VLT annual dividend report 2021-2022

Vanguard Learning Trust

Annual

Chair of Trustees’ opening message

This first edition of the annual dividend report for Vanguard Learning Trust reflects the significant progress that has been made in the past four years to establish us as a local cross-phase Trust with a vision of outstanding, inclusive education and a core purpose focused on school improvement work.

The expansion of our Trust last year to five schools has allowed us to develop the provision and capacity for excellent school-to-school collaboration and sharing of best practice as well as developing our internal systems including an open culture to external assurance work.

Our dividend report for 2021-2022 captures the benefits of working together as a group of schools, rather than separate ones, and showcases the range of opportunities that were available to staff and students.

As Chair of Trustees, I am proud of the journey we have made since the Trust was first established in 2015 and I am enormously grateful to all the staff, trustees, governors and members for their unwavering commitment to serving our local communities.

Peter Davies, Chair of Trustees

Our Trust and its vision and values

Learning Trust’s vision, values, mission and core purpose were updated in 2021 through the establishment of a working party in 2020 with representation from all schools as well as governors and trustees.

The drafting process included feedback from schools’ leadership teams with unanimous agreement that the vision of outstanding, inclusive education reflects the collective responsibility and purpose of Vanguard Learning Trust as a ‘family’ of schools serving its local community.

‘Being given the opportunity to work with other schools in Vanguard Learning Trust to develop our visions and values allowed us as a team to capture perfectly what ties us all together. It highlighted the Trust’s ethos of ensuring that each school maintains its individuality

whilst identifying how we can work together to ensure that we provide an outstanding, inclusive education for all of our stakeholders. The process and subsequent outcome represents everything that we aim to achieve together, focusing on aspiration, community and equity. It was a wonderful opportunity to advocate for our school and allowed me to feel like my voice really mattered.’

Georgia Harling, Acting Assistant Headteacher at Hermitage Primary School

Vanguard

Outstanding, inclusive education

Community

Aspiration Equity

Core purpose

Vanguard Learning Trust’s core purpose is to provide outstanding, inclusive education through collective responsibility across several, rather than individual, local schools. This provides a sustainable foundation allowing for a broader range of school improvement work including cross-phase, joint professional development opportunities as well as student activities. The collective responsibility allows schools and the central team to provide support and share expertise both within and beyond the Trust.

The Trust’s values are represented by ACE:

Aspiration

Endless possibilities with limitless boundaries

Mission statement

Community

Collective responsibility, collaborating within and beyond the Trust

Equity

Opportunities for all to achieve equitable outcomes

As a group of local primary and secondary schools, Vanguard Learning Trust’s mission is to serve its local community by providing outstanding, inclusive education. We have a collective purpose and responsibility to provide effective teaching, through a curriculum based on equality of opportunity and entitlement that allows our students to shine both in and out of the classroom. Each school in the Trust has its own ethos, which also complements the Trust’s vision and values, and the common aspiration that all students can achieve their potential.

Vyners School

Overview of the year

The academic year, 2021-2022, was transformative for the Trust because of its expansion from three to five schools with Field End Junior School and Hermitage Primary School joining the Trust on 1st September 2021 after being associate schools since the spring term 2020.

The Trust’s central team worked with the new schools to assimilate them into Trust-wide processes, in particular school improvement work, governance and finance. In addition, the Trust recruited two school improvement directors to lead on the Trust’s school improvement strategy, including a revision of the Trust’s school improvement principles, and a relaunch of the peer review programme. These roles have accelerated the Trust’s contribution to school improvement work; they provide discrete, expert advice and support to help improve teaching and learning and impact on the experience of the students which is fundamental to the Trust’s work.

The Trust’s schools continued to work well together to cope with the challenges of the pandemic through collective decision making and sharing of resources. The Trust concluded its support staff harmonisation process to ensure all support staff are employed on the more favourable nationally agreed terms and conditions. This supports the Trust’s commitment to its staff to be a good and fair employer. One of the positive changes that was evident by the end of the academic year was the engendering of collective responsibility partly through the promotion of referring to Vanguard Learning Trust as ‘our’ Trust with headteachers and the chief executive officer united in the moral imperative to provide outstanding, inclusive education through a collective core purpose.

