CEO Dr Andrew Campbell welcomed staff and spoke about the professional development opportunities available while Secondary Executive Principal Anne Hill said the key focus of the day was ‘school improvement at MAT, school, departmental and classroom level.’

The keynote speaker was HMI and educational consultant David Turner who spoke about the latest changes made to the Ofsted framework. He talked about the ‘connected big picture of education and curriculum’ and factors, such as EAL, SEND and the local context that schools have to consider when developing an effective curriculum. Throughout the session he reinforced the core question: ‘How do we design and deliver a knowledge-based curriculum so our students can know more, remember more and be able to do more?’

In the afternoon Anne Hill started with an overview of the Trust before there was a specific focus on ‘The Kettering Science Academy Experience’ where staff talked about aspects including the role of the middle leader, Pupil Premium and Send. The day ended with departmental time and action planning.

Cristina Taboada-Naya, Director of the Brooke Weston Teaching School Alliance, said: ‘This is a continuation of the curriculum focus that we started with Christine Counsell in our previous conference and that we will be continuing with our next conference. We are taking the pedagogical thinking that Christine introduced in our previous session and looking at that against the Ofsted framework in terms of quality assurance. Is our curriculum good enough for our children and how do we know that? It is about continuous school improvement.

‘David Turner has worked across all of our Trust schools and has particular expertise in areas of literacy and curriculum design. Our follow-up session next year will be with Mary Myatt, a lead curriculum consultant. This is sequential training to really drive improvement through quality teaching. We have terrific staff and it is ensuring we are doing everything we can to provide them with professional learning opportunities that they want, or to support them in their classroom delivery.’

Afterwards CEO Dr Andrew Campbell said: ‘This is a fantastic event and I am very proud to see the energy, commitment and professional dedication of so many people working together as one big team for the benefit of all our students.’

To see a gallery of pictures click here.