Creativity is the ability to find connections between the things we know and to turn these connections into new ideas and action. The academic arts and the sciences, practical subjects and life skills all need creativity. Creativity is highly valued by employers. With knowledge, skills and creativity, every young individual is equipped to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.

News

Don’t Do It!
25
Oct 2018
The Big Write, Creative Education Trust's year 8 creative writing...
Great Leaps Forward
23
Aug 2018
Creative Education Trust schools from Stoke-on-Trent in the northwest...
Top scoring A-level mathematicians
16
Aug 2018
Two Creative Education Trust sixth formers have scored top marks in...

Our resources are finite. Should we be trying to design more with less, or designing products which simply use resources rather than use them up? We need to embed these questions in education from an early age.
- Ellen MacArthur, Round-the-World sailor and Chair of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Who We Are

Creative Education Trust is a charity and multi-academy trust. Our network of non-selective state schools works together to empower young people with the knowledge, skills and creativity they need to succeed in school and in life.

We exist to ensure high quality education and opportunity in England's post-industrial cities and coastal towns. Our growing network currently has mixture of primary and secondary schools across the Midlands and East Anglia.

To help young people connect what they learn across the curriculum, we use our six key concepts; structure, pattern, meaning, performance, human interaction and practice.

Our approach is unique and it is working. The Department for Education recently showed Creative Education Trust as one of the top performing multi-academy trusts.

Please click to download our Trustees' Report and Financial Statements (FY17, FY16 and FY15 ), Register of Directors' Interests FY17, Scheme of Delegation, Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association, Master Funding Agreement 2013, Master Funding Agreement 2014, Value for Money Statement 2014, Modern Slavery Statement, Gender Pay Gap Report,  our Freedom of Information Policy and Publication Scheme and Facility Time Report.

Please also be aware of our Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notice for staff and pupils.

The Creative Education Trust is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales no 7617529. Registered Office: 7 Sicilian Avenue, London WC1A 2QR

Creative employees look for better ways of doing things, enhancing process, making things more streamlined. We nurture any kind of creativity that can bring an improvement
- Cummins UK

Join Us

The CET schools network currently consists of seven secondary academies and six primary academies across the Midlands and East Norfolk. We are in the forefront nationally of improvement in academic standards, in curricular innovation and staff development. We plan to expand the number of academies in the network to around twenty over the next two years.

This scale will allow our schools to collaborate even more effectively and to work together to develop imaginative new ways of delivering education, whilst preserving the ‘bespoke’ approach that we currently offer. Our aim is to develop a network of like-minded and ambitious schools that includes sponsored academies, converter academies and teaching schools.

  • Why join
  • How to join
  • Work for us
Our schools can rely on the proven experience of our Head Office team in educational improvement and innovative curriculum development for both primary and secondary phases. We also support on organisational strategy and leadership, financial planning, controls and audit, as well as value-for-money procurement, estates management, and best practise in HR and CPD.

In addition, we advise on marketing & communications and fundraising, as well as providing access to expertise in developing co-curricular activities such as sport, music, drama, debating and community service.

CET educational improvement programmes, aimed at helping you to raise standards, are tailored to the particular need of each school. Our capacity and resources are among the best of their kind in the academies sector, while the Design Programme, aimed at developing thinking, skills and knowledge for employability in the contemporary world of work, is unique in UK education.

All schools joining us are participants in our network wide, cloud-based ICT platform providing cross-group networking, information databases and teaching resources, as well as financial and management tools.

Within the growing CET schools network there are also many opportunities to share best practice in education and management with experienced colleagues and distinguished experts, whether through the Principals’ Forum, our regular subject area development days or through secondments. There are regular opportunities for students to engage in collaborative and competitive activities across the network.

We are particularly interested in hearing from schools in industrial towns and cities that are considering becoming academies, or are already academies but want to explore the benefits of joining a network.

