Opportunities and Expectations

As a school considering joining Hope Sentamu Learning Trust there are a number of opportunities and expectations for you to consider. These are shown in the section below.

To discuss this information and the opportunities in more detail, please contact Hope Sentamu Learning Trust at hello@hslt.academy or telephone 01904 560053.
 

Education

Opportunities

• Sharing best practice across our family of academies
• Utilising strengths of academies in the trust
• Openness about strengths and weaknesses in a supportive and challenging environment
• Access to specialist colleagues shared across our academies, including trust-wide support for SEND
• Utilising cutting-edge technology to transform learning
• Planned CPD and professional development across our academies
• Sharing colleagues across phases, such as PE/MFL/ART

Expectations

• Willingness to be truly collaborative
• Openness and honesty in all areas
• Thinking about the educational provision across the trust and not just in one institution
• Sharing of data
• A desire to work across our academies

Finance

Opportunities

• Providing specialist financial support across the trust, so as to release School Leaders to concentrate on what matters in terms of working with young people
• Leading software (PS Financials) to support the decision-making and reporting in schools
• High quality financial reporting
• Efficiency of scale in terms of procurement
• Shared service efficiencies
• Building trust-wide capital reserves to look after buildings and premises

Expectations

• Common financial software
• Common financial systems with shared processes
• Common procurement practices (may vary across phases)

Governance

Opportunities

• A framework for ensuring efficient use of time and an annual calendar of requirements to support compliance
• Governor training by experienced governors in all areas, including leadership of local governing committee (LGC)
• A governance review for all LGCs joining the trust
• Regular reports on health and safety and premises management
• Data for the LGC in relation to finance and pupil progress and monitoring to ensure efficiency

Expectations

• The LGC is fit for purpose and has undertaken self-evaluation and a skills audit
• The LGC will accept guidance and advice to ensure they are compliant with legal requirements

Career Advancement

Opportunities

• Supporting all staff on a journey to becoming highly effective and reflective practitioners
• Supporting staff development by providing trust-wide opportunities to work in different contexts
• Recognising and nurturing of talents and aspirations
• Providing opportunities for all staff to lead/engage with improvement teams
• Engage with Workforce Development in regards to CPD, leadership training, SLE deployment, school-to-school support, research and development, IT, regional projects and international work
• Trust-wide conferences and exposure to national events and leading educators

Expectations

• All leaders are flexible about working across the Trust
• Common training opportunities across the Trust
• An engagement with Workforce Development

Operations

Opportunities

• Trust-wide policies in all key areas
• Trust-wide health and safety arrangements and support
• Access to specialist and general facilities/site management

Expectations

• A willingness to join trust contracts to support facilities/site management
• A willingness for joint trust health and safety arrangements/support
• A willingness to adopt common HR and facility policies

Benefits

A collaborative approach to school improvement:

At the heart of Hope Sentamu is a commitment to providing the best possible support and challenge to our academies to enable them to provide ever-higher standards of education to their pupils. To achieve this, we offer the following:

High Quality CPD

• Leadership Training organised through the MAT
• Access to ICT support through our strategic partners
• Access to support from an other schools, with a package tailored to the needs of the individual school
• Tailored access to support from Incyte, to develop Quality Assurance
• Access to support from the diocese to develop RE and SMSC
• The opportunity to bid for funding for specific projects relating to school improvement from the MAT “Raising Standards” fund

Educational Support

• Incyte whole school development package tailored to needs
• LLE & SLE support available from within the Trust
• Rugby Programme/Scholarship
• Residential Centre available to all within the Trust
• Healthy Academies – linking to support from the Primary Assessment Centre
• SENCo support
• Data support
• Learning Journeys introduced to academies

SIAMS Support

• Trained SIAMS inspector within the Trust
• Lead of RE within the Trust
• Chaplain support available
• Keeping RE and Collective Worship at the fore for Christian academies
• Support from the Diocese to develop RE and SMSC

The future is full of exciting opportunities for the Hope Sentamu Learning Trust. We are keen to talk to school leaders who share our vision.

We are seeking partners who strive to generate a culture of excellence by being innovative and collaborative; schools that are or want to be high performing organisations – relentless in providing the very best education and nurturing environments for their students. Your school is unique and as a Hope Sentamu Learning Trust academy, you will retain this distinctive identity.

Education is at a crossroads. Joining us could provide you with security, by helping shape a brighter and promising future for your school, families and local community. We provide a respectful and professional team that can work with you to inspire greatness. 

If you feel your philosophy and values are in line with ours, then let’s continue the conversation. Together we can embark on a unique and exciting journey. 

Contact us to find out more.