Our Trust currently consists of a family of three like-minded schools, a Teaching School Hub and a SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) in Worcestershire, where we work collaboratively to provide mutual support, share good practice and learn from one another in our mission to achieve our core purpose: to provide excellence and opportunity for all.

As a team, our work is underpinned by our four core values: Ambition, Commitment, Creativity and Integrity – these core values act as an inseparable thread woven into the fibre of our organisation that strengthens the work to achieve our Trust Dividend.

Whilst our core purpose is the same in all our schools, we acknowledge and celebrate the differences and uniqueness in each school’s community. Therefore, our Trust’s approach is two-fold: we work closely in supporting schools with the complicated matters where centralised systems and services enable leaders to focus their attention on the biggest levers at local level. In contrast, our support is more facilitative and bespoke for the complex matters where local context is key in determining the strategy. Ultimately, our students deserve the best and we do this most effectively by knowing our schools well and working together.

A key part of our Trust Dividend is that we are kind and driven, because these two qualities are not incompatible. We believe that happy, well-motivated and well-trained staff make the most effective teachers, leaders and support staff and, in turn, ensure excellence and opportunity for all. As our jobs are demanding, we strive to remove barriers and find ways to make life easier. From high-quality professional development to ensuring that there is an opportunity for a break and a cup of tea, caring for and investing in our staff is a high priority to ensure that they enjoy their time at work and thrive professionally.

We also recognise that working more flexibly can help our staff achieve a better work-life balance, as work is just one aspect of our lives and balancing our home lives can be difficult at times. To do this, we value our family-friendly policies and constantly review and evaluate our thinking to best accommodate our staff where it is possible to do so.

At The Four Stones, our staff have extensive access to an excellent package of benefits, including access to Teachers’ Pensions or Local Government Pension Scheme, the Employee Assistance Programme, staff long service recognition, Cycle to Work Scheme, Lifestyle Discount schemes and a free annual flu jab.

We feel that three things are essential for school improvement: accountability, additional support and additional challenge. We believe there are quantifiable advantages of being in a MAT, for example: 

• sharing best practice, expertise and resources and raising standards across all key stages by working with the other schools in the MAT;
• maintaining and developing a shared vision and ethos;
• having opportunities for students to share enrichment activities which might not be cost-effective for an individual school to offer;
• having opportunities for staff to benefit from working in a larger organisation with access to high quality training, personal development and career opportunities;
• succession planning and retaining and developing staff, including at leadership level;
• training new teachers through the SCITT and Teaching School Alliance; and
• efficiencies and economies of scale through procurement and the provision or commissioning of services which may no longer be available from the Local Authority (LA)