St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust: Inspirational Curriculum Visit

Shortly after half-term, a group of over twenty school leaders from across the St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust (SJCMAT) embarked on a two-day curriculum visit to ARK schools in London.

ARK schools, and their commercial arm, ARK Curriculum Plus, supply all the SJCMAT schools with its fully resourced, high-quality curriculum in English, maths, science and humanities, in both primary and secondary schools. During day one, school leaders attended workshops across the strands of mathematics mastery, english mastery, science mastery and SLT Expertise. These workshops were combined with opportunities to network and discuss best practice with leading schools from across the country.

SJCMAT was extremely proud of CEO Andrew Truby, who was invited to speak to the whole conference as part of the key note panel alongside other national leaders in the educational sector, including Emma McCrea, curriculum design leader at Oak Academy and Oliver Caviglioli, famous for the Walk-Thru series of books popular in schools across the world.

Following the successful conference, school leaders visited two secondary schools and two primary schools to understand how the curriculum was enacted. With multiple lesson visits, presentations from senior leaders and pupil discussions, leaders left with a full appreciation of how these schools, in challenging circumstances, achieved the very best outcomes for the young people they serve.

In feeding back on the two days of workshops and visits, one colleague commented, that it was the best professional development they have received in over sixteen years of teaching; and the impact is already being seen in the improved implementation of the ARK curriculum across the SJCMAT family.