Our offer for all staff joining OWN Trust and our schools
 

 

Trusting the OWN Trust 

OWN Trust believes in developing our staff professionally. We are completely focused on creating a team of committed professionals who share our ambition for children and young people. If you believe in the same, we are resolute in our commitment to providing an exciting, enjoyable, and rewarding working environment.

Personal Improvement Plan versus Performance Management 

The usual performance management of once-a-year meetings and immovable targets is not what we are about. We want our staff to identify and OWN their aspirational targets through our Personal Improvement Plan (PIP) process. Through a coaching process, staff identify where they would like to make significant progress in a critical area of their practice. We believe in people valuing and OWNing the process of improvement, not pass or fail numerical targets. 

Coaching 

As we have identified, coaching is integral to our processes and our success. We want to support our colleagues through coaching and enable deep reflection. This helps us to build a bold, creative and aspirational culture, where collaboration with peers and new approaches to practice are encouraged. 

Health and Wellbeing Strategies

Happy and healthy staff are key to a successful Trust. OWN Trust is committed to: 

• Providing employees with a safe, healthy, and supportive environment in which to work. 
   
• Recognising that the health and wellbeing of our employees are important. 
   
• Providing a supportive workplace culture where individuals' healthy lifestyle choices are valued and encouraged.

Investment in the wellbeing of all our staff, children and young people has never been more essential. That is why we offer more than is contracted for our employees.

OWN Trust nurtures the wellbeing of staff by providing free access to the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). Through EAP, staff can access a package of emotional and practical support that will help them to thrive at work, including access to a range of counselling options, financial, legal and practical support from a range of qualified professionals, and access to health and wellbeing resources.  

Equality and Equal Opportunities 

OWN Trust and its schools are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity in line with the Equality Act 2010. OWN Trust seeks to reduce disadvantages, discrimination and inequalities of opportunity, and promote diversity in terms of its children and young people, the workforce and the wider communities we serve. 

Presumed Professionalism 

We have a Presumed Professionalism ethos across OWN Trust. Our staff are professional educators, and we recognise the need to support staff to enable a healthy work-life balance to allow maximum impact whilst working with our children and young people, and each other. We achieve this by trusting our staff to do the best that they can, in a way that is right for them. 

Development of Professional Capital and Excellence

OWN Trust always looks to invest in its staff and takes pride in developing its home-grown talent.  

We aim to employ people who match our ethos and values and enable them to truly collaborate with colleagues across OWN Trust so that they are satisfied professionally. We seek opportunities that draw on excellence both within and outside the OWN Trust to enable staff to build their professional capital. 

Examples of the many opportunities we encourage staff to take up externally include: 

• The National Professional Qualification for Leading Teacher Development (NPLTD) 
• The National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) 
• The National Professional Qualification for Leading Teaching (NPQLT) 
• The National Professional Qualification for Leading Behaviour and Culture (NPQLBC) 
•  The National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership (NPQEL) 
• The National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL) 
• Initial Teacher Training (ITT) 
• Forthcoming NPQs in Literacy and Early Years. 

Opportunities are available at Apprenticeship, ECT, Aspiring Middle Leader, Lead Practitioner and Aspiring Senior Leader levels. In addition, OWN Trust provides the opportunity to become an associate SLT member, enabling middle leaders to gain insight and experience of leadership at the highest level within a school. 

Support staff have their own Personal Improvement Plan that they use as a tool to create a bespoke professional development plan. All support staff also receive coaching and training opportunities, to help them feel empowered and in charge of their own development. 

Across the OWN Trust, we pride ourselves on equal opportunities for all staff, irrespective of background, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation or age. 

Great access to progression 

Further evidence of our investment in home-grown talent is that many of our Teaching and Learning Responsibility (TLR) holders have been internal appointments.  

Collaboration across all schools 

We are developing collaborative relationships across the OWN Trust to support learning and teaching outcomes. In addition, we are developing a joint CPD programme to draw upon expertise from across the OWN Trust. Staff work and meet regularly in Impact Networks across schools in the OWN Trust, and we hold a twice-yearly Trust Development Day, where members of the OWN Trust work together. 

Sabbatical and flexible working policies 

We have developed a unique sabbatical policy to support staff to develop their interests. For some, this has been used to develop professionally, whilst others have taken this time to experience travel with their family. See our Staff and HR Policies for further details. 

Flexible working arrangements are also promoted across the OWN Trust where possible, to enable our staff to manage their work life and family commitments. 

Strong Induction Process 

Every member of staff deserves to have the right start to working in the OWN Trust. The importance of a good induction is invaluable for new starters irrespective of previous experience. To support this, we have a New Staff Induction Day before the start of term, which enables colleagues to get a real understanding of what the school and the OWN Trust are about, and what it means to be part of the OWN Trust. This day also prepares new staff for our training days at the beginning of the Autumn term.  

Early Career Teacher Programme 

Our Early Career Teachers (ECT) will receive a 10% timetable reduction in their first year of induction, and ECTs will also receive a 5% timetable reduction in the second year of induction. During the induction period, the ECT has a mentor and regular progress review meetings, which are supported by Peterborough & Cambridgeshire Teaching School Hub and their local provider, Education Development Trust. CPD opportunities will be offered in a range of areas either through the schools, the OWN Trust or outside agencies.

Continued NQT and RQT support 

We ensure that ECTs and second year teachers have reduced teaching loads to allow them more opportunities for CPD throughout the school week. This also allows for peer-to-peer observations and additional coaching to take place to develop their practice. 

Attendance of staff 

Our staff are committed to their roles and ensure that children and young people are supported to maximise their outcomes. Attendance levels are exceptionally high across all staff and well above national averages in the education sector and beyond.

We are always looking for high-quality teachers and support staff who embody our values to work across OWN Trust and our schools.

We work with the providers listed below, supporting new people entering the teaching profession: 

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Teaching School Hub - Early Career Framework (cptshn.co.uk) 

Early Career Professional Development - Education Development Trust 

Peterborough City Council - ECT Paperless Induction and Assessment Management System (ectmanager.com)