Testimonials

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Testimonials

We are a larger than average school situated in an area of High Social deprivation with 66% FSM and 33% SEND. We were judged Good in our last Inspection in 2020, but are still finding It hard to recover post Covid in areas such as attendance and outcomes.

We decided that. in view of the declining support available from the LA and our real drive to improve in all areas , it was time to consider conversion.

It was vital for us to choose the right Trust- we needed to find our Tribe: people with the same values and pedagogy, but who also allowed us to access high quality training and CPD and to receive kind but supportive challenge. We wanted a Trust that provided us with schools that while different to ourselves, gave us great role models and ideas but who were also eager to draw on our many strengths and areas of expertise.

After exploring 4 Trusts- we applied to join CAT and converted in January 2024. We cannot be more pleased with our decision. In a short space of time the impact has been in summary:

An SLT and Staff who feel re invigorated for the following reasons:

Expert and experienced leaders to provide training and support- Andre Curran and the CAT SI team are skilled, and Andrea’s inspirational curriculum and vision is something no other trust could offer. The Learning without Limits programme has already begun to transform the teaching and learning happening in the classroom. This was evidenced in learning walks and books scrutinies in the Summer term. The links with Hebden Green have been highly beneficial for our SEN pupils and staff working in SEN classes.

Opportunities for staff to share good practice and widen their own expertise. We have subject leaders running and attending at regular network meetings and two members of staff have been taken on as trust SLES. Our staff are now reporting back to me that they are already understanding the benefits of joining the Trust.

Attendance –Attendance and PA is an ongoing battle for our school context - Our attendance strategy has been re rewritten and is ready to go with the support of Trust Leaders. We have not had time to see impact as yet, but the systems in place are rigorous and pertinent to our context.

Ongoing School Improvement Support: Kate Doyle's (School Improvement Director) responsive and systemic approach using a wide range of trust expertise led to us being able to review systems and see a significant improvement to writing across the school in only two terms. Her challenge is kind, perceptive and robust.And in a nutshell- I feel like someone has our back.

Governance: The structures and systems set up to support strong Local Governing Bodies again has allowed our governors to see their roles more clearly and to begin to hold us to account more effectively.

Uniqueness- We are still RFPS. I am still the Headteacher, and my community is still my community.CAT values our unique context and allows us to maintain the right amount of autonomy. However, the opportunities for wider collaboration and joint learning are huge. We are refreshed and reinvigorated.

Joining CAT was the best thing we could have done! And it is just the start for us.

Sara Radley- Headteacher

Gayton Primary School officially joined Cheshire Academies Trust in January 2023. The school had been working closely with the trust, in an informal capacity, since September 2019 and therefore we do feel that many elements of our school improvement journey can be attributed to opportunities to collaborate and develop with other schools and colleagues since this time. We have always found CAT to be incredibly forward thinking and the support from within the trust to be excellent.

As the headteacher of the school, there is no doubt that joining the trust has strengthened all aspects of our school. The trust aligns with our own school values and we have found that the trust has supported, challenged and enabled us to thrive, and this has been across all aspects of school life including HR, school improvement, finance, assessment, governance etc. And all of this has been done whilst still allowing individual schools to have autonomy and make decisions for their own community.

Outcomes:

Through working with the trust, we have significantly strengthened our outcomes at the end of KS2. We had specifically identified the need to improve outcomes for our more able pupils and over the last two consecutive years our data demonstrates the impact of this work.

School Improvement work- Working with our School Improvement partner (Kate Doyle), has supported and challenged us to meet our strategic priorities and ensure that we are continually improving and moving forward. We have always felt that our SIP understands our context and has worked to develop an understanding of the unique challenges of the school. Through this work, so many aspects of our school have been impacted including; curriculum, leadership, learning environments, subject leadership, attendance and strategic planning.

Local Governing board: Working with the Trust has enabled our governing board to focus on their strategic priorities and has supported them in being more effective.

Financial impact: Joining the Trust has meant that we now have accurate financial information enabling us to plan more strategically to meet our school priorities. The support from the CFOO and the Trust Business manager have been excellent and have enabled our school business manager to develop and progress and be more strategic when reporting to the local governing board and the finance governor. We now have financial data that we can rely on and trust and this has enabled us to plan appropriately and make challenging but necessary financial decisions at the right time.

Curriculum: Cheshire Academies Trust has significantly supported and improved teaching and learning within our school. Access to the ‘Learning Without Limits’ programme has significantly impacted on our curriculum and pedagogical practice. Through the MITA (Maximising impact of Teaching Assistants) project we now have staff with a greater awareness of how to scaffold work appropriately for SEND pupils and have begun to look at how we can deploy TA’s more effectively within our own school context.

Through the Trust, we now have a wider range of metrics to support our school self-evaluation and this again has strengthened our own evaluation and enabled us to evidence our areas of strength and further support our areas for development.

Joining Cheshire Academies Trust was the best decision that we made for our school as it has empowered us to make the right decisions for our community and feel supported in doing so. I would have no hesitation in recommending them to other schools and know that our school will continue to be strengthened by being part of this trust.

Jennie McAleny- Headteacher