We welcome approaches from primary and secondary schools, and can provide proven expertise and developmental resources in both phases. We also provide financial and operational guidance to ensure the future academy can deploy its resources effectively and sustainably in support of its educational mission.

Our project team has extensive experience in the academy conversion process and will ensure that governors and school leaders are fully supported through all the formalities so that disruption to the day-to-day running of your school is kept to a minimum.

If you would like to have an informal conversation about joining CET schools or would like to arrange a visit by us to your school, please contact our Chief Executive, Marc Jordan, on 020 7378 5761 or marc.jordan@creativeeducationtrust.org.uk.

Clerk to Governors - Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes

Location: Northamptonshire/Milton Keynes
Salary: c£20,000 (pro rated to £4,000)
Contract: Permanent, 0.2 FTE annualised hours

Creative Education Trust is a non-profit educational charity recognised by the Department for Education as one of the leading national multi-academy trusts. We support a growing network of schools to achieve academic success for our students.

We are looking for an experienced and flexible clerk to provide a high standard of administrative support to the Chairs of local Governing Bodies for a cluster of academies within the Creative Education Trust in Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes.

The main responsibilities of the role will include collating and distributing board papers and reports in advance of meetings and taking accurate minutes of the meetings in addition to coordinating and providing administrative support at school hearings.

The role will be based at home, with the requirement to attend meetings and hearings at individual Academy sites at various times during the academic year.

Completed application forms should be sent to recruitment@creativeeducationtrust.org.uk by 14 December 2018.

Job description
Application form
Equality and diversity monitoring form

 

Creative Education Trust schools
are a brilliant idea.
- Sir Terence Conran, Designer & Entrepreneur

Education

The Creative Education Trust’s vision of a liberal education is informed by the concepts of structure, pattern, meaning, performance, human interaction and practical making/doing. Drawn from the world of design, architecture and engineering which inspired the founders of the Creative Education Trust, these concepts underpin curriculum content, teaching practice, student demeanour, organisational management and business/community relations.

  • Curriculum
  • Improvement
  • Design
  • Staff Development
  • Enrichment
As part of an academy Trust, CET schools are able to design a curriculum which is appropriate to the needs of their own students. CET works with schools to enhance students’ experiences, achieve curricular objectives, improve educational outcomes and ensure value for money. Pupil-teacher ratios, average class sizes and contact ratios are all analysed to inform development.

The content, breadth and balance of the curriculum at all Key Stages and in all year groups is regularly reviewed to inform planning and ensure the academy is responsive to changing needs.

The Design Programme is the central feature of CET schools’ curriculum. This unique and innovative syllabus integrates and supports academic work in the core subjects of English, maths and science and across the wider curriculum by encouraging students to think rigorously about concepts such as structure, pattern and meaning in the man-made world around us.

Maintaining and supporting a culture of continuous improvement in educational outcomes for all the students in its care is the central theme of CET’s approach. School leaders and Governing bodies are supported and challenged in equal measure to ensure that the whole range of students’ needs are met.

The Director of Education, Philip Cantwell, agrees with each school on a regular and frequent basis the precise support that the team of Educational Advisers will provide. Each school is assigned an experienced Education Adviser from our team. Serving or former Heads, often National Leaders in Education, who are all very experienced and highly regarded in areas of school improvement.

The Educational Advisers provide sympathetic, personalised support, acknowledging the pressures and challenges which senior school leaders face. They work rigorously towards improvement, challenging but supporting, using their skills to ensure that development is sustainable.

The development of leadership skills across the school supports the work to improve outcomes. CET’s modular leadership development programme is available to all schools in their first year in the Trust; aimed at senior and middle leaders, but including sessions for all staff where appropriate.

CET also provides support to its schools through the work of subject specific advisers in all curriculum areas and in vital strands such as the provision for SEND students. CET maintains close ties with the DfE and Ofsted at a senior level and as a result can advise on current and forthcoming policy developments that will affect schools.

