Twyford Church of England Academies Trust

Twyford Church of England Academies Trust is a multi-academy trust based in West London and affiliated to the London Diocesan Board for Schools. It currently consists of two academies in the London Borough of Ealing- Twyford Church of England High School and William Perkin Church of England High School, However the Trust received permission in October 2014 to open a third academy provisionally named North Twyford C of E High School.The Trust, in partnership with the local authority, is the hub for and part of the Ealing Teaching School Alliance(ETSA), an alliance of local schools.

History

Twyford Church of England Academies Trust was set up in October 2011 in order to allow the Diocese to use the strengths built up at Twyford CofE High School to be developed beyond a single school. The aim of the Trust is to deliver outstanding educational standards in a secure Christian setting. Our strategy is to take the distinctive features of Twyford CofE High School which are fundamental to its success as a school and distil these as principles which inform the Trusts key operations.

History of Twyford CofE High School

Twyford CofE High School was originally set up by the London Diocesan Board for schools in 1981 and is one of a family of 13 LDBS secondary schools within the city. The school opened as the result of a concerted campaign by local parents and has grown stronger and stronger over its 30 year life. It was rated by Osfted in its most recent inspection as ‘Outstanding’ overall and has a considerable reputation within the Diocese and the local area. The school has also grown in size during this time with a particular increase at Post-16. There are now 944 students in years 7 -11 and 511 in the 6th Form.

History of William Perkin CofE High School

The Trust has opened a second school in September 2013, The William Perkin CofE High School, with its first cohort of 180 year 7 students.^[1]

Community

The Trust’s Christian ethos encourages students to have a strong sense of community – both in relation to the school and in the area of wider social concern. All sixth from students are encouraged to undertake some form of community service either within school or in the wider community. Effective recent examples have been involvement in a soup kitchen at a local church and running language clubs at a feeder primary school.^[2]

Although the community is an inclusive one, its Christian identity is very clear. There is an active chaplaincy with a full-time chaplain who orchestrates the worship life of the school. All assemblies, though taken by a range of staff, are framed by a short Christian liturgy which is led by students. Similarly there are brief daily tutor-time reflections prepared by the chaplaincy for staff to utilise using form chaplaincy reps.

Ethos and Vision

The Trust’s motto speaks of ‘fullness’ and this strongly informs our ethos. We reinforce this using a phrase attributed to St Irenaeus ‘The glory of God is a life which is lived to the full’. The Trust is very clear in its expectation that every student knows and appreciates their own gifts and those of others and makes it his or her business to use these gifts for the good of the wider community.

A mechanism for driving this is the House system which exists throughout Trust schools and works vertically - grouping the whole school into seven multi age communities. This complements and contrasts with the pastoral system which works horizontally. The house system works predominantly on the principal of student leadership, giving students at all ages opportunities to hold roles of responsibility in Music, Sport, Enterprise or on year and school councils.^[3]

Staff

The staff community is a diverse one made up of over 100 teaching staff and over 80 non-teaching. All staff are required to support the Christian ethos of the school – however their own backgrounds are wide ranging.

The Trust is governed by a Board of Directors which is made up of local Church of England representatives, the chairs of school governing bodies, elected staff representatives, elected parent representatives and the Executive Head Teacher. Currently the Chair of the Board is Mrs Christine Peppiatt, a London Diocesan Board for Schools nominee.

Twyford Academies Executive Group

The day-to-day work of the Trust is managed by an Executive Group comprising:

Executive Head Teacher

The inaugural and current Executive Head Teacher is Ms Alice Hudson. Alice Hudson is a member of the Trust Board of Directors and works closely with the other Directors to provide strategic leadership for the organisation.

After graduating with an English degree from Oxford University, Alice took up a career in teaching English and Religious Education. Before becoming Executive Head Teacher of the Trust she was Head Teacher of Twyford Cof E High School for 11 years.

Associate Head Teachers

Twyford

The inaugural and current holder of this position is Ms Karen Barrie

Karen Barrie is Associate Head Teacher with Responsibility for Twyford CofE High School.

After graduating from the University of Manchester, Karen took up a career in teaching Maths. Before taking up her current post Karen was Deputy Head Teacher at the school for 9 years.

William Perkin

The inaugural and current holder of this position is Mr Keir Smith Keir Smith is Associate Head Teacher with responsibility for William Perkin CofE High School.

Keir's teaching specialism is Geography and before taking up his current post he was Deputy Head Teacher of Twyford CofE High School for 10 years.

Director of Finance and Operations

The inaugural and current holder of this position is Richard Lane. Lane is responsible for the central Trust functions of Finance, HR, ICT, Estates, Administration and Information.

He is a qualified CIPFA accountant and has previously held senior finance positions in an FE college, a housing association and the NHS.^[4]

References

External links

• Twyford CofE High School website
• Twyford Academies Trust