Altus Education Partnership Holds First Trust-Wide INSET Day
On the Friday before October half-term, Altus Education Partnership staff met at Rochdale Town Hall and Rochdale Sixth Form College to reflect on, and celebrate, the role they play in supporting and shaping the lives of the thousands of young people in their care. The event marked the first time all Trust members from Bamford Academy, Edgar Wood Academy, Kingsway Park High School, Rochdale Sixth Form College, and the central team have met.
“Today is an important day for our Trust and the academies” the Trust CEO, Richard Ronksley, welcomed attendees and said, “It’s the first opportunity we’ve had to get together, to work together, and to learn a little more about one another.”
The event served as an important reminder of the Trust’s role in serving the young people, families, and communities of Rochdale. In all 497 staff are responsible for the education of nearly 5000 students in the Trust’s four academies. A key theme of the meeting was pride in Rochdale and pride in the borough. Although Rochdale faces its fair share of challenges, delegates highlighted the area’s rich talent, and the huge potential and promise in its young people.
Former students also spoke, telling powerful stories of how their lives and life chances were changed by the academies they attended. Staff were given the opportunity to reflect on the moments, big and small, where they have influenced students’ lives, often in ways they might never fully know.
The event was also used to announce an additional investment of £1 million into education over the next two years. This new funding will support new roles, laptops for staff, transport initiatives, building refurbishments, and the provision of effective and compassionate alternative provision for those students in need.
Richard concluded with a pledge to continue listening to, and learning from, staff and students on how to improve and make things better. He finished by thanking delegates for the work they did every day and for the enormous differences they make to young people, families, and communities.
The day continued with sessions which provided the opportunity for teaching staff across the Trust to explore how as a Trust we work towards developing a cohesive and well-sequenced curriculum so that children and young people can ‘finish well’. Colleagues worked in cross-phase groups to talk about the opportunities we want children and young people to experience in the subjects we teach, lead and love before we experienced our first ‘wonder walk’ through the phases in art, mathematics and writing from Reception to post-16. In turn, support staff were led in a session on resilience and mental wellbeing by guest speaks from It’s Mental. Following on from these sessions staff were treated to lunch with the opportunity to network with staff from all our academies and get to know each other.
Staff gave some positive feedback about the day, commenting on how they enjoyed meeting with staff from other academies, how useful they found the sessions and how good it was to see and hear from student representatives.
With much thanks to all our staff for their support in joining us for our inaugural Trust day, we look forward to hosting another Trust day in 2025 and meeting with everyone again.