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Recruitment & Retention Strategy

We understand that our staff are our most important resource. We are committed to recruiting the very best support staff, teachers and leaders to support and nurture our children, families and communities. Once these inspiring members of staff join us, we invest in their career and development so that we can retain the very best leaders, teachers and support staff in our schools and central teams, or the profession as a whole.

This investment includes:

  • Growing the next generation of teachers through our school-centred initial teacher training programmes via Exceed SCITT
  • Providing research and evidence-based Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for all our staff informed by the Standards for Teachers’ Professional Development
  • Supporting aspirational teachers to take the next step to train as a teacher through our Stepping Into Teaching programme
  • Providing high-quality early career support through bespoke training, coaching and mentoring for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) and Recently Qualified Teachers (RQTs) in line with the governments Early Career Framework (ECF)
  • Providing recognised pathways of training and support to expert teachers who don’t want to take the step into leadership
  • Supporting aspirational and current school leaders to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills as middle, senior and executive leaders, including facilitating the National Professional Qualifications
  • Recognising leadership expertise and the capacity to support leaders beyond their own school through designating Local Leaders of Education (LLE), Specialist Leaders of Education (SLE) and, through DfE, National Leaders of Education (NLE) and National Leaders of Governance (NLG)
  • Funding specialist roles that meet our organisational aims and objectives, including Research Champions, Wellbeing Champions and Parental Engagement Champion
  • Providing support through our employee assistance programme, Health Assured, funded by the Trust
  • Facilitate training and support for mental health, including Mental Health First Aid
  • Proactively working to reduce unnecessary teacher and leader workload, utilising the DfE Reducing Teacher Workload Toolkit
  • Valuing the importance of good industrial relations and we are proud to have great working relationship with Trade Union colleagues
  • High-quality in-house HR support
  • Facilitating voluntary secondment opportunities for staff to transfer to other settings within the Trust, to further develop skills and experience
  • Providing internal vacancies to give staff clear opportunities for promotion, while maintaining continuous service
  • Giving pay awards in line with national recommendations and, at times, above national recommendations to recognise the hard work of both teaching and support staff