School improvement
is done by schools.

School improvement does not happen in a vacuum. Schools have to be financially on the ball. Heads need good and reliable HR advice, policies and procedures. They need to be asbolutely sure that staff will be paid, and the right amount. They need to know there is specialist legal advice when needed. Together we need to have good working relationships with the professional organisations. Schools need to communicate well with their community. They may need to manage some difficult situations. They must constantly build a positive narrative for their school. 

Leaders need to know that their operations are efficient and effective - that their ICT services are robust, that they are cyber-secure, data is properly managed, contracts well managed and the children are fed, the site well maintained and capital needs identified and planned for, they have to keep up to date with policy requirements.

We believe that headteachers need to know and undertand all the aspects of a big and complex organisation. Heads lead on quality of education, but without the services above, and the ability to manage your budget and decide the priorities, you are operating with one hand tied. If not both. In finance the trust sets the budget parameters and expects the school to manage its own, setting its own priorities, and being financially disciplined. The business manager is supported and advised by the finance team; in small primary schools the finance team works directly with the headteacher to set and profile the budget, and the trust's procedures support the office manager in the transactional work. The finance team is only a phone call away.

The Cranmer Education Trust is the employer and has a single set of employment policies which are negotiated with the unions and which apply to all schools and employees. Every school has a named HR adviser who will advise on policy implementation and case work. We run our own payroll. School staff run recruitmetn using trust policy and procedures; small primaries are fu lly supported by the central trust services on this so the headteacher know that it is done properly and in a timely way.

Every secondary school has a school-based network manager; small primaries are supported by their hub school. ICT leads work with the trust's director of ICT to ensure investment in and updating and security of all our estate. School business managers work with the operations director to ensure our services and contracts are well managed and work for our schools, and that estates planning anticiplates and prepares for capital investment.

How you "turn up" is critical for school reputations. Our creative and marketing lead, with the support of the operations director advises schools on their social media and actively creating the images and video that have such impact in communicating the school and what it stands for. And if the worst happens and a story which is damaging happens - which it will, in every organisation, however well run - we have PR advice which includes a conversation with the press to take the heat away from the head who has to manage the fall-out from within.