Thought leadership

School trusts exists to provide education - but as charities they also have a wider civic role. Today many schools exist as the last civic institution in their communities - this report from CST explores how trusts are working with pupils, parents, public services, charities, and businesses to help pupils do better on both sides of the school gates.

The leadership of a group of schools working together as a single legal entity and under a single governance structure is a new field of inquiry. This paper in our Bridge To The Future series makes the case for new domains of educational leadership emerging from this field.

There is a strong case for trust leaders to prioritise high quality teacher learning as a mechanism for school improvement. To do so, leaders require an understanding of the barriers to teacher learning and how to overcome them. This paper by Steplab's founder Josh Goodrich and strategic director Claire Hill examines how this can be achieved.

As part of CST's Bridge to the Future series, written in partnership with the Reach Foundation.

Public policy making, especially in modern times, places a premium on consultation and engagement with the sector or profession or area of the public and private realm which the government department is charged with overseeing. This is both for theoretical reasons – because much of what government does is effectively done by consent and there is prima facie need for some element of collaborative discussion – and also because on a practical basis, much of the information which government requires in order to conduct policymaking is held by the wider environment. Governments need to understand what the scale is of the issue they are addressing; the impact of what they are proposing to do or stop doing; and to hear views as to the achievability and feasibility of proposals.

Thoughts on the future of the education system in England from our chief executive, Leora Cruddas CBE.

This paper, part of the 'Bridge to the Future' series, emphasises the importance of teaching, evidence and professional development in improving schools. It considers the ways in which school trusts can work to overcome some of the challenges associated with the design and implementation of high-quality professional development through leveraging their capacity (scale and expertise) alongside their ability to control the conditions and culture in which teachers work and professional development takes place.

The paper, part of CST's 'Bridge to the Future' series, makes the powerful argument that as we emerge from the pandemic that we should consider with fresh perspective the future for our Church of England schools.

This paper, part of our 'Bridge to the Future' series, sets out the vital role of trusts as employers and how to build sustainable people strategies in our sector. It argues that policy makers need to engage more with trusts as employers and better connect with the HR profession. The paper argues firmly that trusts themselves are the key enablers of quality people management in our sector and will play a vital role in building a sustainable education workforce.

CST considers school trusts as structures with the potential to build and mobilise knowledge pertaining to school improvement. This paper, part of CST's 'Bridge to the Future' series, seeks to extend this analysis by arguing that we need to understand school improvement as a field of practice rather than view it as a series of disconnected activities.

In this short paper, part of our 'Bridge to the Future' series, we make the case for intelligent systems of accountability built on firm principles. We explore what accountability means and why it matters in the Trust sector. We also explore what needs to be done to create more ‘intelligent’ forms of accountability.

In this short paper, part of our 'Bridge to the Future' series, Tim Oates CBE sets out the case for utilising evidence and the ways we should think about future policy reform to avoid walking straight into long-term trouble.

In this 'A Bridge to the Future' series paper, Dixons Academies Trust's Funmilola Stewart and Jenny Thompson argue that while the application and delivery of powerful knowledge within schools is recognised as a tool for social justice, for this to be truly consequential our focus must shift from a broad consideration of the disparities between the elite and the disadvantaged, and towards an acknowledgement of the intersectionality underpinning social disadvantage.

A key challenge for educational reform is how to leverage the best outcomes for children, in the most efficient way, while avoiding unintended consequences. This is often easier said than done because individual problems and proposed solutions don’t sit in isolation from each other or the many other constituent parts of education. This short 'A Bridge to the Future' series paper seeks to explore how coherence and systemness in particular might be applied to policy in this important area.

In this short paper, part of the CST ‘A Bridge to the Future’ series, we offer a view of school improvement as deliberate and intentional knowledge building.

In this paper, we look back over the last ten years since the 2010 Academies Act to see what we can learn about policymaking with hindsight. It builds on the narrative of our prior publications, and in particular our overarching policy document, our sector-led white paper on the future shape of the education system in England

With an incredible foreword written by best-selling author Matthew Syed, six academy trustees from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds share their personal and professional experiences and highlight why a diverse and inclusive board is so important. This timely collection is part of a broader programme on diversity and aims to encourage everybody in the sector to reflect.
Published in association with the New Schools Network.

‘Rising Strong’ is a series of essays from CST members. This attempts to celebrate the leadership response to COVID-19 and CST’s warmest thanks to the colleagues who approached us about creating a record of our responses: Dawn Haywood, John Camp, Rebekah Iiyambo, Stephen Chamberlain and Sharon Gray. This artefact is a contribution to recording and remembering what we have done.

Eight years on from David Hargreaves' first think pieces on a self-improving school system, this paper, written in collaboration with Teaching Schools Council and Browne Jacobson, dives into what may be next for the future of the school system.