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Dan Thomas, Executive Director, TLP
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Dan Thomas, now chief executive of the Learning Partnership Trust, once encouraged through a Chinese biscuit to “seize the opportunity when it presents itself. “Since then, it has provided opportunities for thousands of young people.
When Dan Thomas, executive lead of the new agreement with The Learning Partnership (TLP), suggested posing for our photo shoot next to the giant Bentley car parked outside his office, his deputy CEO’s face “slumped. “
Although he jokes about the photo (he drives a Skoda), he touches on a bigger concern: what Thomas sees as a “lack of public understanding” that the academy is convinced “it’s there for the kids. “
Some parents told her that “we don’t want our child to go to a school that is part of a trust. . . We want to have more powerful arguments to explain why we, the MATs, exist and show that we have an effect on our communities. “
TLP is a diversified trust. It has 15 schools ranging from the poorest to the wealthiest communities in East Cheshire, and also includes two specialist university technical schools for 14 to 19 year olds. (The Bentley, along with an ice cream van, are in an open-air demonstration, one of them: Crewe’s engineering
It is like an herbal compatibility for Thomas, who has held various positions, adding elementary and secondary schools, a municipal technological university, a federation, a religious school and a network of members in education.
Their motto has been “Why live a simple life when you can get somewhere and make a difference?”That’s why he decided to follow in his mother’s footsteps and become a teacher.
After working as a maths teacher in Bristol, Thomas took part in difficult primary schools as part of the new Labour government’s “Education Action Zone” initiative in 2002.
The program encouraged the participation of private sector investments to help the recovery of schools.
He then joined John Cabot City Technology College, where he mentored its then principal, former National Schools Commissioner Sir David Carter.
It focused on the skills young people needed to access key systems in second and third grade. He led a “competency-based curriculum,” based on skills such as teamwork and resilience rather than subject knowledge. Although the approach is now considered to be “old-fashioned,” he has received a lot of information about how building resilience is helping academics become better informed.
After a stint as deputy headmaster of a controlled secondary federation in Cheshire, he took part in a two-week government-funded global exchange trip.
The aim was to stop at schools in India and meet charity schoolchildren rescued from slavery. This experience gave her “a very strong sense of the importance of schooling as a way out of poverty. “
The allocation was carried out through the SSAT (the Network of Schools, Students and Teachers), which then hired Thomas as its regional director to “leverage and leverage and share the most productive practices” in the sector.
It was here that he learned the importance of functioning as a “system” rather than “a series of islands. “This is now the “biggest challenge” you face in accepting the duration of BPD.
“It’s about ensuring that everyone fights for themselves and at the same time we are co-responsible. “
Backed by a fortune cookie telling him to “seize the opportunity when it presented itself,” Thomas took over as interim headmaster at Saint Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, in 2012.
Intending to paint there for 3 months, he “loved it” and stayed there for a year. “The strength of the networked paintings around the school is surely astounding. “
Getting the net to English that “came unexpectedly” was a “huge learning curve” (he learned “very limited” Welsh to speak in congregations).
He was not a practicing Catholic and may not have simply remained there permanently. Instead, Thomas decided to run the then “exceptional” Shavington Primary School in Crewe. But by the time it started in 2013, the school’s rating had dropped to “needs improvement. “”.
There was also a “huge budget shortfall” that Thomas overcame by making 11 layoffs at the single-entry school during his first term. It was “challenging,” but after “many structural and curricular changes,” the school was deemed “good” on the inside. 12 months.
A year later, Cheshire East Council invited Thomas to another local primary, Wheelock, after he was left without a head and the Learning for Life Partnership Trust Life Partnership was founded.
He says that opening a deal as true back then (in 2015) was “a lot easier” because all it took was “the right other people to make sure the underlying legalities were met. “Today, “the role of regional administrators means that there is greater accountability in decision-making and greater control over justifications. “
While most MATs grow “looking for similar schools,” Thomas’ strategy is different. He looked for schools “with challenges” where “we could make a difference. “
This included three number one schools that previously belonged to a single trust and had been classified as “for improvement”, and Daven School, the most disadvantaged number one school in Cheshire East, was added.
Ideally, Thomas “would have liked to have more capacity” within his idea to improve those schools, saying it’s “critical to admit” that we “didn’t have the resources” needed to “really serve this school the way it deserved. “
In September of last year, the Learning for Life Partnership and its primary schools merged with The Learning Alliance, comprised of 4 secondary organizations, two 14-19 year olds, and 3 elementary organizations, to create TLP.
It was a smart game. TLA was pushed through “succession planning” for the retirement of its CEO Mike Cladingbowl, while Thomas needed “more capacity to have an effect on the communities we serve. “
But just 3 weeks later, Daven received a second judgment from the IR and “the scrutiny of a free hand. “
Thomas says the “significant pressures around the accountability system” are the ultimate challenge of his job.
While there is “no excuse” for the inspection’s findings, he says “timing is everything. “Daven is now a “very clever case study” of why he believes that longer length can mean more to accept as true, because of the help that accepting as true has been able to provide.
The merger means Thomas now also runs two specialists for seniors aged 14 to 19: Crewe UTC and Cheshire Studio School.
Crewe UTC has less than a fraction of its original capacity of 800 pupils, but Thomas says the figures are “more or less correct”. The £11 million build is “too small” to accommodate more, due to the area for technical equipment.
Thomas admits that non-standard admission has proven to be “very problematic” and is a factor faced by “UTCs across the country. “
Middle schools were for students 14 and older, many now settle for seventh-graders (like a classical high school). Meanwhile, TCP’s Cheshire Studio School shares a percentage with its Knutsford Academy, allowing both schools to share percentages of English and maths teachers.
The studio-schools opened between 2011 and 2017 as intentionally small schools, specializing in vocational courses. Like the UTCs, they have also struggled and there are about twenty left, with much larger cohorts.
But Thomas defends the style as “a clever way to interact with young people for whom the classic path of Stage Four is not suitable. “
Elsewhere, student wellbeing is a top priority for Thomas, especially in light of the murder of Brianna Ghey last year in the nearby town of Warrington. He believes that achieving greater acceptance allows him to better deploy “on a large scale. “supportive reviews” and provide more “relational and behavioral support. “
But the “coping mechanisms” that historically existed to manage best-wishing academics at No. 1 schools “are now starting to become obsolete. “
Thomas is opening a Social, Emotional or Mental Health (SEMH) Unit at one of the top schools and is “thinking about the possibility of offering a [SEMH] option in high school. “
But he fears that “accommodations”, such as offering more and converting the curricula for young people at school number one, will make their transition to secondary school even more difficult.
“The truth is, there will never be enough specialized services. There’s no point in having a [SEMH] unit unless you think about the outcomes and fates of those students.
TLP is already the largest in Cheshire, but Thomas sheepishly admits he’ll be expanding it even further.
In addition to more schools, it also needs to lower the age threshold to two years for some top-tier schools to be able to offer childcare. Acceptance is also taking over an old personal nursery.
This is a good time given the government’s effort to fund childcare. But Thomas is also motivated by his confidence that “the longer we have children, the greater the impact we can have. “
He says the trust’s “travel direction” is to work “beyond our borders” to help other local schools, for example by offering education to their schools and expanding reading projects to primary and secondary schools.
“Then we will have a greater chance of raising the criteria in schools. This is land grabbing. Let’s work together to make things as smart as possible. “
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