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Click here for The Symphony Highlights 2024/2025

We believe that strong collaboration with shared accountability can lead to better progress and attainment for pupils, and help all of the MAT schools meet rising expectations and to improve:

• Outcomes for children;
• Opportunities for economies of scale;
• The robust nature of our accountability towards and for one another;
• All partner schools’ capacity to dictate their own direction providing good outcomes for pupils and a strong curriculum is part of their offer.

This helps us to continue to build upon the work of Symphony in which:

• Our school leaders and teachers share thinking and planning to spread expertise and tackle challenges together;
• Our Local Governors come together to share strategic thinking, to combine skills and to support each other during challenging times;
• Shared professional development can more easily be arranged, whether led by staff from one of the partner schools or an outside body.

Symphony Learning Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust in which the accountability for outcomes benefit from the fact that:

• Our school leaders, teachers and other staff can be shared across more than one school, enabling us to find different solutions to recruitment challenges, to retain staff by providing new opportunities within the group and to plan succession more effectively;
• Our groups of schools through a central business team and central services find it easier to find and fund specialist expertise (specialist teachers and specialists in areas such as data analysis, finance, health and safety, HR) and provide richer curricular and extra-curricular activities;
• No school is ever left vulnerable in since the significant expertise in other schools can be utilised on an equal footing.

Members – (five)

• Four external to the Trust and one from the trustee board;
• Meet at least once per year (or as required), late November;
• Presentation of accounts;
• Appoint the Trust's auditors;
• Report presented by the Trustees (overview of performance).

Trustees – (seven)

• No trustees will be employed by the SLT;
• From September 2018, no trustees are on school local governing bodies. We have utilised the services of Academy Ambassadors to recruit new trustees with a vast array of business and financial skills;
• Appointed by the members based on skills' audit;
• Meet termly;
• Presentation of an overview of performance of each individual school;
• Strategic approach to agree priorities for the MAT;
• Utilise skills-based expertise to delegate resources.

MAT working groups

• EDG (Educational Development Group) - CEO, Head Teachers
• BDG (Business Development Group) (e.g. all finance, HR, H&S, property) – CEO, Senior Business Managers, the Accounting Officer, CFO.
• RDG (Research Development Group) - membership specific to current research projects / priorities
• SDG (Subject Development Groups) - termly development Trust meetings for subject leaders
• TDG (Teaching Development Group) - subject specialists from within Symphony to assist bespoke school improvement areas
• SLDG (Senior Leader Development Group) - support and CPD for Assistant and Deputy Headteachers
• Finance and audit committee (up to five trustees, CFO, CEO/Accounting Officer).

Structure 2025 onwards