Questions about Joining our MAT
The 3-18 Education Trust began its journey in 2012, with The Priory School as a sponsoring academy. From the beginning, we have worked on establishing the operational systems and processes of governance, with a continued focus on mutual school improvement, to the benefit of all our students.
The Priory School (11-16), St Martin’s School (3-16) and Coleham Primary School (4-11), Thomas Adams School (11-19), William Brookes School (11-19), Much Wenlock Primary School (3-11). Bowbrook Primary School is in the process of being build ready for a Sep 23 opening.
Our Headteachers meet regularly to share ideas and the accountability structure ensures all schools give and receive support. We host Trust wide events and training to share best practice. Where specific support is identified, the Trust deploys its best resources and the operational systems ensure there is impact.
We have a talented Members Board, which appoints the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees, comprising of a wide range of expertise, establishes and oversees the strategy of the Trust, holds the CEO and CFO to account and ensures financial probity of the Trust finances (which includes all schools’ budgets). At school level, the emphasis is to delegate to the Local Governing Body, in order to provide as much local governance to each school as possible, particularly where schools are judged to be Good or Outstanding. The aim is to work in partnership with the schools, the Heads and Local Governing Bodies to ensure all schools work towards being Outstanding. The Link Governor role provides an excellent focus, a strong sense of empowerment and defines the level of accountability for our schools’ leaders.
We are mindful of challenging school budgets and aim to keep as much budget in the hands of the school directed at the needs of the children. We work hard to find savings through collaboration across our schools and maintain a low top slice percentage that covers: payroll and contracts, staff insurance (eg Maternity), HR support, Employers’ and Public Liability insurance, IT support, financial services, audit, H&S support and school improvement service costs.
The data dashboard is presented to Local Governing Bodies (LGB) and a summarised version is scrutinised by the Board of Trustees. Each Headteacher and LGB is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the students in their school. The CEO supports and challenges each Headteacher to ensure individual school improvement targets are achieved.
The CEO meets regularly with the Headteachers to review school performance, by:-scrutinising termly data, including attainment and progress for every year group (and more frequently if school results are below national levels); reviewing work scrutiny and monitoring records of the quality of teaching and learning – this is to both moderate the data outcomes and to support potential collaboration; monitoring of progress against School Development Plan priorities.
A Risk Register is monitored by the Board of Trustees and CEO in order to identify, assess and mitigate against potential risks to the Trust. This forms one of the strands for a Trust action plan, in order to minimise any potential future risks.