Why Choose our Trust - The Mill Academy

Why Choose our Trust

 

Our purpose

Our Trust is truly inclusive: rural, town, community, Church, primary, secondary  - we are values driven which means, for us, being truly committed to improving the education of all children we serve and the ones we will never meet.  Our moral imperative is to secure equity and we know our responsibility doesn't stop at the end of the school drive. 

 

Our approach

Our approach is sustainable - we do not see growth as being 'successful' in terms of the number of schools in our Trust but in terms of the quality of education in all Trust schools.  In a nutshell, no school should fall behind as a result of more schools joining the Trust.  Our approach works.  All Trust schools have recently been judged as 'Good' by Ofsted (2017 and 2018) and we continue to work with schools and colleagues beyond the Trust as we always have.  Our schools are  very different and we see that as an absolute strength.  If you would like to see us in action, please get in touch.  We would be delighted to show you around.

 

Based on NFER research, we focus on:

  1. Whole school ethos of attainment for all
  2. Addressing behaviour and attendance
  3. High quality teaching for all
  4. Meeting individual learning needs
  5. Deploying staff effectively
  6. Data driven and responding to evidence
  7. Clear responsive leadership

 

3 1451 98 300
Schools in our Trust Pupils we teach Classrooms Staff

 


A great place to be

We place huge value on feedback from our pupils, parents and staff.

This feedback helps us know when we get things right, but also helps us address concerns. 

  • Staff feel valued 97%
  • Pupils are proud to be our pupils 94%
  • Parents would recommend us 96%

Like to join us?


Our Services

We know managing academies brings financial challenges and responsibilities that would not be considered in a local authority context.  Our cost effective infrastructure eases the burden on our academies. We provide the following services:

  • Preparing financial statements in line with the Department for Education (DfE) and Education and Skills Funding Agency (EFSA) requirements
  • VAT returns
  • Taxation advice
  • Budget preparation and monitoring
  • Monthly/Quarterly management accounts
  • Software and processes training for school finance staff
  • Support with Academy Conversion from start to completion
  • Property management and asset management
  • HR support and consultancy
  • IT support
  • Health and safety support
  • Recruitment
  • Governance support

These services aim to liberate school leaders from the management of infrastructure in order for them to focus on improving the quality of education in schools.

If you wish to discuss any of these services, or find out more, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss how we can help.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Our school improvement team is led by our Director for Education and our school improvement strategy is based on ‘upstreaming’ rather than ‘find the fault and fix it’.  We ensure that we know our schools well and we do this through thorough professional conversations, quality assurance, (data analysis, documentation review, school visits, audits, pupil, parent, staff voice) and self-evaluation.  Working at school level and with school leaders, we establish priorities and areas of strength and expertise that can be shared across The Trust.

EVIDENCE-INFORMED PRACTICE

Most forms of professional activity involve choices; it is the ability to make the appropriate choice that is one of the key criteria for professional expertise and authority. A large number of professional activities depend on evidence.  For many professions, work is very largely the collection, analysis and identification of strategies based on appropriate evidence.                                               

Professor John West-Burnham

Chair of the Board

Our strategy

Seven improvement principles



SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AIMS

  • We secure equity.
  • Leadership, at all levels, drives improvement.
  • Our curriculum is irresistible.
  • We are research informed.
  • We manage resources effectively.

LEADERSHIP SUPPORT

School leaders in Trust schools benefit from executive coaching on a monthly basis.  As an OLEVI Designated Centre, we facilitate accredited professional development programmes to support and challenge us all to be better - whatever our career stage.Olevi logo

HR

The Mill employs its own in house HR advisors to help with any employment related questions or issues.

IT SUPPORT

Our in-house IT support are able to assist with all computer and IT related issues. They will also help develop a sustainable IT replacement program, supported by the Trust's combined purchasing power.

FINANCE

Our finance team is on hand to support the conversion to academy, and provide assistance with the day to day operations of your schools finances.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Our Professional Development Offer

The MILL Academy Trust is committed to developing its staff team and one way that we can do this is to ensure that professional development is regarded as an entitlement.  This philosophy underpins our ‘career stage’ framework for professional development – ensuring that our staff team has the most up to date knowledge, skills and understanding in order to be the best in the profession.

Trust wide professional development 1

Olevi logo OLEVI

We are committed to working with OLEVI to deliver high quality professional development that is proven to have real impact. 

ITP          Improving Teacher Programme

OTP        Outstanding Teacher Programme

OTAP     Outstanding Teaching Assistant Programme

PoC        Power of Coaching

OLE        Outstanding Leadership in Education     

We also offer OTAP for Teaching Assistants across the Trust.  All Trust Schools benefit from free places on our OLEVI Programmes.

Otsa new logo stapline OTSA We are a Strategic Partner of OTSA (Oxfordshire Teaching School Alliance).  As part of our succession planning, we invite colleagues to apply for places on OTSA’s GFL (Growing Future Leaders) programme.
Pivotal ed logo Pivotal Education We are a ‘Pivotal’ Trust and a number of colleagues are designated as Pivotal Instructors.  All staff will receive Pivotal training and have access to online professional development.
Veo VEO Video Enhanced Observation (VEO) enables us to share effective practice and work collaboratively across the Trust.  Staff are able to work in small groups to fine tune their practice – often utilising incremental coaching.
Genie suite logo Genie Suite We co-ordinate our professional development through Genie Suite to ensure that paperwork is minimal and more time is spent on development that has real impact.

 

GOVERNOR SUPPORT

Our governance training package enables all governors to be as effective as possible in their role.  Our Local Governor Committee Handbook outlines all you need to know about the role of governance in the Trust.  Documents and templates are available to support with agendas, governor visits to schools and link governor roles.  

AND MUCH MORE...

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us.