Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham

MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST

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Contents

Page No.

3—4 5-7 8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-20

Vision Statement How our Multi-academy Trust Works School Improvement Model Key Performance Indicators Draft Terms of Reference for a School Improvement Monitoring Group Roles and Responsibilities Role Description for a MAT Director Pen Portraits of MAT Directors and Key Staff

main aims Christian ethos key relationships aspirational and measurable outcomes

Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Multi-academy trust vision statement

Vision Statement The Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Academy Trust is committed to securing excellence in its schools and academies by supporting them as they develop an ethos and learning environment based on Christian values and principles. It works with its schools to enable them to offer high quality education to pupils of all faiths and none.

Main Aims

To express, both explicitly and implicitly, core Christian values such as responsibility, acceptance, truth and justice throughout our schools and academies and for these to be reflected in all aspects of the curriculum offered.

To focus on the academic development of pupils with particular reference to

Communication, Literacy, Numeracy and ICT skills within a curriculum framework that also pays close attention to the personal development of pupils, their leadership and organisational skills, their understanding of citizenship, community involvement and forming a constructive relationship with the world of work.

To develop pupil’s abilities to make informed choices, solve problems and make

decisions. To encourage a holistic approach to the development of pupils believing that each person

is an individual made in the image of God and should therefore be supported to reach their full potential by receiving the very best education possible.

To ensure that all pupils succeed and thrive in school by raising aspirations and tackling

disadvantage. To provide strong support for operational needs to enable headteachers and their staff to

focus on teaching and learning.

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Our Christian Ethos It is our experience that developing a strong Christian ethos is a positive enabling factor in the development of young people as active participants in the learning and wider community. We aim for this distinctive Christian ethos in our schools and academies to be demonstrated by:

serving the needs of whole communities the promotion of spiritual and moral values placing high value on individuals and the development of their self- esteem placing a high value on collaboration and community offering a high standard of care and guidance to ensure the physical and spiritual health

of students and staff.

Key Relationships

building positive relationships and working with parents, carers and whole families to involve them in the education of their children and enabling them to play an active part in the structures that will shape their offspring’s future is seen as a priority in our schools.

building strong links with local churches, building strong links with the local community.

We seek to promote these types of local partnerships and through them draw on local resources, facilities, expertise and energy to provide high quality learning experiences and placing our schools at the heart of the community.

Aspirational and Measurable Outcomes:-

for all pupils to make consistently good or better progress across all year groups so that most pupils are at age-related expectations and many exceed

for all lessons to show a strong context for learning (i.e. graded good or outstanding) that

ensures all pupils are fully engaged and are applying basic skills appropriately for all academies to be well-led and governed for all academies to become self-improving organisations that can drive their own

continual improvement all academies to be judged good or better in both Ofsted Section 5 inspections and

SIAMS Section 48 inspections

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How our Multi Academy Trust Works

Our MAT will be run by an Executive Board and will be accountable to the Department for Education (‘the DfE’) and run according to a scheme of delegation. Each Academy will have its own Local Governing Body. The Governors who serve on the Local Governing Body will be appointed by the Executive Board. They will include both parent and staff representatives. The MAT will serve three types of Academy within the Church family, namely: Sponsored Academies (fully sponsored) Supported Academies (requires improvement) Supporting Academies (good/outstanding)

The Executive Board will have overall legal responsibility for the operation of the MAT and the Academies within it. However, the Executive Board intends to work in partnership with its family of Academies. This Scheme of Delegation therefore provides for certain functions to be carried out by one or more of the following: the Executive Board; the Diocesan Director of Education (the ‘DDE’) who is currently the Acting Chief Executive the Headteacher / Principal of the Academy; and the Local Governing Body of the Academy.

The Executive Board The Executive Board may in the future decide to form Committees to carry out certain of its functions. The term ‘Executive Board’ will therefore include any such Committees that may be formed from time to time.

The DDE A significant number of responsibilities under the Scheme of Delegation lie with the DDE. The term ‘DDE’ includes the Diocesan Director of Education and the staff, appointed agents and nominees of the DBE.