‘As a member of staff who has worked within the organisation during the inception of Vanguard Learning Trust, it has been wonderful to see the journey that the Trust has been on over recent years. There is a clear sense of collective responsibility within the Trust and a strong belief that we should all work together to benefit all of the families that we serve and not just those within our individual schools.

The Trust is also committed to being a fair and generous employer.

An example of this for the staff at Vyners was the support staff harmonisation process that took place in the past academic year.

This has provided a positive financial uplift for the overwhelming majority of our support staff and, along with other initiatives such as the long-service awards, it has meant that our staff feel valued and committed to the work that we do to improve the lives of our young people.’

“

There is a clear sense of collective responsibility within the Trust and a strong belief that we should all work together to benefit all of the families that we serve and not just those within our individual schools.”

Gary Mullings, Headteacher, Vyners School

Gary Mullings, Headteacher, Vyners School

Financial summary

The Trust has invested over the past two years in financial, compliance and human resources technology to create fully integrated solutions across all schools, leading to efficiency, effectiveness and streamlining of processes, reduced risk and increased transparency.

In addition, a number of finance staff who were initially employed by our schools, have been given an opportunity to develop their skills and various internal promotions took place as part of the financial centralisation. The Trust continued its expansion and added estates and human resources roles to the team leading to wider competence and enhanced support for all schools.

The Trust impact in numbers

The school condition allocation money that has been awarded to Field End is making an enormous difference to our school. We have been able to complete projects, such as improving the perimeter fencing and, over the coming weeks and months, new gates will be installed; the CCTV system will be updated; and our reception area will undergo a major refurbishment. This funding allows us to make much needed improvements to the school and we are very excited to see the changes.’

Jacquie Phelan, Headteacher, Field End Junior School

Governance

A key function of governance, at school and board level, is to hold the executive to account. Knowledge and understanding were strengthened across the Trust through the implementation of focused, data-driven standing items on agendas to ensure consistency and accuracy of information. This allowed local governing bodies (LGBs) and the board of trustees to make informed, timely decisions.

The central team also provided support to the schools in the preparation of Trust-wide data comparison reports, which has led to improved reporting.

With the expansion of the Trust it became apparent that the governance structure needed to be streamlined so a review was carried out during the spring term and consultations with governors were held during the summer term for implementation in 2022-2023.

As a result of the review, the following were implemented:

an update to the scheme of delegation and governance framework

the inclusion of role descriptions for all Trust committees, including LGBs, and specific trustee and governor roles

the creation of a primary hub comprising Hermitage Primary School and Ryefield Primary School

the creation of a joint secondary school education and standards committee

A commitment to maintaining LGBs as an important aspect of local governance to support each school’s unique identity

environmental sustainability and students

to present some of the activities going on in their school. There were also guest speakers, from within and outside the education sector, presenting on current environmental activities. The June 2022 day focused on school visits in the morning and then a coming together in the afternoon to celebrate long-service awards and a review of the year.

it can be. Effective collaboration has been significant where governors have willingly supported their colleagues in other schools across the Trust in a number of areas.

Next steps

The Trust’s plans for 2022-2023 include:

a review of LGB agendas; and

‘Governance of a dynamic organisation is a journey; it is not a static thing and I have been privileged to be part of the continuously developing endeavour of reviewing and refining what we do and why we do it so that our Trust is the best

The formation of the primary hub is a significant step forward that has brought together the experience and knowledge of two primary schools in order to support our Trust’s vision of outstanding, inclusive education. The formation of the joint secondary schools’ education and standards committee further supports this aim. Both groups are able to share and discuss outcomes data and best practice to find out what works and how initiatives in one school may be implemented in another. Our journey continues!’

Janet Beater, company secretary

the development of both a training and recruitment programme for governors and trustees.

