Working Groups

Attendees: Attendance Champions, Attendance Officers, Attendance Leads

Host: Shirley Young, Head of Safeguarding

This network delivers training on the latest attendance strategies and shares the latest government guidance and updates from OFSTED. It's an excellent opportunity for colleagues to collaborate on improving student attendance by sharing best practices and contextual data updates.

Attendees: School Behaviour Leads

Host: Lynsey Holzer, CEO & Jeremy Rowe, Educational Project Lead

A collaborative forum for Behaviour Leads to review and share best practice, align curriculum where helpful, explore national research and updates, and work together on assessment and moderation. The group also aims to build a supportive community to share workload and ideas. Agendas will be circulated in advance to leaders and Headteachers.

Attendees: Designated Safeguarding Leads, SENDCOs, SLT

Host: Shirley Young, Safeguarding Lead

These regular meetings are an opportunity for all DSLs across our Trust to collaborate on important safeguarding areas, including the processing OFSTED and government guidance with critical dates, Safeguarding training, sharing best practices and contextual data updates. 

Attendees: Secondary English Leads

More info coming soon.

Attendees: Personal Development Leads, SLT Representatives

Host: Craig D'Chunha, Associate Executive Leader & Elaine Hammond, Director of People

Our EDI Working Group has been established to develop and implement a shared understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion within the context of our Trust. The group provides a safe and open space to explore the purpose, scope and potential impact of the working group's role across the Trust, with a view to:

• having a shared vision
• reflect on the current EDI landscape across our schools, our Trust, the education sector as a whole, and beyond
• discuss key principles and terminology to build a common Trust language
• identify priority areas for focus and opportunities for positive change
• begin to shape a collaborative, action-oriented approach for future work.

The group is interactive and reflective, with an aim of embedding EDI more meaningfully across the Active Learning Trust.

Attendees: EYFS Leads

Host: Acadamy Improvement Leads

This network brings together EYFS Leads from across our Trust to explore, share, and deepen our understanding of ALT's vision and values in Early Years. By sharing best practices and exploring creative solutions to common challenges, we aim to improve learning experiences for our youngest learners.

Attendees: Headteachers, Deputy Heads, Central Team Heads of Service Schools

Frequency: Approx. every two weeks, all term

Host: Lynsey Holzer, CEO

These regular meetings are a valuable opportunity for school leaders to share best practices across our Trust and to discuss strategic areas of improvement, as well as current issues. It is essential that someone attends from each school. Agendas are circulated ahead of the meetings, and all leaders are invited to add to them or to request that specific areas are covered.

Attendees: Secondary Maths Leads

More info coming soon

Attendees: All EYFS teachers

Host: EYFS Academy Improvement Lead

This group serves to share best practices amongst teaching staff and to benchmark books against national standards. Key takeaways will be summarised and shared with school leaders.

Attendees: All Year 2 & Year 6 Teachers

Host: Academy Improvement Leads

This group serves to share best practices amongst teaching staff and to benchmark books against national standards. Key takeaways will be summarised and shared with school leaders.

Attendees:  Year 2 & Year 6 Teachers

Host: Academy Improvement Leads

This group serves to share best practices amongst teaching staff and to benchmark books against national standards. Key takeaways will be summarised and shared with school leaders.

Attendees: All Year 2 & Year 6 Teachers

Host: Academy Improvement Leads

This group serves to share best practices amongst teaching staff and to benchmark books against national standards. Key takeaways will be summarised and shared with school leaders.

Attendees: Personal Development Leads

Hosts: Lynsey Holzer, CEO & Jeremy Rowe, Educational Project Lead

These sessions bring together Personal Development Leads from all schools to help deepen staff's understanding of the role, enhance their skills and align strategies with whole-school development goals. By sharing best practices and identifying new opportunities for collaboration, these sessions allow us to continue improving our trust-wide focus in this area. Sessions include discussions about curriculum integration and evidence-based practices to ensure that personal development is embedded within the school culture, in alignment with national standards and research.

Attendees: Attendance Leads

This mandatory meeting is focused on delivering training on strategies around improving student attendance. We also cover OFSTED and government guidance with critical dates, training opportunities and the sharing of best practices and contextual data updates.

Attendees: Safeguarding Leads

This mandatory meeting is focused around Safeguarding and on delivering OFSTED and government guidance with critical dates to school DSLs. Training opportunities and the sharing of best practice and contextual data updates are also covered. 

Attendees: School Business Managers, Central Finance & People Teams

Frequency: Approx. every 2 weeks, All term 

Host: Phil Beecher, Chief Finance Officer

These regular meetings are essential to the smooth running of our schools. They bring together SBMs and central teams (Finance, People, Operations) to share best practices, discuss new systems and processes, and review strategic improvement areas. They’re also a valuable forum for schools to give direct feedback on what’s working, what isn’t, and what support or resources they need from our central teams.

Attendees: Local SENDCos, and any other leaders who wish to attend.

Host: Simon Bainbridge, Head of SENDV

These meetings are a chance for SENDCos and SEND colleagues to share resources and problem solve with colleagues across our Trust network. The meetings are held locally, with separate groups for each of our hubs across Ipswich, North Suffolk and Cambridgewhsire.

Attendees: Site Team Managers

Host: Mick Crossley, Head of Estates

These virtual meetings bring together estates staff from across all our schools to discuss emerging issues in site management, including compliance updates, training and development and capital projects. 

Attendees: Sustainability Leads

Host: Chris Everard, Chief Operating Officer

These termly meetings give our Sustainability Leads the opportunity to discuss implementation of the trust's sustainability strategy and school climate action plans. Each meeting will focus on a specific area of sustainability, including student engagement and leadership in environmental issues. 

Attendees: Teaching & Learning Leads, Senior Leadership Teams

Host: Graham Parker & Kelly Hough

These sessions aim to build conceptual understanding, by combining theory with practice and emphasising the 'Why' as well as the 'How' to motivate staff and build shared purpose. Agendas and guidance are shared with T&L Leads and Headteachers ahead of the meeting.

Attendees: Wellbeing Representatives

Hosts:  Lisa Corby, Amanda Ankin & Elaine Hammond - Wellbeing Group Leads

This trust-wide working group is dedicated to fostering a positive, inclusive and sustainable culture of employee wellbeing across all our schools and our central team. The group brings together representatives from each school to collaborate, share best practices and support the development of employee wellbeing strategies that align with Acitve Learning Trust's values and strategic priorities.