The Priory Federation Of Academies

The Priory Federation Of Academies is a mixed trust with 13 schools, including primary, secondary, all-through, and a special school, all located in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. The trust serves nearly 8,500 pupils and employs nearly 1,500 staff. The trust’s vibrant community of schools, each unique in size and context across phases, fosters a sense of shared belonging and responsibility within the learning community, epitomised by the tenet “We are the Trust.”

Ling Moor Primary Academy

Ling Moor Primary Academy, with 414 pupils and a dedicated team of 40 staff, has an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating. The school’s community shares the belief that they are part of ‘The Ling Moor Family’ – a thriving place of learning where children are supported and challenged to be the best that they can.

Key contributors: Jill Marston (Primary Executive), John Sisman (Headteacher of Ling Moor Primary Academy)

Leadership structures and styles

Leadership structure: balanced autonomy

The Priory Federation of Academies Trust employs a structure that navigates between standardisation and autonomy. This approach is tailored to accommodate the diverse needs of 13 unique schools, ensuring that while critical areas such as safeguarding and HR are uniformly managed, schools retain the liberty to customise their curricular and operational strategies. Centralised support functions serve to unburden headteachers, allowing them to focus on educational excellence.

Ling Moor Primary Academy mirrors the Trust’s balanced approach within its microcosm. It leverages a leadership model that emphasises the headteacher’s pivotal role in shaping educational delivery, supported by three assistant headteachers and a SENCO. This structure underscores the school’s dedication to fostering leadership that is intimately aware of and responsive to the school’s specific needs and challenges.

Leadership style: considered and agile

The trust’s leadership style is characterised by a proactive, reflective, and adaptable approach. Leaders across the trust are commended for their thoughtful decision-making, ensuring actions are measured and informed. Agility is paramount, allowing the trust to navigate challenges and opportunities with finesse, always prioritising the welfare of its schools and pupils.

At Ling Moor Primary Academy, the leadership team embodies a philosophy of empowerment, reflection, and collaborative decision-making. This approach is central to creating an environment where decisions are made with a deep understanding of their impacts on teaching and learning.

Culture: serious fun

The values of collaboration, transparency, and mutual respect are esteemed across the trust and its schools. These values are manifested in the way decisions are co-constructed, inviting contributions from across the trust community. This process not only enriches the decision-making but also fosters a sense of belonging and collective responsibility among staff members. The collaborative atmosphere is encapsulated in the tenet “We are the Trust.” Moreover, the culture reflects a focus on agency and the encouragement to take risks within a supportive framework.

Specific leadership practices and the impact

Staff wellbeing champions

In recognition of the recruitment and retention issues across the local and national sector, due to workload pressures and stress, trust and school leaders at The Priory Federation of Academies Trust dedicated efforts to improve staff wellbeing before it became an issue. As a result, the trust set up a strategic group with representatives from the central teams and schools, which eventually appointed a Staff Wellbeing Director.

The introduction of Mental Health First Aiders and Staff Wellbeing Champions throughout the trust’s schools and central service teams demonstrates a multi-layered approach to wellbeing. This structure ensures staff have immediate support contacts whilst maintaining a seamless link of communication and support from the trust to individual academies. The role of Staff Wellbeing Champions is to signpost colleagues to relevant charities, organisations, or counselling services. The trust also brings all the champions together two to three times a year to share best practice and to brainstorm further solutions. Through the training of representatives as Mental Health First Aiders and the establishment of a network of Wellbeing Champions, the Trust has ingrained a culture of care that is both accessible and robust.

The annual staff wellbeing survey, coupled with the responsive “You Said, We Did” approach on the top three priorities, further underscores the trust’s dedication to acting upon staff feedback. Being mindful of the diverse needs and pressures its staff face, the Trust has adopted a flexible and personalised approach to wellbeing. Recognising that wellbeing is as much an individual’s responsibility as it is the employer’s, the trust empowers its staff to manage their own wellbeing while providing the necessary resources and support structures. This balanced strategy ensures that staff have the autonomy to find what works best for them, aware that a comprehensive support system is ready to assist when needed.

At Ling Moor Primary Academy, Headteacher John Sisman focuses on addressing wellbeing through building an open culture. He says, “Fundamentally, wellbeing comes down to the culture that you have, which allows people to be open. And there are layers of opportunities for people to be open about how they feel and what pressures they are under.” He ensures that staff at the school have plenty of opportunities to meet with each other and with him to talk through anything with which they might be struggling.

Challenge and solution

Challenge: managing SEND needs

The challenge of adequately supporting pupils with increasingly complex SEND needs has been a pressing concern for many schools, including Ling Moor Primary Academy. With the post-COVID landscape exacerbating these challenges, schools have found themselves navigating an increasingly complex educational environment. Levels of national funding have also put additional strain on schools to respond strategically to support these pupils adequately.

Solution: adding SENCO to the SLT

In recognition of this challenge, Ling Moor Primary Academy made the strategic decision to include a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) as a representative on the school’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT). This pivotal move aimed to ensure that SEND considerations were at the forefront of all educational planning and decision-making processes within the school.

This change has enabled the leadership team to be proactive in their approach, anticipating challenges and preparing the capacity to address them effectively. John explained that making decisions with SEND needs already in mind will help reduce the need for interventions further down the line, which would potentially create a bigger body of work. The SENCO’s presence within the SLT has not only elevated the priority of SEND within the school but has also fostered a deeper understanding and awareness among all members of the leadership team regarding the complexities and nuances of supporting pupils with special needs. This collective awareness and strategic focus have been instrumental in enhancing the quality of SEND provision, ensuring that interventions are timely, effective, and seamlessly integrated into the wider educational experience.

Practical advise to leaders

Trust people

John Sisman, Headteacher at Ling Moor Primary Academy, emphasises the importance of placing trust in staff members, “Trust people and have that in the back of your mind… nobody comes to work to do a bad job.” He encourages leaders to recognise that when outcomes are not as expected, it often is not due to a lack of effort or desire but rather a need for a different perspective or additional support.

Simplicity is key

John also emphasises how crucial simplicity in operations and objectives is for leaders to be able to work well. By focusing on a few clear priorities, such as ensuring that all children who leave the school are able to read, John explains that it is easier to secure better buy-in from all stakeholders. Simplicity in objectives also allows leaders to spend more time engaging in consultative processes and deeply knowing the individuals within the organisation, which John attributes to the success of his school and the wider trust. Using reading as an example, having one such simple priority has allowed him time to invest in collaborating with his staff to make progress and deliver the best for his pupils.

Set the right culture

Jill Marston, Primary Executive of The Priory Federation of Academies Trust, highlights the need for leaders to set a positive culture within a trust to ensure its success, “Every member of staff should live, eat, and breathe the values which they really understand and feel part of the trust’s DNA.” She notes that the trust’s values should transcend being mere statements and should become a lived experience for everyone involved – from staff to pupils and parents. Highlighting the achievements of the Trust’s Executive Team in this regard, she reflects that leaders play a critical role in exemplifying values and nurturing a sense of belonging and shared purpose across the community. After working with the University of Lincoln, Jill explains what the trust has learned: “Our staff are really proud of wearing the Priory lanyard. And we are really proud that they are wearing it because we want to be the employer of first choice… so we have to get the culture and climate right.”