Our Vision

Vision Statement

A family of Catholic schools, inspired by Jesus, to love learn and achieve.

 

Strategic Plan 2020 -2023

Introduction  

Welcome to Romero Catholic Academy Trust.  We are one of three multi academy trusts established by the Catholic Diocese of Salford.  We serve the schools in the north of the diocese which includes diocesan schools within the local authorities of Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Calderdale. 

As a Catholic academy trust, our first duty is to maintain and develop our schools as living faith communities inspired by the gospel.  However, each will brings its own individual context, character and ethos and we welcome and celebrate this uniqueness.

The trust includes some schools with directive academy orders but most are voluntary convertors who have taken the decision to become an academy.  However, all are inspired to work more closely within our family of schools to achieve the best outcomes for our pupils and to support, and gain support, from each other. Our shared outlook is reflected in share policies, where appropriate.

Effective governance lies at the heart of our trust.  The professional board of directors, with a wide and relevant skill set and who are approved by the bishop, support and challenge our schools.  In addition, local governing bodies play a highly important role providing scrutiny and decision-making at an individual school level.  However, fundamental to the success of our schools are the headteachers and their staff. We believe that headteachers are central to thriving and successful schools.  Our role is to support and challenge and provide the resources for this to happen.

It is through our central team that the main support for schools is provided.  With the CEO, there is a finance officer, school improvement lead, HR support and policy development.  We also have strategic partnerships with legal support, payroll and recruitment as well as strong links with the diocese.

Our Mission

Within Romero Catholic Academy Trust learning will take place in communities inspired by the Gospel, where Christ’s commandment to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ creates an ethos which is expressed in positive relationships within and beyond our schools. All our schools promote the kindness, dignity, self-esteem and full development of each person who is made in God’s image and uniquely loved by God. 

Our schools are living communities of faith, service, prayer and worship. Our schools are inclusive; we have a culture of love where people of diverse identities are recognised, welcomed, respected and cherished. We seek to make a difference to all groups of children, especially the most vulnerable in our society. 

Our schools within the trust will work in partnership with each other to provide deep levels of support to staff and to expand the opportunities for our pupils

We work with families and parishes to promote strong, positive relationships. Every school in the Trust is on a journey of continual improvement, aspiring to be more, not have more.

Core Values

• All pupils have access to academic, physical and spiritual development. 

• Participation in worship and prayer within the school. 

• A range of educational experiences and learning beyond the classroom. 

• Opportunities to make sustained progress gaining knowledge and understanding.

• Recognition of personal skills and expertise that have been acquired and applied thus preparing young people for the next stage of their life. 

• Exceptional learning in all areas of the curriculum and a desire for further learning. 

• Excellent role models who are leaders in schools. 

• Resilience and independence to meet challenging situations with confidence and determination. 

• A safe, positive learning environment where everyone understands the importance of good behaviour. 

• A safe nurturing experience and an understanding how to keep everyone safe. 

• Opportunities to celebrate achievements and successes.

• A collective responsibility for all our children. 

Our Academies

Primary

St Augustine’s of Canterbury RC Primary, a Voluntary Academy.  Burnley

St John the Baptist RC Primary, a Voluntary Academy. Burnley 

St Joseph’s RC Primary, a Voluntary Academy, Todmorden

St Mary Magadalene’s RC Primary, a Voluntary Academy, Burnley

St Mary’s RC Primary, A Voluntary Academy,  Bacup 

Secondary

All Saints Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy.  Rawtenstall

Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic College, a Voluntary Academy.  Burnley

 

Strategic Aim 1: Mission and Ethos

Through our Catholic faith, promote the academic, spiritual, emotional and social growth of the individual child and young person

OBJECTIVES

1.1 To ensure strong links between school and parish

1.2 To ensure all academies are well prepared for the Diocesan Section 48 Inspection 

1.3 To enable schools to participate in the wider life of the Trust and the Diocese

1.4 To provide opportunities for all pupils and staff to deepen and explore their faith 

1.5 To ensure that Religious Education is a high priority core subject in schools

1.6 To ensure Catholic social teaching is embedded in the curriculum and the life of the school including our responsibilities for the environment and care for our common home.

