AFS0043

Written Evidence submitted by REAch2 Academy Trust

About REAch2

  1. The REAch2 Academy Trust is a national family of primary academies working together to ensure that all children in our schools are able to achieve their full potential. The Trust originated from the successful school improvement and partnership work led by Hillyfield Primary Academy in Waltham Forest. The Trust has grown from one London-based primary academy to a projected twenty four schools nationwide by January 2014. REAch2 is now the largest primary-only academy chain in the country.

 

  1. The Trust’s approach is based on that of its original National Support School (NSS), which has significant expertise and a strong track record in supporting schools in a variety of contexts.  The NSS approach involved a number of strategies and models for school improvement including fixed term federations, executive headships, acting headships, headteacher coaching and school-to-school support at every level.

 

  1. The REAch2 Trust is seeking to build upon and cement this approach as it grows nationally. REAch2 is an umbrella trust (from here referred to as ‘the Trust’) with oversight of ten local Multi-Academy Trusts operating in localities across England. Through this model of governance, it is working to generate the necessary capacity and expertise across all ten localities to develop and sustain the performance of all academies – with a strong focus on the improvement of sponsored academies. At the same time all schools, staff and children within the Trust benefit from a strong ethos of support and collaboration across the national REAch2 family – including opportunities provided by the Trust for enhanced continuous professional development for staff, access to a range of central support services, informed peer to peer accountability and review, and the brokerage of support and sharing of expertise and best practice across schools.

 

  1. As a Trust we are clear about the importance of achieving long term sustainability for our academies. Our vision is to enable individual academies to be in a position to flourish with earned autonomy, whilst also ensuring a strong and continuing ethos of support and collaboration across our schools.

 

  1. The Trust has been recognised by the Department for Education as being well placed to raise standards and achieve excellence for pupils in a growing number of schools. We are passionate about making the most of this opportunity to make a significant difference to the lives and life chances of many primary school children.

 

 

The functions & responsibilities of our Umbrella and Multi-Academy trusts

  1. As an umbrella trust overseeing ten multi-academy trusts (MATs) across the country, we have a unique perspective on the role and impact of these particular models of governance.

 

  1. The umbrella trust is funded by our constituent MATs, and as a result, we are able to provide a range of support and services to our academies, school leaders, teachers and other staff. For example we routinely deploy expert teachers and leaders from across the Trust (between MATs and individual academies) to carry out peer reviews and inspections of our new sponsored academies. This approach ensures that we draw on our most talented teachers and leaders to identify concerns and areas for improvement, as well as best practice. This is proving to be particularly effective in informing the most appropriate strategies for improvement in underperforming academies.

 

  1. As a result of our shared governance, peer reviews, and the strong ethos of collaboration across the Trust, we are able to intelligently broker support and provide access to professional development across all schools rapidly and efficiently. Our academies are able to access a broad and highly relevant CPD offer, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of schools urgently requiring improvement. Our academies are also able to access a range of administrative services through the Trust, including HR and legal support as required.

 

  1. REAch2 Trust is also part of a teaching school alliance (led by the REAch2 Tidemill Academy in Deptford). As a result, teachers and leaders within the REAch2 family are able to access a range of teacher and leadership development opportunities, including the Improving Teacher Programme and the Outstanding Teacher Programme, as well as programmes for middle leaders and newly qualified teachers. Through the Teaching School, the Trust is developing the next generation of high quality teachers by providing School Direct placements across a number of its schools (with the Institute of Education as our higher education partner).

 

  1. Each of our Multi-Academy Trusts is led by an Executive Principal. All Executive Principals have a strong track record of leading and securing improvement across a number of schools, including those in struggling circumstances. Each MAT has, or will in time have, at least one member school that is both outstanding and has the capacity to provide intensive school to school support. Where this is not currently the case, sponsored academies are benefiting from the support of experienced leaders across the wider REAch2 family. The Trust believes that the optimum number of academies within each MAT is between seven and ten. This, we believe, will ensure that each MAT can provide the necessary capacity to be self-supporting, financially sustainable and robust, whilst also ensuring each academy receives sufficient oversight from the individual MAT’s board and leadership.

 

  1. Each Multi-Academy Trust has a funding agreement in place with the Secretary of State and is responsible for the performance of all academies that fall within its remit. The Executive Principal of each MAT, together with the individual MAT’s board, both champion the group of schools as well as provide accountability for their performance. Each Executive Principal is an ex officio director on their MAT board. The Executive Principal is held to account through termly meetings of their MAT board and also by the CEO and Deputy CEO of the umbrella Trust (who line manage the Executive Principals). They can also be called by the umbrella trust’s board to account for their MAT’s performance.