Academy Categories When a school converts and joins the MAT it will be allocated to the appropriate Academy category based on:

its latest Ofsted Inspection Report and the Executive Board’s own assessment of its historical performance (based on

additional information held by the DBE and LA) and its future prospects.

The category allocation is very important because it dictates the following:

the ‘make-up’ of the Local Governing Body; the extent to which responsibilities are delegated to the Academy; and the funding arrangements.

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Reviewing the Allocation

The category allocation will be linked to the performance of the Academy in relation to: the quality of teaching and learning finance and buildings.

The allocation will be reviewed at least once a year. Depending on the outcome of the review an Academy may either stay in its allotted category or be moved to another. The Executive Board will reserve the right to change the category at any time if it believes this to be appropriate in the interests of both the Academy concerned and the wider MAT family.

Governor appointments The ‘make-up’ of the Local Governing Body will follow the category allocated to the Academy:

Sponsored Academies - the Executive Board appoints all the Governors, other than parent and staff representatives;

Supported Academies - the majority of the Governors are appointed by the Executive Board;

Supporting Academies - the Local Governing Body is appointed on an ‘as is’ basis to reflect the arrangements in place immediately prior to joining the MAT.

If an Academy improves and is moved to a higher category then it will have more say in the ‘make-up’ of its Governing Body. Conversely, if an Academy’s performance deteriorates then it may be moved to a lower category with a consequent adjustment to its Governing Body.

Delegated functions

The Scheme of Delegation covers five areas:

Finance Human Resources Education Asset Management Strategy

The MAT has direct legal responsibility to the DfE. It is therefore expected to exercise a tight rein over Sponsored Academies in order to secure the required school improvement, and this is reflected in the Scheme of Delegation. More responsibility will be passed to Supported Academies to reflect their higher performance. For Supporting Academies it is very much a light-touch approach.

Funding The funding apportioned to an Academy will also reflect the category to which it is allocated. A higher level of funding will be ‘held back’ by the trust for schools requiring the highest levels of support. For a Sponsored Academy, part of its budget will be set aside each year for investment in school improvements. These funds will be used to provide appropriate support and resources for it.

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The specific sum ear-marked for school improvements will be determined each year as part of the process for agreeing the Business Plan and budget for the Academy. This will be done on a case by case basis by the Executive Board to enable funds to be stewarded effectively within the MAT family. Similar principles apply to Supported Academies, though the amount set aside for school improvements will usually be lower. Supporting Academies will be free to spend their budget as they see fit. In addition, they will also be given the opportunity to take on school improvement projects to help Academies in the two other categories. They will be paid for this from the school improvement fund.

Working together as a family

All Academies within the MAT family will be expected to contribute to one or more of the following: development and maintenance of school policies sharing of best practice provision of emergency cover mentoring and coaching of staff

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School Improvement Model

Our MAT will commission a coherent package for school improvement which is tailored to each individual school, and is in response to a ‘rich’ contextual understanding of the challenges faced. Our approach will take into account an understanding of the journey for a school from consistent under performance to outstanding. The initial stages will be very directed and driven by strong leadership with a clear sense of purpose and determination to succeed. It will bring about rapid improvement and build capacity and make extensive use of external providers and support. It will be managed by an experienced consultant employed and monitored by the MAT. In addition to this capacity, use will be made of the expertise within our high performing schools and academies in the diocese as outlined in our Diocesan School Improvement Strategy that covers all our schools. We will use partners who :-

are recognised as good practitioners and have a demonstrable track record in school improvement

articulate high expectations of teachers and learners draw upon up to date research of effective school improvement take into account effective strategies for adult learning and motivational theories are able to build capacity and inspire confidence in schools

