Bristol Metropolitan Academy

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Bristol Metropolitan Academy's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Bristol Metropolitan Academy is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.bristolmet.net

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

12 | BRISTOL METROPOLITAN ACADEMY

Sally Apps, executive principal

Improvements have been rapid

and sustained

Bristol Metropolitan Academy is a highly successful inner-

city comprehensive. It is part of the Cabot Learning

Federation (CLF), a multi-academy trust (MAT), and works

with children aged year 7 to year 11. Bristol Met joined the

academy trust in 2009 and has seen impressive progress since.

Executive principal Sally Apps explains how students continue

to perform to a high standard as a result of a distinctive set of

values that staff and students have embraced.

If your child attends Bristol Metropolitan Academy, they are likely to do better than

if they attended any number of other schools locally and nationally. We consistently

ensure exceptional progress for students, in particular those who belong to groups that

underperform nationally. The school has enjoyed significant success since becoming

an academy and joining the CLF in 2009, leaving behind the weak reputation of its

predecessor and enabling the community to feel proud of its localschool.

Working as part of a MAT is a significant feature of what makes us successful. In

deep collaboration with others, Bristol Met shapes a holistic educational experience.

Each child’s leaders and teachers are required to be reflective practitioners

and to embrace new ideas, while seeking to improve on the best of the most

established practice. Collaboration can be challenging and requires a high degree

of professionalism, but it creates the environment and habits that avoid hubris and

encourage innovation where it is useful so that your child gets the best deal.

Children at heart

The culture of the wider organisation is a critical feature of the MAT. The CLF’s

core HEART values are espoused and embedded in all work undertaken by the

REPORT CARD

BRISTOL METROPOLITAN

ACADEMY

»Executive principal: Sally Apps

»Founded in 2009

»Based in Bristol

»Type of school:

Comprehensive academy

»No. of students: 800

»Part of the Cabot Learning

Federation MAT

»www.bristolmet.net

Bristol Metropolitan

Academy

13BRISTOL METROPOLITAN ACADEMY |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

trust and they recognise the centrality

of your child to our organisation,

irrespective of scale. The culture of

robust professional feedback and

recognition of excellence throughout

the organisation uses the concept

of radical candour to ensure that

feedback is encouraged and expected

in order for individuals and groups

to grow. The yearly HEART awards

are peer-led and enable anyone

in the organisation to nominate a

colleague for work that consistently

demonstrates one of the HEART values.

The HEART values are outworked

at Bristol Met in a number of ways,

not least the concept that no child

should be left behind. Every child must

enjoy educational success: your child

should enjoy educational success. As

an inclusive school with outstanding

provision for personal development

and welfare, decision making is

student-led, from curriculum design

to the organisation of the school day;

structural and systemic factors enhance

each student’s experience. The simplest

example: working on the principles of

human scale, students are welcomed

at the school gate and then again at

the door to the building with staff on

hand to ensure readiness for learning.

This enables the leaders of the school

to be satisfied that every child has

had a personal interaction with an

involved adult prior to joining lessons.

All structures and systems are similarly

designed to ensure that there are no

“invisible children” and that pastoral

concerns, child protection issues and

matters relating to mental health are

not allowed to hide in plain sight.

There is a strong focus on using

language to model respect in

discussions with and about pupils,

creating an environment of trust. A

high degree of emotional intelligence

is coupled with clear boundaries

and high standards for behaviour

and attitude. There is a recognition

that academic success and personal

development are inextricably linked

and that insisting on excellence in both

areas is critical: your child will be more

successful when they are personally

fulfilled, and personal fulfilment often

results from professional and academic

success. This is also true of staff.

Weathering the storm

This approach occurs within the

context of significant challenges across

the sector in relation to funding,

where schools have seen real-terms

cuts in funding year-on-year. The MAT

structure has helped individual schools

to manage their finances according

to agreed boundaries with regular

checks and balances, benchmarking

information to enable principals to take

ownership of their resources and to be

accountable for finance and pooled

reserves to enable targeted resource to

meet need: schools and students with

the most need get access to funds first.

School funding is a huge concern

across the sector: working within a

MAT has enabled vulnerable schools

to remain financially sound when

otherwise they may have lacked

the rigour and expertise to ensure

sustainability. Your child would, as far

as possible, be shielded from the worst

effects of cuts in funding.

