Principles  

  • The Trust’s core values of Ambition, Teamwork and Honesty underpin the approach to School Improvement.  At The Two Counties there is a common belief that everyone can better and that feedback is a gift. 
  • To run healthy and efficient central services to ensure school leaders can focus on school improvement in their schools.   
  • The aim is to deliver a simple but rigorous model which develops:  a high – value curriculum, a compelling learning culture and exceptional leadership.   
  • Schools should work to innovate not in isolation.  The development of active ingredients supports all schools to improve regardless of their stage in improvement journey.  

Leadership training and coaching  

  • Exceptional schools need exceptional leaders.  All leaders, regardless of the role, are exposed and expected to engage in the latest research as part of our empowered to lead model. 
  • Leadership coaching is central to the work of the Executive Leadership.   Headteachers receive regular individual sessions with the CEO. Senior and middle leaders receive coaching from the wider executive and central team.  

Curriculum development  

  • Curriculum teams focus  on ‘what’ is being taught to drive up standards in our schools.   
  • There is a growing team of curriculum leaders supporting all the schools in the Trust.    
  • The focus is on ensuring all the students are taught a body of specialist knowledge that will enable them to be successful in public examinations but also in life more widely.     
  • The  curriculum team is currently developing our prevention before intervention model and are very much focused on: 
  1. Keeping abreast of the latest research and thinking. 
  2. Developing long terms plans and resources to support the agreed body of knowledge, to really model what a coherent and intelligently sequenced curriculum looks like.    
  3. Coaching middle leaders to develop their school curriculum including the subject induction of new middle leaders.   
  4. Supporting Y11 students achieve at least a grade 5 in formal examinations.   

Pastoral Development  

  • As Peter Drucker says ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ so to support the curriculum developments the central team is also resolute in its determination to create a compelling learning culture in all our schools that is based on the needs of our priority students.   
  • The Pastoral team includes a Pastoral Director, a Trust Lead for SEND and a team of careers advisors.  The pastoral team are focused on ensuring: 
  1. An academic culture is being developed through developing intrinsic motivation e.g. through now that rewards and all staff and students having a legacy sentence.   
  2. Attendance for all groups of students is beyond national benchmarks through being persistently consistent about our expectations and support for students.   
  3. Ensuring behaviour for learning policies support learning in all classrooms through eradicating grey areas and demanding a consistent approach but always underpinned by strong professional relationships.  
  4. Continually reviewing curriculum provision to ensure that all students have quality first teaching including those who are attending alternative provision.    

Study Tours  

  • Each school will host two study tours each academic year.  
  • The purpose of the study tour is to share good practice with other schools in the Trust and for leaders to share some expertise on how the school may drive forward improvements in a specified area.   
  • The study tour will include the Executive Team and senior leaders from the Trust occasionally leaders from high performing MATs across the country may join the study tour.   

Central services  

We fully believe that school leaders should focus on school improvement in terms of quality of education and developing a culture of learning for students and staff.   To support schools, TTCT provides high-quality services in the following areas: 

  • Estates  
  • Finance  
  • Governance services  
  • Health and safety 
  • Human Resources  
  • IT  
  • Marketing and communications  
  • Payroll  
  • Procurement  

Evaluation documentation  

  • Four times a year detailed KPIs are produced.   The KPIs are presented to LGBs and the aggregated KPIs are presented to the Trust Board.  Schools use the KPIs to drill down to identify in-year priorities for improvement and help decide what is most important right now and who must do what at school level.  The central team use the KPIs to identify where central resources and leadership capacity needs to be deployed and to analyse the impact of the School Improvement Teams. 
  • Each September at the start of semester one, Headteachers write an evaluation of the school’s effectiveness via the School Evaluation Form (SEF).  The SEF will have two appendices, the annual KPI chart and a PRAG of the different areas of school life to ensure the school improvement priorities are identified and acted on.   At the start of semester two, Headteachers update the SEF.  This is shared with Governors at the next LGB meeting.