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Writer's pictureKarl Sampson

Discovering wisdom - the journey of school improvement in the South West

Please note: Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) is now Lift Schools, this post may reference the name of the trust at time of posting.


In my preparation to assume the role of the Regional Education Director for the South West at AET, a conversation from Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland struck me.


Alice meets the Cat at a fork in the road and asks, “which way ought I to go from here?” The Cat helpfully responds that it depends on where she wants to get to. Alice says that she does not care as long as she ‘gets somewhere’. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”


This exchange can often parallel the path of school improvement - trying to ‘get somewhere’ without a clear route map. But without clear objectives, individual efforts can be aimless, and progress can become fragmented - like sailors rowing a boat in different directions.


But at AET, the trust's strategic mission is unwavering and clear.

  • We will provide an excellent education to every child, in every classroom, every day.

  • With excellent leadership and teaching in every school, we will help children go on to lead successful and happy lives.

  • We will work with others beyond our network to create capacity in the sector to benefit more children and communities.


The universality of these ambitions underscores our commitment to ensuring that no child, regardless of their background, starting point or ability, is left behind.

My role is to ensure that entitlement to excellence is realised in our secondary schools in the South West. Having begun my career in education as an NQT in the South West in 1995, my commitment to school improvement in the region has never wavered. The clarity of our goals at AET further fuels my ambition for its success.


However, educating children and young people in this area of the country is not without its challenges. Research by Dr Anne Mare-Sim and Professor Lee Elliot Major underlines a concerning trend: students from deprived backgrounds in the South West are the furthest behind at the end of both primary and secondary school; fewer poorer pupils attain basic Maths and English GCSE qualifications; and fewer go on to university than in any other region.


As a custodian of AET secondary schools in this region, I am committed to bridging this gap and ensuring every child gets their entitlement to a high-quality education, irrespective of their circumstances.


While the extent of our regional challenges is important to recognise, it does not detract us from our focus. As leaders, we must remain steadfast in what happens in the classrooms – our guiding star.


This work is underpinned by an unremitting focus on excellence in every facet of our work so that our leaders and teachers are set up with all that they need, operationally, culturally, resource and training to do their work brilliantly every day. In short, to be a national network with the greatest possible local impact for all children!


As I take on the mantle of Regional Education Director, I am excited by AET’s commitment to open collaboration and see it as something of a clarion call for all those devoted to improvement in the region, not just within our trust but beyond.


Karin Chenoweth, an education writer and journalist, highlights how networks can greatly contribute to developing the knowledge and skills of school leaders within whole areas and regions. She captures the possibilities when she writes:


"The expertise to help all children learn exists, but it doesn’t reside in any one person, and the answers don’t lie in one particular program, policy or practice. The expertise comes from the pooled understanding of professionals informed by experience, data and research and armed with curiosity and a willingness to learn. Only by marshalling them all together can we hope to help all kids learn to high standards. But we can do this."


In a fragmented region, no one thread should stand alone. It's the combined strength of these threads, representing collective expertise, that creates a resilient fabric capable of addressing the challenges specific to the South West. The region’s diversity is not just geographical - each school and community, rooted in its distinct context, is a repository of specific expertise.


The benefits of our new regional model allows us to utilise the tremendous potential for collaboration across phases by working closely with my co-Regional Education Director to realise the power of such work. From thinking more intentionally about what we want from education in the long term to harnessing the power of localism so we can better break down barriers in our region, there is much within scope.


A map of AET's South West Region
AET's South West Region

I began this piece with the words of one 19th century English novelist reflecting on journey and direction and the dangers of ‘just walking for long enough’ for school improvement. So let’s finish by considering the words of one of his French contemporaries, Marcel Proust and the resonance of his words for what we are trying to achieve at AET:


"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us".


Such sentiments run to the heart of all we wish to achieve through our new regional approach and organisational improvement focus. Working together to discover new ideas and strategies that might not emerge and/or be as powerful in isolation. Our destination awaits…enabling all our schools to offer a rich, expert and ambitious quality of education that draws from its locale and that resonates deeply with every individual child entrusted to us. Now that is ‘somewhere’ I want to get to.


 

This is part of a series that takes an honest look at the priorities of each of the five regions at AET.



As an introduction for this series, Rebecca Boomer-Clark, AET CEO, explains why we have revised our operating model and established five distinct regions.

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