Interim Leadership & Leadership Support

We offer Interim leadership support and school improvement services.

Across our schools, we have a core offer of regular, ongoing support and monitoring to ensure that we help leaders to be the best they can be. We offer these to other schools that require improvement. 

- Annual external Teaching and Learning reviews are conducted by experienced Ofsted inspectors.

- Each school has centralised paid access to FFT and Perspective Lite Nova reporting and receives yearly refresher training to equip them for data analysis better.

Twice yearly Peer Reviews, led by the trust's headteachers, use our unique peer review model (see Appendix 1).

- Three Trust Subject TLR holders (Well-being, English, Maths) meet with subject leaders from each school once a month to share best practices, align working methods, and agree on moderation.

- Termly CEO chaired Outcomes and Support Meetings enable the CEO, Headteacher, class teachers, and the inclusion team to discuss each child's progress in school, assess their performance against FFT target scores (20%), and implement plans for pupils who are not meeting their FFT targets.

- Biannual whole Trust inset days provide a platform for conveying shared messages and offering high-quality CPD to staff.

- Our Trust CPD lead oversees our internal ASPIRING TO LEADERSHIP programme.

- Staff are encouraged to develop their skills through regular PMRs and are provided with support to complete NPQs, with HTPMR facilitated by an experienced external facilitator.

- Monthly Trust-wide operations staff training, led by the TBFM, ensures that operations staff share best practices and receive regular upskilling.

- Termly Deep Dives into two subjects at each school take place to support subject leaders and encourage the sharing of best practices.

- Our Trust-wide CPD Leader manages various CPD opportunities and facilitates communities for ongoing best practice sharing amongst staff, including through our SCITT partners (Thurrock), whom we host in one of our schools.

- Senior central team staff (at least one from each school) receive support and leadership coaching from external sources monthly.

- Headteachers (and others) attend monthly supervision sessions with qualified counsellors.

- Termly internal controls checks are carried out by the Trust Business and Finance manager and her team.

- Termly HR checks ensure that files are accurate and compliant.

- The Trust-wide deputy DSL conducts Monthly SCR checks.

- The Executive Leadership Team meets weekly to discuss each school and provide support when issues are raised.

Monthly DSL supervision allows for the regular sharing and scrutiny of Safeguarding practices across the Trust.

- Annual Safeguarding leadership reviews are conducted at each school.

- Our Trust Attendance Lead reviews each school's attendance and provides support to improve attendance if it declines, every week.

- Annual externally commissioned internal audits are performed for GDPR, internal controls, and H+S, with follow-up support from the central team to address recommendations swiftly.

- The Trust GDPR conducts Termly GDPR audits lead.

- Annual full site audits are carried out by our Trust Estates lead.

- Monthly management accounts are accompanied by a set of narratives written by the TBFM, CEO, and an external accountant to ensure that the information is understandable to decision-makers and for holding others accountable.

- Statutory policies are periodically monitored centrally to ensure schools' compliance.

The Trust Estates lead continuously tracks site and H+S compliance centrally using a system that prevents key deadlines from being missed and ensures that each school has the necessary site risk assessments.

- The CEO visits each school at least once a month and follows up with a letter to the headteacher and LSB chair half-termly. If concerns arise, a REP (Rapid Enhancement Plan) may be implemented to support the school.

- Weekly coaching and development 1:1s (based on the DFE LLE model of coaching conversations) occur for new heads and monthly for experienced heads: involving the CEO and Headteacher, focusing on the Headteacher's needs in school.

- Expertise within the Trust is consistently shared, and leaders from different schools support each other.

- The Trust staff portal serves as an OAP (ordinarily available provision) that guides staff members to resources or other staff within the Trust who can offer support as required.

- Half-termly, the Chair of the Board visits each school to provide another opportunity for heads to receive advice or discuss matters from a different perspective.