The Trust Practises:
- Excellence in standards for all members of the Academy Community pursued with courage and relentless commitment.
- Collaboration at every level between individuals, teams and academies.
- Outstanding leadership at all levels; valuing and nurturing the contribution of every member of the Academy community and planning for succession.
- Outstanding continuous professional development at all levels.
- An outward looking culture – searching for even better answers and innovating with courage.
The Trust:
- Values the unique identity of each member of the Trust community.
- Underpins all of the above with a strong moral purpose.
The Trust’s track record in academy sponsorship
The sponsorship of White Hall has been highly successful, bringing about cultural change and educational improvement for all. Although White Hall was not formally sponsored as an academy until September 2012, the partnership with Lyons Hall was already well established with a view to sponsorship from 2011. The Trust’s track record is exemplified fully in section 4.
The Trust’s record of developing others and providing support
Lyons Hall has teaching school status and is highly experienced in providing development for individuals or groups of staff and support for whole school development issues, including schools in the Colchester area. It runs the Improving Teacher Programme and the Outstanding Teacher Programme with staff from both academies in the Trust facilitating and sharing practice.
The teaching school has a licence for delivering the NPQH and through the delivery has formed wider networks and grown further school-to-school support. Lyons Hall has been commissioned by Essex to develop and design training programmes. There is a strong culture in the Trust of sharing and the recognition that each academy will have its own strengths, needs and identity. For example, when both academies in the Trust have parallel training needs, the staff of both academies are brought together to learn as one community. However, where training needs are distinct, the academies have followed their own tailor made development strands, utilising the skills of the staff in the partner academy.