 

 

Relationships with Local Authorities

  1. We consider local authorities to be key partners in our efforts to improve schools. It is important that local authorities and academy chains are clear from the beginning of the conversion process about their respective roles in this process and in ensuring the future improvement of the academies concerned. This ensures parties establish a constructive dialogue and receive the necessary support and information through which to carry out their respective roles.

 

  1. Our Multi-Academy Trusts operate within a range of local authority areas across England. Where relationships are at their most constructive, local authorities are responsive to the Trust’s needs and supportive of our intentions and our role in securing improvement in schools. In these cases, relevant information is shared in a timely fashion and authorities are helpful in working with us to navigate any issues that present a risk to successful conversion and the receipt of timely support from the Trust. This is facilitated by a dedicated liaison officer who has the professional experience and knowledge to provide high quality relationship management throughout the conversion process. We are committed to an ongoing and constructive relationship with local authorities in securing wider education improvements for all children, including by sharing our resources, such as expert practitioners or buildings and facilities, where helpful.

 

  1. We recognise and welcome the local authorities’ role in overseeing the success of all schools in their locality. It is critical that local authorities balance the need to provide the space and support necessary for academy chains to deliver intensive support to individual academies with the need to fulfill their statutory obligations.

 

Closing the gap

  1. A central aim of the REAch2 Trust is to ensure that all children, whatever their background or circumstance, have the opportunity to reach their full potential both academically and as members of society. We believe that our academies are better placed to close the gap by working as part of a Trust than they are working as separate institutions because each academy benefits from both the experience of a wide pool of professionals operating across the REAch2 family. Shared governance and leadership also ensures that we have the mechanisms in place to quickly and efficiently share and disseminate best practice between our schools.

 

  1. We benefit from the knowledge and expertise of a strong directorate, including a CEO, Deputy CEO and founder board members, all of whom are National Leaders of Education and have substantial experience of achieving significant school improvement in disadvantaged communities. Experience of supporting the most disadvantaged pupils to progress and achieve extends to many other senior leaders and teachers throughout the Trust, including an outstanding teacher mentor who is a specialist SENCO and provides support across a number of schools. Trust schools are also able to draw upon shared CPD for closing the gap and for sharing strategies in terms of effective use of pupil premium funding. As members of the same academy Trust there is no resistance to sharing practice as all of our academies consider themselves to belong to the same family and are committed to achieving the best opportunities for all children across the Trust.

 

The process of new academies joining the Trust;

  1. The Trust, in sponsoring new academies, works very closely with the Department for Education’s Project Leads who have almost always been open, helpful and professional in approach. The Trust’s experience is that each Project Lead has their own approach and the kind of information requested of the Trust can vary depending on the individual Lead one is working with. There needs to be a standard approach to information requests as such variance creates additional workload. Where this relationship is most successful, Project Leads are familiar with Trust, have developed good working relationships with our senior leaders, and understand the way in which the Trust operates. Therefore, for an academy chain/Trust, working with one dedicated or nominated Project Lead can have real advantages.

 

  1. We believe that constructive relationships with communities and parents, both during and after the conversion process, arise through genuine consultation and dialogue from the very beginning of the relationship. It is important that prospective academy sponsors engage with parents, local councilors, governors, staff and union representatives. It is also important that the community is actively involved in the decision to choose which academy sponsor is best placed to support their schools going forwards. Upon being selected as an academy sponsor, we ensure that there is local representation on both the governing body of individual academies and the local Multi Academy Trust board.

 

 

Governance and internal accountability arrangements

  1. As a national academy trust we are able to attract and draw upon the skills and expertise of highly experienced and senior figures from across society to provide high quality governance and oversight. For example, our umbrella trust board benefits from the membership and guidance of Non-Executive Directors such as Peter Little, Professor John West-Burnham and the Rt. Rev David Rossdale. These individuals and their fellow board members are able to provide the Trust with wide ranging and significant expertise to inform its sustainable and successful development. This expert advice and accountability benefits all of our Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and their academies.

 

  1. Each individual MAT board consists of directors including the Trust’s CEO or Deputy CEO, the MAT’s Executive Principal, one Principal and one Chair of Governors drawn from academies within the MAT (both positions rotate between the academies on an annual basis), and four addition positions are reserved for representatives of the local community.  The MAT’s role in ensuring accountability is described in para. 11 above.

 

  1. The Trust is committed to its own internal review in terms of ensuring high standards of educational and administrative practice. As a Trust, we undertake rigorous internal reviews of practice within our schools, including teaching and learning reviews (provided within four to six weeks of schools joining the Trust) and an inspection led by a lead inspector from OFSTED (provided within six months of a school joining the Trust). As a Trust, our administrative responsibilities (including financial management) are routinely scrutinised by our Non-Executive Directors. We are recruiting a Head of Procurement and a Head of Finance to ensure the Trust benefits from the highest standard of financial advice and expertise as it continues to grow. 

