St Francis CMAT Christ the King Mass
Our beautiful children from across the Trust came together to celebrate the Mass of Christ the King on 26th November at St Peter’s Church in Doncaster. We were blessed to be joined by Bishop Ralph, Father Des Sexton, Father John Ryan, Father Darren Reid and Father Darren Brown. The children sang beautifully and were the epitome of respect and reverence. Our thanks go to Tammy Neal for leading the event along with our school leaders and community. We look forward to this Mass being an annual celebration for St Francis!
St Francis Autumn Conference, ‘Belonging'
It was so wonderful to welcome every member of the Trust to our first St Francis Autumn Conference at the beginning of the month. It was truly special to stand in the middle of over 400 delegates and see our Trust in person! The atmosphere from the outset was one of happiness, excitement and hope – created by the way that our staff community all began the day and the exceptionally positive attitudes that they brought.
We really wanted the breakout sessions to exemplify the kind of work that the Trust is keen to focus on from wellbeing, self-care and menopause impact to Arbor, Google Technologies and Reading. We are now developing these themes as we move through the year to give opportunities to explore them in more detail.
Our thanks to all those involved in supporting the day, from our professional partners at Google, TransforMATive and Fusion to name but a few, to John Murphy for his keynote speech and insights! We look forward to October 2025!
St Francis CMAT partnership with TransforMATive!
St Francis first engaged with TransforMATive as our professional partner of Chief Information Officers in April 2023. Since then, our partnership has grown significantly and TransforMATive have walked beside us, supporting our Digital Strategy in specific areas such as cyber security, our new MIS system of Arbor and our collaboration with Google Technologies.
This led to St Francis winning the TransforMATive Digital Strategy Leadership Award in April 2024 in London.
We were therefore delighted to be back at the London Google Offices this month to support other Trusts from across the country in beginning their Digital Strategy journey, sharing our insights and lessons. We look forward to this continued relationship for the benefit of all of our children in the Trust!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7waJ4b1YZG8&authuser=0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGbO_mNCoZc&authuser=0
Launch of the Catholic School Leadership Programme & Headteacher Induction Programme
Launch of the Catholic School Leadership Programme
The Successful Catholic Senior Leadership Course (SCSL) is a new professional development opportunity designed to support St Francis CMAT’s mission to be the employer of choice through staff investment, recognition and progression. This course is designed to appeal to both current and aspiring St Francis school leaders who wish to drive meaningful change within the school setting and develop their knowledge, skills, and insights required to navigate the dynamics of Catholic school leadership. This course is novel in its design. Unlike other leadership programmes, both nationally accredited courses and those bespoke to Trusts, the SCSL is driven through scripture and liturgical reflection, St Francis’ personalized catholic leadership values, as well as the latest educational and pedagogical research. This term has seen the first cohort of participants join together to embrace our culture for excellence and to shine a spotlight on the future leadership talent within our trust family; focusing on ‘Am I Ready?’ guided by the mentorship of Dr Jill Berry and ‘Strategic Stewardship’. Further information can be found here: https://stfcmat.com/
Launch of the Headteacher Induction Programme
As we begin our new Academic year, we have welcomed five new Headteachers to our wonderful team. We are so proud that all five Headteachers have been recruited new to Headship from their Deputy positions, all within our wonderful St Francis Trust!
To support them in their new roles, they have embarked on the Trust Headteacher Induction Programme which is an 18 month programme designed to train new Heads in the practicalities of Headship such as Finance, HR and Staff Development as well as explore what Catholic Headship and their Faith Journey means to them and their schools.
We are delighted to say that the new Heads are proving to be a crucial element of the Trust leadership team and we know that they will take their schools from strength to strength!