School Improvement (SI)

Our vision clearly conveys that we are, first and foremost, an educational organisation with an unequivocally educational mission. Therefore, continuous school improvement, both within our own academies and across the wider education system, lies at the heart of everything we do.

Many trusts seek to strengthen school improvement capacity by reducing the administrative burden on headteachers, enabling them to devote more time to leading and improving their own schools. Whilst we acknowledge that there is merit in this approach (which Primitas headteachers benefit from via the provision of our central Business Support Services) we believe that this only tells part of the story.

Therefore, at Primitas, we believe that school leaders require more than simply additional time in order to help them secure ongoing school improvement. They also need access to high-quality expertise, knowledge and support provided by experienced educational professionals with a vested interest in their school’s success. For this reason, we have developed a clearly defined, dedicated Educational Support Team whose purpose is to work with our schools to secure sustained improvement and deliver the very best outcomes for children and young people.

Our Educational Support Team

Drawing together professionals from the Primitas Central Team, Primitas academies, our Partner MATs and a carefully selected network of trusted external specialists, our Educational Support Team provides schools with access to high quality school improvement support, spanning primary and secondary education across both mainstream and special sectors.

For 2026-27, our dedicated Educational Support Team is comprised of the following:

Chief Executive Officer of Primitas
Deputy CEO of Primitas
Chief Education Officer of Primitas
Primitas’s Behaviour Specialist
Primitas’s Trust SEND Professional
Primitas’s Trust Safeguarding Professional
Eight Executive School Improvement Leads*1
An extensive network of identified experts in their field from Primitas academies*2
An extensive network of educational experts from our partner MATs*3
A range of trusted external experts from our “preferred supplier list”*4

*1 These are the serving headteachers of Primitas academies who serve as Executive School Improvement Leads to ensure that our school improvement work is relevant and grounded in real-life context. Their expertise spans primary and secondary education in mainstream and special settings.

*2 Thee are current staff employed in Primitas academies who can be deployed and commissioned to carry our school improvement work across and beyond our Trust on the condition that detriment will not be caused to their essential work in their home school.

*3 This provides us with a vast and growing wealth of leadership and school improvement capacity with MATs whom we work collaboratively and reciprocally to share expertise and to commission support

*4 Our preferred supplier list includes Ofsted Inspectors, Executive Leaders (E.g CEOs, CEdOs, Directors of School Improvement Director of Inclusion etc), headteachers and recognised local/regional/national recognised experts in their field

Harnessing and deploying this school improvement expertise enables us to deliver comprehensive, impactful programmes of tailored school improvement support to schools within a range of contexts both within and beyond our Trust:

Supporting Schools Within Primitas

Schools within the Primitas family are our highest priority. Therefore, they have full access to our school improvement strategy, which ensures that they all benefit from ongoing, high quality school improvement work.

Our School Improvement Strategy is built upon a number of core principles which we deliberately seek to hold in balance. This helps ensure that our approach remains coherent, well-rounded and responsive to the needs of individual schools, whilst maintaining a strong collective focus across the Trust. In particular, the balances we strive to maintain are:

Trust-wide improvement initiatives balanced with school-specific support
We have a wide range of generic school improvement initiatives which all schools participate in and benefit from. Plus we provide support tailored to the specific needs of individual schools as identified through our Health Checks and ongoing evaluation processes.
Trust challenge balanced with school autonomy
The Trust provides robust evaluation, constructive challenge and clear accountability for improvement, whilst giving headteachers significant degree of ownership over how improvement priorities are implemented within their own school context.
Receiving support balanced with contributing support
All schools benefit from collective expertise, resources and support available across the Trust, whilst also contributing their own effective practice for the benefit of others.
Addressing priorities balanced with pursuing ambitions
There is a clear focus on improvement priorities arising from external evaluation, including Ofsted findings and IDSR analysis. However, schools are also supported to pursue developmental priorities that broaden, enrich and strengthen their educational offer.
Internal capacity balanced with external expertise
We harness and utilise the school improvement expertise that exists across our Trust wherever possible, whilst recognising that specialist support and expertise is required from beyond the Trust to ensure schools receive the highest-quality support available.

Furthermore, our School Improvement Strategy is continuously reviewed and developed in partnership with our headteachers in their roles as Executive School Improvement Leads. They work closely with the CEO, Deputy CEO and CEdO, to ensure that School Improvement Strategy is grounded in reality and continues to provide timely, relevant, and impactful support for schools in the current educational landscape.

The School Improvement Strategy for 2026-27 can be accessed by clicking here

Supporting Schools Beyond Primitas

As a Trust, although the Primitas family of schools is our No. 1 priority, we are outward looking and take our responsibility to provide school improvement support to the wider education system extremely seriously. Therefore, we intentionally engage with the following schools on matters of school improvement:

RISE Support Schools

As an official RISE Support Organisation, Primitas is proud to work in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE) to support schools facing significant challenges and barriers to improvement. Through this role, we are commissioned to provide targeted, high-quality educational support to schools identified as requiring additional capacity, expertise and challenge to accelerate their improvement journey.

Drawing upon the extensive expertise that exists within and across our Trust and wider educational network, we work alongside school leaders to secure lasting improvements in outcomes for children and young people.

Our approach is rooted in collaboration, professionalism and practical support and we go the extra mile to secure the best possible outcomes. We recognise that sustainable school improvement is achieved not through short-term intervention, but through building leadership capacity, embedding effective systems practice and creating the conditions for long-term success. As a result, we work closely with schools to ensure that improvement is both rapid and sustained over time.

Our school improvement work as a RISE Support Organisation work has been extremely successful so far – to the extent where we advise other trusts on how to provide RISE Support. It has also been immensely satisfying for a Trust like Primitas which prides itself on being, first and foremost an educational venture.

Associate Schools

At Primitas, we are committed to doing the right things, in the right way, for the right reasons. Therefore, we are passionate about building positive relationships with other educational settings and working collaboratively to improve outcomes for children and young people. As a result, we are regularly approached by schools that wish to explore the possibility of joining our Trust.

Associate Membership provides an opportunity for schools to gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to be part of the Primitas family before making any long-term commitment. And every Associate Membership arrangement is centred on and rooted in school improvement as the vehicle for building strong professional relationships, understanding one another's values and ways of working, and assessing whether there is a genuine long-term fit and synergy between the school and Primitas.

Partner MAT Schools

There are also regular opportunities for Primitas to work with schools in our Partner MATs that require school improvement support.

This work provides valuable professional development opportunities for Primitas staff, allowing them to gain experience in different school contexts, to further develop their leadership and school improvement skills. Equally, Primitas schools gain from the support, insights and expertise provided by colleagues from our partner trusts on a reciprocal basis.

Individual Commissions

We also undertake school improvement work with schools who pay us for a one-off commission, which the school arranges directly with ourselves or via their MAT (if it is not one of our Partner MATs when a reciprocal arrangement would be the default arrangement)

These bespoke commissions are tailored to the specific needs, priorities and context of each organisation, enabling schools to access high-quality educational expertise in a flexible and responsive way.