Our Deputy Diocesan Director of Education (Schools), who leads on school effectiveness will ensure that we use a Quality Assured Team of education professionals. Where possible we will use direct school to school support. We will draw on :-

outstanding Headteachers and School Based Practitioners diocesan NLE’s, LLE’s and SLE’s outstanding practitioners accessed through our two church school lead teaching

alliances consultants bringing specific areas of expertise

MAT directors monitor and evaluate the performance of support provided by our various partners. Where action plans are put in place these include monitoring arrangements involving diocesan officers to ensure accountability and further monitoring and evaluation by MAT directors. These procedures are designed to ensure progress is regularly checked and to reduce risk of failure. We have experience of working with governing bodies to address emergency situations and supporting them to take necessary actions. Our school improvement model aims to provide a structure where the responsibility for leading school improvement will be transferred from external expertise to the governors and leadership of the school. As capacity and expertise increases in the governing body of the academy, leadership develops across the staff and confidence of all involved in the school community grows so it will become a self-improving school. A necessary requirement for a school to be outstanding is autonomy and self- management and this is the ultimate benefit of becoming an academy.

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Key Performance Indicators

The key performance indicators for sponsored academies will be:-

Leadership holds clear strategic vision for the academy based on Christian values which aligns with

practice establishes a culture of high expectations for all has a shared knowledge of what good and outstanding practice looks like and how to

motivate others to achieve it use rigorous and regular monitoring and evaluation procedures, using a range of methods

leading to improvements in the quality of teaching and pupil’s progress ensure data is used accurately and effectively to understand the performance of all groups

of pupils and to inform plans for improvement and a check that they are working

Teaching and Learning all teachers have a clear understanding of the hallmarks of good and outstanding teaching inadequate teaching is eliminated best practice is celebrated and shared through the use of coaching programmes and C.P.D.

Data Tracking and Assessment A standardised assessment package is used across the academy, and understood by all

staff Teacher’s assessment is accurate and rigorous and informs lesson planning and appropriate target-setting Pupils’ work is levelled and moderated to ensure reliability and accuracy of assessment Half-termly data reviews are held to monitor pupils’ progress and inform interventions Data is used to produce regular reports to the local governing body and MAT Use of data is built into the academy self-evaluation and improvement cycle High quality marking provides effective pupil feedback to inform next steps in learning

Parents and Community Systems are established for ensuring parents are well informed about the academy and as

a result they are involved in events and activities parents have clear information about their child’s progress and how best to support them in

their learning there is regular use of parental feedback to inform the ongoing development of the academy there is a determination for the academy to be at the heart of the community, demonstrated

through strong links with the local community and local church and the extensive use of buildings and facilities used by local groups

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Curriculum a broad and balanced curriculum relevant to the context of the school and community is

offered full entitlement to National curriculum is enhanced by opportunities for vocational learning

and an emphasis is placed on R.E. intentional opportunities are provided for pupils’ personal development, particularly their

spiritual and moral development pupils have opportunities to contribute to the life of the academy community and develop

their leadership and organisational skills extra-curricular programme is developed that generates involvement and engagement of

pupils

Interventions policies and practices are developed to remove barriers to learning wider learning opportunities are offered to extend pupils’ experiences and raise aspirations programmes are put in place to close the gaps between learner groups

Performance Management objectives are linked to academy improvement priorities and the needs of pupils targets are personalised and lead to individual development policies are clear about the link between pay and performance arrangements are clear about how under-performance will be managed

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Draft Terms of Reference

School Improvement Monitoring Group (SIMG)

1. Constitution

1. Core membership of SIMG will be:

Headteacher

Member of Senior Leadership Team

DDE / Deputy DDE (Schools)

School Improvement Provider / Partner Governor

2. Other members of staff or officers from partner organisations will be called

to attend meetings as appropriate.

3. The Chair of SIMG will be the Deputy DDE (Schools)

2. Purpose The Governors of have a clearly expressed ambition for the academy to become outstanding. As part of their response to this challenge they have agreed to convert to an academy sponsored by the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham. SIMG has been formed to ensure that the additional resources available to the academy have the maximum impact, accelerating the progress of improvement in every aspect of the academy’s provision.