Our Trust, our dividend

Our Trust has 5 schools:

Field End Junior School

Hermitage Primary School

Ruislip High School

Ryefield Primary School

Vyners School

Our Trust has 3, 501 students from nursery to Year 13

Our Trust has 510 employees who are primarily based in schools

Our Trust has 3 overarching aims as part of its long-term plans from 2020-2022, which are:

To engender an ethos of collective responsibility within its community, promoting joint school improvement work which is planned and evaluated, and providing a range of professional development opportunities for its staff.

To expand to between five and eight schools, establishing a reputable local cross-phase Trust that serves its local community by providing outstanding, inclusive education.

To establish efficient and robust core functions that support and serve all schools in the Trust, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks and providing resilience and sustainability.

Our Trust has 8 fora which are groups of staff with the same role meeting to share best practice

Our Trust held 1 staff conference in November 2021 and governance days in November 2021 and June 2022

Our staff were recognised with long-service awards with staff receiving an award in July 2022

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29 of our staff, at different stages of career development, completed one of the three SSAT leadership courses – emerging leaders, middle leadership and stepping up to senior leadership – and received accreditation for their participation.

All schools’ leadership teams and the central team attended critical incident training for their level of responsibility as well as real-life simulation.

7 staff, who were new to being senior leaders in their schools, attended termly group sessions with an external facilitator on active learning, which also included one-to-one coaching sessions.

It is a huge honour to receive this long-service award by Vanguard Learning Trust. It has been a privilege to have known and worked with four wonderful headteachers, who have maintained the excellent reputation of our great school with dedicated hardworking staff and lovely students. It has also been so wonderful to see students from within the community in which I live achieve such great successes having studied at Vyners, including my three children.”

Manny Kalsi, Admissions Officer and School Administrator, Vyners School

Sharing best practice

The routine sharing of best practice has been established through the Trust fora, which are groups of staff with specific roles who meet regularly throughout the year. During 2021-2022, the following groups of staff with specific roles met regularly – data protection leads, deputy headteachers, designated safeguarding leads, equality leads, headteachers, HR administration staff, Pupil Premium leads, and SENCos.

A few of the many examples of sharing best practice included one school explaining how it had developed an effective protocol for dealing with allegations in relation to peer-on-peer abuse; senior HR leads having training on the new HR policies, including providing them with useful templates; and the identification of areas of best practice through the Trust scorecard process, which included headteachers providing information at the heads’ review day in April 2022. The feedback from Trust-wide activities notes a number of the benefits in relation to sharing best practice including working with other Trust colleagues through the peer review process; supporting staff new in post by working with more experienced post-holders; and reducing workload by sharing key paperwork.

Next steps

The Trust’s plans for 2022-2023 include:

the use of a project brief template so that Trust-wide work identifies key objectives for projects and how they will be evaluated; the establishment of subject networks allowing teachers to share best practice and develop effective working relationships between subject leads; and the launch of TeachMeets focused on reading, the theme for this year, providing an opportunity to share best practice regarding the development of students’ reading.

As a member of both the safeguarding and equality fora I have found it immensely helpful to collaborate with colleagues. It has been particularly beneficial to discuss policies and procedures as sharing our ideas has meant that we can take the most efficient route to improving our practice.”

Marie Coltman, Deputy Headteacher, Ruislip High School

Professional development

The number of Trust-wide professional development opportunities continues to increase year-on-year with the academic year 2021-2022 focusing on the completion of the three SSAT accredited leadership courses; the continuation of the establishment of the Let’s Think hub; the training of senior leaders in new HR policies; and the setting up of a course for the seven new members of the schools’ senior leadership teams led by an external consultant.

Other professional development opportunities included the second Trust-wide staff conference in November focusing on the Trust’s vision of outstanding, inclusive education; the professional development of school leaders with critical incident training to ensure they understand their role and responsibility; safeguarding training on developing a whole-school culture for the forum members; and training for SENCos from a lead Ofsted inspector.

As part of the evaluation process, the importance of the facilitator’s knowledge and expertise was a key factor noted by participants in their evaluations, in particular with the critical incident training and staff new to a senior leadership team in the Trust.

for discussion and reflection being commonly noted as features that enhanced the sessions.

Next steps

These were all excellent examples of the Trust’s core purpose of providing staff with joint professional developmental opportunities to drive school improvement.

