The Great Schools Trust is a values led Multi Academy Trust.
Our Motto
‘Credimus’, underpins our collective belief that a ‘great’ education must serve as a cornerstone for enhanced social and geographical mobility. We offer the same aspirational, social and cultural advantages, including the academic performance standards, of an independent education, but do so for free and without selection, and most critically, serve some of our most disadvantaged communities.
Our Specialism
It places considerable emphasis on ensuring an ethical ethos and a strong values system permeates everything it does.
Each of its schools prioritises character education, which is taught through a structured programme of character and leadership development.
Each school holds a number of core beliefs that are central to its practice, including that all students must learn to be resilient on their educational journey in order to achieve these ambitions; and they must become confident contributing citizens able to develop a passion for both learning and character development.
The first academy of the Great Schools Trust, King’s Leadership Academy Warrington, opened in 2012. It became the National School of Character in 2015 and is recognised globally as a leader in the field of student and adult character and leadership development and innovation.
Our Vision
The Great Schools Trust seeks to:
- Develop, through the application of its ‘character through leadership’ philosophy, a family of excellent ‘world class’ academies that allow all pupils, irrespective of their starting point or background, to access university or a career of their choice and succeed in life
- Serve as a catalyst and model for system-wide reform that will allow more children to access high-quality education and gain greater success in life
Our Ethos
The founders of the Great Schools Trust firmly believe that if young people attend a school where they feel valued, safe and that teachers have their best interests at heart then they will commit themselves; they will work harder; suffer fewer distractions; become more motivated and achieve more.
Why Character through Leadership?
Research shows that by pursuing a character driven approach to education based on a firm set of values could be the lever that produces such an ethos. Consideration was also given as to how our young people could be advantaged in developing a career path in their early years of employment or Higher Education.
Amongst the skills they will need to be successful are those of upwardly managing and positively influencing those around them. To assist our young people develop such influencing skills ‘leadership’ has been chosen as the trust’s specialism.
