The vision of the Trust is summed up in our statement, ‘Flourishing Communities’. Though we are a Trust made up of faith and community schools, our vision is intentionally rooted in the Church of England’s Vision for Education (2016). The CofE vision explores the principle of ‘life in all its fullness’ (John 10v10, The Bible) through four strands: dignity, wisdom, life together and hope. We aim to keep these intrinsic to our pursuit of enabling the flourishing of pupils, parents and staff of all faiths and none as a direct result of being part of our Trust. Our vision is explored and expressed through our ‘CHRIST’ values. This is an acronym for :

Collaboration

Our belief that we are stronger together, that as the Trust works more closely as a family of schools we will share in each other’s successes and failures, and bear one another’s burdens in pursuit of our common aims, as expressed in the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12); our belief that none of us has as much wisdom as all of us, and that every member of our community has something to learn from every other member; our belief that collegiate rather than hierarchical structures foster strong relationships and shared ownership of the Trust’s journey towards excellence.
 

Humility

Our belief that we have to give of ourselves in order to help others succeed, learning to negotiate and compromise for the benefit of the whole community; our belief in the active grace required to lower ourselves in the service of others, and the passive grace required to allow ourselves to be served by others, as in Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet (John 13); our belief that mistakes and failures are not the end of our contribution but the springboards for future learning and growth, and are experiences about which we must all be honest and reflective, with the help of others, if we are to meet shared and personal aims.
 

Respect

Our belief in everyone’s unique value and dignity, having been created by and in the image of God (Genesis 2), abounding in gifts and talents, full of potential for flourishing regardless of background; our belief in the importance and strength of positive and professional relationships with one another at all levels as the principal factor which prospers the organization in its life together; our belief that all our schools and federations should have their own Head teacher, and fundamental respect for their role in leading and managing each school autonomously in as many areas as possible, for the benefit of the whole Trust community.
 

Inclusion 

Our belief in seeing strength in our differences and doing our utmost to overcome each other’s barriers to experiencing fullness meeting every member of our organization at their point of need; our belief that we are rightly judged by the height of our aspirations and the breadth of our offers of support for the weakest and most disadvantaged in our community (James 1v27), while recognizing that this can come at a cost; our belief that through fostering a deep sense of belonging at all levels within our Trust we open the door to new opportunities for growth and learning.
 

Stewardship

Our belief that we are called to maximize our own knowledge, skills, understanding, experience, gifts and talents in order to fulfil our own potential thus growing the Trust towards its aims (Matthew 25v14-30); our belief that the Trust’s finances should be shared fairly and transparently and used efficiently to the furtherance of our strategic objectives and with respect to all our values; our belief that the time we deploy in one another’s service is our principal resource, and therefore our own and others’ time is to be highly prized, along with opportunities for time spent re-filling the reservoirs of energy and grace.

Trust 

our belief that it is imperative that every aspect of our organisational life is to be conducted to the highest standards of honesty, probity, reliability and professional integrity, in full compliance with all relevant statutory legislation; our belief that our values are virtually meaningless unless they are both communicated clearly and embodied consistently in the way we behave towards one another at all times; our belief in curating our own and others’ futures we should always have an aspirational, hopeful eye to what is possible, alongside a prudent consideration of what is sustainable. 1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth