ALIGNED AUTONOMY

We balance collective consistency (working as one Trust) with self-determination (trusting you to innovate). We aim to provide clarity, not control, ensuring you have the freedom to be the expert in your classroom while being supported by the whole Trust.

Why Alignment? Alignment ensures we function effectively as a unified system. We share the same Trust mission and values, guaranteeing that all staff and children benefit immediately from our best collective practice, expertise, resources, and reputation. Clarity is paramount, ensuring that rules are focused on clarity rather than control.

Why Autonomy? Autonomy is foundational to professional expertise and personal success. It ensures that micromanagement is avoided, which otherwise breeds indifference. Leadership and personal accountability are founded on ownership and self-direction. If we stifle variation, we eliminate the opportunity for learning from different effective practices and cripple flexibility necessary to respond to changing needs.

The Force of Collective Advantage (The Trust Dividend)
By committing to this framework of aligned autonomy, we actively pursue a collaborative advantage, which results in a valuable Trust Dividend. This dividend represents the accumulated value generated by colleagues across the Trust making better-informed decisions more often, over time.

Through active participation in collaborative networks like our Communities of Practice (CoPs), you contribute directly to this collective strength by enhancing teaching quality, improving pupil outcomes, and developing a supportive professional community. This collaborative advantage strengthens us, making the entire Trust more than the sum of its individual parts, which allows our schools to feel the force of shared success.

Based on our commitment to organisational health and alignment), we regularly revisit Patrick Lencioni's six critical questions. The answers provide a consistent framework for everyone's decision-making.

1. Why do we exist?

Our "North Star" is flourishing. We want every child to feel safe, valued, and inspired through "unreasonable hospitality"—the belief that everyone deserves to live life in all its fullness.

2. How do we behave?

We live our RESPECT values: Relationships, Excellence, Service, Passion, Ethics, Collaboration, and Trust. We commit to Kaizen: making small, consistent changes every day to improve our culture and teaching.  We commit to collaboration and trust for horizontal improvement across all our schools rather than working in silos.

The Stour Federation Way is the set of principles guiding continuous improvement and mutual respect for all people. This is our philosophy for creating an ethic of excellence where everyone feels valued and supported.  

The Stour Federation Way is rooted in 10 core principles, organised into four key operational parts:

Part i - Philosophy: Thinking Long Term 
1. Plan for the future.
Part ii Processes: Delivering Value
2. Connect people and processes.
3. Balance the workload.
4. Standardise our work.
5. Build in quality.
6. Use technology wisely.
Part iii People: Respect, Challenge and Grow
7. Develop strong leaders.
8. Work with our partners.
Part iv Problem Solving: Think and Act Scientifically
9. Observe and learn.
10. Align our goals.

3. What do we do?

We build high-performing schools that develop the 6Cs in every child: Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. We go "unreasonably beyond" just academic outcomes to provide a well-rounded education.

4. How will we succeed?

We achieve success by building a unified ecosystem driven by the principles and strategies outlined in our 2030 Blueprint:

Component	Focus Area	Outcome (Supporting Framework)
Strategic Drivers (Forces that attract power and generate motion)	Wellbeing and Learning (ensuring happy staff and children learn best) Social Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (leveraging technology while developing human skills) Equity-Equality Investments (making strategic investments to address individual needs) Systemness (working collaboratively as one powerful system)	6Cs (Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking) are the global competencies we equip children with
Core Strategies (The blueprints for belonging and learning)	Inclusion Strategy People Strategy Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Policy Thrive Approach	Joyful teaching and learning is enabled by designing an exciting curriculum and pedagogical recipes for impact
Enablers The architecture for sharing expertise)	Communities of Practice (CoPs) (sharing expertise and fostering synergy) Coaching (skillful dialogue and ownership) Digital Champions (integrating technology thoughtfully) Culture Champions (providing staff voice on strategy)	These mechanisms cultivate deep collaboration and continuous professional development

5. What's the most important now?

Our current focus is closing the execution gap and championing inclusion. We use the 4 Disciplines of Execution to ensure our plans become results, specifically by removing barriers to learning before they even arise.

6. Who must do what?

Individual Agency: Every professional is responsible for taking ownership and showing self-direction in their work. 

School Level: Headteachers and school teams hold primary responsibility for context-specific decisions regarding local pedagogy and resource deployment. 

Trust Level: Trust Improvement Leaders (TILs) reinforce the sense that we are one organisation and provide evidence-informed guidance, expertise, and support to ensure system-wide consistency. The Trust SENDCO ensures system alignment for provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs and works to develop staff expertise.