Focus-Trust is a charitable primary trust established in 2012 and based in the North West of England, working with 15 primary schools. As part of its wider approach to improvement, the trust has sought to create clear, shared structures that support both collaboration and pure accountability across its schools. Alongside its strategic priorities, this has included a growing focus on how the perspectives and participation of pupils themselves can inform trust-wide thinking about experience, provision and opportunity. In conversation, Chief Executive Officer Helen Rowland and Andrew Chadwick, Safeguarding, Ambition and Inclusion Lead, reflect on the development of Focus-Trust’s Pupil Parliament – a trust-level mechanism designed to bring pupil insight into ongoing discussions about and planning for improvement. This work has contributed not only to how the trust listens to and represents the experiences of its pupils, but also to the shaping of shared entitlements, including the ‘Seven Musts’, and to the way pupil insight informs conversations at trust and board level.
A common language for improvement: the Focus-Trust Five
In 2016, Focus-Trust established five core improvement priorities, known across the organisation as the ‘Focus-Trust Five’. They have remained the trust’s shared reference point ever since, shaping how schools plan, review and understand their work. The Five focus on identifying and addressing vulnerability across school communities; enabling strong educators with a strong moral purpose; securing an ambitious education for all pupils; promoting health and wellbeing; and ensuring effective systems and leadership capacity.