Preparation for external inspection is supported through the regular visits of the Education Adviser and through the monitoring provided by our team of senior former HMI.

Their regular visits examine and validate the school’s own self-evaluation and assist the academy in presenting its performance data in a clear and positive way. Coaching for the interviews which form part of every Ofsted visit is widely used and developmental “mock” inspections are arranged to assist the school.

CET schools have a curriculum which is creative, imaginative and innovative. Our Design Programme is its central feature. This unique syllabus integrates and supports academic work in core subjects such as English, maths and science and across the wider curriculum by encouraging students to think rigorously about the concepts of structure, pattern, performance, human interaction and meaning in the man-made world around us, as they turn their ideas into real, crafted and manufactured propositions.

Read more about our Key Concepts here.

The Design Programme combines art, design and technology and ICT into a new and exciting subject area. Students learn to approach the general and the theoretical via the particular and material, acquiring skills and understanding that will develop their literacy and numeracy and help them to attain higher grades in core subjects such as English, maths and science.

The progression of skills and understanding in the Design Programme is carefully managed to ensure natural and successful transition to Key Stage 4. At Key Stage 2 we provide guidance on design and making skills and equipment; and design training for primary teachers.

We also supply a range of exemplar schemes of work which take their cue from themes commonly found in primary curricula (such as the Future, Technology, Global Culture and Space Travel). These borrow their logic and rigour from the secondary Design Programme and all lead to a practical design and making challenge.

We regularly develop content for enrichment and special projects in the arts, science or other curriculum areas. CET schools have access to a library of exemplar schemes of work which have been written and tested by designers and teachers. These schemes of work, stretching but enjoyable, are carefully integrated with the skills and understanding

required in the core subjects of English, maths and science.

Students and staff meet top professionals from regional and national creative businesses in design, construction, engineering, architecture, innovative manufacturing, digital media and fashion. They attend regular inspirational events, exhibitions and workshops run with our national partners, such as the Design Museum, London.

CET’s Director of Programmes, Emily Campbell and her team of design specialists support each school to introduce and develop the Design Programme in their own context. Her team, which includes designers,

teachers of design and specialist CPD advisers for art, design and technology visit all of our schools regularly to ensure that the provision remains at the forefront of design education.

Our expectation is that all CET staff share an ambitious vision for our schools and have high expectations for what every student and teacher can achieve.

CET produces a range of CPD events to bring staff of the different academies together to listen to experts, and to share ideas and good practice in everything from the Design Programme to curriculum enrichment and brainstorming the outstanding academy of the future.

CET is committed to enlarging the range and quality of ‘enrichment’ activities in its academies, particularly music, competitive sport, community service, enterprise and debate. The inter-academy programme in which CET schools compete and collaborate is built around three annual enrichment days, a Day of Performance , a Day of Service and a Day of Sports.

The Creative Education Trust gratefully acknowledges support from PRS for Music Foundation for its forthcoming Year 7 choral and musical theatre project based on young people’s experiences of World War II, We’ll Meet Again.

The Creative Education Trust is both brave and foresighted to make design central to a 21st-century curriculum.
- Dick Powell, Product Designer, Seymour Powell

Academies

Abbeyfield is a large mixed comprehensive in south Northampton with a Performing Arts specialism. Governors were attracted to the Trust’s combination of educational rigour and curricular innovation. The new academy opened in October 2012. Principal Claire Morrell and Chair of Governors Peter Walls are working closely with our education and finance teams to ensure that the academy has a bright future, and Abbeyfield teachers are adopting the Design Programme enthusiastically.

In its first year in the Trust, Abbeyfield achieved a 17% improvement in the proportion of students achieving 5A*-C including English and Maths to 58%.

Visit Abbeyfield School’s website

Ash Green School in Coventry converted as the third Creative Education Trust Academy in January 2012. Prior to this, the school had moved from special measures to become one of the fastest improving schools in England.

