Report to Stakeholders 2024

Chief executive's introduction

Welcome to our report to stakeholders, which provides a summary of developments in RLT over the past 12 months. Please note that previous reports to stakeholders provide some additional detail about the Trust and how we work that is not repeated here.

Paul James

About RLT

RLT is a multi-academy trust that is committed to excellence and collaborative working within Oxfordshire and Swindon.

RLT is made up of:

• Nine secondary schools
• Nineteen primary schools
• A SCITT provider (school-centred initial teacher training)
• A Teaching School Hub

More details can be found HERE about our schools.

Our schools

Secondary (in order of joining RLT)

• The Cherwell School
• Wheatley Park
• Cheney
• Chipping Norton
• Kingsdown
• The Marlborough CofE
• The Swan School
• The Oxford Academy
• Gosford Hill

Primary (in order of joining RLT)

• Cutteslowe
• Wolvercote
• Tower Hill
• New Marston
• Edith Moorhouse
• Garsington CofE
• Horspath CofE
• Madley Brook
• Witney Community
• Middle Barton
• Beckley CofE
• Rose Hill
• Sandhills
• Larkrise
• Seven Fields
• Charlbury
• Windrush
• Barton Park
• Bayards Hill

How do we work?

Being part of RLT means that schools have access to a range of colleagues and collaborative opportunities to support their school improvement – we believe in the power of sharing best practice and in schools responding and adapting to the specific needs of their communities.

We also provide a full range of operational services to schools such as finance, HR, estates, health and safety, and IT, as well as supporting major projects such as large-scale procurement.

You can view some short videos that explain how we work HERE.

RLT in numbers

• Schools: 28 (Nine secondary, 19 primary)
• Pupils: 15,349 at last census (4,275 Primary, 11,074 Secondary)
• SCITT: One, currently training 150 teachers across seven hubs in three counties
• Staff (full time and part time): 2,108
• Funding spent on capital investment in school buildings: More than £3.1m

What have we focused on?

During the year our focus has been on the following areas:

1. Delivery of the Strategic Education Plan (curriculum, professional development, leadership and governance) and Inclusion Strategy:

• At primary level the work of the Subject Networks (particularly maths and English) has enhanced the wider drive to raise standards in maths fluency and reading, and there has been an increased emphasis on STEM subjects via schools joining the Local Science Hub. Moderation opportunities in writing have increased and individual schools have benefitted from working with a trust moderator; which has led to more accurate teacher assessment. The work of the Instructional Coach has been influential in the schools and CPLD for prospective HTs and for Subject Leaders has been well attended. 
• At secondary level our leadership collaboration activities such as in our Collaborative Network Groups continue to be successful. We have also grown the scope of our subject leadership conferences in the summer term, which also supports sharing of best practice and connectedness between schools. Our subject support partners in English, maths, science and modern foreign languages support schools in development work in these subjects, whilst the introduction of Subject Network Leaders in music, DT, psychology, computing and drama have expanded the extent to which we build connections within subject areas.
• Across the Trust we have also developed a deeper understanding of how we create cultures of connectedness and belonging for all pupils alongside our collaborative groups, supporting the development of best practice in approaches to raising attendance.
• The Trust’s Continuing Professional Learning and Development (CPLD) continued to grow with the launch of our Leadership Curriculum and we continue to promote and deliver internal programmes, including the Aspiring SENDCo programme, to develop a strong pathway for these key roles in our schools. 
• We also continue to support staff wellbeing across our schools through networks of wellbeing champions, and our work with school leaders to support healthy organisational culture.
• Alongside the Inclusive approaches embedded within the wider development work of our Strategic Education Plan, we have continued to deliver elements of our Inclusion Strategy. For example, we have delivered training for subject leaders on best practices for pupils with SEND, we have quality assured RLT schools’ use of Alternative Provision across a wide range of providers in regards to supporting strong provision and ensuring suitable checks are in place, and we have provided guidance, support and case studies to leaders to support their work with children and young people with particularly complex needs.

2. Ensuring high standards of school performance

• Progress between primary school to GCSE outcomes at secondary level remains strong and we know that schools that have been in RLT for longer show greater improvements over time. 
• Primary school outcomes showed a significant improvement in both phonics and Key Stage 2 outcomes from 2022 to 2023 to 2024.
• There remains too great a variation in outcomes between our schools.
• The Trust had five successful Ofsted inspections in 2023-24. These highlighted the high quality of the education experienced by our children and young people.

What are we proud of?

