LiFE MAT Charter

All our schools work within the LiFE Operating Model. We work together in a genuinely collaborative way and we also celebrate the strengths and individuality of each of our schools. This operating model can be distilled into the following principles to which all our schools subscribe.

• We commit to the principle of genuine collaboration to find evidence led and innovative ways to enhance the efficacy of learning, leadership, engagement and aspiration.
• We aspire to offer an educational experience which is inspirational, innovative and delivers integrity in adults and children.
• We embrace the notion of mutual accountability: no individual, team or school can feel they are successful unless all individuals, teams and schools are successful. We consequently commit whole-heartedly to peer review which precipitates peer support.
• We embrace the power of trust wide professional development, and therefore contributing as well as benefiting from that professional development.
• We coordinate calendars to allow maximum benefit from Trust wide opportunities.
• We encourage, create time for, and inspire our best teachers, support staff, and leaders to work for the benefit of our schools within the Trust.
• We commit to providing the Trust board with timely, coordinated, accurate and appropriate data and information about our schools to allow for the best possible deployment of resources.
• We commit to providing a curriculum and an approach to pedagogy that is irresistible, inclusive and aspirational. We commit to recognising the head, hand and heart in equal measure. We recognise the importance of personalisation, and the importance of each child feeling known, celebrated and cared for. We commit to ensuring our curriculum foregrounds the understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity, social injustice, protecting our environment and supporting our communities.
• We make educational choices for our children driven by putting their needs, and those of their families and communities first.
• We commit to an approach to ensuring the right learning behaviours based on building warm and caring relationships, and the importance of our children feeling known, heard, safe, loved, appreciated and cared for. We recognise that to achieve this we also need high expectations, consistency, and an understanding that negative behaviours hurt us all. We therefore understand there must be clearly articulated consequences where children fall short of our high expectations, but also support to help children behave with social conscience and uphold our values.
• We commit to being a force for good and lead positive change within our community.
• We commit to embracing and promoting diversity and the celebration of cultural differences. We recognise that to do this, we need to create safe spaces, where all aspects of social injustice can be discussed, addressed and challenged.
• We recognise that our employees are our greatest resource, and consequently we commit to ensuring that all employees feel valued, supported and nurtured. We commit to sign the Mindful Employer Charter which recognises mental health needs alongside physical wellbeing.
• We commit to operating inclusively in all we do; LiFE schools welcome and celebrate children from all backgrounds and with all forms of individual needs. We recognise that to do so, promotes social mobility, social cohesion and fights social injustice.