Education Support Team
Support for each of our academies comes from our Central Team - see below for details about the range of services available.
safeguarding
The Greenwood Academies Trust believes that a child or young person should never experience abuse of any kind. We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people and to keep them safe. We are committed to practise in a way that protects them.
The Safeguarding team regularly review the requirements of the individual Academies and Trust to ensure that our practices and organisation are embedded in legislation, government and Local Authority guidance.
If you have a concern about a child or young person at one of our Academies and need to speak to somebody, please see the following contact lists:
Communications
A wide range of support is available to support academies to create and maintain a positive reputation within their local community.
Academies are able to seek high quality, timely advice about liaising with the media in order to promote good news or deal with sensitive issues. Principals receive formal media training and practical support is provided to enable them to draft news releases or arrange media briefings, interviews and photo calls as required.
Academies wishing to promote events or open evenings are able to access a wide range of advertising platforms and support to produce creative publicity materials which comply with the Trust’s branding guidelines.
Training and on-going support is also provided to staff within academies to help them manage their website and social media platforms.
Education - Primary academies
Education - Secondary academies
The Greenwood Academy Trust (GAT) vision for our network of secondary academies is ‘Inspiration through collaboration’, creating a culture of high performing leaders and educators who work collaboratively to deliver an outstanding experience for all learners.
Through a collaborative approach, the Trust facilitates a range of evidence based curriculum models. These models are shared and reviewed through The Central Education Team via the RAB (Raising Achievement Board), LAB (Learning Assurance Board) and CAB (Curriculum Assurance Board). These boards are driven by academy leaders and are the basis of our strategy and collective capacity.
The academies enhance their academic curriculum with a range of central enrichment programmes with Trust partners. The aim of these is to provide pupils with experiences and opportunities beyond the classroom that will improve academic qualifications and encourage the development of wider personal characteristics and attributes to them successful in life and in the workplace.
Our academies are diverse and as a result, the needs of pupils vary. The Trust’s philosophy is that the curriculum in each academy should meet the needs of pupils and enable them to fulfil their potential and prides itself on its strong commitment to raising standards for all pupils, whilst also closing the gap for disadvantaged students.
The Central Education team is led by Education Directors alongside a number of Senior Education Advisers. The main purpose of the Central Education Team is to monitor, challenge and crucially support and improve academy performance to deliver good or better outcomes for children and young people. The team aims to secure sustainable improvements focusing on outstanding leadership, pupil progression, behaviour, teaching and enrichment opportunities. The team believes passionately that every GAT child must have a good teacher and that continuing to improve the quality of learning and teaching across the Trust, is the focus of their work.
The team also leads and supports the quality assurance procedures across the Trust and analyses academy performance, diagnoses issues, brokers support and monitors the impact of that support. They also use their understanding of current educational issues and legislations to ensure academies are kept at the forefront of national agendas.
Finance
The finance activities of the Trust are coordinated by the Central Finance Team, who provide the infrastructure and training to enable academy finance staff to meet the academies needs with regard to financial accounting and planning. This includes providing an accounting system of record and a budgeting and financial planning system for the Trust, with the Central Team supporting the daily needs of users and providing periodic training.
All Trust financial reporting is performed by the Central Finance Team, including the annual statutory accounts, quarterly VAT returns and annual ESFA returns.
Professional support and advice is provided to academies, including benchmarking analysis and input to academy financial planning, in order to optimise the use of limited funding.
The Internal Audit team support and challenge academies and other central functions by monitoring compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
People Directorate
The Trust wants to be known as an ‘employer of choice’ which attracts, rewards and retains high calibre staff.
The People Directorate provides a people focused service, where values of customer service, continuous improvement, collaboration, and achieving results are woven into every aspect of the service.
The team aims to have a positive impact on Leadership and Learning at academies by providing a fully integrated service to support the current and future needs of each academy, offering alternative perspectives to help drive improvement.
The offer to academies can be split into four distant strands: Strategic HR; Talent Management; Generalist HR/Employee Relations and Payroll and Pensions.
IT
The IT team provide technical support, procurement, project and service management to the academies and central team. Technical support is co-ordinated by the service desk, their main duties include logging incidents, service requests, processing users, performing first time fix and acting as an escalation point for customers.
The technical field support is managed by two region Service Delivery Managers. They are responsible for ensuring the SLA is consistently met and projects are delivered to expected standards. They also manage the day to day priorities of the onsite technical staff.
All our provision is listed in the Service Catalogue which we regularly review with academies and their senior management. We constantly strive to work with our customers to reflect and improve on the IT services delivered to staff and students.
Operations
The Operations team provide support, strategic direction and ensure compliance with relevant legislation in a number of key areas whilst ensuring value for money across the Trust. This allows academies to concentrate resources on learning outcomes. The Operations team deliver a range of discreet but complementary services which are detailed below:
Catering
The team has oversight of all the catering services provided within academies and is responsible for the Quality Assurance of the catering process and food produced. The team manage catering staff in each academy and deliver training to ensure compliance with food safety legislation and practice. The team also maintains an online catering management system to ensure audit and financial regulations are met.
Estates
The team leads and manages core estate maintenance function within the Trust, assist in the development and management of capital projects and provide strategic estate advice. The team also ensures relevant statutory, environmental, professional and technical standards are identified and maintained in relation to estate, land and property issues.
Health and Safety
The team ensures compliance with Health and Safety legislation for all academy operations, including trips and visits. The team develops and maintains Health and Safety systems and provides professional advice to ensure activities and operations are managed in accordance with policies and guidance.
Procurement
The team develops initiatives and strategies to secure value for money, identify purchasing opportunities which benefit academies and ensure compliance with Trust Financial Regulations and Procurement legislation. The team also undertakes business analysis to identify and secure potential savings and service improvements.
Project and Risk Management
The team maintains the infrastructure required to deliver the Trust’s Projects and Programmes and report on progress, as well as risks and issues. The team also co-ordinate the Strategic Risk Management process for the Trust ensuring that any Academy Risks that need escalating to the Strategic Risk Register are taken forward.