• Our people – we remain committed to being a people-focused organisation and continue to see the benefits of this approach for our children, young people and staff. Lives are impacted every day by the work of colleagues and particularly so for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged: whatever the roles of our colleagues, of which there are many in schools, we are proud of the difference we can and do make. 
• The work of our school leaders who apply careful thought to ensure that what we learn works best in schools is being implemented effectively over time in the context of their own schools. The work over the past year that our schools have done to promote cultures of connectedness and belonging has been inspiring and will continue to develop in the coming years. 
• As a Trust we are committed to being intentionally inclusive and equipping our schools and colleagues with the knowledge and skills to best meet the needs of our children and young people. The national and local challenges in the area of SEND are well known and significant, but overall there are real successes in how our schools are approaching this work and, in doing so, also influencing national practice.
• We remain grateful for our Trustees and Governors, all of whom give their time freely as volunteers – our Governor training and the additional forums, such as for equality, diversity and inclusion, continues to support their work
• We agree with the removal of ‘high-stakes’, single-word judgements for Ofsted inspections and recognise they can only ever provide a snapshot of life in a school, and we welcome the way the inspections we have had over the past year have highlighted the many positive things in our schools.
• Our Sustainability Strategy and the work of sustainability leads in schools is becoming more embedded, with a current focus on promoting biodiversity as well as capital work to continue to reduce energy consumption.
• Stakeholder Survey results: More than 17,000 staff, pupils and parents/carers responded this year. Since 2021, every year has seen an increase in primary parents and carers who agree that pupils with SEND are given the support that they need. The figure is now 20 percentage points higher than it was in 2021. Regarding secondary parents and carers, there has been a six percentage point increase since 2023 in parents agreeing that they understand how being part of the River Learning Trust should benefit their child’s school, and a seven percentage point increase since 2021 regarding bullying being dealt with effectively.
• Our Staff Wellbeing Strategy, the work of school wellbeing champions and how our leaders commit to developing healthy school cultures. Our staff survey data continues to compare favourably to the national data.
• Our SCITT (teacher training provider) now trains around 150 trainees and is working through seven hubs in three counties – Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire. This is significant growth and demonstrates our commitment to the wider education system
• The work of our Teaching School Hub continues to be vital in supporting Oxfordshire-wide delivery of the Early Career Framework to more than 600 Early Career Teachers and the delivery of NPQ (National Professional Qualifications) to leaders across Oxfordshire. 
• Our local work within the counties in which we operate as we aim to develop as an ‘anchor institution’ and nationally as we continue to contribute towards change in the wider education system.

What have we learned?

The education system remains under pressure and, of course, is imperfect. A key challenge that schools can find is seeking to recruit colleagues in the context of a national shortage of teachers. This, and the well-known national failings in the SEND system, impacts schools and families alike and can make things difficult for all concerned. We also know that parental complaints in the school system have increased enormously across the country since the pandemic. The speed with which concerns can escalate can also add significant challenges for schools – we always seek to promote positive relationships between families and schools and know that informal resolutions are usually the best and quickest way to overcome difficulties.

It is in this context that we continue to learn about best practice both within and beyond RLT to meet the challenges we face – for example, we have visited schools and Trusts, learning from those that do amazing things in the most disadvantaged communities. We also continue to make connections and both learn and share knowledge about a whole range of issues across the system. For example, we have explored the organisation of support services in Trusts through our ongoing work and research on the importance of human connection where each person is heard, seen, known and valued and how this is developed in schools.

What next?

As a Trust committed to continuous improvement, there is never any shortage of areas that we wish to develop further. Each of our schools has their own individual improvement plans and we also have some underpinning areas being developed across the Trust, such as improving attendance, developing quality of education linked to teacher development and improving outcomes with focus on disadvantaged pupils and recruitment, retention and development of colleagues. 

Also planned for 2025, for the first time in a few years we are expecting to grow as a Trust in the coming year with a primary, a secondary and alternative provision seeking to join us. Other projects include continuing to work with the DfE with the rebuilding of Gosford Hill School and with OCC to expand The Marlborough. 

We also have a longer-term outlook and seek to be ‘system leading’ in a number of areas in the years ahead: Inclusion and SEND, school cultures of belonging and connectedness, reading and oracy, and personal development, including mental and physical health and wellbeing, character education and careers advice and guidance. All of these fit with our vision of being committed to providing an excellent breadth of education for our children and young people so they can thrive in their time in our schools and in the future.

Contact

The River Learning Trust
Central Team Office
c/o Gosford Hill School
Oxford Road
Kidlington
OX5 2NT

office@riverlearningtrust.org

01865 558727

The River Learning Trust, which is an exempt charity and a company limited by guarantee, is registered in England and Wales with a registered company number 7966500.