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Share In the ever-evolving landscape of education, trusts face the constant challenge of driving improvements that truly make a difference to pupils, staff, and parents. At Aspirations Academies Trust, stakeholder feedback has become central to shaping school culture, improving standards, and, ultimately, creating a more engaged and inclusive educational environment.
We sat down with Dr. Jeffery Quaye OBE, National Director of Education and Standards at Aspirations Academies Trust, to explore how his organisation is using a well-rounded feedback approach to enhance both learning outcomes and the broader school experience.
Dr Quaye is also a UK Government education policy advisor and member of Ofsted’s national expert reference group for curriculum, teaching, and assessment. He was formerly a regional Chief Executive Officer, Director of Standards and Effectiveness, and headteacher of an inner-city London 11-18 Academy.
Key Topics and Takeaways in this Spotlight:
A Multi-Layered Feedback Approach
- Collect feedback from all stakeholders (pupils, staff, and parents) through annual surveys, focus groups, and ongoing monitoring.
- Use this feedback to drive practical improvements, ensuring clear communication and transparency about actions taken.
The Role of Monitoring Visits
- Conduct six annual monitoring visits with internal and external leaders, focusing on teaching quality, behavior and wellbeing
- Use feedback from these visits to inform the Trust’s improvement strategy, enabling timely adjustments.
Gathering Feedback for the Central Team
- Collect feedback from school leaders to ensure the central team’s performance stays responsive and aligned with school needs
Tackling Long-Term Challenges
- Use feedback to ensure all pupils, including disadvantaged and SEND, access extracurricular activities.
The Role of Professional Growth
- Shift from traditional performance management to continuous professional development, boosting staff motivation, retention, and leadership growth.
A Unified Approach to School Improvement
- Engage all stakeholders in a cohesive improvement process, building an inclusive and supportive school culture where pupils thrive and staff grow.
The Foundations of a Feedback Culture
Aspirations Academies Trust, which was established in 2011, serves over 9,500 pupils across 16 academies. The trust operates in challenging communities, many of which face significant levels of deprivation, leading to lower levels of engagement and aspirations among pupils.
The trust’s mission is built around three guiding principles: self-worth, engagement and purpose. These principles inform every decision, shaping not only how the schools interact with pupils but also how they engage with staff and parents, and help to define what quality looks like across areas. Dr. Quaye explains that this commitment to fostering a sense of belonging, which helps to build self-worth, has been crucial in driving change:
A Multi-Layered Feedback Approach
To achieve meaningful engagement, the trust has developed a robust system for gathering feedback from pupils, staff, and parents. Surveys, focus groups, and monitoring systems are key tools in this process, providing data that helps school leaders make informed decisions.
Surveys are conducted annually, covering a wide range of topics, including pupil behaviour, teaching quality, and school environment. However, the survey results are just the starting point. The trust’s approach to feedback is a continuous cycle that digs deeper into the data through focus groups and follow-up discussions. Practically, this means taking 3 weaker areas of the survey and unpacking those to understand how respondents interpreted and responded to the questions. Then, based on those focus group discussions, an action plan is made. This is reported back to the trust board, as well as its executive team, so that there is continuity and accountability built into the process. “We aim to capture a 360-degree view of our schools by engaging all stakeholders,” Dr. Quaye explains.
One key area that a school in the trust has tackled through this feedback cycle is behaviour management. When staff surveys raised concerns about pupil behaviour, further exploration through focus groups revealed a gap between the perception of teachers and that of the pupils. As a result, the trust introduced new behaviour policies, which led to significant improvements in school culture, even earning ‘Outstanding’ behaviour ratings from Ofsted in some schools. If not for capturing the feedback around behaviour, the school would have kept doing more of the same, but by investing in the 360-degree, strategic approach to understanding behaviour, more directed actions could be taken to achieve success and external recognition. “We have to be transparent about what we’re doing with the feedback we receive,” says Dr. Quaye.
The trust also uses creative ways to engage parents, particularly in communities where parental involvement can be low. Parent forums and informal coffee mornings provide opportunities for parents to share their thoughts and get involved in school improvement efforts.
Key information and messages are constantly repeated and drip-fed in various formats, so that parents are kept abreast. Weekly newsletters are strategically used as a way to get information to parents by making the newsletters engaging to them. This is done by including a wide representation of pupils, so parents look for their child’s picture and want to read the news. Additionally, at pupils’ events and assemblies school heads use the opportunity to repeat important information.
