Five schools in partnership
LEADERS SAY
Reporter A NEW academy trust hopes sharing expertise will help improve the lives of children from across the East End of Newcastle.
The Newcastle East Mixed MultiAcademy Trust (NEAT) now runs five academy schools in the city – four primaries and a secondary school.
Overseeing Central Walker C of E Primary School, Tyneview Primary School, Walkergate Community School and West Walker Primary School, along with Benfield School, which accepts pupils from 11 to 18, bosses say they hope the collaboration will enable them to offer consistency and support for children from reception to the moment they leave school for good.
They say each school will remain “unique”, however, and that the link will not affect the Christian focus of the one faith school in the group.
Debi Bailey, head teacher at Walkergate and chief executive of the new trust, explained that all five of the ‘good’ Ofsted-rated schools had similar challenges, and hoped to share their different strengths.
She said: “We’ve historically worked together as a group of schools because we are geographically close, and we have similar families. Our vision is around improving life chances in all of our families.
“We’ve got real strengths across all of the schools and we are able to work together to share best practice. The schools will keep their unique identities and what makes each school special will remain, but we will have some unique core offerings.”
She said one of the trust’s main aims was to work closely with local families, a task made easier by the collaboration, as parents with children at different schools in the area could easily be supported by central teams.
The trust celebrated its formal launch last week, with performances from pupils from across the newly linked schools.
Morgan Faetz, in Year 5 of Walkergate Community School, said: “It is good to be altogether as a group. It is a chance to make new friends and From left, Morgan Faetz (Walkergate Community School), Ellie Conley (Benfield School), Debi Bailey of NEAT, Roger Alston OBE, chair of the NEAT Trustee Board, Toby Sherriffs (Central Walker School), CE Primary Lara Alysse Miller (Tyneview Primary School) and Bailey Kennedy (West Walker Primary School) help each other. I’m looking forward to more opportunities to do this.”
Toby Sherriffs, of Central Walker C of E Primary School, who is in Year 4, agreed, saying: “I think it will be exciting and will bring in more challenges. I am looking forward to working with children from the other schools.”
Roger Alston, the chair of the new trust’s board, said: “The proximity of our academies and the operation of a ‘hub’ structure allows us to efficiently share resources, facilities and best practice to aid improvements to teaching and learning as well as academic outcomes and extra-curricular activities.
“Each member school has its own governing body and operates with a degree of autonomy but benefits from core team support in the areas of finance and audit, human resources, IT support, marketing and, importantly, leadership on learning and teaching.
“Our recent SATs results clearly indicate that we have the foundations in place to do even better, so it gives me great pleasure to see NEAT formally launched today.”