Days after becoming the Secondary Regional Education Director for the East region of AET, I toured a busy academy with its Principal. During my visit, I noticed the Principal's calm demeanour, subtly managing countless tasks. Great school leaders are like swans - outwardly serene but constantly active, paddling beneath the surface.
The best schools are meticulous in operation and have leaders who are steadfast in ensuring every student, no matter their background, reaches their potential. If they have the backing of a great trust, the successes of such schools not only thrive but leave a lasting, sustainable impact on the communities they serve.
An ambitious vision of achievement and the introduction of a regional model drew me to AET. I believed wholeheartedly in the promise of a regional model that melds the economies of scale of a national network of schools while ensuring that education remains tailored to the local context of each.
In the East, each of the five secondary academies is nestled in Essex, a region both vast and varied. As Regional Education Director, I see the mandate clearly: fostering collaboration among schools in this significant region, carving out a distinct regional identity, and collectively striving towards our AET490 mission.
In this region, there's a tangible sense of progress and a collective drive towards shared goals. It's not about reinventing the wheel but adopting a unified approach. As a group, we have all agreed that the most critical priority is to establish excellence as a habit and identify what that looks like for teaching all students regardless of need and starting point.
In working together, we are trying to identify the 'super strengths' of our schools - the attributes so potent that they could be bottled and sold. Let's take attendance, for instance. Last year, one school in the region saw an almost meteoric increase in attendance- 4%. This is not just a success story but a model of excellence to codify so that others can learn from it.
But the real magic will happen when we team up with our primary school peers. With expertise spanning these various educational contexts in such proximity, and the gathering of our collective intelligence, the region could be a force to be reckoned with.
Consider Greensward Academy in Hockley, nestled among our affiliated primaries, or the coastal schools of Clacton, Frinton, and Thorpe-le-Soken, which have Hamford Primary just a stone's throw away. Such geographical proximity naturally encourages collaboration.
As attendance is both a national and regional priority, we are leaning on the support of our primary colleagues to ensure that our Year 7 students this year have the best start possible, ensuring the transition to secondary school solidifies an attendance culture that spreads across the region.
In working cross-phase, from the outset, we have tried to pinpoint shared objectives, ensuring we didn't tread over territory where established national strategies were already doing the heavy lifting. It was striking to note the unanimous consensus, regardless of phase, that all schools were keen on enhancing their approach to adaptive teaching, especially for students with SEND.
One of our schools is trailblazing a new path this year through our new trust-wide instructional leadership coaching programme. Over the coming years, as a region, this programme will help us to define what excellence in the classroom looks like and establish the leadership structures and systems that enable effective coaching.
While established educational models like Paul Bambrick’s Leverage Leadership offer foundational principles, as a region we will modify or adjust this model to fit our East context - recognising our challenges, cultural nuances and regional objectives, such as the need to improve adaptive teaching for SEND children.
Excellence for a trust like ours becomes attainable only when we prioritise collective milestones over isolated academy achievements. Nothing is more important in order to realise AET490.
The key lies in harnessing the strengths and uniqueness of each school whilst weaving them into a larger, cohesive vision that celebrates individuality and unity. Schools are bustling, but school leaders may not always recognise the capacity that they can offer.
Providing capacity to another school might be disruptive in the short term. But its long-term effect in strengthening collaboration has been considered for the greater good of all the children in our region.
But let's remember the most important part: our students. We want a regional approach that emphasises growth and success while placing the experience of our frontline - the pupils - at its core. They're the reason we do what we do. They deserve the best education we can give them.
By working together and supporting each other, our schools and regional leaders ensure every student has the chance to shine and achieve great things in the future.
This is part of a series that takes an honest look at the priorities of each of the five regions at AET.
To find out more about the East region, check out Melissa Heatherson's piece on the importance of building a culture of open collaboration.
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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