The community is proud

of its school

Academic

success and

personal

development

are

inextricably

linked

“

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

14 | BRISTOL METROPOLITAN ACADEMY

Sustainable collaboration

The MAT focuses strongly on the

concept of earned autonomy and

reviewing regularly which aspects of

work are autonomous, standardised

oraligned.

This model allows the best schools

in any given area to continue to

exercise the freedoms that afforded

them the opportunity for excellence.

It allows creativity and innovation,

which is critical for talented leaders

and teachers who want and need the

opportunity to operate with a level

of professional autonomy. It also

recognises that the role of a MAT is

to be a platform to perform. Equally,

where performance is less strong or

it is clear that better practice exists,

schools and leaders are directed

more closely with less autonomy:

more of the work of the school is

standardised until such point as the

school or leader has earned, through

performance, the opportunity to act

with moreautonomy.

This enables the MAT to add value

to all schools within the trust,

enabling high-performing schools

such as Bristol Met to be challenged

and supported to improve further.

It enables the same school to

be challenged on any area of

performance that appears to drop,

or where improvements in the sector

are not evident to the same degree in

the school. This prevents any school

from becoming isolated or suffering

the hubris of success, so that your

child would be guaranteed the best

possible educational experience.

Leading the system

As part of the CLF, Bristol Met

continues to develop in order to

ensure excellence. This includes the

curation of the Key Stage 3 curriculum

(ages 11-14) and ever stronger

outcomes for students that enable

them broad and varied choices later

in life, enhanced by exceptional

opportunities working with employers

and charities, for example the Airbus

Foundation. The MAT has provided

the platform for this school to increase

the pace at which it is becoming truly

exceptional, leading the sector in

fully understanding the potential of

collaborative working and as a result

enabling individual children – your

child – to succeed.

The role of a

MAT is to be a

platform to

perform

“

High standards are key

www.bristolmet.net

This article was sponsored by Bristol Metropolitan Academy. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from The Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

This foreword from the then Prime Minister appeared in the 2018/19 Parliamentary Review.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review. For Her Majesty’s Government, our task in the year ahead is clear: to achieve the best Brexit deal for Britain and to carry on our work to build a more prosperous and united country – one that truly works for everyone.

The right Brexit deal will not be sufficient on its own to secure a more prosperous future for Britain. We also need to ensure that our economy is ready for what tomorrow will bring. Our Modern Industrial Strategy is our plan to do that. It means Government stepping up to secure the foundations of our productivity: providing an education system that delivers the skills our economy needs, improving school standards and transforming technical education; delivering infrastructure for growth; ensuring people have the homes they need in the places they want to live. It is all about taking action for the long-term that will pay dividends in the future.

But it also goes beyond that. Government, the private sector and academia working together as strategic partners achieve far more than we could separately. That is why we have set an ambitious goal of lifting UK public and private research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027. It is why we are developing four Grand Challenges, the big drivers of social and economic change in the world today: harnessing artificial intelligence and the data revolution; leading in changes to the future of mobility; meeting the challenges of our ageing society; and driving ahead the revolution in clean growth. By focusing our efforts on making the most of these areas of enormous potential, we can develop new exports, grow new industries and create more good jobs in every part of our country.

Years of hard work and sacrifice from the British people have got our deficit down by over three quarters. We are building on this success by taking a balanced approach to public spending. We are continuing to deal with our debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect people’s jobs, and at the same time we are investing in vital public services, like our NHS. We have set out plans to increase NHS funding annually by an average by 3.4 percent in real terms: that is £394 million a week more. In return, the NHS will produce a ten-year plan, led by doctors and nurses, to eliminate waste and improve patient care.

I believe that Britain can look to the future with confidence. We are leaving the EU and setting a new course for prosperity as a global trading nation. We have a Modern Industrial Strategy that is strengthening the foundations of our economy and helping us to seize the opportunities of the future. We are investing in the public services we all rely on and helping them to grow and improve. Building on our country’s great strengths – our world-class universities and researchers, our excellent services sector, our cutting edge manufacturers, our vibrant creative industries, our dedicated public servants – we can look towards a new decade that is ripe with possibility. The government I lead is doing all it can to make that brighter future a reality for everyone in our country.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Prime Minister