How We Help

At SNMAT we know that our core purpose is to promote excellence in all that our academies do, in order that children and young people get the best possible start to life. Our core values, such as responsibility, acceptance, truth and justice, are Christian. They are expressed both explicitly and implicitly in our Church of England academies:

  • To ensure that all pupils succeed and thrive in school by raising aspirations and tackling disadvantage.
  • To focus on the academic development of pupils with particular reference to English, maths and computing skills within a curriculum framework that also pays close attention to the personal development of pupils, their leadership and organisational skills, their understanding of citizenship, community involvement and forming a constructive relationship with the world of work.
  • To develop pupil’s abilities to make informed choices, solve problems and make decisions.
  • To encourage a holistic approach to the development of pupils believing that each person is an individual made in the image of God and should therefore be supported to reach their full potential by receiving the very best education possible.
  • To provide strong support for operational needs to enable head teachers and their staff to focus on teaching and learning.

Academy Improvement

The SNMAT Academy Improvement team’s vision is for the pupils and staff in every academy to achieve their very best through a deep and fulfilling culture of value, nurture and challenge. The SNMAT Academy improvement team work collaboratively in the relentless pursuit of excellence within a culture of no barriers and no excuses to achievement. Pupils, staff and leaders will be nurtured through our Christian values of Wisdom, Community, Dignity and Hope to be highly successful and will be incredibly well prepared for the next stage in their lifelong journey of learning. Pupils are placed at the heart of every decision and are central to all that we do.

We believe that-

‘Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all decisions and actions that affect children.’

(UN Convention on the Rights of the Child)

The improvement team members ensure that strengths and development areas in each academy are precisely identified and addressed to enable our vision to be fulfilled.  Our approach to supporting academies on their individual journeys to excellence is bespoke. We appreciate that no two journeys are the same!

  • A clear system of diagnosing and evaluating needs enables the academy improvement team to pinpoint precisely the areas that need to be addressed to further strengthen provision.
  • The identified areas can often relate to a school’s culture and expectations of pupils, leadership, governance, attendance, behaviour, teaching and learning, assessment or variability in performance.

The SNMAT approach is underpinned by both our Christian values and the attributes embedded in the 5 Rs of being respectful, resourceful, responsive, relentless, resilient.

Our team

The academy improvement team has five substantive members and a number of associates.  The substantive members are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Academy Improvement Director (AID) and three academy improvement officers.

Associates are also drawn from the wider educational sector to respond to need. These include:

  • Consultants
  • Ex-HMI and current Ofsted Inspectors
  • Headteachers, senior colleagues and middle leaders within SNMAT
  • Lead practitioners within SNMAT

Our improvement strategy

The first step of each academy’s journey is to gather information that enables the academy improvement team to evaluate whether intense support is needed to stabilise a vulnerable school, or targeted support to help to repair a developing school, or whether school’s leaders know what is working well and what isn’t and need  a little extra guidance to help them achieve their vision or if a school is being courageously led and would welcome challenge to enable it to sustain and be ‘visionary’ whilst also being able to help others on their journeys.

Once strengths and development areas have been identified, bespoke support that responds to and embraces the individual context and vision of the academy is embedded.  This is carefully planned by the academy improvement team so that a precise, adaptive and strategic approach can be implemented.

This includes ensuring that we: –

Members of the academy improvement team visit every academy each half- term. The team is deployed according to trust wide needs, the AID, CEO and an academy improvement officer will all visit each half-term. In addition to these visits, Senior leaders meet half-termly to work collaboratively to drive improvements, cascade successful initiatives, undertake professional development and reflect.

At the centre of our academy improvement work are several distinct but connected workstreams.

  1. An annual programme of evaluative, diagnostic and responsive visits (EDRVs) undertaken by the AID (plus additional bespoke visits)
  2. An annual programme of bespoke visits undertaken by the CEO.
  3. An annual programme of visits and bespoke support which focus on the quality of education in English undertaken by Kate Bailey, academy improvement officer.
  4. An annual programme of support which focuses on further strengthening outcomes for disadvantaged pupils led by Jo Redfern.
  5. An annual support which focuses on the Christian Distinctiveness of academies led by Sue Coupe as Trust Leader of Education.
  6. An annual programme of support for Governors led by the Director of Operations, Jo Saville.
  7. An annual programme of support to strengthen the culture of safeguarding and inclusion in each academy
  8. Termly evaluative meetings with Governors led by the AID
  9. TRIAD programme of total internal reflection between partner academies.
  10. A development portfolio serviced by both internal and external parties.
  11. Focus hubs which build expertise and capacity in specific areas