Vision, Mission and Values

Vision

Our vision is to be champions of excellence in girls’ education, empowering young women to realise their full potential and shape the world.

Mission

GLT is committed to offering an outstanding education that promotes wellbeing and personal development for everyone in our schools, enriched by the opportunities that arise from being part of a girls’ education trust. 

We believe education should be about:

• Encouraging risk-taking and developing reflective approaches to teaching and learning
• Championing equality and inclusion and challenging social and economic disadvantage
• Building supportive and collaborative networks whilst allowing schools the autonomy to develop in ways that are best for their students
• Offering broad and rich experiences that go well beyond the academic and lead to satisfying and rewarding career paths
• Fostering a sense of pride in diversity

Strategy

Context

In 2015, Nonsuch High School for Girls and Wallington High School for Girls formed a multi-academy trust, the Nonsuch & Wallington Education Trust. In 2018, the company changed its name to Girls’ Learning Trust (GLT) and later that year Carshalton High School for Girls joined the MAT.

Our schools share many characteristics and are held in high regard by the local community. They are high performing and deliver a broad, balanced and challenging curriculum setting high expectations. Students benefit from being taught by well-qualified, dedicated and committed staff who are experts in girls’ education.

GLT benefits from the expertise within an executive support staff team that provides shared services for schools, including Finance, Estates, IT, Procurement, Capital Development Projects, HR, Governance, Audit and Risk. This core team of professionals ensure consistent methods of operation, strong quality assurance and best value across the Trust.

Relationships in the Trust, between staff and students or between colleagues, are built on mutual trust and respect. These relationships drive school improvement and contribute to the wellbeing of everyone.

Visitors to our Trust often comment on the high levels of motivation and positive behaviour of the students, the commitment and professionalism of the staff and the well-equipped school buildings.

Strong academic performance is complemented by highly effective pastoral care. We believe in offering a broad experience that goes well beyond the academic and girls are encouraged to develop their confidence, independence and resilience across a wide range of enrichment and extracurricular activities.

While we work across the Trust to support school performance and ensure value for public money, we believe in allowing our schools' autonomy in developing approaches to pedagogy and the curriculum that will deliver the very best outcomes for their students. Nevertheless, our shared values and the many opportunities we have for collaboration across our schools mean that we learn lots from each other and that we remain outward-focussed.

Collaboration and Partnership

We are equally open to partnerships beyond our Trust and enjoy wide collaboration with other trusts and agencies. We also value highly our close relationships with other schools in the London Borough of Sutton. Here are a few of the organisations with whom we have partnerships:

Trust Development and Growth

Phase: Development (2015-2018)

• Academies join the Trust
• Emergence of central services in Finance, IT, HR and Premises
• Development of cross-Trust initiatives

Phase: Consolidation and Building Capacity (2019-2022)

• New CEO recruited
• Consolidation of central services and collaboration across schools
• Rise in student population numbers
• Post-Covid recovery strategy

Phase: Growth (2023-2026)

• Explore opportunities for external partnerships
• Increase income generation capacity
• Strategic approach to succession planning
• Prepare for declining secondary-stage population

Strategic Priorities

We share, across the Trust, these key strategic priorities:

• Promoting wellbeing and personal development for all
• Excellent staff development for high quality teaching and learning
• High-quality careers education and advice
• Extensive enriched curriculum opportunities
• Welcoming, and robustly supporting, disadvantaged students
• Strength in equality, diversity and inclusion
• Sustainability, efficiency, and value for money
• Effective Governance
• Championing collaboration across and outside our Trust
• Recruiting and retaining the very best staff
• Innovative and effective IT support and infrastructure
• Well-maintained and managed facilities that support the aims of the schools and the Trust