The Agora Learning Partnership ensures that all schools receive high quality improvement support that is bespoke and proportionate to need. Academy improvement support comes from a range of sources. This includes direct support from the CEO and the Academy Improvement Lead (AIL). It also includes drawing on existing expertise from schools currently in the Trust as well as brokering external expertise. External expertise will include access to leadership, teaching and learning and curriculum advisory support through for example, school improvement providers, as well as support commissioned from serving leaders and practitioners in other schools such as NLEs, LLEs and SLEs.
Our Academy Improvement Lead has substantial experience of providing, sourcing and quality assuring school improvement resources. She will use this knowledge and understanding to ensure that the right resource is deployed to support school leaders to bring about rapid and sustainable impact.
“There is a good balance of support and challenge”
“There is a clear support system for school improvement”
Trust headteachers
Targeting support
The Academy Improvement Lead will evaluate each academy’s performance on a termly basis and assign a RAYG (red, amber, yellow, green) rating to each academy. The RAYG rating will be against agreed performance criteria and will be shared with schools and reported to the CEO and the Trustees.
The RAYG rating will be used as part of the Trust’s processes for monitoring school performance. It will also be used by the AIL to prioritise and target additional intervention and support.
Academy improvement plan
As soon as possible after conversion the Academy Improvement Lead will discuss the academy’s development plan with the headteacher and the chair of the Academy Governing Board to ensure that it is focused on the main priorities for improvement and includes any areas raised during the due diligence process.
In most cases, it is likely that the school’s existing development plan will be ‘fit for purpose’ or may just require some minor adjustments. Where an academy needs to revise its improvement plan, the AIL will provide advice and support.
In the case of academies that are sponsored by the Trust because the predecessor school was judged inadequate at the last Ofsted inspection, the Academy Improvement Lead will write the improvement plan. This will be done in consultation with the headteacher and the chair of the Academy Governing Board. The improvement plan will identify how the Trust will prioritise the use of any Academy Improvement Grant to bring about rapid improvement. It will also specify the support the Trust will provide and broker and will include a rigorous schedule of how the academy’s progress will be monitored and evaluated.
The Academy Improvement Lead will report to the CEO and the Trustees on progress against the improvement plan and will recommend any additional intervention or support. If progress is not fast enough, the CEO and the AIL will visit the academy and consider what further interventions may be necessary. At all times, and for each academy, the headteacher and chair of the academy governing board will be held to account by the Trust.