Formatio: ‘Best of both worlds’ - the remarkable story of a Catholic academy trust turning around failing schools

In one of the country’s most deprived areas a Catholic multi-academy trust has been steadily transforming inadequate schools and the life chances of pupils in the North West of England.  

St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust (CMAT) was set up in 2021 in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, as a multi-partner Department for Education pilot to improve chronically substandard or high-risk schools.    

The Archdiocese appointed some of the sector’s most experienced figures to the St Joseph CMAT board of trustees, including Ann Connor OBE, former adviser to the Department for Education, and Dame Maura Regan, founding chief executive of Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, in Hexham and Newcastle Diocese. All of the trustees had received a Catholic education, with the majority of them coincidentally even being born in Liverpool.  

The board subsequently recruited a leadership team headed by Andrew Truby as Chief Executive Officer, and in the spring term of 2022 St Joseph CMAT welcomed its first academies. Among these there were three judged to be inadequate by Ofsted, including a joint Catholic and Church of England secondary, and two requiring improvement. Seven of them had not been Ofsted-rated as good in more than a decade.  

Andrew said: “Each of the schools had its own unique set of challenges and it felt like they had been neglected over a long period of time. Some were in financial difficulty, others with unsuitable buildings, poor performance or issues with viability. As a team motivated by a clear sense of moral purpose, we set out to achieve something entirely unique against all odds."

The Formatio partnership supports the CES and diocesan schools commissions to work with the four Catholic universities and Catholic multi-academy trusts in implementing strategies for school leadership and governance, as commissioned by the Bishops in 2017.

Aiming high

The strategy was to secure excellent outcomes for children through rapid and sustained improvement. All schools were to aim for a ‘good’ rating, at the very least, and to be within the top 20% nationally for academic performance.

Reading, which was a common weakness in several of the newly-created academies, was identified as a priority to unlock success both academically and in life after school. A not-fit-for-purpose curriculum was replaced by one sourced from Ark, a high-performing MAT with academies across England, and an academy trust-wide reading guarantee in partnership with Ruth Miskin Training, Read Write Inc and Fresh Start phonics programmes.

It was a slow process to begin with, though with a gradual reduction in what had been a high turnover of staff members who had been unhappy at the historically variable quality of leadership and governance.  

Alignment vs autonomy?

Andrew and his team were also determined to put into practice the Archdiocese’s principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. In part, this would mean establishing a balance between autonomy for school leaders [subsidiarity], and alignment with improvements being implemented across the St Joseph CMAT academy family [solidarity].    

He said: “We found that our model of aligned autonomy actually meant that headteachers felt even more empowered to lead their schools. In trusts where there is a lower level of alignment, this can lead to confusion or a perceived interference from the central team. At St Joseph CMAT colleagues feel part of a strong and supportive family with a shared mission.  

“There are many factors involved, and no one-size-fits-all solution.”  

The school improvement strategy fuses the latest research on cognitive science and a carefully designed and ambitious trust-wide curriculum. The focus across St Joseph CMAT has been on high-quality continuing professional development (CPD), for example through a guarantee of instructional coaching for all teachers.  

Andrew said: “By providing our staff with the best possible CPD, we are ensuring that our children are taught by expert practitioners.”  

The St Joseph CMAT approach can be characterised in three ways:

• Strong and effective leadership and management
• High quality teaching
• A culture of no excuses

Three years later

Ofsted inspections have since found children enjoying reading, through effective phonics and further support. Staffing has also stabilised, with better career and professional development implemented. Most importantly, none of the SJCMAT academies are classed as inadequate any more, and six have achieved good ratings from Ofsted, including a recently-added nursery, with further inspections expected next year.    

Kathy Thomas, Deputy Headteacher at Notre Dame Catholic College, said: “The [SJCMAT] team is open to listen and the change that comes is in the best interest of the children and their experience drives the improvements that are needed forward.”

Joanne Parkinson, Religious Education Subject Lead at Holy Spirit Catholic Academy, said: “It’s a community where you’re never alone and where your development is seen as key to the success of every pupil.”

Andrew said: “I’m absolutely delighted our schools have been transformed, they are now some of the most improved in the country. This means that our children are benefiting from a high-quality Catholic education.  

“It’s having the best of both worlds, benefiting from a Catholic sector approach as well as that of the most successful secular MATs.

“As our legacy I’d hope students feel that though they may not have had the best start in life, they overcame this because their Catholic academy and MAT cared enough about them to really push their boundaries and the boundaries of what could be done with what had been, until recently, a failing school.”

Recruiting and developing Catholic leaders was also a key challenge, therefore SJCMAT ran its own aspiring leaders programme, which included identified opportunities through the North West hub of Formatio as well as engaging with the most appropriate National Professional Qualifications (NPQs). Many of the participants completed either the Catholic Senior Leadership or the Catholic Headship Programme alongside the SJCMAT modules. As a result, most of the leadership posts this year have been filled by internal candidates.

Find out more about SJCMAT

Images above by SJCMAT, of St Nicholas Catholic Academy; Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy; and Holy Family Catholic Primary Academy.