October 2021 was our annual leadership conference re-start once again in a face to face environment after a pause of nearly two years. It was brilliant to gather the Principals from our nine Trust schools, alongside the Trust Board, members of the Central Team and the chairs of our Academy Advisory Boards. Having spent so much time undertaking Teams meetings it was a real joy to be able to talk to one another without having to take off the mute button!
Our leadership conference very much focused on governance and what makes the difference between governance for compliance and great governance. We were delighted to bel to invite Leora Cruddas to our conference and she outlined some of the research that Confederation of Schools Trust (CST) are undertaking in this areas as well as helping us to scan the horizon and think about some the issues we will need to address in the future.
It was an opportunity to review together our Trust strategy and to celebrate all that has been achieved despite the pandemic. Planning ahead we considered the next five years, our plans for growth and our plans for sustainable education excellence underpinned by inclusion and collaboration. We evaluated our recent Trust review with Steve Hodsman, National Leader of Governance (NLG), and we undertook a range of workshops where we explored those areas of governance currently working well and those which had yet to be fully developed.
AS a Trust the last eighteen months have seen enormous growth and change. Our leadership conference very much provided a moment of celebration and reflection as we continue to work to make Archway Learning Trust the best it can possibly be. As Leora said herself; “We are contributing to creating a great education system and making a better world. We are living through an education renaissance – a re-birth of a conversation about ethics, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment – and how education charities that run schools are the enablers of these most important professional conversations.”
