Cranmer Education Trust
Recruiting and retaining great teachers is one of the most significant challenges facing school trust leaders today.
Cranmer Education Trust, based in Greater Manchester, is addressing this challenge with a leadership model that prioritises empowerment, professional development, and community building. With over 3,000 pupils across six schools, the Trust has implemented a collaborative structure that develops leaders from within and fosters a shared sense of purpose.
This case study is part of Edurio’s comprehensive guide to leadership, which combines data from the top 2% of trusts and schools for leadership scores with insights from 13 expert interviews. Cranmer Education Trust was selected for its innovative practices, which highlight how effective leadership can shape a strong organisational culture that enhances staff satisfaction and retention.
Christine Ellis, Chief Operating Officer of Cranmer Education Trust, shared the strategies behind their success. From innovative recruitment approaches to a leadership model focused on coaching and culture, this case study offers actionable insights for trust leaders seeking to strengthen their schools and support their teams.
In this case study:
- Leadership structures and styles
- Specific leadership practices and the impact
- Challenges and solutions
- Practical advice to leaders
Leadership structures and styles
Leadership structure: grow the people
Since Cranmer Education Trust is a growing trust that wants to let schools keep and build their own unique identities, its leadership structure is based on agency, empowerment and delegated leadership. The trust believes that effectively distributed leadership is key to growing a school’s culture, with leaders modelling values, engaging in effective communication, and managing their departments or areas of responsibility with integrity. It is important to note that various leaders in the trust have grown from within.
Training and civic responsibility
“We talk about it being in our DNA to train people and look after people, and it’s that civic responsibility, the wider responsibility than an individual school or trust. We’ve all got to do this. We’ve got to find ways of recruiting people into teaching…”
Leadership style
Empowerment and agency: The trust’s leadership style is centred around empowerment, agency, and a coaching model, focusing on the development and nurturing of staff and leaders within the organisation. This approach is evident in the trust’s investment in recruiting, training and developing teachers and leaders through their teacher training and development arms, Manchester Nexus SCITT and East Manchester Teaching School Hub. With a network of partners, the trust delivers the early career framework, national professional qualifications, and initial teacher training. This highlights the trust’s commitment to growing the teaching profession with local partners
Empowerment, agency and unity
“We talk about empowerment and agency in our trust. We talk less about autonomy because no one is autonomous in schools. We’re all responsible, so we talk about agency because one of the things that we think works is that all our schools have their own uniqueness, their own footprint… One of the analogies that we use is that we play for the club, but we also play for the county. You can be passionate about your club, but you can also be passionate about your county, and that’s one of the ways that we get people to understand the Trust family.”
Culture
Visionary leaders within the trust, especially headteachers, are expected to be visionary leaders who model integrity, communicate effectively, and embody the trust’s values. They are counted on to be present and engaged within their schools, fostering a culture of appreciation and support. The CEO plays a significant role in this model by acting as a coach to the headteachers, investing time in their development.
Specific leadership practices and the impact
Modelling values
Cranmer Education Trust’s focus on distributed leadership and the empowerment of headteachers and senior and middle leaders to model integrity and communicate effectively is intended to ensure that leadership values and strategies permeate throughout the organisation. COO Christine Ellis shares, “We value time and turning up and talking to people… at all levels.” This has the potential to improve the school’s effectiveness and create a responsive and adaptable leadership structure. By codifying values with school heads and leaders, they are trusted to embody those values, taking into account the differing contexts of each school that require a different approach.
Instilling and managing culture
“…One of the hardest things in instilling culture is giving the time, understanding what it needs to be and managing and overseeing it. How do you know that the quality of that is happening well in a bigger organisation? Because you can’t, as a headteacher, be everywhere. You certainly can’t be [everywhere] as a trust, but the concept is, again, the same modelling integrity, good communication about whatever it is that you’re doing in that department and how we’re doing things as a school in a trust.”
Yearly Cranmer games
Ensuring that all staff members, regardless of their location or role, are aligned with the trust’s goals and objectives is crucial for cohesive functioning. The trust places a strong emphasis on building a positive culture and sense of community. Events like the Cranmer Games reinforce the trust’s commitment to culture as family and community, helping to disseminate core values in an engaging and inclusive manner. The children participate in a number of games at the end of the year, and teachers come along, finishing up with a barbeque picnic where the CEO presents trophies. This seemingly simple, playful event builds family culture and really helps everyone to feel part of one team and community
Challenges and solutions
Challenge: recruitment and retention
Cranmer Education Trust acknowledges the sector-wide challenge of recruiting and retaining quality staff. The dwindling supply of teachers and leaders is a significant concern, exacerbated by competitive salary structures and funding limitations. The trust is committed to the system and, through its teacher training and development arms, demonstrates how it trains new teachers, inducts early career teachers, and is a delivery partner for national professional qualifications. Staff who work at the trust recognise the trust’s values through its system work.
Solution: professional development and hub model
Retention through professional development
“Retention is not just about money. It’s about wanting professional satisfaction: feeling like you are doing a good job. So giving [staff] that time for professional development has been really important.”
Cranmer Education Trust has innovatively tackled retention and recruitment challenges through a holistic approach centred on professional development and the creation of a supportive network among its schools. A key aspect of this approach is the strategic use of time for professional development, where departments collaborate on curriculum development, pedagogy enhancement, and other priorities, guided by the headteacher’s vision for school improvement.
Moreover, the trust has adopted a “Hub Model” as part of its business framework to facilitate recruitment and retention. This model is predicated on the geographic proximity of schools within the Trust, fostering a network of collaborative support among staff across different schools. The hub model ensures cohesion and clarity through standardised processes in core business elements such as finance, HR, IT, marketing, governance, facilities, and estates. This structure not only facilitates a spectrum of knowledge and skill sets across different career stages but also enhances the quality of education and enables headteachers to concentrate on transformative changes for children and communities.
The trust’s ambition is for no role to feel isolated. Through a matrix of business roles within a governance framework and scheme of delegation, the trust aims to prevent the vulnerability of individuals carrying the weight of specific responsibilities alone. By focusing on development and growth, the trust has created a structure that significantly contributes to its successful retention and recruitment strategy.
Practical advice to leaders
Grow your people
Fostering growth and future
“Our pillar of Growth [in our people strategy] means that we’re a growing trust, and we’re bringing schools in… But it’s also about the growth of people and growth in terms of their professional development. We talk about “next practice”. You’re not just thinking about the now, you’re thinking about what is next in growth.”
Cranmer Education Trust’s approach to leadership development, particularly the leadership coaching model, highlights the importance of personalised support and professional growth, focusing on empowerment. Christine Ellis, COO, emphasises that by looking at the trajectory of staff’s career development, the trust is trying to mitigate the recruitment gap and ensure strong retention going forward, showing that they care about their staff and want to invest in them.
Foster a strong sense of community and culture
Christine emphasises the crucial role of building a positive and inclusive culture. The trust’s emphasis on family and community, as well as initiatives like the Cranmer Games, showcases how trusts can strengthen the sense of belonging among staff and pupils and promote a cohesive and supportive environment.
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