemic, nationally speaking, this year’s results are a ‘transition year’ between 2021 (when assessment was done directly by schools and colleges) and 2019 (the last year exams took place).  However, what is most important is to recognise the hard work and determination of our students.  I am delighted to report that they have done fantastically well, meeting and exceeding the challenging targets we set for them.  This has resulted in them making excellent progress, which in turn has supported their next steps in education.  We look forward to welcoming many of them back into our fantastic Sixth Form where, as last week’s results demonstrated, students continue to make exceptional progress.

“QE’s recent Ofsted inspection, in which we were judged ‘Good’ in all areas, highlighted that the atmosphere in lessons is very focused and that we have created the conditions in which pupils can learn an ambitious curriculum.  These results are testament to that.  We could not be more pleased with the students’ outcomes, and it is also testament to the positive and mature approach they adopted to studying for their exams.”

Rupert also praised the staff at QE, reflecting on the last few years, saying “today is all about the students and recognising their achievements, but I do want to highlight our wonderful staff, and especially the work they did to support the students.  I really think the work they did, back in the days of lockdown and more recently in the run up to the exams in school, has made a massive difference and supported our students to achieve at the highest level.”

As part of the Ted Wragg Trust of schools, we are celebrating the successes and achievements of our students here at Isca Academy following the release of our GCSE results. We are exceptionally proud of all of our students and are thrilled by their results this year which reflect their hard work, dedication and commitment over many years.

Our headline results this year indicate a continued upward trend in attainment, with 70% of students achieving a grade 4 or above in both English and Maths and 54% a grade 5 or above in both subjects. These results mean that even more of our students can now go on to study Level 3 Courses at College and we are delighted that 98% of our students have already secured a route into education, employment or training this year.

Headteacher Aimee Mitchell said, “We are extremely proud of our students and all that they have achieved in what has been an extremely challenging period of their education.  Their results are a testament to the hard work, positive mindset and effort they have continued to put into their studies and to the commitment and dedication of the staff.  They now leave us with secure plans for the next step of their journey and a wealth of skills and qualities that equip them well for future success.”  She went on to say, “Our greatest strength as a school is supporting all of our students to succeed both academically and personally and I know that the rich experiences that our students have had access to will lead them on to great things beyond the Academy.”

Some notable individual successes include:

Chris Child, Tom Maynard and Violet Howson are our highest achieving students with 8 or more grade 9’s across a range of subjects. These students have applied for A Level courses at Exeter College as well as the Reach Academy and with these results, we are sure they will be successful.   Caitlin Vizard and Denisa Burca also performed exceptionally well with a suite of grade 9’s and 8’s, they are also both moving on to study A Level courses at Exeter College. We also have some students who have secured places on T Level courses.  Julian Wawczak is pursuing a T Level in Engineering after securing some excellent results in Maths and Science to name a few. Ella Rose has also secured a place on the T Level Health course and I know she will be successful with an excellent performance at GCSE.

There are so many other individual successes and all of the students’ hard work has meant they are able to move on to the destination of their choice, including a significant number going on to study Level 3 courses, Advanced Apprenticeships, or specialist vocational qualifications in their area of interest.  We wish you all the best of luck and are very much looking forward to hearing about your successes in the future. Today’s results are truly deserved, you have been a remarkable year group who have faced such challenging times, well done to you all.