VISION AND MISSION

A vision has to be compelling. Compel comes from the Latin ‘compellere’ - ‘to drive together.’ We have a coherent approach which aligns our vision with our mission, our school improvement strategy and operating model. 

Working together we are stronger.  Through collaborative leadership, steadfast commitment and future thinking, the vision of The Stour Federation is to develop and grow our group of inspirational schools which instil ambition and desire in learners, open their minds, widen their horizons and equip them to flourish in a diverse, challenging world. 

Through coherent strategies, an organisationally healthy culture where excellence flourishes, and a curriculum with reading at its heart, we look to balance holding schools to account with helping them to improve - transforming outcomes for children at scale. Our School Trust brings clear, inspiring and equitable benefits to children, families and staff.

The quality of education is at the core of our mission.  We focus on standards as we understand outcomes are crucial. Our decision making is driven entirely by what is best for children.  This includes a dedication to developing, growing and retaining talented leaders and staff across the Trust and investing in staff development.

The Stour Federation believes that to be a high-performing multi academy trust we must focus on aligning schools around a common model of school improvement; schools that are the most harmonious are the highest performing, whilst respecting earned autonomy - a powerful caveat for individual schools to be able to show self-determination innovate and share specific strengths or areas of interest.

Local Collaboration

We consider that a locally-led and accountable Trust provides the best outcomes for learners and our communities, supporting schools with challenges and ensuring the best schools become even better.

As a partnership of geographically-close schools we are better able to support our children; we strongly believe in the power of collaboration and we continually work together to find innovative ways of working. It’s the relationships that we forge with people and those connections that make the biggest difference.

Our aspirations are first and foremost to support and continually improve our schools. We will consider informal, associate arrangements for schools that meet our aims, would gain from such an arrangement and support other forms of provision where there are clear benefits in place.

We are convinced of the importance of and value of local schools working closely together and have designed our Trust to do just that. Our School Trust acts as an anchor institution by making a strategic contribution to the greater social good, having strong ties in the geographical area.

Our vision is to work as a community of local primary academies that are hubs of excellence and expertise, offering a world-class global education, fit for purpose and where pupils are safe and engaged in their learning. Aspirations and high expectations are paramount to the growth and success of the academies within the Trust.

At the heart of the Trust is a culture of collaboration where schools across the organisation can access the support that they need to set themselves up to flourish within an established system, which in turn is responsive to the needs and performance of each academy.

We will:

• Steadily and considerately become established as a highly effective, dynamic Trust which is capable of building on its success, extending its influence and making a regional contribution in central and south Warwickshire and across the southern borders.
• Establish within the Trust, academies that are centres of excellence for leadership, teaching and learning, collaboration and giving all pupils a curriculum that is balanced, broadly based and which prepares pupils in all schools for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
• Become a flagship and centre of learning, support and research for other academies and schools in the region through strengthening pedagogy and harnessing innovative teaching, learning and curriculum design across our schools.
• Be driven by ethical leadership with a moral purpose to transform opportunities and change life chances of children and young people who live in challenging circumstances and times.
• Bring together the energy and spirit of our schools and communities to educate the whole child - head, heart and hand.

Some of the ways our schools work together are:

• Joint professional learning.
• Shared resources and planning.
• Curriculum Teams for subject leadership networks.
• Moderation meetings.
• Joint school trips.
• Shared governor training.
• School sports fixtures.
• Pupil Book Studies.
• Inter-Trust competitions.

Growth

Our vision is to grow the Trust in the next five years plus provide a Specialist Resourced Provision for children in the area. Within five years up to five additional local primary schools will join the Trust and have a minimum of 10 schools in the Trust by 2030.

We are very clear that any growth needs to be carefully planned to ensure our systems and processes are well embedded and there is sufficient capacity at scale to support all our schools. While we will consider schools from beyond our immediate locality, our priority is to build a strong, local Trust in the first instance. Any consideration of schools joining the Trust will be carefully managed with appropriate, feasible timescales and robust due diligence processes.

In addition to growing the MAT there is still opportunity for growth within the existing schools in The Stour Federation.  We are committed to growing and investing in the leaders of tomorrow in our schools and providing the mechanism for staff to work creatively and innovatively. Our leaders are future-focused, deliberately developing cultures of innovation through agency and experimentation.

Recruitment and retention of staff is critical in rural locations and we work hard to ensure our Trust is seen as a high-performing employer known for identifying and developing potential leaders. We work closely with The Gateway Alliance for Initial Teacher Training and growing our own teachers.