3. Objectives

3.1 To ensure that the Academy Improvement Plan (AIP) is fit for purpose and addresses all identified areas for development

3.2 To monitor progress against identified success indicators

3.3 To support and challenge leaders within the academy responsible for aspects of the AIP

3.4 To ensure that partner organisations and services deliver effective and timely support

3.5 To identify barriers to progress and enable them to be overcome

3.6 To identify additional resource requirements where necessary and challenge those responsible for providing them

3.7 To make alterations to the AIP as appropriate

3.8 To support the Principal in being accountable to governors and the MAT

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3.9 To build capacity within the Governing Body to carry out their duties in respect of driving improvements and being accountable to the Ofsted,Diocese, DfE, EFA and other governmental bodies as and when necessary

3.10 To make recommendations to the Governing Body regarding aspects of policy as appropriate

4. Reporting

5.1 Meetings will be planned fortnightly / half termly / termly depending on the category of the school.

5. Frequency of Meetings

4.1 Notes of decisions made at meetings will be kept and form part of a report to Governors / MAT Directors.

4.2 Progress on the AIP will be evaluated using a Red/Amber/Green (RAG) rating and form part of the termly report.

4.3 Other reports will be produced on specific issues as required.

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Roles and Responsibilities

The MAT has 3 members who “own” the company and are responsible for appointing the Directors to the Executive Board to run the academies. The MAT has 7 directors who have been recruited to ensure we have a balance of the relevant skill sets. The DDE (Diocesan Director of Education) acts as the Head of the MAT and is supported by the Deputy Director of Education (DDDE) who also leads within the Diocesan Education team on school effectiveness. Currently, we have engaged a team of business management consultants who are working with the MAT to set up our corporate services. Some if these are likely to be offered directly by the MAT others will be brokered. Our experience of supporting schools in difficulties suggests that some issues will need direct involvement of Directors, certainly in the initial stages. This is reflected in our scheme of delegation. As our scheme of delegation works on a system of “earned autonomy” the ultimate aim is for all schools to become high performing and the local governing body to take responsibility for the running of the academy.

School Improvement

The Board of Directors will secure the school improvement resources necessary for each school, and the Trust will act as the contracting body with the national and /or local partners. The approach used will be as outlined in our diocesan School Improvement strategy. The Directors, through the DDE (Mrs Claire Meese) and Deputy DDE (Schools) (Mrs Liz Youngman), will monitor progress against the academy development plan and call leaders and external contractors to account. A School Improvement Monitoring group comprising the Headteacher, member of SLT, DDE / Deputy DDE (Schools), school improvement partner/provider and a governor will meet half termly or termly (depending on Ofsted rating of school), monitor progress against the academy action plan and report back to the MAT.

Corporate Services The diocese has engaged :

Anthony Collins Solicitors

to carry out legal work and offer legal advice

Mr Philip Tillman (ACS) to act as an academies adviser especially in relation to the conversion process

Team of 3 Business Manage-ment / Financial consultants from BDO (off DfE framework) Gleny Lovell, Colin Foster, Andy Williams

working with us to create a business plan and to provide support with setting up and procurement process for other services – financial, payroll, HR, insurance etc

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Some services will be provided on an “at cost” basis by the Diocesan Education Team.

Wider support can be drawn in from the wider diocesan team – finance, communications / publicity etc. if necessary.

Administrative support and advice on admissions. (Mrs Sheila Barker)

providing administrative support to the DDE and advice on admission policies, appeals processes etc

Governor support (Mrs Alison Jacobson)

support with process of appointing governors, advice on procedural matters and issues related to constitution and membership.

Data Manager – support with obtaining and managing school performance and Ofsted data. (Mrs Ally Horne)

administrative support with obtaining, and managing data, preparing tables, charts etc.

Advice on building develop-ment / Capital Development projects. (Mrs Beryl Freer)

support with obtaining grants, setting up projects, monitoring finances, making claims etc.

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Role Description for a Director of the Southwell and Nottingham Multi Academy Trust

Vision Statement The Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Academy Trust is committed to securing excellence in learning in its schools and academies by supporting them as they develop an ethos and learning environment based on Christian values and principles. It works with its schools and academies to enable them to offer high quality education to pupils of all faiths and none.