 

Strategic Aim 2: Teaching, Learning and Assessment

To ensure that all our academies provide the very best teaching in order to promote and provide high quality learning for all our children and young people and ensuring that there is support in place for teachers to achieve this. We aim to develop ‘life-long learners’ who have a thirst for knowledge as a result of high quality teaching and assessment.

OBJECTIVES

2.1 To implement a CPD programme that ensures that all our staff have the right skills to raise standards further, deliver good teaching and learning and disseminate good practice to ensure rapid improvement

2.2 To secure high quality teaching and learning

2.3 To ensure every academy has a relevant, rich and broad curriculum

2.4 To ensure that all vulnerable groups make at least good progress

2.5 To use assessment proportionately to inform and progress children’s learning.

 

Strategic Aim 3: Academy Improvement

To establish a self-sustaining, system-led, collaborative approach to improvement that enables rapid improvement where required

OBJECTIVES

3.1 To establish a self-sustaining, system-led collaborative approach to improvement that enables rapid improvement when required

3.2 To develop school-to-school support for leadership

3.3 To build effective links to outstanding providers outside of the Trust to support continuing improvement

3.4 To ensure all schools operate effective quality assurance and self-evaluation

3.5 To ensure that all schools have effective development planning leading to improvement

3.6 To enhance the Trust’s ability to develop the next generation of school leaders in both phases

3.7 To ensure all schools are well prepared for Ofsted inspection 

Growth and Development Plan

Aims
Romero Catholic Academy Trust was established to develop a network of Catholic schools within the Diocese of Salford across the local authorities of Blackburn with Darwen, Calderdale and Lancashire to become a sustainable family of schools that have share responsibility for all our pupils and seek to work collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes for all our pupils.
We recognise that it is a strength of the Trust that schools have their own ethos and unique character.  We recognise there will be local context in which they work and that working collaboratively does not mean that schools will be based on a ‘template’.  
 
Due Diligence 
Schools that convert voluntarily into Romero Catholic Academy Trust have to provide a clear risk assessment to the Board for academic standards, finance and premise.  This will include the DfE requirement for Integrated Financial Curriculum Planning and benchmarking programmes providing a number of performance measures through which schools can compare their costs and check if they are managing resources and finances effectively. The Trust acknowledges the usefulness of the tool but also recognises its limitations, for example, it focuses largely on teacher costs, without factoring in wider pastoral or curriculum issues or the resources provided by teaching assistants and other support and ancillary staff. Therefore the Trust will balance the use of the financial indicators with other measures.
With schools that join the Trust with Directive Academy orders (DAO), we have a responsibility to ensure they remain within the Catholic family of schools but balance this our wider obligations to the other schools in the Trust.  As a result, a DAO school would have to be prepared to accept rapid improvement plans for their staffing and curriculum where this is required.
 
Central Support
As the Trust grows to six schools, a dedicated central executive team will be established to replace the service level agreement currently in place with schools and providers.  As part of the planned growth, this team’s capacity will increase to meet the needs of the schools.  Initially, the team will consist of seconded posts but this will transfer to employed posts in due course.  The Central Team will initially include the CEO, the finance officer, HR and school improvement as the core offer.  This will be supported by administration support and the role of governance and policy.  The number of people in each will increase with the number of schools joining the Trust.  The Trust will also have SLAs and long-term business relationships with a number of partners including payroll, legal and premises.  
The management fee paid by the schools to funs the central team will be top sliced by the Trust from the GAG only.   This is partially offset by the savings schools make from existing SLAs. The management fee will be reviewed through the Headteachers’ Forum, from time to time.
 
Staggered conversions
If several schools are seeking to join the Trust at the same time, the Board would consider staggering the date of conversion so that the Trust can manage the conversion properly and conduct robust consultation and due diligence.  This also allows for the local authority to manage the conversion within their capacity.