At the heart of SAST is the desire to work in partnership, to collaborate with others and to be outward facing for the benefit of children and staff. The schools have extensive links beyond the immediate area and are keen to extend these further.
In July 2017 The Gryphon School was one of over 65 schools that were selected to become a National Teaching School as designated by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) which is an executive agency of the Department for Education. In addition the Executive Head and School gained National Leader of Education and National School Support (NLE/NSS) designation. The Chair of Trustees is a National Leader of Governance (NLG).
There is a real gap in Teaching School provision in our part of the country. We see this as a great opportunity to build on the partnerships, pyramids and collaborations that already exist with the schools of Blandford, Gillingham, Sturminster Newton and Shaftesbury.
The North Dorset Teaching School Alliance (NDTSA) has been formed. A mix of 35 secondary and primary schools were part of the application supported by the Diocese of Salisbury, Dorset LA, two universities and teaching trainer providers. This is an exciting opportunity for schools across the area including South Somerset and Wiltshire to build upon local partnerships and collaboration by linking into national networks and resources.
The NDTSA’s work will include training new teachers, providing high quality school-led initial teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers at all stages of their career providing local CPD and leadership training, identifying SLEs (Specialist Leaders of Education) and LLEs (Local Leaders of Education) as well as supporting schools in improvement. The new North Dorset Teaching School Alliance will complement the work of the Trust and fill the gap in provision in this area.
The Teaching School Alliance priorities are:
- School-led initial teacher training – Secondary School Direct with MSCITT is already very successful; Primary School Direct places will be available for September 2018
- Continuing professional development – courses and groups will be established to support areas, subjects, years, NQT support, leadership training
- Supporting other schools – we will be designating LLEs and SLEs at both primary and secondary level
Partnership and collaboration is a core feature of all our Schools – a genuine desire to be outward-facing , to use the best ideas from across the world.
The Schools have always worked closely together and across Dorset and Somerset. In addition there has been membership of the South West Academies Group, the Jubilee Group, the Princes’ Teaching Institute, Pixl, the North Dorset Partnership, Sherborne independent schools and the JCTSA as a northern hub.