Ash Green is a specialist arts college, and Governors saw the Creative Education Trust as a natural partner to work with them to take the school to even higher levels of excellence as an academy. Under the guidance of the Trust and in response to local demand Ash Green has successfully added a sixth form, the excellence of which has been recognised by Ofsted in its first year of operation.

In 2016 the Department for Education placed Ash Green School in the top 16% of schools in England and their Progress 8 score of +0.38 also places them in the top 5 highest performing schools in Coventry and Warwickshire. Ash Green School is lead by Principal Harry French.

Visit Ash Green School’s website

The Bulwell Academy is a larger-than-average secondary school to the North West of the city of Nottingham.

With light and open classrooms, quieter independent learning areas and state-of-art learning and sporting facilities, The Bulwell Academy’s nurturing environment has been designed to stimulate young minds.

The Bulwell Academy joined Creative Education Trust in May 2018.

Visit The Bulwell Academy’s website.

Caister Academy is a smaller-than-average 11 to 16 secondary school at the heart of the coastal village of Caister-on-Sea, just north of the seaside town of Great Yarmouth. Some students attend from the northern part of the town and the school also serves surrounding villages.

Led by Michelle Strong and her team, Caister Academy offers a very broad curriculum to meet the needs of each individual child in a strongly supportive environment where every child is known and can be confident that their welfare and achievement are paramount.

Caister Academy is consulting on changes to their Admissions Arrangements for 2018/19. Please click here for further details.

Visit Caister Academy’s website

Harpfield Primary Academy in Stoke-on-Trent was the first primary school to join the Trust as a sponsored academy on 1 May 2013. Working with Headteacher Richard Woollacott and the Leadership team at Harpfield represents an exciting opportunity to develop our curriculum of practical creativity for the primary phase of education and to build on the rapid improvements in outcomes for children that Harpfield has recently enjoyed. In its first year in the Trust, Harpfield achieved a 7% rise in the proportion of students achieving at least level 4 in both English and Maths in their KS2 SATS to 86%.

In addition to supporting the continued success of Harpfield, the Trust will also be helping to strengthen the ties with nearby Thistley Hough Academy.

Harpfield Primary Academy is consulting on changes to their Admissions Arrangements for 2018/19. Please click here for further details.

Visit Harpfield Primary Academy’s website

The Hart School, formed by the merger of Fair Oak and Hagley Park Academies in Rugeley, opened its doors in September 2016 to start life as an ambitious single school lead by Principal Chris Keen.

Sharing staff and resources offers enhanced academic and extra-curricular opportunities to its students and has already led the schools to achieve results which place them in the top three for all Staffordshire secondary schools. Equally impressive is that half of The Hart School’s sixth form students now go on to study at prestigious Russell Group universities.

Visit The Hart School’s website.

Lynn Grove Academy is a large, nine-form entry secondary school of approximately 1100 students aged 11 to 16. It is located in the coastal community of Gorleston-on-Sea, just to the south of Great Yarmouth, and also serves the wider surrounding area. The school is led by Principal Alison Mobbs and her team. Its impressive facilities include a well-equipped sports centre and outdoor tennis courts.

The school’s motto, Fidelitas in Parvis (Taking care of the little things), is borne out by the school’s pride in ensuring the welfare and progress of every child.

Lynn Grove Academy is consulting on changes to their Admissions Arrangements for 2018/19. Please click here for further details.

Visit Lynn Grove Academy’s website

Queen Eleanor Primary Academy in Northampton joined the Trust in September 2013. It is a small primary with a high percentage of pupils from minority ethnic groups for whom English is an additional language. Queen Eleanor is one of the Abbeyfield cluster primary schools and both leadership teams are planning to work even more closely together within the Trust.

Visit Queen Eleanor Primary Academy’s website

Becoming a Creative Education Trust school in 2013, Thistley Hough is in the Potteries where the mass production firms of old are being replaced by smaller, export-led, high-end ceramics firms that require modern creative skills.

