How we develop staff and support their careers…..

Illuminate Minds Trust is an amazing place to work! 

Our emphasis on community and belonging means that we welcome staff who bring ambition for themselves and their pupils. We set high expectations for our staff but we also actively invest in their professional development which is why we have introduced a coaching culture. This means our approach to quality assurance is non-judgemental and always about continuous improvement, seeking opportunities to improve practice and learn through modelling and collaboration.

We are an organisation committed to innovation and professional development. Our foundations are built on academic research and development alongside a willingness to “test” and pilot new initiatives. We actively encourage our staff to come forward with ideas they are interested in piloting. All we ask is that they provide us with their rationale and the measures by which they will measure success and impact. We welcome innovation and, since our message is consistently to be a participant not a bystander, we want our staff to bring their creativity into the classroom and beyond that into the strategic development of our trust!

Our Trust offers an annual schedule of universal training for all staff on a weekly basis.  This includes half termly safeguarding and SEND sessions as well as pedagogical-based sessions and training on our curriculum offer and its delivery. Our training is delivered both in-house and through external providers. We also run termly Team Teach training for new staff and annual refreshers as part of our upskilling of our staff team in de-escalation and conflict resolution techniques. We invest heavily in our staff resource as we recognise the importance of building the best team in order to create the highest quality of provision.

Alongside this, every member of staff follows their own training / career pathway linked to the appraisal process and our school improvement planning. Staff have been sponsored to undertake doctorates and masters qualifications as well as accredited courses in specialist interventions and National Professional Qualifications. We don’t believe that there is a “one size fits all” attitude to staff development and work with staff as individuals to shape their pathways in line with the business needs of our trust and their own role and interests.

Succession planning is key to our development journey: we welcome new staff to our schools but we also look to retain our best staff and work with them on their future career aspirations. We have established teacher training pathways through the National College and have also partnered with Goldsmiths University to enable us to grow our own teaching staff through the schools direct and apprenticeship routes. We equally invest in our support staff and have developed internally a number of staff who have gone on to leadership posts both within and outside of our trust or become specialists in their field. We welcome professionals who want to grow whether they are already established in their careers or new to working in schools and keen to learn. For us, it is all about finding people who share our vision and values and want to participate in our future journey.