Inspiration Trust

Inspiration Trust is a large trust made up of 7 primaries, 10 secondaries, and 5 sixth forms in East Anglia. It serves over 10,000 pupils and is supported by over 1,000 staff. The trust’s commitment to education extends beyond the classroom, with teacher training programmes and continuous professional development (CPD) courses offered to teachers across the region.

Cromer Academy

Cromer Academy is a dynamic 11-16 secondary school located in Cromer, Norfolk, England. The Academy has a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating, and 26% of its pupils are eligible for pupil premium.

Key contributor: Liz Howard (HR Director)

Leadership structures and styles

Leadership structure: aligned autonomy

Cromer Academy’s leadership structure sits within the bigger trust structure. At Inspiration Trust, the leadership structure carefully balances each school’s individuality with a cohesive trust-wide identity. This is exemplified in their implementation of the “Primary Way” and “Secondary Way,” which functions as a structural framework for the trust’s primary and secondary schools. These guidelines serve as a foundation within which each school operates, allowing for a degree of autonomy while ensuring alignment with the trust’s overarching ethos.

In the context of the trust, the principal of Cromer Academy, Darren Hollingsworth, is managed by the secondary director, and they have regular one-to-ones.3 The secondary director puts forth the strategy as developed by the CEO and Trust Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Once a term, all the principals will meet with the trust SLT, ensuring a collaborative network across the trust. This structure guarantees that there is a unified direction specific to their cohort’s needs while still acknowledging the unique context of each school. In this structure, it is clear to school leaders what they have to deliver, but it is up to them how to deliver it.

Leadership style: team-focused

In describing the leadership style at Cromer Academy, Liz Howard, the trust’s HR director, emphasises the focus on creating a strong team that led the school for many years.

The leadership style embodies a unique blend of structured democracy and procedural justice, underpinned by a steadfast commitment to clarity in vision and values. This approach fosters an environment where voices from all stakeholders of the school community—pupils, teachers, managers, and parents—are not only heard but integral to the school’s direction, ensuring alignment with clear, overarching goals.

Culture: heart of the community

Cromer Academy’s culture thrives on its deep roots in the community, facilitated by its coastal setting and smaller size. This environment fosters strong bonds between the principal, Darren, staff, and the wider community. At the heart of this culture is a palpable sense of passion, significantly influenced by Darren’s role as a national lead for the Department of Education’s Behaviour Hub programme. His leadership, marked by national recognition, fosters a culture of sharing and celebrating successes, inspiring respect and admiration among staff members. The school’s unique coastal location allows it to offer distinctive community activities. During the summer, its grounds serve as a camping site, transforming the school into a site for community engagement. Furthermore, the school has a ‘House system’ with houses named after families in the community. Liz Howard, HR Director, encapsulates this ethos, highlighting: “We have got a leader [Darren] that has worked with his community, understood his community and worked to the strengths to get the very best.”

The data and discussion in this case study are based on the former principal of Cromer Academy, Darren Hollingsworth, who transitioned to a new school within the trust in January 2024.

Specific leadership practices and the impact

Clear priorities

To achieve the notable impact of high educational outcomes within challenging contexts, Inspiration Trust makes its priorities for success crystal clear. Despite being in Norfolk, a coastal region with varying levels of deprivation, Cromer Academy distinguishes itself with significant success, and this is partly due to what the trust requires schools to account for on a weekly basis.

Challenges and solutions

Challenge: improving attendance

Cromer Academy, a coastal school within Inspiration Trust, faces unique attendance challenges, particularly during the summer months. This issue is not isolated to Cromer but reflects a broader national concern exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solution: Accountability

Darren Hollingsworth, the school’s principal, addresses this challenge with empathy and flexibility. By implementing robust accountability mechanisms within the trust, there is a concerted effort to monitor and improve attendance issues. Schools are required to report their attendance figures weekly, ensuring proactive management and continuous efforts towards enhancing attendance rates.

Challenge: addressing negative feedback

Like many principals, Darren occasionally receives negative feedback from staff through surveys. While challenging, this feedback serves as an invaluable tool for understanding the areas that require improvement and fostering a culture of open communication within the school.

Solution: “you said, we did”

To address this, Darren and his HR advisor adopt a “you said, we did” approach, allowing for clear acknowledgement of issues and demonstration of steps taken to address them. Negative feedback can be seen as an important opportunity for growth and development. With extensive experience, Darren has learned to acknowledge feedback constructively without taking it personally. His approach to negative feedback fosters a culture of continuous improvement and open, transparent communication.

Practical advice to leaders

Be passionate and do not go with trends

Inspiration Trust’s HR Director Liz Howard advises that leaders should avoid flip-flopping from one great initiative to another if they want to ensure great leadership. Shifting from one initiative to another can fragment the team, whereas a consistent strategy allows staff to witness the positive impact of leadership, thereby fostering trust. Being consistent also ensures that there are not too many priorities which divert the focus. As Liz illustrates from the experience of Inspiration Trust and Cromer Academy: “Our strongest schools are the ones where we have consistency in our approach.”

Enable stakeholders to be responsible decision-makers

Liz shares that it is important to be focused on the objectives of collecting feedback so stakeholders understand the procedures and processes in place. She explains that building a strong structure and aligning with what the trust wants to achieve allows stakeholders to be informed and responsible decision-makers, aware of their role as individuals and the consequences laid out by the trust. She says, “We’ve been able to provide great role models to enable people to make the right choices.” Leaders must do their part to be role models for this process, which involves taking stakeholders’ voices seriously and being just across the board.