Schools across England are set to benefit from a new initiative to capture and share how school trusts help deliver for pupils.
The Confederation of School Trusts, the national sector body and membership organisation for school trusts, is today launching a new School Improvement Hub website that will bring together case studies of best practice work across groups of schools.
The site will also feature research and evidence from other school systems around the world that can help inform practice in the UK, in collaboration with the ImpactEd Group.
The launch comes alongside publication of a new conceptual model of trust-led school improvement. The model features three inseparable and intertwined strands - curate clear goals, build capability and capacity, and implement improvement initiatives – that together form a ‘triple helix’ that make up the DNA of school improvement work.
The publication of the model follows a year-long inquiry by CST into trust-led school improvement, bringing together chief executives and leading researchers.
The model helps illustrate the complex and interdependent considerations involved in school improvement, and aims to make it easier for trust and school leaders to talk with a common language about the types of work they are doing.
The model does not tell trusts what to improve within schools, but instead outlines the key aspects of how a school improvement process, strategy or model is enacted within a trust. The model also includes the concept of "de-implementation" - ensuring that trusts focus on what works and removing what doesn’t to help protect staff workload.
CST Deputy Chief Executive Steve Rollett said: "What we discovered, in short, is that the evidence base on what effective trusts do is still maturing. Too much research has focused on narrow questions about different structural models, without looking at the effective practices that are actually happening on the ground in trusts. This is of limited use to teachers and leaders who are working to make education better for children.
"However, the inquiry did find that we can make real inroads by developing a shared set of concepts and language and by carefully building that evidence base over time. That is why we are launching this new conceptual model and calling for trusts to share what they are doing and work with us to build case studies that build into a reliable, flexible, and mature evidence base.”
The model and Hub will be launched at today’s CST School Improvement Conference in Birmingham, attended by more than 200 trust leaders.
Trusts can find out more by visiting schoolimprovementhub.org to download the model, an implementation guide, and initial case studies and resources featuring the Academy Transformation Trust, Star Academies, and the Ted Wragg Trust.
The first call for evidence for trusts to develop further case studies will run until the end of June 2024.
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