E-ACT at a glance
Opening Minds, Opening Doors
We will open minds and open doors for our pupils, our staff and our communities by:
- Having uncompromising aspirations for all
- Living our values
- Having the best people and investing in them
- Understanding, celebrating and working with our communities
Our immediate objectives in the strategy are to:
- Continue to develop great teaching through the Mastery Rubric
- Continue to fully embed English and maths mastery curriculum and a coherent approach to curriculum planning
- Further develop great induction for staff
- Transform our retention and recruitment strategy – staff, pupils, academies, apprentices
- Further develop succession planning
- Secure continuous development of financial literacy and three-year planning for sustainability and growth
- Broaden, deepen understanding and improve governance
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 Bourne End E-ACT Academy excitedly preparing for life at university, we want all of our 18,000 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 designed to encourage curiosity.
Just as much learning happens outside of our classrooms through exciting extra-curricular activities in the arts, sports and clubs and societies. We are proud that every one of our Year 5 pupils will spend two nights on the Isle of Wight on a sailing residential without cost to their families.
How we work
With 28 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 28 academies through four regional clusters in 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 are our E-ACT Ambassador teams. Comprised of people who share a great passion for their academy, ambassadors play a crucial role in helping trust leaders to deliver our organisational strategy, Opening Minds, Opening Doors.
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 a teacher of history at The Crest Academy in London wish to seek advice on part of the GCSE history curriculum, they have the option to call on every other teacher 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 six academies in their region on everything from curricula development to classroom strategy.
For the teacher that joins an academy trust there are significant benefits too. Should a mathematics teachers aspire to become a head of department, they can maintain their employability within the trust but find a head of mathematics job in another of our academies.
Most importantly by being part E-ACT 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.
Looking after our mental health
Sadly one in 10 children have been clinically diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the UK – that is around three children in every class.
This brings into focus our responsibility to help pupils maintain and manage their mental health. In 2017 we introduced a mental health first aid programme to train staff to understand and recognise the early warning signs of mental health problems.
We have now trained over 1,000 members of staff in youth and adult mental health first aid, and we are well on the way to achieving our goal of training every member of E-ACT staff in mental health first aid.
28 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 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.