“You can’t have enough communication in school because sometimes even key messages get lost,” says Dr. Quaye.
These initiatives have boosted parental engagement, ensuring that feedback from this crucial group is not overlooked and created more converging points to connect across different lived experiences. By actively working with parents in closing the feedback loop, when Ofsted inspections come along, there are no surprises in Parent View surveys, as the trust is aware and prepared.
The Role of Monitoring Visits
Aspirations Academies Trust conducts regular monitoring visits across all its schools to ensure standards are being met and to validate feedback from surveys and focus groups. These visits happen six times a year and involve both internal and external school leaders. They include not only classroom observations but also discussions with pupils, staff, and parents, offering a thorough review of each school’s progress.
Each visit focuses on specific aspects of school life, such as behaviour, quality of teaching, and wellbeing. Pupils and staff are selected at random for interviews, ensuring a broad representation of views. The feedback from these visits feeds directly into the trust’s improvement strategy, allowing leaders to make real-time adjustments and address any emerging concerns.
“Our monitoring visits ensure that we are not relying solely on data or one perspective,” says Dr. Quaye.
The visits are not just about identifying issues; they also provide opportunities for celebrating good practice and ensuring schools are aligned with the trust’s vision and values. Feedback from the visits is then reviewed at the trust’s education board, with actions agreed upon and tracked over time.
Gathering Feedback for the Central Team
In a unique approach, Aspirations Academies Trust also opens itself up to feedback from its own school leaders. The central team, responsible for oversight and support, participates in facilitating a feedback process where school principals offer their insights into how well the trust’s leadership is supporting them.
“We gather feedback from our school leaders on the performance of the central team,” Dr. Quaye explains.
This feedback loop has proven invaluable in refining the trust’s operations. It ensures that the central leadership remains in tune with the realities on the ground, allowing them to respond to the needs of individual schools more effectively.
Tackling Long-Term Challenges
While the trust is committed to addressing short-term issues that emerge from feedback, it also uses the data to inform longer-term, strategic decisions. These are reflected in the trust’s long-term development plan, which is a strategic document for the academic year, evaluated every half term to monitor progress. For instance, after the pandemic, feedback revealed gaps in pupils’ participation in extracurricular activities. To address this, the trust worked with schools to develop a cultural capital offer, ensuring that all pupils, regardless of background, have access to a range of enriching experiences.
“We wanted to make sure that all pupils, not just those who could afford it, had the opportunity to benefit from a broad curriculum,” Dr. Quaye explains.
The cultural capital offer is now a central part of the trust’s curriculum strategy, designed to provide meaningful and impactful experiences for every pupil, from reception through to Year 13. Participation targets are set for schools based on various data, from disadvantaged pupils to pupils with SEND, with the overall goal to increase participation across the curriculum.
The Role of Professional Growth
Beyond its work with pupils and parents, Aspirations Academies Trust places a strong emphasis on staff development. The trust has shifted away from traditional performance management models and has embraced a professional growth approach, focusing on continuous improvement and personal development. “Our professional growth model is about identifying training and development opportunities for staff, helping them build the skills they need to progress in their careers,” says Dr. Quaye.
This investment in staff development has led to improved outcomes across the board, ensuring that teachers are well-supported and motivated to deliver the best possible education to their pupils. It also has supported retention by building a pipeline of leaders within the organisation that are ready to step up into new roles if and as needed.
A Unified Approach to School Improvement
At the heart of Aspirations Academies Trust’s success is its commitment to creating a unified and cohesive school community, where everyone’s voice is valued. By engaging all stakeholders—pupils, staff, and parents—the trust has built a culture of continuous improvement that goes beyond quick fixes, addressing the deeper issues that impact education.
For other multi-academy trusts and schools looking to foster a similar culture, Dr. Quaye offers this advice:
The trust’s approach demonstrates that when schools take the time to listen, reflect, and act, they can create environments where pupils thrive, teachers grow, and communities come together.
For More on Strategic Stakeholder Feedback
Explore our Stakeholder Feedback Hub for the ins and outs of getting from results to action as effectively as possible. The hub includes concrete steps to work through and downloadable materials to help you make the most out of the process.