The feedback from the different courses and sessions includes the usefulness of having time for reflection, developing knowledge of policies and practice and considering new contexts especially for those on the stepping up to senior leadership course. For the SSAT leadership course, participants’ feedback consistently stated the usefulness of faceto-face sessions compared with online ones with role play, prior reading and plenty of time

The Trust’s plans for 2022-2023 support the Trust’s strategic school improvement plan and include: staff development opportunities focusing on the theme of reading through the peer review process and TeachMeets, and teachers’ confidence with teaching relationship and sex education with the support of an external consultant;

the launch of joint professional development sessions with headteachers and deputy headteachers with the CEO on a half-termly basis and the establishment of a Trust-wide leadership development model with the objective of launching the Trust’s programmes in the autumn term 2023; and the Let’s Think hub’s continued development of teachers in the approach’s intervention pedagogy through lesson demonstrations and development of teachers’ understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the schemes in English, mathematics and science.

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the new to senior leaders course during my first year with The Trust. The facilitator helped me to become a more reflective leader; gave the group a space to talk through any challenges we may have been having to get support from one another; and also an opportunity to share our successes.

The coaching sessions that took place in between each session were extremely valuable in helping me to develop into the deputy headteacher I am today.

Stepping into the role as deputy headteacher meant that I also took on the role of senior HR lead and although I was

familiar with aspects of the role, there were new elements too. The various HR training sessions that I participated in have been fundamental in my understanding of the role and the requirements. The sessions were concise and real-life experiences were shared to aid in the importance and comprehension of the various HR policies.’

Cadette, Deputy Headteacher, Ryefield Primary School

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School-to-school collaboration

The Trust is committed to facilitating regular school-toschool collaboration as part of the approach to increase net capacity for school improvement work; this ensures that schools can maintain high standards and allows our students to fulfil their potential both in and out of the classroom.

School-to-school collaboration has involved staff working together on a Trust-wide initiative/event or as part of some identified school improvement work.

The second Trust-wide equality week in June 2022 was an excellent example of staff in all five schools, from the Trust’s equality forum, working together to organise a week of activities and speakers. Other examples of collaboration include the SENCo from one school supporting the acting SENCo

in another; the newly appointed executive headteacher (EHT), primary lead, leading school-to-school collaboration; the English department in one secondary school supporting the other with the assessment of students’ writing through a drafting process; the staff charter and environmental sustainability working parties allowing staff across the Trust to collaborate on specific projects; and SSAT leadership courses being co-facilitated by leaders from different schools.

The feedback from these collaborations reflects the progression of the Trust from collective responsibility to collective efficacy as colleagues have worked to lead and/ or support specific school improvement work in other schools. In addition, SSAT facilitators’ feedback reflected how much they benefited from the knowledge and experience of colleagues from other schools in the Trust.

‘As joint facilitator of the middle leaders’ SSAT group I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with Gary Mullings, Headteacher of Vyners School, when planning the sessions, learning from his experience and approach to middle and senior leadership in Vyners School. The SSAT training and materials offered the opportunity to explore some theories and reading that were new to me, as well as the opportunity to present and instigate discussion on familiar ideas with the participants. It was a privilege to enable the conversations and lead learning about leadership that took place amongst the group over the course of the year, and it was pleasing to receive the participants’ positive feedback after each session.’

Jo Cotton, Assistant Headteacher, Ruislip High School

Next steps

There has been an increase in the number of collaborations set up and the Trust’s plans for 2022-2023 include: the first Trust-wide environmental sustainability week which will involve a number of activities including a challenge for all members of Vanguard Learning Trust to lower their carbon footprint; primary colleagues leading on students’ reading development with secondary schools, primary colleagues collaborating on assessment and secondary specialist teachers supporting lessons in primary schools; and the launch of the Trust-wide staff charter which is being led by a working party with representation from all schools and the central team; the process will include feedback from staff focus groups.

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It was a privilege to enable the conversations and lead learning about leadership that took place amongst the group over the course of the year, and it was pleasing to receive the participants’ positive feedback after each session.”