As academies are charitable companies limited by guarantee, the Board of Directors of a MAT

must comply with duties under both charity and company law, despite the fact they will be

delegating some responsibility to the local governing bodies of academies

Duties as a Company Director:

duty to act within powers

duty to promote the success of the academy company

duty to exercise independent judgement

duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence

duty to avoid conflicts of interest

duty not to accept benefits from third parties

The main responsibilities of the MAT Directors are:

to be ultimately responsible for all decisions regarding the strategic running of the MAT as a

whole and the individual academies in it.

to be accountable to the Secretary of State for the performance of the academies within the

MAT and ensure the quality of educational provision

To set policies for the running of academies within the trust

to challenge and monitor the performance of the academies in the MAT

to ensure good financial health and probity

to be responsible to others for the MAT’s performance as a charity and a company

to be responsible for ensuring that local governing bodies consist of competent and committed individuals who are able to manage the tasks and responsibilities delegated to them in running the academies on a day to day basis

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Duties as a charity trustee

Duty of compliance—to ensure that the academy is using its resources to further the

academy trust’s objects as set down in its articles and is compliant with the law and

regulatory requirements.

Duty of prudence—mainly concerned with financial responsibility and protection of

assets

Duty of care—ensuring that you use reasonable care and skill as a director, making use

of your skills and experience where relevant but also making use of external advice

MAT directors must ensure that mechanisms are put in place to ensure that delegated duties are

properly discharged. These will be set down in a scheme of delegation in the areas of :-

finance

human resources

education

asset management

strategy

Key requirements

It is an expectation of the Diocesan Board of Education that MAT directors will have

a commitment to the Vision and Objects of the academy trust

a willingness to devote the necessary time and effort to MAT business

an ability to hold others to account for their professional practice

strategic vision

good independent judgement

an understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of

trusteeship

experience of at least one of the following broad areas: finance, risk management,

business, Human Resource, education/Church Schools, land, trust or building matters,

law and effective communication skills.

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Chair of MAT Directors—Canon Phil Blinston Canon Phil Blinston is a Lay Canon of Southwell Minster and a member of the Cathedral Chapter. He is a National Leader of Education. Phil is Executive Head of the Minster School, Southwell in Nottinghamshire, an 8 – 18 comprehensive school and Choir School for Southwell Minster. Under his leadership, over a period of twenty years, the school has come to be judged Outstanding by OFSTED and under the SIAMS framework. Minster School is both a National Support School and National Teaching School. Through arrangements under a National Challenge Trust structure he provided the strategic lead for a school in its journey out of Special Measures. Phil has provided school improvement support to a range of schools in all phases of education. He is certain from his own experience that in collaborative arrangements all schools benefit. He believes the circumstances for sustained improvement in schools are created by building professional trust, making space for innovation and through developing the quality of leadership at all levels. He welcomes the Church of England’s report “The Church School of the Future Review” and the opportunities it emphasises for Church schools to be a very strong players in the re-configuration of the state school system. He believes that the Multi-Academy Trust is an effective response to an evident need in the Diocese.

MAT Director - Hilary Craik As a Headteacher Hilary led a school from serious weaknesses to outstanding in six years. She then moved on and became a school improvement adviser and a SIP for Nottinghamshire County Council Local Authority. After two years in this post she moved to a newly created post as a workforce development adviser. She enjoyed the challenge of creating a meaningful, new role and supporting leadership development in education. After thirty-four years of working for the same Local Authority Hilary has recently enjoyed the freedom of being self employed. She has held a short term contract to develop talent management across the East Midlands and she works for schools on school improvement issues, recruitment, training and leadership development. Hilary has close contact with Nottingham Trent University and one of the first primary Teaching Schools. She is a Lead Facilitator on the new NPQH with the George Spencer Academy, one of the three East Midlands providers of the National College's new Modular Curriculum for leadership. She has recently been appointed as an associate Education Adviser to the DfE to work as part of the Academies team. She enjoys being creative and helping others to find ways forward through research and reflection. Her specialities are Curriculum Development, School Improvement, Leadership Development, Succession Planning and Performance Management

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MAT Director – Roger Periam

Roger trained as a science teacher at The Institute of Education in London after gaining his degree. He has extensive governor experience, first as a pupil school governor at his own school in 1974, and for the past twenty years at the South Wilford C of E Primary School, where he has also served as Chair of Governors for ten years. During this period the school has been rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and he has successfully overseen a £1.5 million new school build and later expansion. He was part of the governing body who established the Nottingham Emmanuel School, a secondary school now converted to an academy, which replaced a previously failing school. During his tenure the school moved from an Ofsted rating of satisfactory to good. He has chaired the finance committee for much of the ten years of the school’s life, including the oversight of the £27 million new school build. Roger’s governance experience has involved him in the recruitment of four headteachers and many staff, and he has chaired performance, exclusion and appeals panels. At various times he has been a link governor for science, maths, training, safeguarding and school performance data.

