The Bright Tribe team have been looking at the importance of Oracy as a precursor to reading and understanding and debating how we can link it into our curriculum to the benefit of our students. It has long been understood that the quality of oracy in the classroom is linked to workplace performance and recent discussions with colleagues have reinforced this view:

“Talk for Writing needs embedding from Nursery to Year 6”

“Talk – questions, explanations, ideas and derive facts”

“Learn, Grow, Prosper is the conversation”

“Parents need to be involved as readers”

According to a recent paper produced by Robin Alexander (20/02/2012) on the topic, there is now evidence from over 20 major international studies that quality classroom talk raises attainment standards in the core subjects. In order to improve the quality of classroom talk in schools we need to look at the quality of language being used in the teaching and learning methods to raise the standard of pupil talk and the cognitive impact of classroom talk overall. This requires consideration across the curriculum, as well as English.

Teachers have understood for many years that social disadvantage can be compounded by lack of oral development and communication, and employers also recognise the social and economic importance of the skills of articulate communication, in speaking as well as writing. The team at Bright Tribe will be developing best practice in this area to ensure Bright Tribe pupils benefit from this research throughout the curriculum.

Click here to read Robin Alexander’s full paper

On 15^th October, and hot on the heels of our successful Year 7 planning curriculum workshop, we brought together some of our most admired colleagues in the primary field to analyse the big picture for a primary school in the Bright Tribe network.

The discussions on the day included how ICT strategy could benefit a primary curriculum, curriculum planning and considering what outstanding looks like in a primary school.

A series of follow up workshops are planned to develop the theories and ideas that came out of this session and once again we would like to thank our esteemed colleagues for their valuable contributions and hard work during the workshop.

On 14^th October we gathered together our most experienced colleagues to debate and formulate new ideas on Year 7 curriculum development.

With representatives from both primary and secondary schools in the Bright Tribe network, plus specialist consultants in a variety of curriculum areas, the team used the day to discuss the big picture for a Bright Tribe Year 7 student, as well as curriculum planning and designing assessments.

The day was a huge success and a series of follow up workshops are planned throughout the remainder of the academic year to monitor progress in the school. The Bright Tribe team would like to thank all that contributed for the valuable input, and we look forward to our next session in 2014.

On 15th and 16th January 2013 we held a ‘Bright Tribe Education Workshop’ at our offices in Stockport to bring together educationalists from a range of backgrounds to offer their insight and discuss Bright Tribe’s educational offer and strategy.

We invited people we admire and respect with various education specialisms with the aim of prompting debate around Bright Tribe’s current education approach and how we might continue to develop this from the solid foundations we have already created.

The two days were a great success and all the attendees would agree that we covered a lot of ground, including discussions around Bright Tribes approaches to personalised learning, whole school design, curriculum frameworks, school improvement pathways, and leadership development.

We hope to hold more of these workshops in the future as the Bright Tribe community continues to expand, to generate ideas and gain feedback from a broad range of experts. In the meantime, there is a lot of work for us to do as we digest the comments, feedback and discussion from this session and ensure we feed what we have learnt into deepening our educational strategy.

A big thank you to everyone who attended and we hope they also found the sessions useful and informative.

As Director of Education, I am excited by the opportunity of working with Bright Tribe and thought that in my first blog I should describe why Bright Tribe is a new type of multi-academy trust (MAT).

It seems to me that most academy chains are relatively small in terms of the number of schools involved, that they have evolved from previous policy initiatives e.g. Grant Maintained status and Federations, and they are diffuse in terms of educational purpose. Bright Tribe is different in at least five respects:

1. Bright Tribe is driven by an unrelenting moral purpose of ensuring that we create within our schools the learning conditions where every young person can reach their potential – wherever that may lead.
2. Bright Tribe is what is called a de novo organisation. This means that we have not grown out of an existing school or group of schools informed by historic policies and practice. Instead, all our strategies, support and services have been designed from scratch, are fit for purpose and have been developed as an authentic approach to 21st century education.
3. Bright Tribe, in educational terms, has developed an explicit ‘whole school design’. Following recent research it is clear that the most effective and sustainable school improvement strategies involve the adoption of practices that have already proven to be effective elsewhere. We have taken this deliberate scientific approach further, and linked these effective practices to create a comprehensive schooling model.
4. Bright Tribe is unique in that it not only has this educational vision and strategy, but it incorporates significant business expertise and resource united by a common purpose. Bright Tribe’s management team has proven professional and commercial expertise gained in education, industry, government and finance. This ensures consistent quality of service provision, provides operational efficiencies and cost efficiencies and ensures best value.
5. Finally, Bright Tribe is ambitious in scope and scale. From the outset, we are committed to having a national presence. Although we know we have to start small, our intention is to rapidly become the premier MAT in both quality and scale. The Bright Tribe development strategy is based on the following principles:

• All Bright Tribe schools will adopt a whole school design that reflects our common purpose and practices. This is not intended to be prescriptive but rather provide a framework for action that is customised to context.
• Initially Bright Tribe will adopt a geographical recruitment strategy for school recruitment based on Cumbria, Lancashire, Sheffield, Oldham, Liverpool and London.
• We will build capacity in each area around lead schools that provide support for others, so creating mini-systems of diverse yet complementary schools.
• We will develop all-through schools with a strong vocational offer to help build a comprehensive establishment and support community development in local areas.
• Over a relatively short time frame we will extend this approach into a national strategy. These are significant advantages and this approach stands in stark contrast to many other academy chains in the country. It means that Bright Tribe will have a positive impact not just on students, schools and their leadership, but also on their communities and the country as a whole.

For students there is the personalised learning strategy that ensures progress to at least national standards; in terms of schools and leadership there is a tested approach that enables them to rapidly become learning organisations, facilitated by leadership that is humane, strategic and relentless; the commitment to communities is seen in the development of all- through and networks of schools in areas of high challenge together with a range of parental/carer supports and community services; and nationally through the development of an agency and voice that is both articulate and strategic in terms of what a 21st century education delivers for its young people.

It is for these reasons that I am so delighted to be working with Bright Tribe as their Director of Education, and I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.