Jo Cotton, Assistant Headteacher, Ruislip High School

Broadening students’ opportunities both in and out of the classroom

Our students have continued to be recognised through the termly Trust awards; these relate to one of the Trust’s values – aspiration, community and equity – and recipients receive a certificate, a Trust pin and a postcard is sent home to parents/carers outlining the reason for the award.

Schools have organised a number of Trust-wide activities to broaden students’ horizons; these activities included the first inter-Trust maths competition in October hosted by Ruislip High School; the second Trust-wide photography competition in the spring term organised by Vyners; and two

onsite activities in the summer term, the debating and table tennis competitions hosted by Ryefield and Field End respectively. The second Trust-wide equality week in June has become an annual event because of the effective collective working of staff as part of the equality forum.

Next steps

The Trust’s plans for 2022-2023 by term include the following:

Autumn term: University of Cambridge visit for students in Years 11 and 12 for Ruislip High and Vyners students; maths challenge for Year 6 and 7 students; and Christmas concert with performances by students from all schools

Spring term: Trust-wide photography competition and spelling bee competition for Year 6 and 7 students

Summer term: Debating, science and table tennis competitions for Year 6 and 7 students

Debating plays an invaluable part when helping children to have the confidence to speak about their own viewpoints in a discussion whether it be in class, with their peers, or in the future as they take their place in the working world. Last summer, Years 5, 6 and 7 across schools within The Trust enjoyed a voracious afternoon debating and we look forward to repeating this event in 2023.”

Julia Dearing, Year 5 and 6 Phase Leader, Ryefield Primary School

Robustness of operational procedures

During 2021-2022, significant progress was made with the centralisation of the finance function including the implementation of an automated purchase order system and all senior leaders took part in critical Incident training with a third-party provider. These systems are allowing the Trust to ensure there are standardised processes and robust levels of control in relation to expenditure.

The Trust has concluded its support staff harmonisation process with all support staff employed on nationally agreed terms and conditions from September 2021.

Next steps

There has been progress made with development of HR policies including training and working collaboratively. The procurement of the second large-scale, Trust-wide contract was led during 20212022 with a catering contractor being appointed for three of the schools.

With an increase in the capacity of the central team, there are a number of initiatives and projects focused on the robustness of operational procedures planned for 20222023; these include: the full implementation of the automated payroll system;

the launch of the human resources information system which has interoperability with the payroll system; and the launch of the compliance system, focusing on risk management, contract management and compliance.

Vanguard Learning Trust supports schools to improve their operations by providing examples of comparative practice and, where appropriate, saving schools’ time and resources by streamlining procedures.

“ The growth of the Trust has driven the development of systems and policies that have brought benefits to both the Trust and its staff. The harmonisation of support staff terms and conditions has led to direct improvements in the terms and conditions of many staff as the Trust seeks to be an employer of choice. The collaboration between the schools and the professional development opportunities the Trust provides has shown the real benefits of being part of the wider community of the Trust.”

David Trood, Vice-chair of trustees

Assurance

The Trust board is ultimately accountable for all legal and regulatory requirements within the Trust. In 2021-2022, the Trust launched its new risk management policy which included changes to the Trust and schools’ risk registers and the promotion of the three lines of defence, helping to establish a Trust-wide assurance culture.

The Trust’s financial assurance includes external auditors leading on the statutory end-of-year accounts and a different firm of auditors carrying out the internal assurance work in line with the Trust’s main risks.

The safeguarding forum, which is chaired by the safeguarding-lead trustee, continues to promote the benefits of working across five schools including feedback from governorlink visits. Assurance work is one of the three main areas for local governing bodies in terms of monitoring recommended actions and ensuring their timely completion.

The SEND peer reviews from 2019 were also followed up with an external consultant noting the progress that has been made by each school. The feedback from peer reviews reflects how beneficial they are for staff development as well as allowing leaders to receive external feedback about progress in specific key areas especially relating to the provision for vulnerable students.

The peer review process for the academic year was on the effectiveness of provision for students identified as disadvantaged which led to school reports as well as a summary one.

In preparation for the school condition allocation, all schools had a condition survey completed in the spring term 2022 by an external company with useful information to support the schools with priorities in relation to estates management.