Roger spent thirty-one years in industry, working for large, multi-national corporations in the technology sector (Mitel, GEC Plessey Telecom, Marconi & Ericsson), twenty-eight of these being spent as a manager of people and projects, spread across the UK, Europe and North America. This work involved setting objectives, performing pay and performance reviews, recruitment and development of staff and acting as mentor for graduate trainees. His financial expertise involved setting and managing budgets both locally and globally, the largest being over £100 million, and he has extensive experience of strategic planning, marketing, internal and external communications, public relations and campaign management, and has been involved in many change management, quality improvement and diversity initiatives. Roger has a new perspective on disability, accessibility and inclusions since the onset of his multiple sclerosis and subsequent early retirement.

MAT Director – Ian Griffiths

Ian is currently Director of Strategic Partnerships at Nottingham Trent University. His previous roles include Director of Information Systems. His primary role is Chief Executive of EMMAN Ltd a company limited by guarantee and owned by the 8 Universities of the East Midlands (turnover of £2.5M and provides Network connectivity to Higher Education, Further Education, and Schools). In addition to this, Ian has responsibility ESCUK Ltd who provide support for Microsoft products for UK Education and overall responsibility for esiss, a government funded shared service for IT Security. Nationally, he has just completed a 10 year period as non-executive Director for JANET(UK). Formerly he was a Director of Accelerate, Nottingham, Chair of Heads Group (Nottingham Trent University) and Chair of Papplewick Parish Council. Ian is a long-serving school governor at Linby cum Papplewick Church of England Primary School and Chair of the Finance and Property Committee for the school. The school is rated ‘good with outstanding features’ by Ofsted. He has previous experience as a Chair of Governors for The National School (Secondary); now The National Church of England Academy (mid 1980s-mid1990s) which was rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted during his tenure, and is an experienced Admissions appeals panel member and frequently chairs the panels. He is also a member of the Diocesan Board of Education and is a Director of the Southwell and Nottingham Diocesan Educational Trust. Ian is educated to degree level and has generic experience and skills in Information Systems, Finance, HR, Governance, Procurement, Strategy and Education.

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MAT Director – Nicholas Hall

Nick was an English teacher between 2001 and 2012 at Woodlands School in Derby, and Advanced Skills Teacher in English from 2004-12. He was consistently rated as outstanding as a practitioner. Nick was teacher governor between 2005 and 2010, during which time the school was rated as ‘Good’. During the academic year 2010-11 he was working part-time at the University of Nottingham as a PGCE tutor. The course is rated as ‘outstanding’ by OFSTED. Nick became Regional Director of Teach First in the East Midlands in January 2012. This is an organisation which trains high class graduates to become teachers in low income areas. It offers them a programme of enhanced leadership training. Its main aim is to break the link between poor educational attainments and low socio-economic background. He has strategic role that makes him responsible for the development of seventy-seven new teachers in 2013, ninety-five in 2014 and one hundred and thirty-five in 2015. He manages strategic partnerships with regional organisations and is accountable for the realisation of the 2022 Impact Goals in the East Midlands. He is part of an East Midlands’ advisory board called ‘The (Cultural) Life of the Child’, that is determined to improve children’s lives through putting them at the heart of the creation of a blueprint for improving lives. He is currently a governor on the IEB of Highbank Primary School in Clifton, Nottingham and has experienced taking a primary school through the conversion process to a sponsored academy with a Teaching School Alliance.

