The Trust Offer

Our Trust's mission is to advance education in the borough of Rochdale and its surrounds so that young people lead happy and fulfilling lives and make positive differences to their communities and society.

We wish to create an inclusive and cohesive system of education in the area that improves the lives of everyone in the borough.

As part of this mission and vision, we strive to play a significant role as an anchor organisation in the borough of Rochdale by making a strategic contribution to the greater social good, prioritising support for those experiencing disadvantage.

Consequently, we:

• Run the Children's University for the borough's primary schools.

• Co-ordinate borough-wide enrichment opportunities for our secondary schools through the REACH project.

• Provide alumni data and progression posters for all local schools, both primary and secondary (something currently unreplicated anywhere else in the country).

• Opened the Altus Community Hub at Kingsway Park High School, providing a FREE and confidential service for families and individuals in our local communities to access food, clothing, washing and drying facilities, support and guidance.

3 Ways to Work with Altus

1. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

We use memorandums of understanding to work with local partners around a particular project or task. For example, the MoU between Hopwood Hall College and Rochdale Sixth Form College, is based on providing a 'Rochdale Offer' of excellent education and impartial career advice and guidance to all school leavers in the borough. While there are usually no costs associated with an MoU, the nature of some projects may incur expenses that would be shared between the signatories.

2. A Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A service level agreement is a commercial agreement between Altus and a school outside the Trust, whereby Altus provides that school with a service. We are currently offering SLAs in:

• School Improvement

• Human Resources Advisory Services

In future, we will also be offering SLAs in other core services - if there are any you would be particularly interested in, please get in touch - info@altusep.com

3. A Trust Partnership Agreement (TPA)

For schools considering Altus as a Trust, or exploring the possibility of academisation more generally, a Trust Partnership Agreement allows a school to find our more in-depth about Altus, or joining a Trust, in a time limited way with no commitment to join. The TPA lasts for one year, and while Altus is committed to the full duration of the agreement, should a school decide to opt out, they can do so at any time.

As part of the agreement, Altus will commit to:

• Delivering a service to support school improvement, aligned to the Altus Education Partnership improvement Strategy and as agreed at the commencement of the partnership by the senior leaders and school improvement representatives from the Trust.
• Providing the school with up to two days support in each of the following areas: IT, Operations, Finance, Human Resources, Graphic Design, Marketing, MIS and Governance.
• Providing access to the Trust's senior leader coaching programme and other opportunities and networks delivered through the Trust.
• Supporting the school in exploring the possibility of converting into an academy.
• Maintaining and keeping information about the partnership agreement confidential.

In 2023-24 Altus engaged with seven schools, five of which are either joining or exploring joining the Trust. There is no cost associated with a TPA.

Joining our Trust