School Improvement approach

CET’s philosophy and approach to school improvement remains true to our mission to ensure all pupils, regardless of their backgrounds or starting points, can access a high quality, enriched educational offer which leads to strong outcomes.


We are ambitious in our mission and aims as a Trust, and we recognise that strategic school improvement, including: support, challenge and inspiration, enables schools to deliver improved educational outcomes for all pupils.

Campfire Education Trust will abide by the following principles:

Build school self-sufficiency through school improvement support, challenge and advice

Promote and support successful professional learning at all levels of the organisation

Develop collaborative relationships between schools within the Trust, and beyond

Ensure all schools are clear about the evaluation and accountability process

Intervene and support where there is clear evidence of issues of concern and conversely spotlight areas of excellent practice

Promote the understanding of best practice and evidenced-based research

Ensure the annual Service Charge provides sufficient funds to support a high performing, effective and efficient Trust school improvement function that enables the continued improvement of all schools in the Trust


We take a strategic, proactive and systematic approach to school improvement, and aim to deliver sustainable solutions through our infrastructure of support. In practice this means that school improvement is planned at Trust-level in collaboration with our school leadership teams annually. It is therefore an evolving process, year-on-year, based on emerging priorities and feedback from schools.


So that we maximise the benefits of working as a Multi-Academy Trust, we take a multi-layered approach to planning and do this:


  • At Trust–level
  • As a collaborative group of schools
  • At individual school-level

In consultation with all stakeholders, we create a 5 Year Strategic Plan, annual Trust Improvement Plan, and a CET Schedule. These set out the long, medium and short term aims of the Trust and ensure that we are able to balance the emerging needs of each school, and the delivery of their own School Improvement Plan, whilst also promoting the strategic growth and improvement of the Trust.


The CET Schedule is a shared document which sets out all of the key elements of our work for the year ahead, for example: collaborative events, school evaluation, school improvement, monitoring / assessment and CPDL.


For more information about the precise offer for the academic years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, please see our Offer to Schools page.

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