‘The last two years has seen the school’s safeguarding role extended with a higher profile than ever before.

Next steps

The plans for 2022-2023 include:

The well established safeguarding forum is an exceptionally effective structure that allows the safeguarding leads and link governors to share information and guidance, collaborate on key safeguarding learning and support and challenge colleagues across the Trust. This has become increasingly necessary as responsibilities increase.

As the lead trustee and chair of the forum I have oversight of the key challenges and developments the schools are facing and confidence in the actions agreed. In turn, I am able to report my finding to the board of trustees for their assurance.’

new auditors carrying out the auditing of the statutory accounts;

the launch of an assurance cycle outlining key priorities over a three-year cycle with a focus on data and health and safety for the year;

the appointment of a safeguarding-lead to work with all schools with a focus on assurance work; and peer review process with all schools on reading provision including the development of subject-specific language and the effectiveness of the provision for students not making age expected progress.

Pauline Nixon, Safeguarding-lead trustee

Communication and CEO message

During the past four years, effective communication has been important in helping to engender a sense of community within the Trust. Internal Trust updates have kept staff, governors, trustees and members informed about Trust-wide developments. Termly external newsletters have kept the wider community, including students and parents, informed.

The updates and newsletter provide an opportunity to showcase the different areas of work where the Trust is making a difference and adding value, in particular to our students’ education and staff opportunities.

The internal Trust updates have developed significantly over the past two years. They started as a short update and grew into a more substantial, half-termly update where examples of sharing best practice, school-toschool collaboration, school improvement work, staff and student successes and joint student activities were shared.

governors were asked for feedback about how the Trust updates could be improved. Based on the feedback, a new communication strategy was launched in September 2022. Rather than having one overall update each half term that is sent to the whole Trust community, there are a series of shorter, more regular updates aimed at specific audiences including headline news.

A review of the half-termly update was carried out during 2021-2022 when staff, trustees and

‘We have been committed to a Trustwide communication strategy as part of our approach to engender collective responsibility and provide evidence of our Trust dividend. The development of an ethos of ‘our’ Trust is being strengthened year-on-year partly through gathering

ongoing feedback about the benefits of Trust-wide initiatives and activities. As CEO, I am fully aware of the importance of effective working relationships between members of our community and I believe

the evolution of our communication strategy reflects the commitment to our vision of outstanding, inclusive education and our values of aspiration – endless possibilities with limitless boundaries; community – collective responsibility, collaborating within and beyond the Trust; and equity – opportunities for all to achieve equitable outcomes. I remain steadfast in my belief that our vision and values can be realised each and every day through our collective endeavour to make a positive difference to our students’ and their families’ lives.’

Next steps

The Trust’s plans for 2022-2023 include:

a review of the external newsletter to identify where improvements can be made; gathering feedback on the new internal communication strategy to ensure it remains an effective way to keep the Trust community informed; and continuing to engender a sense of collective responsibility by celebrating the Trust’s achievements together.

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Dr Martina Lecky, Chief Executive Officer

I remain steadfast in my belief that our vision and values can be realised each and every day through our collective endeavour to make a positive difference to our students’ and their families’ lives.”

Dr Martina Lecky, Chief Executive Officer

Vanguard Learning Trust

Field End Junior School

Field End Road, Ruislip, HA4 9PQ

Tel: 020 8866 8752

Email: enquiries@fieldend-jun.hillingdon.sch.uk

Hermitage Primary School

Belmont Road, Uxbridge, UB8 1RB

Tel: 01895 234 871

Email: office@hermitageprimary.org.uk

Ruislip High School

Sidmouth Drive, Ruislip, HA4 0BY

Tel: 01895 464064

Email: office@ruisliphigh.org.uk

Ryefield Primary School

Ryefield Avenue, Uxbridge, UB10 9DE

Tel: 01895 547036

Email: ryefield.enquiries@ryefieldprimary.org.uk

Vyners School

Warren Road, Ickenham, Uxbridge, UB10 8AB

Tel: 01895 234342

Email: office@vynersschool.org.uk