The Priory Partnership

An introduction to the Trust.

The Priory has grown incrementally and coherently since it was formed in 2008.

In 2008, The Priory Witham Academy was formed from the merger of three schools: Moorlands Infant and Nursery School, Usher Junior School, and Joseph Ruston Technology College. Witham, therefore, became an ‘all-through’ academy. The Priory City of Lincoln Academy was formed from The City of Lincoln Community College. The Priory Academy LSST was formed from The Priory LSST.

In 2010, the Priory was asked by the LA and the DfE to incorporate a fourth academy into the Trust. The Priory Ruskin Academy was formed from the closure of two secondary schools in Grantham: Church School and Central Technology and Sports College.

In 2017, the Priory incorporated three schools into the Trust: Ling Moor Primary Academy, The Priory Belvoir Academy (formerly Belvoir High School) and The Priory Pembroke Academy (formerly Cherry Willingham Community School).

In 2018, the Priory incorporated three schools into the Trust: Waddington Redwood Primary Academy, Heighington Millfield Primary Academy and Huntingtower Primary Academy.

In 2019, the Priory incorporated Cherry Willingham Primary Academy and Willoughby Special Academy.

We are delighted that we include each of the three phases: Special, Primary and Secondary. In addition to our schools, the Trust continues to work with the wider educational community.

The Trust provides training and development opportunities for every member of staff, at whichever career stage they have reached or to which they aspire. As an accredited SCITT (School-Centred Initial Teacher Training) provider, Apprenticeship provider, Science Learning Partnership and Institute of Physics Lead School, Computing Hub and Teaching School, we offer specialist provision for support and teaching staff.

The Priory Vision

1. To develop successful Trust hubs in the wider Lincoln and Grantham areas that offer high quality: a. Special, Primary and Secondary education
   b. Post-16 programmes and apprenticeships
   c. Career development and School Improvement programmes.

2. To use the Maximising Performance programme to focus the Trust’s strategies on improving the quality of education.

3. To have a clear and transparent governance structure that supports the objects of the Trust.

4. To use the Maximising Effectiveness programme to provide high quality career-stage professional development for all staff.

5. To provide expert central services offering appropriate and professional support through effective and sustainable relationships.

6. To use the Maximising Learning programme to monitor and improve teaching, learning, assessment and the curriculum.

7. To deliver a Priory Values programme of cultural, community, health, sporting and leadership events across the Trust.

8. To develop a Priory Baccalaureate award that:
   a. Rewards pupils who embody the values of the Trust
   b. Recognises all that is good about a pupil
   c. Provides access to well-considered and highly regarded accreditation at each phase.

9. To ensure that all pupils, including the most vulnerable: a. Achieve in line with or above expectations
   b. Attend in line with or above national levels
   c. Progress successfully on to the next stage of their lives.

10. To be a first-choice destination for families, pupils and staff.

The Priory Ethos

The Trust has an overarching ethos that is articulated through a Mission, a Motto, and a set of Values. There is, therefore, an open, conscious and emotional ‘buy-in’ to the Trust from its academies. In addition to this, the Trust establishes the Curriculum Intent framework within which each academy is able to develop its own unique response.

MISSION: To improve the life chances of our pupils so they become true citizens of the world.

MOTTO: Sic itur ad astra ‘By the good deeds you do, you will be remembered in the stars for eternity’ - Virgil’s Aeneid

VALUES:

Achieving excellence through:

• Wisdom: Nurturing deeply cultured, reflective and philosophical thinkers of the future

• Curiosity: Empowering intellectual curiosity, active learning and inquisitiveness

• Generosity: Fostering empathy, mutual respect and courtesy in a global community

• Courage: Championing integrity, resilience and the value of personal endeavour

• Passion: Igniting a sense of awe and wonder, moral conviction and ambition

CURRICULUM INTENT, IMPLEMENTATION, IMPACT

Each academy within the Trust writes its own statement of Curriculum Intent that reflects the Trust’s Mission and the Trust’s Curriculum Intent (as set out below). The curriculum is implemented using the Trust’s Maximising programmes and attention is paid to developing a blended learning approach. The impact of the curriculum is increasingly being evaluated against the Priory Baccalaureate framework.

1. Embed the Priory’s mission and values within the creation of a distinct offer informed and shaped by the unique dynamics of each academy, its stakeholders and wider community.

2. Provide a coherent knowledge base that is appropriately powerful, clearly constructed and thoughtfully sequenced.

3. Assess knowledge, skills and understanding in an intelligent, supportive and proportionate manner.

4. Support a predominantly subject focused approach. Each subject, to whatever level a pupil

   engages, will provide a meaningful experience used to build cultural capital.

5. Develop pupils’ cognitive ability in order for them to learn, retain and recall knowledge; and develop metacognitive ability in order that they monitor and purposefully direct their learning.

6. Design a range of pathways that value pupils in equal measure, ensure equality of opportunity and focus on pupil needs and interests.

7. Celebrate meaningful, inspiring and life-changing experiences that have enabled pupils:

   • to maximise levels of literacy, self-worth and cultural capital

   • to contribute to the increasingly complex, numerate and digital economy

   • to play a meaningful role in local, national and international communities.