Welcome

‘The Trust’ is not some entity separate from the schools and the staff who work in or across them. It is all of us, including the children in our care. We view the Trust as an extended family – and family members should look after one another. Our Trust is characterized by a caring, supportive ethos.

Below are listed some of the principles that underpin our philosophy as a Trust.

Collaboration

Our whole strategy is underpinned by a commitment to be genuinely collaborative. This is within departments, year groups, individual schools and between and across all of our schools. We are also committed to collaborative work with other trusts where that is possible. This has led to many positive developments in our Trust which are contributing to us making strides towards making our Vision a reality.

Distributed leadership

We are fully committed to the concept of distributed leadership in its simplest sense. This is the most important approach we employ as an organisation in order to fulfil our Vision.

Leadership opportunities in The de Ferrers Trust are unparalleled for an educational organisation of our size. We have approximately 40 Trust Leaders (hyperlink) responsible for a very wide range of areas including Teaching and Learning; Curriculum; Initial and Early Career Teacher Training; Assessment; Pupil Premium and Vulnerable Groups; Educational Research; Safeguarding; and many individual curriculum areas.

Trust Leaders work across our schools with their colleagues in order to establish, develop and share best practice in their specialist areas. All schools are fully involved in this philosophical approach and it has been key to the many improvements made in our Trust since it was introduced in 2019.

People Development

We are fully committed to providing opportunities for our members of staff to develop themselves, both in their roles and beyond. Our Early Career Teachers benefit from a carefully constructed two-year programme to ensure their early years in the profession are developmental and well supported. There is a clearly articulated, thoughtful programme of school and Trust-based CPD for teaching staff as well as the opportunity to become involved with more formal qualifications via the two regional Teaching School Hubs we work with – John Taylor and Spencer.

Our support staff had full involvement in developing their own professional standards and proficiencies. We will be building on this innovative work in order to provide the most suitable, developmental training for them.