School improvement. Two simple words that sum up, in essence, why multi-academy trusts were created.
School improvement is a never-ending task, as we continually work to ensure that our children receive the best possible education, no matter the contextual challenges - from workforce changes to community demographics to the pandemic and everything in between.
School autonomy in academy trusts
The big question about school improvement in a trust is how to structure your approach to get the balance right between monitoring (keeping tabs on what is happening in each school and recognising whether it is appropriate to intervene) and prescription (setting a specific approach to follow).
A more prescriptive model may provide a clear pathway but could leave little leeway for recognising challenges in individual schools.
Meanwhile, a model favouring monitoring may suit those who want total autonomy but could lack the supportive challenge, structure and collaboration to achieve a school’s potential.
In truth, a healthy balance is needed, and this is something that we at Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust (BDAT) have worked hard to deliver.
No two schools are the same
When we were founded in 2012, there was pressure to use standard processes for school improvement. However, we pushed back on this because while all schools needed support, some joined in special measures while others converted as strong capacity givers, so a one-size-fits-all model was not right.
What’s more, schools had different challenges, resources, priorities and areas of focus, serving very different communities- no two schools were the same.
So we adopted an approach that used the trust’s expertise to improve our weaker schools in terms of Ofsted judgments but also empowered staff at every school to drive forward their own improvement efforts.
To do this we standardised processes but enabled personalised practices: we set expectations and our school leaders have the independence to meet these expectations in the way they think is best in their community.
Personalisation in action
In safeguarding, for example, we set a clear trust-wide expectation that students are always safeguarded. Our school leaders then set out how they plan to meet this expectation in their school’s context.
For attendance, our trust expectations are grounded in national research and requirements, as well as our ethos. But schools set their own attendance policy within those principles, tailored to their students.
On the curriculum, we do not mind if you teach the Romans in Year 3 or Year 5, as long as you can justify why you have made this decision and how it fits within your wider curriculum.
We have the same approach to governance, budgeting, pupil premium allocation and trust-wide initiatives such as our eco councils, as we work towards becoming net zero.
The key to success is that we support our school leaders to articulate why they have chosen their approach using a shared language.
Supporting leaders
We do not leave leaders unsupported in this. Our school improvement directors collaborate closely to empower leaders by providing targeted training to strengthen each school’s provision, depending on its challenges. They provide professional learning communities and development opportunities and facilitate external National Professional Qualifications.
The trust also ensures a high level of quality assurance and has robust monitoring systems to ensure that our schools are meeting the school and trust expectations.
Thanks to the trust providing support and accountability, as well as agency, our leaders are thriving with a mindset for continual school improvement.
We are seeing this translated into school improvements across the board, with students receiving high-quality education and more schools moving to better Ofsted judgments. Staff are also happier, boosting retention, and attrition of our teaching staff is lower than the national picture, further enhancing our students’ learning experience.
Useful standardisation
What has been interesting to witness is that while agency in some areas has been embraced, there have been other areas where schools and subject leaders have collaborated organically and asked for standardisation that they would find useful.
A recent example is the trust adopting a consistent approach to supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities, in light of rising levels of need across Bradford. All BDAT schools have participated in an Education Endowment Founadation-based project on the development and implementation of adaptive teaching.
The learning from the project is now being implemented across all schools using common terminology and strategies. Ongoing support for this is provided across the trust through the cross-phase Sendco Professional Learning Community.
In doing so, we show our schools that the trust is very much there for them - to develop, support, monitor and ensure standardisation where it facilitates school improvement. And we show that their innovation is integral to this: we are BDAT, not we are in BDAT.
In short, our model works because it recognises that not every school and community is the same, and staff are empowered to lead the change their schools need, supported by the trust, to ensure longevity in school improvement.
Carol Dewhurst OBE is CEO of Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust
