St Martin’s Multi Academy Trust

The work of school improvement across St. Martin’s Multi-Academy Trust is driven by four core principles. Firstly, we strive to embed a shared understanding of what constitutes exemplary teaching. Secondly, we base our decision-making and teaching approaches on the best available evidence. This leads us to our third principle: fostering a culture of improvement, where self-reflection and a commitment to continuous growth are encouraged. And finally, we ensure that high-quality professional development opportunities are accessible to all our staff.  

At St. Martin’s Multi-Academy Trust, we believe that true school improvement can only be achieved through effective and authentic collaboration. That’s why school leaders within our trust are an integral part of the School Improvement Team. No school should feel isolated when they can share ideas, expertise, and experiences, backed by evidence-based strategies for improvement.  

Truly effective school improvement is based upon effective and authentic collaboration. Effective collaboration is built upon connection: genuine human connection. Schools do not have to go it alone and can share ideas, expertise and experiences with evidence-based improvement strategies. Support from each other and from the School Improvement Lead means that school leaders, middle leaders, teachers and any other adults that work in the schools have opportunities to work together through routinely systematised structures, not facilitated by an organisation outside of the school. A range of networks to enable people to collaborate, share ideas and help one another in subject leadership; pastoral care; teaching and leadership exist across the Trust. 

To support decision making and allocate resources effectively, it is vital to first diagnose the needs of the school through robust and forensic review processes. Appropriate intervention can then be put in place as part of school improvement strategies and then strong evaluation processes can determine if those plans had the desired impact.