Over 400 Great School Trust staff gathered at Edge Hill University at the beginning of September for the fourth annual staff conference.
The theme at this year’s conference was how artificial intelligence (AI) could help staff and students achieve greater success. A series of workshop sessions, many of which were subject-specific, explored this. The event also allows the Trust’s senior leadership team to highlight the past year’s achievements and outline key initiatives in the next 12 months.
CEO Shane Ierston opened the conference: “It’s been a landmark year for the Trust with so many highlights and foundations built that it is difficult to narrow them down.
“The most pleasing is that the Trust’s reputation continues to grow with more and more children being academically successful and developing the wider skills and traits they need to succeed in society.”
Shane highlighted that this achievement is notable as the Trust has more than double the national average of students from disadvantaged backgrounds:
“We had many impressive and high-achieving students achieving fantastic results in their GCSEs, which meant that the Trust matched the national trend of seeing an overall improvement of half a grade.
“Among the outstanding performances were five students gaining scholarships to attend top independent schools and another three receiving individual recognition from OCR for achieving the highest scores in their subject anywhere in the country.”
“We also completed three Ofsted inspections, which saw King’s Bolton, King’s Liverpool, and King’s Hawthornes receive “good” ratings and academically we achieved the best overall Progress 8 score in the Trust’s history.”
Shane also addressed the central theme of the conference, which was the growing impact of AI and how it can be successfully integrated into education:
“Technology allows us to work smarter, and the developments in AI are remarkable. We must consider how we use it and how it can help us get even better results. It is important to recognise that AI will enhance teaching rather than replace it.
“It can help and support us and we must embrace it by thinking about how we can do things differently to help more children improve. That is why, after all, we come into teaching.”
The annual conference brings together all staff from across the Trust and its academies.
The staff from the latest addition to Great Schools Trust were also in attendance. In the summer, King’s Lander Primary Academy in Litherland in Liverpool became the first primary school to join the Trust. Next year is set to be an even larger gathering as preparations are well advanced for the opening of King’s Wavertree in Liverpool, a new secondary scheduled to welcome students in September 2025.
Shane added, “This success only emanates from our strong and supportive culture. As the Trust looks to take the next step forward, we must consider how we maintain the right work-life balance and support staff in personal and professional development.”
Katie Sharp, Director of Education at Great Schools Trust, picked up this theme when introducing the benefits offered by the Trust’s Institute of Character and Leadership (IoCL):
“We are an organisation with opportunities and want everyone to succeed. We aim for our leadership teams and heads to come from within the organisation. We know you and want to invest in and develop you. Our staff is our biggest asset, and the IoCL is our commitment to investing and developing you and helping advance your career.”
Diane Lloyd, Head of the IoCL, is also determined that the Institute is a resource for all: “Everyone should have access to career development tools whatever you do within the Trust.
“This is an online resource for everyone to support professional and personal development programmes. For instance, we recently added resources on SEN 09 and governance training, and the resources will continue to grow over the coming months. We will continue to work with staff to understand and meet their training needs.”
During the day-long conference, delegates could choose from 38 different workshop sessions. In addition to those covering AI, its application and use in administrative tasks and across core subjects, the sessions focused on issues such as leadership development, lesson planning, disability awareness, safeguarding, transition key stages, and tackling attendance issues.