MAT Director—Rebecca Meredith Rebecca is Executive Headteacher of Sneinton C of E and Bulwell St Mary’s C of E Primaries and Associate Headteacher of South Wilford Endowed Primary in Nottingham City. Rebecca arrived at Sneinton in 2006 when the school was in special measures and has taken the school through the journey to outstanding. Similarly she was asked to work with Bulwell St Mary’s at a time of particular turbulence and has demonstrated sustained improvement in all aspects of school performance. Sneinton C of E Primary is the lead school for Transform Teaching School Alliance. The Teaching School is sponsor of the multi-academy, Transform Trust. Rebecca is strategic lead for the Alliance and Trust.

Rebecca is a National Leader of Education with extensive experience of improving under-performing schools. Rebecca undertook the National College Fellowship in 2012/3 with a focus on development of curriculum policy

MAT Director—Derek Hobbs

Derek has worked at Bluecoat Academy since 2004 as Head of Year and Assistant Headteacher (pastoral care) and Assistant Headteacher (Post-16). During his 4 years leading the Sixth Form, it developed from a position of low achievement and aspiration to become the only Nottingham School in 2011 with a 100% pass rate at A Level (94% at AS Level, again significantly above national averages), with half of all entries at A* - B grade. Value-added scores at both AS and A2 have moved from significantly negative to significantly positive over those 4 years and the Sixth Form has grown from around 220 to over 350 students. Since 2012, Derek has worked as a Specialist Leader of Education, directly supporting 4 other schools in their development: Tuxford Academy, The National Academy in Hucknall, Retford Oaks Post-16 Centre and Bramcote Hills Sixth Form College. Derek began his new role of Vice Principal in January 2013, with responsibility for Bluecoat Academy's Multi-Academy Trust and its sponsorship of other primary and secondary academies

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Acting Chief Executive of MAT - Claire Meese (Diocesan Director of Education)

Claire has a wide range of experience in education and extensive experience of leading and managing schools in the primary phase. She has taught in seven schools across six different Local Authorities. She has been part of the senior leadership team in five of those schools including two as headteacher and one as an interim headteacher. She has worked in schools in a wide-range of socio-economic contexts with children from very diverse backgrounds. She has firsthand experience of effecting school improvement and has been involved in successfully leading two schools out of Special Measures – one as a Deputy Headteacher and one as a Headteacher. As Headteacher she took a school from special measures to good in a period of two years. Before taking up the post of DDE she worked as an accredited Ofsted Additional Inspector with Tribal Education and was part of more than forty inspection teams. She has also led Ofsted PIE inspections across a range of Early Years settings. As DDE she heads up the Diocesan Education Team and works with the Diocesan Board of Education. She is responsible for the strategic direction and development of education policy in the diocese ( currently seventy one church schools) and promoting education and the role of the church as a provider. She works closely with a range of strategic partners including senior officers in two local authorities and regional consultants from the National College. She is a member of the strategic leadership team of the Transform Teaching School Alliance and a member of the Nottinghamshire Local Authority Schools Forum.

Diocesan Deputy Director (Schools) - Liz Youngman Liz has had extensive experience across the primary sector and also has a background in special education. She has leadership and management experience of schools in a variety of settings within the primary sector. Liz was awarded M.Ed. by the University of Nottingham in 1991 and gained NPQH in March 2001. She has taught in six schools across four different Local Authorities, including five years teaching in special schools. She had seven years as a SENCO in an inner city primary school that was given the top Ofsted grade at that time. She was a deputy in an infant and nursery school when the school was judged outstanding in 2000. Liz has held two head teacher posts in VA primary schools. In her second headship she successfully led two schools through an amalgamation process to form a new large primary school, Hucknall National C of E Primary School. Liz led this school from an Ofsted rating of satisfactory to good with some features outstanding in May 2011. As DDDE (Schools) she supports the director in the development of policy and strategy for promoting high quality education in schools and academies in the diocese with specific responsibility for school improvement, monitoring standards and performance. She develops and oversees the services offered to schools. She also has responsibility for leadership development and succession planning. She works with a range of strategic partners including officers in two local authorities, leaders of teaching schools and regional consultants from the National College. She has been an inspector for SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) since 2006 and is a member of the Nottinghamshire Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE).