Ted Wragg Trust

Ted Wragg Trust is a regional multi-academy trust, consisting of 17 schools in the southwest of England. The trust’s values are ambition, selflessness and collaboration and this is something that the trust leadership team model at every opportunity.

Marine Academy Primary is based in St Budeaux, Plymouth. The school has above-average levels of Pupil Premium, an above-average proportion of White British pupils, and serves a very close catchment area – most pupils live within 1.2 miles of the school. The school received an Outstanding Ofsted rating in its last inspection in 2022.

Marine Academy Plymouth is based in St Budeaux, Plymouth. The school is in an area of relative deprivation, with 64% of pupils in band A, the highest level of deprivation outlined in the Income Deprivation Affecting Child Index (IDACI). The school received a Good Ofsted rating in its last inspection in 2024.

Key contributors: Tamsin Frances (Executive Director of Operations & Innovations at Ted Wragg Trust), Lisa Thomas (Director of People at Ted Wragg Trust), Georgina Reid (Headteacher of Marine Academy Primary) Jen Brimming (Headteacher of Marine Academy Plymouth (Secondary))

Practice and impact

Changing staff perceptions with a strong school culture

Headteacher of Marine Academy Primary, Georgina Reid, does not believe that workload should be eradicated – instead, she takes the view that education is a profession and by definition that comes with a need to work. At Marine Academy Primary, the school is ambitious and wants to ensure their pupils can be ambitious too by supporting them to achieve their greatest potential and live by life’s highest values. However, Georgina understands that this would not be possible without the structures and culture in place to ensure the hard work is rewarding and improving the outcomes for all children.

Instead, the team has worked to build a culture where “#TeamMarine” work hard when they are in the school but are acknowledged for their efforts and supported by clear structures built to enable staff to enjoy their lives outside of their profession. If there is ever a situation where staff workload and wellbeing appears to come at the expense of quality of education for pupils, Georgina and her colleagues work to find the winwin resolution, and they have a social contract between the school and staff that everyone can be trusted to speak up when they need more support, and to provide support where possible to others who need it.

Balancing centralisation with flexible resource planning

To help provide the right balance of efficiency and effectiveness, teachers at Marine Academy Primary plan their core subjects – Maths, English and Phonics – but everything else is planned centrally by subject experts. This saves a significant amount of time per teacher and they can ensure the highest quality of materials without needing to reinvent the wheel, at the same time as giving teachers the flexibility to use their unique skills in areas that will have the greatest impact.

Getting feedback right

The marking policy at Marine Academy Primary includes the expectation that no overall comments are recorded in learning books, instead focusing on areas the pupil might need to work on more. If someone at Marine Academy Primary is falling behind, support is given immediately to try and keep the attainment gap as narrow as possible. This means less work for teachers to fill gaps later on in learning journeys and a more positive outcome for the pupil. This is supplemented by an expectation that, throughout the lesson, teachers are providing positive, specific feedback. This has had a more positive impact on pupils than the previous approach and has reduced the burden of time on teachers, as well as the physical burden of carrying large numbers of exercise books home each evening.

Finding opportunities to be flexible

Marine Academy Primary has enabled staff to take PPA time offsite. Beyond this, if people need to leave early sometimes, whether for a medical appointment or an important family event, leaders will make it happen. This is part of the social contract they have with the team that they will ask when it is important, people will support them, and then they will support others. Additionally, the school has a specific approach to emails, which recommends that no emails are sent between 6:30 pm and 7:30 am, or at weekends, unless there is a safeguarding emergency or staff are contacting to let the leadership team know that they are unwell. The same rule applies to emails during the first five weeks of the summer holidays – people can do their prep whenever it works for them. There was initially some hesitation that this approach may lead to work falling behind, but Georgina has not seen any difference in her team’s output.

One size fits no-one

Across Ted Wragg Trust, the team believe that if it is possible to create a centralised approach that streamlines things for their schools then it is worth doing so. However, they are clear that implementing something consistently should not create more work for staff, or result in less positive outcomes for the pupils, so centralisation occurs only where they see an overall benefit to those within the schools. This is modelled by school leadership teams across the Trust, but also at the department level within schools. By ensuring that consistency is used to ease the burden on staff, the Trust and school leadership are able to find space to provide people with what they really need to thrive in their role.

Organisational culture provides focus and motivation

One of Ted Wragg Trust’s core values is ambition. Hiring decisions are made based on whether or not they believe staff will be ambitious enough to provide their pupils with the support they need to achieve their potential. By ensuring the staff fully understand the impact and value of what they are doing, the team have found it is far easier to remain motivated and that their day-to-day tasks do not feel as much like hard work, and instilling a growth mindset across the organisation means people take on challenges with enthusiasm rather than fear.

Balancing staff and pupil needs

At Marine Academy Plymouth, whenever they consider introducing a new initiative the first question they ask is: “is this going to be too much for teachers?” Headteacher Jen Brimming emphasises the importance of balancing staff workload with the need to provide high-quality education to pupils, especially in a disadvantaged context, and believes that school improvement does not have to come at the expense of staff wellbeing. Instead, Jen and the team look for innovative solutions that allow for more effective staff workload management and improved outcomes for the pupils they serve.

For example, the school has restructured timetables to allow teachers to have their PPA (Planning, Preparation, and Assessment) time at a time that works for them, ensuring they can spend time with their families without compromising pupil consistency. This was built into the timetable for the year – it was a difficult task to get right but the benefits are clear to Jen. Additionally, they have implemented a system to manage cover lessons, where leaders in the school take cover in a bespoke “study hall” to minimise disruption for pupils and reduce the burden on teachers.

Planning and efficiency

Marine Academy Plymouth strives to bring consistency to as many elements of school life as possible. It can be seen in the structured approach to meetings and planning cycles, ensuring that teachers are aware of schedules in advance, which helps them manage their time effectively. The school works on a 12-week cycle for lessons, meetings and quality assurance processes, and this is carried over into the marking policy where time is built into the cycle to give live feedback in lessons rather that mark work outside of lesson time. Looking for efficiency in all processes helps to free up time for teachers to plan to the needs of their children

Challenges and solutions

Hiring for character, not experience

Hiring based on the school and trust’s values is a positive part of recruitment at Marine Academy Primary. They are very honest with candidates that there are high aspirations and this can mean working hard. They have hired people who are less qualified but who will find real excitement in the job, and they have seen people turn them down if they have felt that the approach in that school is not right for them. Headteacher Georgina Reid feels a huge amount of respect for the individuals in these instances as she knows long term it is the best thing for the staff and the pupils.

A culture of appreciation

Acknowledging that the job can be hard, and understanding that it requires people who are truly passionate about their profession, Marine Academy Primary has implemented a culture of “just do nice things”. Their Secret Buddy system has been a resounding success – those who wish to take part fill in a short survey of their favourite things (for example their favourite chocolate). Throughout the year, their Secret Buddy will leave treats like these for their colleague to enjoy. It is a small investment from the team members but one that has led to a huge sense of excitement and goodwill. This is supported by an overall culture of thanks and celebration: there are opportunities to provide weekly shout outs to colleagues for anything that they have appreciated during that week.

Comfort with experimentation

Headteacher Georgina Reid has had to become comfortable with trying new things at Marine Academy Primary, as some initiatives have worked well while others needed adjustments to be effective. For example, the team was spending a lot of time and effort getting parental consent for pupils to go on trips. Each pupil is offered a trip once a term, ranging from a library visit to more active or residential activities. With the frequency of trips, the school decided to streamline the consent process by using a Microsoft Form, which was easier for both staff and parents.