Principles & Beliefs

Making a Difference

Our determination to make a difference is rooted in Moral Purpose. We want to improve outcomes and life chances for young people. Our Moral Purpose is manifested in our Principles, Beliefs, Aims and Commitments.

Wellspring Academy Trust is borne out of the following principles:

• We are ethical
• We will do what is best for all our young people, schools and communities
• We will add value to the system
• We are outward facing
• We will work closely with and for the benefit of all school staff, leadership teams, Governing Bodies and central staff. In so doing, we are working for the benefit of all pupils in our schools
• We will work effectively in partnership with Local Authorities and local schools

Beliefs

• We believe that clearly and simply articulated ambition and a relentless drive for improvement from the top is key to the success of an organisation
• We believe that trusting relationships, effective communications and ongoing capacity building are keys to sustained and sustainable organisational improvement
• We believe that information, education, training and support are key drivers for system improvement

Commitments

• Our Trust will support its schools
• Our Trust will challenge all of its schools to improve, irrespective of their position on the improvement continuum
• Our Trust will influence wider education policy

Our principles, beliefs, aims and commitments add up to a vision, which is to achieve a step-change in outcomes for young people.

Together we can make the difference.

We are very clear that great leadership requires autonomy. Wellspring Academy Trust was founded on the principle of autonomy. Our leaders and Academies have the freedom, indeed are positively encouraged, to innovate, to explore and to write the future for themselves. For our part, we will support and encourage Academies… not tell them what to do and how to do it.

The best leaders write their own agendas.

The best schools have the confidence to go their own way.

The best school systems work closely with their schools.

They encourage diversity of thought and risk-taking.

We will also challenge Academies if we believe that things could be even better.

We will intervene if we believe that there is a danger of things going wrong.

We will hold Academies to account where we believe it to be warranted.