Red Kite Learning Trust
Are you seeking to create a sustainable and fulfilling working environment for your staff while maintaining a strong focus on academic excellence?
This case study explores the strategies and approaches employed by Red Kite Learning Trust, a multi-academy trust renowned for its commitment to nurturing ambition and enriching children’s lives. By examining Red Kite Learning Trust’s experiences, educational leaders can gain valuable insights and identify best practices for improving staff wellbeing and retention within their own organisations.
Their insights illustrate how leadership fosters a strong organisational culture conducive to manageable and fulfilling workloads. Along with other schools and trusts we interviewed we created a Balancing Workload in School Trusts guide, which acts as an encyclopaedia of approaches, practices and advice, this guide is built on interviews with 18 leaders.
Red Kite Learning Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust made up of 14 schools across North and West Yorkshire, serving more than 9,750 children and young people, from nursery through to sixth form. The shared Trust mission of nurturing ambition, delivering excellence and enriching children’s lives is at the heart of all the Trust does.
Temple Learning Academy is an all-through school catering to both primary and secondary students, with a focus on balancing staff workload and promoting staff wellbeing. high level of socio- and economic- deprivation. TLA is located in East Leeds, in the middle of an estate that has a disproportionately The demographic of the 1,000 pupil cohort in school is: 65% Pupil Premium; 30% SEND; 30% EAL; very high levels of in-year mobility into and out of the school. Last year represented a typical degree of movement where 17% of the pupils joined in-year.
Key contributors: Stuart Huddleston, the Headteacher of Temple Learning Academy
In this case study:
- Practice and impact
- Challenges and solutions
Practice and impact
A comprehensive CPD program
Temple Learning Academy has implemented a structured, long-term Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme to ease staff workload while maintaining a high standard of professional growth. As a part of the three-year school improvement plan, the programme emphasises consistency, and improvement without overloading staff with frequent changes or “new tricks.” Staff appreciate the stability, as it allows them to focus on refining their skills rather than adapting to constant shifts in approach.
The programme has become a model of good practice within the school and Trust, as sessions are mostly delivered internally by staff themselves, who know the challenges and the context of the school, but take this as an opportunity to get experience teaching peers. To find time for this, Headteacher Stuart Huddlesont has been creative and practical, by taking two days at the very end of the academic year before summer break and disaggregated the days as CPD time for staff throughout the year. Staff voted on how they wanted to spread this time across and are happy to be able to start their summer holidays a bit earlier. Additionally, to support the work of staff, there is a full-time staff coach in school, who will coach to improve the pedagogical side of things, helping staff with teaching strategies and classroom practice.
Middle leadership development: a key to retention
A standout feature of Temple Learning Academy’s workload management is the Middle Leadership Development programme, designed to support both aspiring, new and experienced leaders. This programme offers leadership training, community visits, and internal CPD sessions, empowering middle leaders to drive school improvement. By investing in these leaders, the school reduces the pressure on senior leadership and builds internal capacity for sustained progress and retention of staff.
Empowering middle leaders
“Middle leaders are the tip of the spear. They’re driving school improvement forwards. They are the ones on the ground, they’re the ones working with their teams, they’re the engine room, they’re the drivers. So, it’s well worth that investment in them and for them.”
Talent directory and peer support
Temple Learning Academy has developed a “talent directory,” which highlights the individual strengths of staff members. This resource allows staff to seek advice and support from colleagues based on their areas of expertise, fostering peer-to-peer learning and reducing the need for external training. It also encourages collaboration and ensures that teachers feel supported by their colleagues.
Leveraging staff expertise
“The talent directory is a list of staff and their particular talent. Some may be pedagogical experts, they may be particularly good at questioning children, or scaffolding learning for special education needs. Then, based on our observations, if we see that somebody might need a bit of help, we direct them to this person. If we see great practice in action during observations, we ask staff to share their work, at staff briefings or by recording some of those sessions so that it’s readily available to others.”
