Welcome to our Trust

The landscape of education has changed significantly over the past few years and continues to do so. The capacity of LAs to support schools and in particular school improvement has been significantly reduced.

Additionally, the new financial constraints under which we will all be working will impact negatively upon individual schools’ capacity to deliver in isolation.

Alternative models of school leadership and governance can provide solutions for our future working: schools collaborating through formal ‘improvement partnerships’ to establish economies of scale and develop capacity to support all students to fulfil their potential.

By how much or how little we change is solely dependent on the willingness of individual schools to embrace change. Many secondary schools have moved quickly to seize the opportunities academy status provides. Primaries traditionally have had a significantly different, closer more benevolent relationship with their LA, and are consequently more reluctant to seek structural change. This reluctance will not change the fact that their relationship with LAs has changed and will continue to change. It is imperative that the ownership of the shape and direction of new relationships be with schools.

The traditional model of school leadership and governance must also come under scrutiny. Schools cannot function as they have previously done if the environment in which they sit is not as it used to be. Additionally the present model does not equalise opportunity; whilst successful for some schools it has seen many routinely fail their pupils year after year. Alternative models of system leadership, involving school to school support, have been shown to be very effective in raising standards both in this country and abroad. The need to develop a new generation of school leaders from within our present teachers is something which cannot be left to chance and needs to be an integral part of any emerging model. Capacity building and succession planning at individual school, partnership and Trust level is pivotal to the drive for sustainable continuous improvement.

The model adopted by CLPT is purposely hierarchical, structured and formal in order to guarantee collaborative working, shared aims and objectives. At the same time, central to our strategy is recognition of the uniqueness of partner schools and therefore their individual identities are fiercely protected. Diversity is viewed as a major strength of the partnership and there is no desire to adopt a cloning approach to school improvement.

The Central Learning Partnership Trust is underpinned by a moral purpose: to change lives for the better. We are committed to improving the life chances of our young people, to optimise their feeling of self-worth, to develop their resilience and in turn their capacity to embrace the challenges that lie ahead.

Above all else, we encourage pupils to be ambitious for themselves, their families and their communities.

Success is the birth-right of every individual, and schools must be relentless in their drive to ensure that this is delivered. We are determined to challenge the premise that education alone cannot break the cycle of deprivation – of low aspirations and resultant low outcomes. We want to eradicate the poverty of expectation and instil in every member of our school communities a personal resolve and drive to succeed – a ‘Yes We Can’ mentality.

Our Aim

As a Trust our main priority is to raise the attainment of young people. A significant number of pupils, of both primary and secondary age, are attending schools judged other than ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. This fundamental failure to equalise opportunity has an adverse effect upon the life chances of these young people well beyond their school years.  We are committed to addressing this inequality; believing that all schools and in turn their outcomes can improve incrementally, continually building on the improvements of the previous year.

We aim to ensure that each Academy within the Trust:

• adds value to the results of their students.
• is capable of outstanding judgements from OFSTED within 3 years of becoming an academy partner within the Central Learning Partnership Trust.
• is oversubscribed or on a significant upward trend.
• works closely with other CLPT academies to create a sustainable model of education for all students.
• fosters an inclusive culture where permanent exclusions are rare and every student leaving the school has a plan for the next stage of their learning / career.
• is recognised nationally as organisations of high quality, producing outstanding results within a culture of innovation and achievement.
• continues to develop their own unique characteristics and ethos; maintaining individual identities within their respective communities.
• produces high quality committed professionals and future leaders for CLPT academies, through our Teaching School Alliance Professional Development Programme.

Doug Selkirk OBE

CLPT Chief Executive Officer