Blog

The UK academy system is still in its infancy. There’s a lot of lessons yet to be learned, and precious few risk-free chances to learn them. Schools don’t get another chance; either pupils leave at the end of their stay with a quality education, or we have in part failed them. That’s why MATs shouldRead more

Schools have an enormous number of things to keep track of – not least the huge number of assets they have. As schools are publicly funded and have limited resources, it’s so important to keep track of these assets – however difficult this may be. Whether it’s your school premises, tools or education resources, everythingRead more

Multi-academy trusts haven’t been around for very long, and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to look for knowledgeable advice. Thankfully, the international schools market has been forming school groups for over 30 years. There’s a lot that UK multi-academy trusts can draw from the experience of these school groups. What’s more, globalRead more

Last year, nearly a tenth of the education workforce quit teaching. Imagine a staff turnover rate that high in any other profession, and it’s nigh unthinkable. However, we all accept the incredibly high teacher turnover number as something that’s normal and inevitable. It’s difficult to argue the case for this way of thinking – untilRead more

Schools are turning to ever-more innovative approaches to teacher retention. As the number of NQTs and even experienced teachers shrinks in the face of mounting pupil intake, it’s more important than ever to hold on to your best teaching talent. To that end, new teacher qualifications are being introduced with the hope of promoting teacherRead more

It’s been a common theme in all UK schools: there’s less money to go around, but more demand to improve educational outcomes than ever before. Amidst this mounting pressure, school leadership have started turning to alternative budget-stretching methods, including the adoption of school business managers, additional funding sources and smarter resource management. There might beRead more

94% of schools are tackling marking workloads; unfortunately, far fewer schools focus on reducing and eliminating the burden of data workloads from teachers. However, data burden accounts for a large portion of school administration and teaching staff’s time while adding little value. Because of this, the DfE’s latest focus is on Making Data Work inRead more

One in 12 teachers wants to work reduced hours (Educational Research journal). That’s a staggering amount of the workforce. These are facts that can’t be ignored. If these at-risk teachers are left to fend for themselves on their full work hours, it’s very likely that they will leave your school – or even teaching altogether.Read more

A centralised approach streamlines your asset management, enabling huge cost and time efficiencies and taking the burden off of your on-site school staff. However, it can seem like a mammoth task to implement an asset management process across your entire MAT. There are several different locations to consider, with different sets of staff and waysRead more

Hiring a single day of teaching cover from a third party costs hundreds of pounds. However, when you also count the cost of organising and sourcing this cover, the real cost can spiral out of control. Fortunately for multi-academy trusts, there’s a better way to organise cover that won’t break the bank. What’s more, youRead more