Dr Pat McGovern, Chair of the Board of Directors, The Rainbow Multi Academy Trust, Samira Sadeghi, Director of Trust Governance, CST
Delivering the academy trust charitable objects
Your trust’s vision statement is ‘building a brighter future together'. Tell us about how this came about and how it upholds the distinctive religious character of your schools.
Rainbow draws its name from the rainbow that appeared to Noah as a sign of God’s promise. Our trust is a values-led trust and we have gone to some effort to really clarify these. We strongly believe in narrative theory. As leaders, we began by telling each other our personal story - how we answered the call to leadership and how it links to our own experiences. We then drew out common themes that were really important to us, including social justice, optimism, a can-do attitude and, of course, wanting to make a difference in the lives of children. As an organisation, this is how we started to build our story. We then encouraged each school in the trust to create their own bespoke versions of the vision, with the help of their own communities, grounded in their religious character of their school.
Leadership
What kind of leadership do you encourage from your CEO?
I encourage our CEO to do what she does best, which is getting people to believe in themselves. We want her to empower the headteachers and local governing bodies (LGBs) to take their schools as far as they possibly can, with the trust playing purely a supportive role. We want to take care of all those tasks that can become distractions, like managing estates, and allow headteachers to get on with the important job of being the head ‘teacher’ in their school, because after all, they are first and foremost teachers.
Decision making, risk and control
How do you decide on the appropriate delegations to the local level?
We practice a process called subsidiarity - devolving decision-making to the lowest possible level to ensure its effectiveness - because decisions are made by those who have all the information and understand the context. Through our scheme of delegation, we delegate to our LGBs all the decisions that they can sensibly and reasonably make at that level, so that they have a sense of ownership. For example, we include them from the start in the appointment process for the headteacher in their community.
LGBs are responsible for the four S’s: Standards (of teaching, learning and behaviour), Stakeholders (engagement with the local community), Safeguarding (because they are on the ground) and SIAMS inspections. The board is still accountable, and it then receives reports directly from the LGBs and can monitor how they are discharging those responsibilities.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
How do your values inform decisions you make as a board?
We strongly believe in equal treatment and we stay true to this value even when we grow and take on a school. As a board, we recently took the decision that staff salaries in a joining school should be raised up to the level that would make them commensurate with salaries in our existing schools. We want those schools to know there is a value in joining us, that we value you and we will be fair and equitable.
We also run all of our policies through our values framework. For example, we take compassionate leave very seriously. We also run our resourcing decisions through our values framework, especially when it comes to special needs. Yes, these children may require additional resourcing, but our values are not just words on a wall, we will find those resources to ensure that child’s right to education is fulfilled.
Openness and accountability
How does your trust fulfil its sense of a wider civic leadership and responsibility?
Some of our schools, such as Grampound with Creed (built in 1869), have been in these communities for well over a century. Our schools are therefore, first and foremost, in service of their communities and should always sit at the heart of those communities. Unfortunately, today there isn’t the same protection built into funding for smaller schools and many of them are no longer viable. Having a school is so crucial for some rural communities. If you live on the Lizard peninsula, you may well only have a very small school serving your tiny community. And if you close that school, you will be closing down the village altogether to anyone other than those with second homes. So, in our trust, we will move heaven and earth to keep those small schools open.
CST supports trusts such as these with expert guidance, training, advice and consultancy, and membership is available for your whole trust – including leadership teams, local governance volunteers and trustees. We run a comprehensive professional development offer including a Masterclasses in Trust Leadership and our Chairs Development Programme.
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