November 2018
This month saw Archway Learning Trust (ALT) host the first of what I hope will become an annual Leadership Conference. Senior leaders from across the Trust were joined by Trustees, Governors and Central Team Directors. We were expertly led by Toby Greany, Professor of Education at Nottingham University and Jane Creasy, facilitator, associate with the Education Development Trust and visiting lecturer at UCL Institute of Education.
The day and a half conference focused on the characteristics of high performing Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) and how ALT demonstrates those characteristics. It was good to be reminded about ALT’s many successes and its track record of great school improvement alongside its approach to genuinely inclusive education. Exploring what the purpose of the MAT is and how what we are doing now will inform the future, was a key component of the first day.
Our after dinner speaker on day one was Neil Carmichael, former MP and Chair of the Education Select Committee and founder of the All-party Group on Education, Governance and Leadership. This was a stimulating talk which provoked a discussion about current education policy and the current education landscape.
The final day was very much focused on two areas. Toby talked about how MATS can sustain their success and keep on their improvement journey. Secondly the group grappled with some of the issues facing ALT and how we could practically get on with the process of planning for the future.
The conversations about leadership, the challenges of building something that is for the long-term not just the short term and ensuring everybody is on the journey together, were all big elements of this training opportunity. There is no doubt that work still needs to be undertaken but that much progress has been made and there is a united desire to build and grow the success of today to make it fit for purpose for tomorrow.
