All our schools participate in the Challenge Partners programme, helping us collaborate with like-minded schools and trusts to drive school improvement. Find out more here.
School leadership has a huge impact on the experience of education for children, and we understand that high standards at the leadership level help foster high standards and improved outcomes for everyone in our schools.
With this in mind, all of our schools are partner schools in the national school leadership and improvement programme, Challenge Partners.
Led by a group of headteachers, Challenge Partners is a collaboration-oriented standards-setting organisation focused on spreading good practice.
As part of their mission, they run three-day quality assurance reviews, led by lead reviewers with experience as Ofsted inspectors, of all their partner schools. We’re proud to state that, after rigorous inspection, all of our schools have been rated as highly effective schools with most achieving the highest rating in the leadership category of the review criteria. Recently, two schools, Brookside Primary School and Manor High School, have even been officially designated as “an exemplification of leading practice”, meaning they represent examples of what to aim for to other schools looking to improve.
Describing Brookside Primary School, reviewers said: “The Pupils’ remarkable achievement is due to a combination of factors. Highly skilled teaching and an engaging and challenging curriculum, together with the clear identification of pupils’ individual needs and next steps form a potent elixir.”
Meanwhile, the recent report at Woodland Grange Primary School stated: “The forward-looking headteacher, together with her proactive senior leaders, have built an ambitious and caring school.”
Finally, the visiting delegation to Manor High School, which has been judged to be a leading school in all categories, were impressed by the leadership standards throughout the school: “The leadership team is very visible to the students. There is a sense of community and real trust amongst students that their concerns will be tackled, together with confidence in the way decisions are made. One student said, ‘They reach out to us, we don’t reach out to them’.”
These inspections demonstrate the high quality of our School Improvement Support, CPD for staff, and the excellent development of our pupils. You can read more about what reviewers had to say about each school in blogs soon to be published on their websites.
We know that improvement can only come with scrutiny of current practices, and we’ve been incredibly impressed with how our schools have embraced this quality assurance programme. As a result of their success, our schools are now being used under the scheme as examples of good practice, with our staff participating in the “Growing the top” programme bringing close collaboration with other partner schools who are also amongst the best in the country.
Challenge Partners is just one way we work towards school improvement. You can find out more about the scheme here: https://www.challengepartners.org/about-us
Every year, our pupils showcase their amazing creative talents in the OAK 500 Word Competition. Find out how it works here.
As all our teachers would tell you, our schools are full of some incredibly talented pupils. At OAK, we believe it’s crucial to give our children the opportunity to showcase these talents.
We were looking for a way to bring our schools together in a way that is meaningful and rewarding for everyone involved; for these reasons, we set up the 500 Words competition.
Starting every year after the SATs exams, Year 2 and Year 6 pupils at each of our schools get their creative minds in gear as they craft their submissions to our 500 Words competition.
Each pupil is given a maximum of 500 words to produce an original story or piece of writing about absolutely anything. Teachers at each school then judge each story, with Headteachers then nominating a number of stories for the final competition.
Each nominated finalist is then included in a beautiful book, featuring each story wrapped up in professional illustration and design. Copies of the book are shared between the winners and each school, so everyone can have a read! Nominees are also invited to a special celebration event at College Court Conference Centre, this year taking place on 4th July.
During the event, attended by teachers and our talented pupils, staff will read out the winning stories, and the overall winners of the competition will be announced! Nominees will be given prizes including book vouchers and trophies, as well as a copy of the book to take home!
This showcase of our pupils’ creativity and hard work has been running for three years now, and judging by the efforts of previous cohorts, this year’s book is sure to be jam-packed with incredible stories.
In the run-up to the event on July 4th, we’ll be posting some excerpts from previous year’s editions, so keep an eye on our social media channels in the weeks to come.
As part of OAK Multi Academy Trust, from 29th November 2023 until 9th January 2024 the below school will be consulting on proposed changes to September 2025 admission arrangements.
All schools are required to carry out a consultation regarding any proposed changes in our schools’ published admission numbers or oversubscription admission criteria. The admission authority for Overdale Infant School is Oak Multi Academy Trust. The Trust is responsible for ensuring that the school complies with the relevant law and guidance in respect of Admissions and Appeals for state funded schools.
The proposed changes:
Overdale Infant School is going to consultation on decreasing their PAN from 120 to 90
Purpose of change:
There has been a decline in birth rate and the numbers of children applying for places In the catchment area has reduced.
Who are we consulting with?
The School Admissions Code 2021 requires that all admission authorities undertake a statutory consultation to seek the views and comments of parents/carers, other admission authorities, schools in the relevant area, Leicester City and County Council including neighbouring local authorities and anyone else who may be affected by the proposed changes. The consultation will run for 6 weeks commencing on 27th November 2023 and closing on 7th January 2024 at midnight. A copy of the School Admissions Code 2021 can be found at School admissions code 2021 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
How can you respond to the consultation?
You can respond to this consultation before the closing date on 9th January 2024 by emailing: admin@oaktrust.org
What Happens next?
After the consultation period has closed OAK Multi Academy Trust (as the admissions authority) will consider the responses received. The Trust will then determine final admission arrangements for September 2025. Following determination, the arrangements will be published on the school’s website.
For general enquiries or comments about this please email admin@oaktrust.org
Consultation on proposal to increase the capacity of Manor High School
Tuesday 24th October 2023 to Friday 24th November 2023