The Trust, as a multi-academy trust (MAT), has a central team to support its academies with their education standards, school improvement, and business operations.
The Trust's chief executive officer is the accounting officer. The Executive Team, consisting of the CEO, COSO and CFO, oversee the Trust/academies at an executive level by implementing the policies laid down by the Trustees and reporting back to them regularly. The executive is responsible for overseeing the leadership of the local academies and offering strategic advice in respect of school improvement and the development and teaching and learning.
The Trust Leadership Team (TLT) consists of the Principal of each academy. The TLT are responsible for the day-to-day operation of their respective academy, in particular the leadership of teaching and non-teaching staff, facilities and students. Each member of the TLT control’s their individual academy at a principal/executive principal level implementing the policies laid down by the Board of Trustees and reporting back to them.
The Great Schools Trust operate a central ‘Faculty for Education’ function across our academies. The Faculty for Education provides a wide range of expert education, and strategic and support services to all academies within the Trust. Each of our services has been developed with one goal in mind – to clear the path for our academy principals, and senior and middle leaders so they can focus all of their energies on ensuring high-quality teaching in every classroom and achieving the priorities set out in their Academy Development Plan. All services have been designed with the best value for money in mind so that our academies can invest more of their income into recruiting, developing and retaining a great teacher for every classroom that drives improvement.
The governance structure aims to devolve responsibility via the Scheme of Delegation and encourage involvement in decision-making at all levels. A comprehensive scheme of delegated authority laid down by the Board of Trustees defines the limits of commitments that can be incurred by the Executive, Trust Leadership Team and Faculty for Education to ensure that at all levels people are clear about their responsibilities.