Scholars' Education Trust

The obvious highlight of this year for the Scholars’ Education Trust has been the three visits we have received from Ofsted, which have led to all schools in the trust being graded as good or better. The initial visit was in March to Robert Barclay Academy, where Ced de la Croix and his team completed the journey they have been on since joining the trust and achieved the good judgment that they so richly deserved. Over the two days, inspectors met with staff, students, governors and representatives of the trust and also surveyed parents’ views. The final report states that ‘Pupils feel part of a family’ and that ‘They know that their teachers have high expectations for their behaviour and learning’. We are very proud of all the hard work that has gone into this report and the way it recognises the progress the RBA community has made since they became an academy and joined the Trust in 2016.Only a few weeks later came the long-awaited re-inspection of Sir John Lawes School, a mere 15 years after their last Ofsted visit. With under 20% of previously outstanding schools retaining that grading when inspected under the new framework, Phil Newbery and his team had a high bar to clear, but in the end they did so with ease. Inspectors found that ‘Leaders have systematically put in place a school of exceptional quality,’ and that‘Pupils at the school are scholars, leaders and mentors.’ When Sir John Lawes took the first steps towards forming what is now the Scholars’ Education Trust in 2012, the promise to the SJL community was that standards would not slip as a result of that new initiative. We are delighted to have made good on that promise this year.No sooner had the Easter holidays finished than we were once again welcoming Ofsted to a SET school, this time Priory Academy, where Ian Bailey and the staff and students were hoping to once again prove themselves a good school – and indeed they did. The inspectors reported that ‘Pupils thrive in the positive environment of the school’ and that ‘they take learning seriously and approach tricky topics with determination.’ This was a great achievement in Ian’s first year as head and we look forward to seeing Priory Academy’s future successes.Although this was undoubtedly a hectic period for SET with three inspections in 2 months, it does mean that as a trust we are now able to demonstrate a confident track record in both improving and sustaining school performance and it means that, with the exception of Harpenden Academy who are expecting an inspection this year, all our current schools have the luxury of being able to forget about the Ofsted phone call for a bit and focus on education for education’s sake and for the sake of the young people in their classrooms – rather than for an inspection framework!In last year’s review, I said that SET was hoping to grow this year and so it was with great pleasure that we welcomed The Hemel Hempstead School into the trust at Easter 2023. This is an established ‘good’ school with an excellent reputation in Hemel Hempstead, so we were delighted to be approached about 18 months ago by Neil Hassell, the head teacher, and his governing body with a view to joining SET. Due diligence revealed a really good fit on vision and values and so both sides were happy to go ahead with the project. For once, the process went fairly smoothly and HHS is now settling in nicely to the trust. Neil is an established head and so he strengthens our wider trust heads’ group by providing a wealth of experience, and relationships are now starting to develop at all levels across the trust. We were hoping to add at least two more schools to the trust this year, but unfortunately those projects are not proving so problem free (owing to circumstances outside the trust or schools’ control); hopefully I will be able to provide an update on those additions in next year’s review.Elsewhere we have continued to promote opportunities for staff and students to work closely together. For pupils, this year’s SET Sustainability Conference was bigger and better than its predecessor owing to generous sponsorship from Deloittes and our trust concert in March saw even greater numbers of pupils than before performing on stage at the Alban Arena. School exchanges took place within the trust and we saw our inaugural trust championships in Maths and Chess. The staff conference took Diversity, Equality and Inclusion as its theme and our working parties continued to enable staff from all schools to form closer links and share good practice in the areas of Sustainability, Digital Strategy and Wellbeing. An important outcome of the wellbeing group’s work this year has been the introduction of our SET Healthcare Benefits Programme whereby staff are able to buy into a scheme which provides them with access to benefits such as 24-hour GP phone and video consultations, physiotherapy appointments and wellbeing clinics.For the first time this year, public examinations returned to ‘normal’ after the period of TAGs, CAGs and results adjusted to allow for the impact of the pandemic. We were delighted by our KS2 results which were well above national averages across the trust. At GCSE the picture was a little more mixed but there were many examples of pupils doing exceptionally well despite various challenges and overall progress scores were mostly encouraging. At A level, it was very pleasing to see pupils moving onto the destinations of their choice in a year when the national picture saw a drop in the highest grades as results were brought in line with 2019 standards.This was the first year we provided support to our schools via our new Leaders of Education. The team have been working across the trust in English, Computing and Science over the last 12 months and have had a real impact, so much so that we have added to their number this year with the appointment of 2 new LOEs in English and Maths. We have also appointed our first Director of Safeguarding and SEND and we have no doubt this role will really strengthen the SET school improvement offer.Looking to the future, we are expecting to grow again over the next 12 months and so once again we will be ensuring that any growth is managed effectively so that new schools quickly see the benefit of trust membership and existing schools continue to receive the high standards of support to which they have become accustomed. We are excited to see what the new year will bring.