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Associate Membership

Once a school decides to join Enlighten Learning Trust we start to work together. This means that the Trust and school will start to collaborate on specific aspects and both parties can discover more about working together and achieve some beneficial outcomes for the children. 

There are formal developments that need to take place around the legal process of academisation, consultation with stakeholder communities and due diligence of each other’s organisation. While these aspects are taking place we offer schools whose governors have resolved to join the Trust a programme of Associate Membership to work with the leaders and set out what we will do together. 

The school and trust will agree the cost of associate membership which will determine the scope of the programme of work. 

Associate Membership 1 

This level of membership runs between the school’s governors resolving to join ELT and the school’s application receiving authorisation from the DfE Regional Director. 

The school and the Trust will agree a programme of work which will be recorded in a Trust Partnership Agreement. This will be negotiated between the school leaders and those in the Trust and will include aspects such as: 

  • Share school improvement processes that the trust has already implemented across its academies  

  • Provide trust-wide training opportunities 

  • Provide mentoring and support to the headteacher and other senior managers 

  • Support performance management of headteachers 

  • Provide support to the school, for instance involving them in cross-trust data moderation  

  • Helping leaders validate their self evaluation 

  • Provide experienced trust staff to undertake outreach work in the school where possible 

  • Provide guidance on effective recruitment and retention strategies to attract and train new colleagues and to retain and develop colleagues to remain within the school and trust 

  • Provide guidance on financial management, personnel management and governance, including support through cross-trust monitoring and creation of an ICFP 

  • Share information and good practice across the academies/group of academies within a trust 

  • Sharing information and good practice on the collective benefit of operating governance processes and financial management across the academies within a trust 

You will have a dedicated member of the Trust Education Team to be your contact, maintain communication, work through the joining process and give updates about the work of ELT. 

Associate Membership 2 

This level of membership runs between the Regional Director authorising the conversion and the school finally academising and joining the ELT. 

Schools will continue with the aspects agreed in the Trust Partnership Agreement with the opportunity to re-negotiate any aspects if necessary. 

In addition, aspects will be available such as: 

  • Headteachers become members of the Headteacher board, meeting twice each half term with a focus on shared development, networking and feeding into trust wide initiatives 

  • Headteachers and Chair of LGB will belong the Heads and Chairs Briefing at the start of each term to align strategy across the schools of the trust 

  • Key support and teaching staff become members of dynamic knowledge sharing hubs and other network meetings to develop professional expertise and forge innovation 

  • An investment in high quality Trust CPD including all staff attend annual conference 

  • Supporting schools on their journey of improvement through their Self Evaluation Form and School Improvement Plans 

  • Support leadership teams to focus on teaching and learning  

  • Regular visits from key Trust staff including the CEO and COO to align school systems with those in the Trust 

  • Phased access to Trust central services including developing IT environment to support streamlining systems and supporting teaching and learning 

Other aspects can be agreed between the school and Trust as necessary in an open manner. All these are regularly reviewed and are designed to help the school throughout what can be a lengthy process as the formal and legal aspects of academisation take place.