 

  1. Whilst benefiting from the guidance and oversight of the umbrella and MAT boards, it is our view that individual academies should also benefit from dedicated local governance (with responsibilities delegated as appropriate). Ultimately, our aim is to move to a system where each school will have a small, effective Governing Body. The link between the individual academy board and the local MAT board will be secured by having the Chairs of individual academies take a seat on the MAT board (on a rotational basis) and/or by the Executive Principal and Chair of the MAT also sitting on the board of individual schools as appropriate.

 

 

Central oversight of academies

  1. As a Trust we welcome the fact that all our decisions and actions are open to scrutiny. Our commitment to acting with integrity applies to all levels of our structure, from the umbrella trust and individual MAT boards to each individual academy within the Trust. Each academy is subject to the OFSTED inspection regime and we are clear about the importance of inspection in providing both impetus for improvement and the necessary public confidence, particularly in monitoring the process of improvement in our sponsored academies.

 

  1. The DfE’s oversight is provided at a number of levels. We have benefited from the support of Relationship Managers who have not only been in regular contact with the Trust to ensure we are fulfilling protocols and delivery requirements, but also in supporting the Trust to deliver administration and governance to the highest possible standard – including introducing us to our Chair who brings substantial business and corporate experience to the role. A helpful approach, developed by the Trust in consultation with DfE officials, has been the development of our project dashboard which enables us to provide clear, relevant and timely information about the status of projects, including milestones, objectives and potential risks. This is shared with officials on a regular basis.

 

  1. Ministers also play a key role in providing oversight in terms of academy chains’ sustainable growth and impact. The Trust has been required to complete ‘capacity assessment’ returns, which are intended to ensure scrutiny of the Trust’s capacity to grow and achieve improvement in schools. We welcome this scrutiny of our capacity to deliver school improvement. We are of the view that this process could be further enhanced by such reviews taking place at a set point of time within the academic year in order that the process can become routine and all parties are clear about the expectations in terms of timing. The process for assessing capacity could also be refined to ensure there is clearer differentiation between a chain’s capacity to create new provision and its capacity to take on a sponsored academy (which is a more intensive process). As a Trust, we are regularly producing a project dashboard and other key management information so that relevant information is readily available.

 

  1. We are aware of the recent announcement of a Regional Commissioner role for each region of England. It is important that this role represents more than just another layer of accountability, and helps to facilitate the role of high performing Trusts and schools in providing support and improvement solutions to others. This role could potentially add a great deal, both in terms of brokering support regionally and in holding those providing such support to account for outcomes over a reasonable period of time. However, it is our view that the Commissioners should not be responsible for prescribing or validating the specific support provided by outstanding providers, including successful academy chains. It is important that Commissioners have a full understanding of individual academy trust, potentially achieved by trusts developing a relationship with a nominated Commissioner rather than managing a range of relationships across regions.

 

Particular challenges and opportunities for primary schools

  1. Academy status can provide an excellent opportunity for primary schools at all stages of development to take on greater responsibility for their own improvement, often with the support, capacity, and expertise provided by an academy chain such as ourselves. As explained above, there are many opportunities for academies to access resources and provision such as school to school support, professional development and administration services. It is an opportunity for families of schools to agree and affirm their own ‘non-negotiables’; the outcomes of which raise standards. For many, particularly those that are severely underperforming, it can represent a fresh start for both the school and its community, and provide a new impetus for seeking improvement and achieving reform in partnership with a sponsor.

 

  1. One key area where primary schools can potentially reap significant benefits is through more efficient financial management and greater organisational sustainability. It is our experience that many primary schools still do not have access to the necessary financial and administrative expertise required to ensure their sustainability in the long term or manage the financial freedoms and responsibilities provided to academies. As a Trust, we see real merit in providing all of our academies with access to qualified school business management expertise at MAT level. It is evident to us that there is currently a lack of qualified business managers within the primary sector. Access to this expertise is essential in building confidence and enabling more primary schools to thrive as academies.

 

  1. Deep collaboration between primary schools, such as that provided by an academy chain, can also provide a wide range of opportunities for talented leaders and potential leaders to gain a wide range of experience across schools, including in relation to providing school improvement support and coaching and developing other practitioners. Such opportunities can serve to develop leadership skills and capacity and ensure a steady supply of well prepared and experienced leaders for headship posts in future – overcoming some of the particular succession planning challenges experienced within the primary sector.

December 2013