Why Join the Bolton Impact Trust?
The Bolton Impact Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust of four separate AP and Special (SEMH) academies where we work with children and young people who may be at a time in their lives where they require specific support. This is often when they are encountering personal crisis, when they require support with their behaviour or when they aren’t medically well enough to attend mainstream school.
We are proud to celebrate the fact that our Academies have been judged outstanding by Ofsted on nine separate occasions. In our latest inspection, Ofsted commented that ‘Pupils receive the best education at this inspiring school’ and ‘Expectations for pupils’ achievement are extremely high’. We believe that this is testament to the outstanding skills, knowledge, professionalism and commitment of our team.
We think that our Trust is a very special place where we respect individuality, diversity and difference. Every child who joins us is afforded a fresh start and every adult who joins our team are given the opportunity to contribute. Visitors are always welcome and partnerships are extremely important to us. We are a Trust who are proud of our core value of positive regard for all and we actively promote the key principles of warmth, respect and harmony.
We work with colleagues locally, regionally and nationally and we regularly share processes and strategies with our network partners. In recent years we have formed excellent partnerships with colleagues from across the UK and are proud of the fact that we are involved in many best practice networks. We have also carried out a significant number of school to school support assignments in mainstream schools and Trusts. Our recent projects has been via DfE Trust and School Improvement (TSI) work where we have supported both mainstream and special/AP Multi-Academy Trusts on all aspects of School Leadership.
Potential growth discussions until now have often centred on increasing the number of Alternative Provision or Special Academies in the Trust. This is because these have been the areas where BIT have successfully operated settings and where our previous experience and expertise lay. However, BIT has delivered training and support to mainstream MATs, schools and mainstream networks for a number of years. Furthermore, the growth of the trust central team to include a Director of Educational Standards, a new Chief Finance Officer who has experience of leading in a large mainstream MAT, a new Finance Manager and a HR and People Manager, who previously held a leadership position in a mainstream Teaching School, have added the additional central capacity which would now allow us to successfully add mainstream settings to our academy portfolio. Coupled with a growing number of Mainstream School Improvement advisors, we believe we are now positioned to impact positively in mainstream settings.
We believe passionately in the notion of ‘earned autonomy’ and pride ourselves on being a trust that promotes Academy individuality, uniqueness and innovation.
Our comprehensive Trust Support Menu has been designed to ensure that central or external support can be provided when our academies need it. We have ensured that the menu comprises support services which are aligned to the DfE Commissioning High Quality Trust guidance. The concentration and focus of support from the Trust will always be determined by a school’s identified level of need within their specific setting. For the rest of the time, we are happy to celebrate each of our Academies unique characteristics and approaches within their own distinctive contexts.
If your school is interested in becoming part of the Bolton Impact Trust and would like a further discussion or a meeting with our CEO Paul Hodgkinson, please email Hayley Collier collierh@boltonimpacttrust.org.uk or telephone 01204 471358.
What do Schools Get?
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