As you are aware, our
school is part of the Learning Trust for Excellence (LTE), a collaboration of 7
local schools who work together, share good practice and develop opportunities
for our staff and children. Following the success of the Trust and the significant impact it
has had on improving teaching and learning in our schools, it will be expanding
to work with more schools in our community. The LTE is delighted to announce that the
following local schools will be joining the Trust this summer:
Court Farm Primary
The Deanery Church of
England Primary
Maney Hill Primary
Wylde Green Primary
The schools will
engage in all the collaborative opportunities and activities for a year in the
first instance. All the schools have worked together previously as part of the wider
group of Sutton Coldfield primaries so we are very much looking forward to the exciting
opportunities this expansion will bring, welcoming new colleagues and learning
from each other.
The recently expanded
Learning Trust for Excellence comprises a group of eleven high achieving
schools in Sutton Coldfield with experienced Headteachers who work
collaboratively to learn from the strengths of each other, share excellent
practice and work together to be the best they can be in order to provide the
best possible life chances and education across the Trust. The involvement of
key partners to support the achievement of the vision is crucial, offering
mutually beneficial opportunities in the pursuit of excellence in education and
high aspirations for the whole learning community. The original 7 primary
schools involved Coppice,
Four Oaks, Langley Special School, Little Sutton, Hollyfield, Moor Hall and
Whitehouse Common have recently been joined by Court Farm, Deanery Church of
England, . Maney Hill and Wylde Green. They work together with the partners King
Edwards Schools, Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Beaufort Special School, BCU,
UCB, the Co-operative College and Rotary. The collaboration is a proactive
response to the changing educational landscape, inspiring excellence and
furthering opportunity for all.
The core co-operative
values underpinning the partnership are fundamental to the success - self help,
self responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity. These Trust values are
central to all involved in the collaboration and are a high priority for the
children. They visit other Trust schools taking part in working days exploring
the values with others in their year group. An award is given out in each
school every term to pupils demonstrating the Trust values. The children have
also been involved in dedicated collaborative activities including raising
money for the Rotary campaign against polio.
Working together has made a real difference,
continually improving the quality of teaching and learning as well as the
management of schools. Both teaching and non-teaching staff at all
levels, as well as Governors within the schools, are encouraged to work
together to share excellent practice, support development and tackle new
agendas introduced by both local and national government. Representatives
across the schools and partners work together to develop curriculum, share
expertise and learning from one another, devise common policies and take ideas
and best practice to suit the individual needs of each school. Working groups
tackle topics including maths, literacy, the early years programme, special
education needs, Year 6 work and developing a strategic approach to the use,
management, teaching and assessment of ICT across the schools. There is also a
focus on school procurement and achieving economies of scale. The Trust schools
collectively commission high quality training to address the shared priorities.
For example, staff from across the schools attended a joint INSET day at the
start of the year with training from a leading national specialist in reading.
The Trust works with schools across the city sharing the outcomes of their work
and helping them raise their standards.
Stronger Together – utilising the power of
collaboration to deliver excellence in safeguarding
Safeguarding is of paramount importance
to schools and runs across all aspects of school life. Earlier in the year the
LTE was awarded a Leading Aspect Award for its collaborative approach to
delivering excellence in safeguarding. The work recognised by the Leading Aspect
Award arose as a result of the complex, sensitive and ever changing requirements
of safeguarding practice in schools. All schools were working to address common
challenges and issues and decided to come together to develop a coherent and comprehensive
approach to ensure schools are addressing all current safeguarding requirements
and demonstrating excellent practice in this area.
The collaboration established a
partnership with the local authority and the DfE in 2015 contributing to the
work reflected in the Leading Aspect Award.
The Leading Aspect Award verifier
commented that “There was a clear message in all discussions that the ethos and
culture of the Trust as a whole, and of each individual schools, is underpinned
by a belief that safeguarding is key to success - personally and academically.”
She went on to acknowledge the power of
the collaboration. “The impact of the LTE Trust model is that school leaders
can work together at a strategic level as well as supporting each other on a
very practical level to advise how to respond to particular situations. One
governor described the positive impact of the Trust as being the power that a
mix of personalities brings, some are visionaries and strategic, others are
realistic and practical, with all having a shared commitment to safeguarding.
These outcomes wouldn’t be possible, financially or practically, by just one
school working alone.”
If you would like more
information about the LTE or have ideas for developing new areas of work please
contact the Trust Strategic Business Manager Vicky Hewitson v.hewitson@lte.education
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