Governance and trustee professional community

All our professional communities are designed to be knowledge-building networks. The Professional Community is not a traditional leadership development programme, nor is it a network in the commonly used meaning of that phrase.

This professional community  moves beyond the knowledge of the individual, to building knowledge within the sector, by providing a safe and supportive environment to explore the challenges of practice and support the wider system to become the best at getting better.

CST's professional communities focus on the concept of ‘practice challenges’ and engage through:

  • Half-termly virtual community meetings.

  • A one-day Professional Community conference.

  • Networking with colleagues across our sector.

  • Access to CST briefings and guidance.

Expert governance is a critical factor in building strong trusts. Operating as single legal entity is the most appropriate vehicle to drive school improvement and advance education for public benefit. It is this unique governance structure that creates a model of shared accountability, while hardwiring collaboration into the organisation.

Each half term, the themes of accountability and collaboration will be explored within the framework of CST’s model of nested leadership:

  • Trust Leadership: how we talk about ourselves, what we do and why we do it

  • Civic Leadership: how we work with other to advance education as a wider common good

  • System Leadership: how we need to act on, rather than just acting in the system

Please note that session content and contributors may be subject to change in response to the needs of the Professional Community.

As a member of the community, you will also gain exclusive access to our virtual platform. CST Hive is a peer learning platform that connects you with a community of information, resources and support, that you can access anytime and anywhere. On the platform you'll find an ever-growing collection of resources, containing information about key knowledge areas needed in our profession, as well as a space to connect, learn and interact with your peers from across the country.

Membership of the community is included for employees, trustees, and members of member trusts as a benefit of CST membership. Join using the button below with your MyCST membership details.

Join our Governance and trustee professional community

Session overview

Session One
Speakers: Samira Sadeghi and Dawn Carman-Jones, CST Consultant
Thursday 12 December 2024, 15:30 - 16:30 (Virtual)

How can governance evolve to better serve schools and communities? In this session, we will do a deep dive into our paper, Next-gen governance, which offers our vision of what the next phase of trust governance might look like, informed by our analysis of a year's worth of external reviews of governance. We know that many of you were unable to attend our workshop at the annual conference and we are keen to discuss the themes in this paper with the broader community and get your thoughts. Please join us.


Session Two
Speakers: TBC
Thursday 27 March 2025, 15:30 - 16:30 (Virtual)

 

Session details TBC

 

Session Three
Speakers: TBC
Thursday 3 July 2025, 15:30 - 16:30 (Virtual)

 

Session details TBC



Supported by




Back to Professional communities

Company no: 05303883
Charity no: 1107640

Contact details

Confederation of School Trusts (CST)
Suite 1, Whiteley Mill
39 Nottingham Road
Stapleford
Nottingham    NG9 8AD

0115 9170142

admin@cstuk.org.uk

Social media