E-ACT at a glance
Our mission
Our mission is to break the link between poverty and under-achievement in education. We currently sponsor 24 academies across the country.
Our vision is a relentless one to transform the educational landscape of the UK, working with educationally under-performing schools in disadvantaged socioeconomic areas to accelerate student achievement and contribute to community cohesion – transforming school performance and students’ life chances.
What we value
Our values are our anchor point and underpin all we do.
From a reception child at Ilminster Avenue E-ACT Academy to the 18 year old at Heartlands Academy excitedly preparing for life at university, we want all of our 14,900 pupils to realise their full potential by:
THINKING BIG
For themselves and for the world around them by thinking beyond the four walls of their academy, and having the belief that anything they aspire to achieve is possible through hard work.
Thinking big at the Theatre of DreamsDOING THE RIGHT THING
In all that they do by carefully thinking through their decisions, even when it means doing something that’s hard or takes a lot of time.
Meet Hareclive's Beaux RichesSHOWING TEAM SPIRIT
By supporting one another, and knowing that by working together great things can be achieved.
There’s only one football team in the Midlands...Did you know?
Our educational ethos
Our educational ethos is underpinned by our values of thinking big, doing the right thing and team spirit.
There are wonderful examples across the trust of innovation both in and out of the classroom. From Mansfield Green E-ACT Academy’s reading pods to Ilminster Avenue E-ACT Academy’s acclaimed music programme, every lesson is creative, and our teachers aim to stimulate our pupils and encourage curiosity.
Pastoral care is of the utmost importance. Sadly we know that mental health problems affect about 1 in 10 children and young people in the UK, so as part of a new trust-wide youth mental health first aid programme, E-ACT academy staff are being trained to provide mental health first aid to young people showing low emotional well-being.
We also know that stimulation of the young mind cannot be confined to within the four walls of the classroom, so we place alongside the curriculum a series of exciting extra-curricular activities in the arts, sports and through clubs and societies.
How we work
With 24 academies across the breadth and depth of England, E-ACT’s network of support and educational expertise is considerable.
With such scope comes the requirement for robust structure and process, and through our regional structure, we have established a model that enables continued academy improvement.
We support our 24 academies through five regional clusters in Daventry, London and Bucks, Midlands, North and South West, each of which is led by a regional education director (RED) and a regional operations director (ROD) and is supported by a team of system experts in areas like safeguarding.
Another striking innovation of our governance model is the Ambassadorial Advisory Group or AAG as it is more commonly known. Comprised of people who share a great passion for their academy AAGs work closely with headteachers, regional and national staff as well as our trustees.
How we work
What it means to be part of a multi-academy trust
Our academies can collaborate and share ideas with one another in ways that schools may not be able to.
Should the head of the history department at The Crest Academy in London wish to seek advice on part of the GCSE history curriculum, for example, they have the option to call on every other head of history within the trust for assistance.
Our academies can also rely on support, when it is needed, from teams of our regional experts on both educational and non-educational matters. Our regional education director for the south west region, for example, will work very closely with the headteachers of all four academies in their region on everything from curricula development to classroom strategy.
For the teacher that joins a MAT there are significant benefits too. Should one of our talented mathematics teachers aspire to become a head of department they can maintain their employability with the trust but find a head of mathematics job in another of our academies.
Most importantly by being part of a MAT we all feel part of something much bigger. Our responsibilities go far beyond the four walls of a single academy, and extend to people and their communities across the country.
Learning while teaching
In September 2016 we launched our very own professional learning programme, and since then more than a quarter of the trust’s employees (that’s over 500 teaching staff) have completed a course.
By the end of this academic year we will have run a total of 130 CPD sessions, some in partnership with leading training providers such as Ambition School Leadership.
We believe that outstanding teachers affect pupil achievement more than any other factor, and it is no coincidence that some of our latest academy Ofsted reports have praised the training and development opportunities available to our teaching staff.
24 academies, one E-ACT
Our academies span the length and breadth of the country, but we all follow the same set of underlying principles.
Our hopes and aspirations for every one of our pupils is the same: by encouraging them to think big and believe that anything is possible, by showing them the importance of team spirit and working together to achieve, and by teaching them to carefully think through their decisions to do the right thing, we know that every one of our pupils can realise their full potential with us.
