The education sector in England faces a number of persistent challenges, which include gaps in attainment for specific demographic groups, effective transitions from primary to secondary school, pupil engagement at Key Stage 3, and challenges in developing confident readers. Evidence on what works to address these issues is growing, but translating that evidence into practice and sustained improvement at scale remains hard.
CST partnered with ImpactEd Group to identify trusts demonstrating impact and to understand what’s driving it. We focused on three specific areas:
- Outcomes for disadvantaged White children.
- Primary-to-secondary transitions.
- Effective approaches to reading.
The goal is to showcase how trusts are driving good practices in some of the most persistent and complex areas in education, and to share those insights in a way that supports wider cross-sector learning.
Evidence-led approach
This project started by conducting a robust data analysis, drawing on national datasets and The Engagement Platform (TEP) to identify trusts showing strong outcomes in these topics based on agreed metrics. A trust longlist was refined through a due diligence process to ensure a breadth of robust examples based on latest available data at the time.
With trusts identified, ImpactEd interviewed executive leaders and specialist leads, triangulating their testimonials with published data. The result is three short, practical papers, available on the School Improvement Hub, each grounding its insights in real examples from trusts.
Cross-cutting themes
The trusts featured serve different communities, operate at different scales, and have taken different strategic and tactical approaches. However, a number of patterns emerged across the three thematic papers:
- Culture is the foundation: High expectations, deliberate and shared language and a genuine sense of belonging are mechanisms through which everything else works. These trusts have actively built and continuously maintained this culture, rather than assuming it exists. Their missions drive their strategic thinking and everyday work.
- Data at the core: These trusts interrogate data regularly and share data transparently across leaders, directors and governors. Making data is visible to all generates questions that belong to the whole system, enhancing early action. Breaking data down to specific pupil groups enables deliberate planning and intervention where needed.
- Coherent CPD at scale: Trusts have embedded CPD as an intentional programme for all members of staff, rather than a set of disconnected events. They have focused on building a shared language of quality and investing in the conditions that allow staff to understand rationale and internalise, rather than comply.
- Fewer priorities, more depth: As data surfaces more needs, the temptation is to do more. These trusts resist that. They return relentlessly to fewer, cleaner priorities – building staff buy-in and embedding quality across the whole organisation, rather than resting it on any one individual.
None of the leaders we spoke to claimed to have found a magic bullet. Instead, they were working on more sustainable approaches: a way of working that holds up across very different problems. That’s what makes these findings worth sharing.
Read our Leading Impact Through Trusts series here on disadvantaged White pupils, primary to secondary transitions, and effective reading approaches.
- Holly Waddell is Senior Manager for ImpactEd Consulting
We welcome perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