Flexible work arrangements and additional PPA time
Temple Learning Academy offers flexible working arrangements where possible, including part-time options from the outset. In addition, Temple Learning Academy goes beyond the standard PPA (Planning, Preparation, and Assessment) time by offering all teaching staff (primary and secondary) more than the statutory 10%. This additional time helps teachers manage lesson planning and assessment more efficiently. In Primary, teachers have their PPA alongside their partner teacher (same year group) to enable collaborative planning. The school also employs a full-time cover supervisor to ensure that the requirement for staff to cover for absent colleagues is reduced to an absolute minimum, thereby maintaining their focus on their core teaching duties. All this gets done around a centralised calendar which is built at the beginning of each academic year and is reviewed by a volunteer calendar working group to highlight any areas of concern and to move things around to make sure there is consensus on the best order of events (workflow) across the school, across the phases.
Staff wellbeing
Staff wellbeing is a priority at Red Kite Learning Trust. At Temple Learning Academy, staff members have a termly “wellbeing hour” they can take when they wish, to either come to work a bit later or leave earlier, or take a long lunch, as long as it is planned in advance and there is someone to cover the time. Additionally, a wellbeing committee, managed by HR, provides a safe space for staff to raise concerns and propose improvements. This committee also organises social events and wellbeing activities, fostering a positive school culture, and the school has created designated relaxation areas for staff to unwind, separate from workspaces, promoting mental health.
Supporting mental health proactively
“We have a full-time, qualified mental health practitioner, who works with staff and with children. It is a role that is both proactive and reactive. It’s proactive in terms of a programme of education for the children and activities for staff, but it’s also reactive for the needs of staff and the needs of children. There are drop-in sessions for both.”
HR Director of Red Kite Learning Trust Ria Tomlinson shares the Trust’s perspective on the importance of staff wellbeing and workload:
Collaborative support for wellbeing
“As part of Red Kite Learning Trust, schools benefit from shared knowledge and a central team of experts who work collaboratively and supportively to deliver the best outcomes for children. People are at the heart of how we deliver this and promoting wellbeing is a fundamental goal of our Trust. Investing in our people through providing the opportunity for colleague voice is instrumental in how we listen to our colleagues and ensure a supportive and successful employee experience and culture within our Trust.”
Challenges and solutions
Centralised systems to maximise focus on teaching
At Temple Learning Academy, non-teaching tasks, such as photocopying and data analysis, have been minimised through dedicated staff roles in reprographics, data management, and HR. This centralised support allows teachers to concentrate on teaching rather than spending time on administrative duties, which can contribute significantly to workload stress. Additionally, Temple Learning Academy has centralised its lesson planning and detention systems. Teachers increasingly receive pre-planned lessons from their departments, which they can then adapt to their specific classes. This shared approach not only ensures consistency but also reduces the burden on individual teachers. The school’s centralised detention system also minimises that burden from teachers, leaving them more time to focus on their primary role of teaching.
Removing barriers to teaching
“Staff were asked, ‘What gets in your way of actually executing your primary role?’, which is either to teach children or to support children to access their learning. The responses clearly indicated that teachers do not want to be crunching numbers or photocopying.”
Managing different staff needs in an all-through school
Headteacher of Temple Learning Academy, Stuart Huddleston acknowledges that managing workload in an all-through setting presents unique challenges, especially when balancing the needs of both primary and secondary staff. However, the initiatives in place, such as additional PPA time, streamlined administrative tasks, and the focus on wellbeing, have contributed to a positive culture that supports staff retention. As Stuart describes it, “The primary and secondary settings, they are sisters, they are not twins. So we cannot have exactly the same systems in both, but we try to be as consistent and fair with the initiatives and incentives we provide for all staff, finding the best way to act on the initiatives in each setting.” Temple Learning Academy is committed to fostering an environment where workload is carefully managed, allowing teachers to focus on what matters most—educating and supporting their pupils. The school continues to refine its practices, with the goal of achieving both staff satisfaction and academic excellence.