How will your pupils benefit from your school joining Enable Trust?

• Ongoing curated resource for developing staff expertise.  Children benefit because the adults teaching them and supporting their co-existing needs have all the advice, guidance and support to meet needs as fully as possible.  In-house curated OPTICAL resource (observing practice to improve classroom teaching and learning).

• In-house multi-agency team, working with leaders, teachers, support staff and families.  Children benefit because we have clinical expertise, staff who are resilient and well-supported and a ‘team around the child’ approach to pedagogy and interventions to help every child develop, grow, reduce anxiety.  In house occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, clinical psychologist (and planned educational psychologist).  Each child’s EHCP is enhanced through this high-level quality input.
• Commitment to inquiry-led pedagogy means children benefit from enhanced pedagogical practice and having research-informed teaching and learning in class.  Teachers have more capacity through the MAT to conduct action research and collaborate across schools and disseminate findings.  We have plans for partnership with universities to develop this research further.  To date, inquiry has led to improved pedagogical practice around enhancing communication skills through new tested approaches around snack and lunch times, for instance.  As a result, pupils have developed communication more rapidly and schools have had new consistent approaches to augment pupils’ development of communication.
• Pupils have more consistency in the staff around them because the Trust has a well-being strategy (being developed further) and enhanced capacity for expertise in that field through in-house psychology, and planned for and resourced ‘stabilisers’ for the team.  Children benefit from being educated in schools that have a culture and strategic intent of pioneering excellence in well-being. 
• Children benefit from having a better offer, because we have enhanced the provision and it is sustainably improving, through being in schools that are part of a bigger organisation that retains and enhances the possibilities around personalised approaches to meet needs. 
• Children benefit from more eyes on what’s going on in classrooms, in terms of teaching and learning and curriculum development, because Headteachers and Deputy Headteachers have more capacity for this due to the central team dealing with many things so they don’t need to, such as HR issues, issues around risk and Covid etc.
• Children benefit from access to specialists over and above standard ‘entitlement’.  E.g. clinical psychologist, Speech therapists, Occupational Therapists, because Enable Trust has established this as part of what we do.
• Children benefit from being in schools that have very well-supported Headteachers, who are arguably better facilitated and supported to oversee school improvement.  Children benefit from improvements in school because Headteachers are tied up far less in areas such as budget setting, HR, external issues, unless they want to invest capacity in specific issues or areas.  Our Headteachers have consistently said they feel very well-supported, and therefore are more resilient.  More resilient leaders means more capacity for focussed improvements for children.
• Children benefit from being in schools with in-house Ofsted quality assurance.  Enable Trust ensures we have an Ofsted Inspector on staff (currently the CEO has been an inspector for 7 years) giving the schools (staff, governors and trustees) up-to-date training, information and quality assurance, access to swift understanding of contextual changes and the ability to be ready for regulatory inspection visits with confidence. 
• Children benefit from having their voice and long-term needs advocated for at local, regional and national level with more weight and impact.  Enable Trust has representation on:
  • The SW SEN Reference group for the DFE,
  • Part of the National SEND Reference Group chaired by NASEN,
  • The National Forum for Neuroscience and Special Education with access to latest research and innovation, and
  • the National SEN CEO Network. 

As a result, Enable Trust has been able to have greater leverage, a voice for our children and has raised the profile of special schools at the DFE.  We are a member of the Confederation of School Trusts and on the MAT advisory board of the Youth Sports Trust.

• Children benefit from our capacity to seek to influence and build better provision for our post 19 students.  We have plans to work with the ESFA and LA on a 19-25 college.

• Our schools benefit from the positive governance structure that being a school Trust brings.  We have a Board of Trustees with significant expertise and clear accountability for Local Governing Bodies, meaning that the systems, strategic thinking and monitoring arrangements are enhanced.  Children benefit from having governance structures designed to ensure their needs are being met as fully as possible.

We recognise that our potential to further enhance what we can bring to all our children can be realised more fully and more quickly through the growth of our Trust.  In September 2024 we will be opening Two Bridges Academy, a new special free school for pupils with SLD and PMLD.  It’s a good time to join us, support our collective journey, contribute to the possibilities for all our children, contribute to the professional development of all our staff, develop the team through drawing from the broad range of expertise in the Trust and augment to offer to your children and all our children.