Although Thistley Hough went into Special Measures in summer 2012, its future looks bright. Thistley Hough has now been ranked among the best in England for their GCSE results according to the government’s new Progress 8 scoring system. The new Government measure, which was introduced this year, aims to measure how pupils progress from year seven through to their GCSE results and a score of +0.25 has placed Thistley Hough within the top 25 per cent nationally.

Thistley Hough Academy is consulting on changes to their Admissions Arrangements for 2018/19. Please click here for further details.

Visit Thistley Hough Academy’s website

Three Peaks joined the Trust on 1 December 2014 as the third primary school in the network. It is a much larger than average-sized primary school formed in 2009 by the amalgamation of an infant and junior school on the same site. The school serves the communities of Wilnecote and Stoneydelph and has continued to grow over the past three years. Under the leadership of Headteacher Richard Penn-Bourton and Chair of Governors Simon Phipps, Three Peaks is now rated good by Ofsted. By joining the Trust the school will accelerate its progress.

 

Visit Three Peaks Primary Academy’s website.

Weavers is a large mixed comprehensive in Wellingborough which joined the Trust in September 2013. Governors selected CEAT as their preferred academy sponsor because they wanted to work with an organisation that brought challenge, rigour and professionalism to educational improvement, but which also offered access for students to culture, knowledge, skills and innovation relevant to the world they would go into as adults. During the conversion process, Principal Chris Blanch and his team were being advised regularly by one of the Trust’s education team who is an NLE (National Leader of Education). Weavers achieved a 12% rise in its 5A*-C including English and Maths in 2013.

Visit Weavers Academy’s website

Woodlands Primary is a large two-form entry school for children of primary age in the village of Bradwell, just to the south of Great Yarmouth. It serves the growing local community and surrounding villages and, as befits its name, occupies a beautiful rural setting surrounded by forest. Led by Headteacher Sheila Mercer and her team, the school also offers the community a nursery for children who will enter Reception at the age of five.

Woodlands works closely with Lynn Grove Academy, which is the secondary school of choice for the majority of Woodlands’ pupils.

Woodlands Primary Academy is consulting on changes to their Admissions Arrangements for 2019/20. Please click here for further details.

Visit Woodlands Primary Academy’s website

 

Wroughton Infant School in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth joined the Trust on 1 December 2016. It is a three form entry school which shares its site with Wroughton Junior School. It serves a widespread urban area, but most children come from local housing and few speak English as an additional language. Dr Craig Avieson has been appointed to the role of Executive Headteacher of both the infant and junior schools and works closely with the headteachers of the other CET schools in the area: Woodlands Primary School and Lynn Grove Academy which form the remainder of the Great Yarmouth cluster.

Click here to visit the Wrougton Academies website.

Wroughton Junior School in Great Yarmouth joined the Trust as a sponsored academy on 1 December 2016. It is a three form entry junior school which shares its site with Wroughton Infant School. It serves a widespread urban area, but most children come from local housing. Few speak English as an additional language.

The school was judged by Ofsted to require special measures shortly prior to joining CET and it is already making good progress on a rapid improvement journey. Dr Craig Avieson has been appointed to the role of Executive Headteacher of both the junior and infant schools and works closely with the headteachers of the other CET schools in the area: Woodlands Primary School and Lynn Grove Academy which form the remainder of the Great Yarmouth cluster.

Click here to visit the Wrougton Academies website.

Scientists ask why? Designers ask why not? In either case, fortune favours the educated mind: our economic prosperity depends on schools that encourage children to be creative and question nature's laws.
- Geoff Kirk, Former Chief Design Engineer, Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace

Contact

The best schools are made of the best teachers. We are always looking for brilliant teachers looking for a new challenge. If you are interested in working for Creative Education Trust or want to find out more about what we do, please do get in touch.

Creative Education Trust

Sicilian House
7 Sicilian Avenue
London WC1A 2QR

020 3910 9200

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