Engage, Enrich, Excel Academies (EEEA) Trust

Engage, Enrich, Excel Academies (EEEA) Trust is a trust of six primary schools serving disadvantaged pupils and their very diverse communities across the south of England. Having grown steadily by adding a school per year, the Trust plans to continue to grow its number of schools but is steadfast in upholding its approach of “localism with positive collaboration.”

Maybury Primary School

Maybury Primary School is rated ‘Good with outstanding features’ by Ofsted. The school currently serves over 270 pupils (including nursery) with 37 staff members. 75% of pupils in this school have English as a second language, and 22% of children are eligible for Free School Meals.

Key contributors: David Harris (CEO), Amanda Merritt (Headteacher of Maybury Primary School

Leadership structures and styles

Leadership structure: decentralised and distributed

Although there are differing contexts of the schools in the Trust, EEEA Academy Trust emphasises leading through the common values of the Trust and keeping in mind that the implementation may look different in each school. For example, there is not one curriculum that fits all. The Trust shares best practice with their curriculums, but each school’s curriculum is tailored to the needs of each school’s community. By keeping lines of communication open and active, heads are trusted to lead their schools because everyone is on the same page and knows they can count on each other for support when needed.

Leadership style: collaborative leadership

Headteachers are supported and encouraged to collaborate with one another. Together as a group, they are the Excellence Board, which sits as part of the Trust Central Team. By joining in regular meetings, headteachers collaborate effectively across the Trust. The CEO nurtures collaboration among school heads and with the central team, being in regular contact either in person or over the phone, reaching out for feedback and encouraging the sharing of ideas and solutions. A monthly headteachers’ meeting reserves a full day for discussion, not only of what is coming up, but spending time reflecting on the vision and values. This may seem like a lot of time for some, but the Trust upholds that this time spent together, focusing on systems and processes for change and better wellbeing, is invaluable.

This principle extends to the staff at Maybury Primary School as well.

Culture: an approachable first port of call

Serving a multicultural community, it is important that the staff know the children and the community they serve. By having bilingual staff in school who are able to support parents and carers, Maybury Primary School provides effective community support. David Harris, CEO of the Trust, described the community’s trust in Maybury’s leadership, which is vital “If parents and carers don’t know where to go, they go to Amanda and her team [at Maybury].” The school provides a Play and Learn drop-in group every week for families with young children to attend, there are also many initiatives to support parents to work alongside their children. The school also has a full-time home-school link worker, who plays a pivotal role in supporting families in a wide range of ways, helping to signpost families to local services. The Senior Leadership Team are at the gate each morning and afternoon, emphasising approachability and accessibility for parents to tap into.

Specific leadership practices and the impact

Appropriate, valid and impactful

Within EEEA Academy Trust, the autonomy of schools puts the responsibility on school leaders to find the best solutions for their school. The Trust checks that what the school wants to do is appropriate, valid and impactful. This confidence in the people and processes is cultivated through everyone knowing they can ask for support either within the Trust or elsewhere. The principle of being an outward-looking trust is critical to looking for innovative solutions and seeking the best for the community, wherever they may be. This does not only apply to school heads, it applies to all staff, from deputy heads to business managers.

At the school level, Headteacher of Maybury Primary School, Amanda Merritt places an emphasis on being very reflective and selective of what initiatives are introduced to be mindful of staff workload. For example, before bringing in a new phonics scheme in the curriculum, a lot of time was put into ensuring the scheme would meet the needs of the children – researching, going to observe the methods in practice, and then investing in high-quality CPD to ensure staff are trained to deliver the scheme effectively.

This was followed by monitoring how the implementation was going, making sure it had the desired impact and having feedback conversations with staff about progress. Staff at the school are open because they feel safe to come and say, “We’ve tried this, this isn’t working, this is what we could do to refine it.” Amanda explains: “We believe that you need to do something well and ensure it is embedded before you move on to something else.”

School reviews

School reviews are a process of heads going into other schools in the Trust to share best practice and monitor effectiveness. It is a true “cherry-picking” experience of taking what works really well in one school and adapting it to a different school’s needs. There’s a great sense of openness among the head teachers, and everyone is happy to have people come in and observe.

Ethical leadership

As retention is a key area of focus in the sector at the moment, investment in people and their wellbeing is critical. At Maybury Primary School, the idea of ethical leadership means looking out for the staff to get the best out of the staff to benefit both the children and staff. Because there is such a high number of pupils with additional needs, the relationships and interactions between staff and pupils are key, so staff need to be in a good place to build those relationships.

Challenges and solutions

Challenge: leadership isolation

EEEA Academy Trust is very aware of the risk that leaders can feel isolated in their roles. The Trust recognises that the day-to-day responsibilities of leading a school can take a toll on wellbeing. As headteacher of Maybury Primary School Amanda Merritt explains, “It is easy to feel overwhelmed on an occasion when you are presented with multiple challenges on top of the day-to-day running of the school”. Therefore, the Trust emphasises open communication and strong relationships between leadership to combat this.

Solution: just a phone call away

The solution is knowing that there is always someone at the end of the line, someone to call and have a chat with. This comes from forming a strong foundation of knowing each other in a professional capacity, trusting one another and asking for support. By dedicating time for school heads to come together, there are more opportunities for them to put their minds together and collaborate on a solution. As CEO David Harris says, “We have shared values and a sharp focus on ensuring our headteachers have time for strategic thinking.”

Challenge: SEND needs

The past year has seen a significant increase in the high levels of complex SEND needs at Maybury Primary School. To help address challenges like this, the senior leadership team has a termly Solution Circle. This is an opportunity for the leadership team to each share something they have implemented, which has had a positive impact, to share and recognise success. In addition, they also share a challenge they are facing to allow the team to support ideas and possible strategies to make improvements. The Solution Circles have been extremely effective in helping leaders address challenges.

Solution: Solution Circle

After the first Solution Circle which identified high SEND need provision as a focus, the team worked to think creatively about ways to support these children with the best possible provisions for their needs. The team created an action plan which they implemented during the term. At the next Solution Circle, the previous challenge (high SEND needs provision) was then identified as a positive strength of the school. Although SEND needs are still complex, being proactive and looking for solutions in a flexible and creative way enabled school staff to see that teamwork and support can have a positive impact.

Practical advice to leaders

Be outward-looking, but stick to your values

The CEO, David Harris, points out that all Trusts need to be outward-looking to make sure they are continually learning and looking at what is out there. The Trust and Maybury Primary School have worked with about 30 external schools on school support work projects in the last two years. But David stresses that this needs to be balanced with being brave in leadership and not taking everything on: planning strategically, not making decisions too quickly and ensuring staff are brought along. David reflects on a question he has been asking himself lately about the legacy of the Trust:

Retention is the new recruitment

Amanda Merritt, Headteacher of Maybury Primary School, says that bringing people with you is key – investing in staff in forms of wellbeing and CPD, but also in time. She emphasises the importance of giving time to staff to allow them the opportunity to work on key school projects, for example, whole school curriculum plans, which ultimately results in a reduction of teacher workload in the long term. By focusing on retention and staff wellbeing, Amanda recognises the need to keep her staff on the journey with her as a school leader. She makes a point of keeping lines of communication open and transparent, with the common understanding that she wants the best for her staff so that they give their best to the children, working towards the same vision.