Partnership Model

We have worked together to produce a set of curriculum principles for all Oak Learning Partnership Schools. These identify where we align whilst ensuring each school has the freedom to design its curriculum offer for its pupils and community.

View our Curriculum Principles page to learn more.

We are passionate about supporting our people to develop the best possible practice in their role. A well-defined and relevant Professional Development offer to all staff is an essential component of our work. Instructional Coaching is our main driver for support and professional development. We ensure that our schools get the training and support they need to run this successfully.

The Oak Learning Partnership School Improvement Cycle describes the processes we use to improve our schools. It includes a yearly calendar of school improvement activities. These are designed to ensure a structured approach to quality assurance.

The activities take place in all our schools but are designed to be used flexibly according to the needs of the school.

Inclusion is at the heart of our trust. We ensure the best possible inclusive practice and support through access to a range of specialist resources, advice and facilitators, including our trust-wide Safeguarding Lead, well-being practitioners and SEN team. We also offer a range of inclusion packages to schools outside our partnership. Our SENCO network allows us to develop partnerships working across our schools, to support the needs of all pupils and to develop the expertise of our staff.

Being a Headteacher can be a lonely position and we believe that having someone who has a deep knowledge of school improvement to discuss things with and run things by allows our heads to feel well supported and informed.

We ensure that each Headteacher has an entitlement to regular leadership coaching from a member of the Executive Team and we encourage leaders from across our schools to make links with their peers. All our leaders are registered with key professional bodies and networks so they are well informed of any educational developments. We provide our Heads with simple and easy to follow frameworks around reporting to their board and to external bodies, and to assist tracking performance. We also provide significant support around Ofsted preparation, making sure we ease the burden of what can be a very stressful situation for leaders and schools.

Regular meetings which include Headteachers ensure that all of our schools have a voice in the developments across the trust. This allows leaders to shape the strategic direction of the trust, address priorities and share good practice and expertise. We ensure that leaders feel heard on trust-wide projects and that they provide input so they are comfortable with how it might fit with their local context. We have network groups which work across schools which include subject specific, SEND and safeguarding in order to share good practice and support one another across the trust.

Working together in a strong trust can facilitate better professional development and better teaching which results in improvement for pupils. We know that each of our schools has different priorities so we are careful to choose centrally-provided training to meet all schools needs and then provide bespoke support for individual school priorities. This includes school-led CPD, bespoke senior and middle leader training, school to school support and access to high-quality external programmes such as NPQs. We are developing a model of best practice around meeting SEND learners needs so that we can support schools to be highly inclusive and effective in their practice.

We know that the one thing that makes the biggest difference to all learners is the quality of the curriculum and teaching in their schools. We also know that a school as an employer has many responsibilities and needs to be compliant and efficient in a number of areas. These might not be considered educational but if they don’t run well they can cause a distraction to leaders in schools and become a drain on their time. Our model of centralising and simplifying all aspects of business support and providing close assistance where needed is aimed at making the jobs of the Headteachers and their leadership teams more straightforward, giving peace of mind.

Our central finance staff ensure financial stability and help achieve best value and best practice for each of our partner schools. Services provided to our schools by our Central Team include:

• Access to a web-based financial planning and accounting system
• Provision of monthly financial management and information reports
• Arrangement of internal and external audits
• Completion of ESFA, HMRS and VAT reports
• Guidance for procurement
• Provision of accounting policies and practices
• Support with income generation
• Bank account management including BACS processing and bank reconciliation

 
The Central Team’s HR staff undertake a range of functions on behalf of schools, and their services include the provision of:

• Recruitment campaigns and the completion of pre-employment checks
• Access to a fully integrated HR and payroll system
• Trust policies and support to assist with Safer recruitment, Sickness absence, Leave of absence, and Grievance, disciplinary and capability
• Access to Single Central Record Software and monthly audits of the Single Central Record
• Support with occupational health and counselling referrals
• Legal support
• Pension Scheme administration

Our estates team manages health and safety and buildings-related issues and maximises development opportunities for each partner school. Their services include:

• Lettings
• Submission of CIF bids
• Health and Safety support including risk assessments
• Administration of Risk Protection Arrangements
• Commissioning and leading building projects

The trust’s IT strategy is driven centrally, with the trust taking responsibility for ensuring that the needs of each school are met. The services provided include:

• Creation of a 5 year plan
• Access to trust Office 365 tenant and email address
• Website design and support
• Compliance audits of websites

Our partners all have the reassurance that compliance issues are managed centrally. Our Central Team provides:

• Trust-wide policies
• To the services of a Data Protection Officer
• Subscription to the CST which provides summary reports and updates on the most recent changes in guidance from the DfE, Ofsted and other national agencies
• To the CPD Platform The National College
• To Evolve education visits system