Odyssey Collaborative Trust and its schools
Odyssey currently has seven member schools. You can find details of the membership, along with further information on the Odyssey website here.
Ethos & Values
- The Senior Leaders at Gayton strongly feel that the ethos and values of Odyssey align strongly with our own ambitious values and curriculum for our pupils around equipping them for their future roles as adults working in the city and beyond.
- Like we do at Gayton, Odyssey make sure children are at the heart of what they do and the decisions that are made. Odyssey schools are safe, caring and happy places for all to learn and achieve excellent outcomes.
- Odyssey have a “one trust” family ethos that echoes our own way of working within school.
Like us, Odyssey are uncompromising in their ambition. There is a clear moral purpose and a passionate, shared belief that a school can, and should, impact positively upon the lives and life chances of pupils.
Partnership & Collaboration
- Collaboration between schools is the key to excellence in all aspects of education, leadership and opportunity.
- The Trust’s framework, which grants their academies the freedom to retain their own independent culture and ethos whilst operating within a strategic partnership to improve quality, share best practice, and operate effectively and efficiently, means that it will be very easy for us as an LA maintained school to move to work in partnership with Odyssey.
- They have actively sought to create, maintain and foster strong relationships between themselves and Gayton; learning from and working with a school who is not a formal part of their Trust so that we can both continue to develop and grow.
- They have shown admiration for the hard work and dedication of the staff at Gayton in bringing about such strong improvements in the quality of education in recent years, and have acknowledged and celebrated the role Gayton Junior School has in its local community, including our partnership with Ridgeway Infant School.
- As our partner feeder school, Ridgeway Infant School are also looking to acadamise with TEAM Education Trust: both Mrs Dale and myself would like to take this opportunity to reassure parents that the decision to join different trusts has been well-thought out and researched by senior leaders and the governing board, with outcomes for pupils as the highest priority. Both schools, along with the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of each trust, have already met and are committed to ensuring we continue our close working relationship that has benefitted our pupils so well over the last six years.
Quality of Education
- Having visited schools within the Trust, it is clear that Odyssey clearly promotes academic excellence, encourages creativity and strengthens the ethos of the academies as distinctive educational They also have a desire to question, evolve and innovate to ensure that what they provide enables their children to become happy, successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.
- Like us, the Trust schools create rich, bespoke experiences for their children to enjoy and remember via an Inspiring Creative Curriculum.
- Their schools put children at the heart of everything they do and strive to inspire learners and change their lives as a result of the Trust’s educational provision.
- Trust Champions help to support schools within the Trust in raising standards, where needed.
Staff Development
- It is evident that each school has a staff team who are valued, respected and invested in by the Trust.
- We very much value being part of a nurtured and empowered team, and acknowledge that further collaboration with Odyssey will enhance the expertise within our own staff further and provide us with the professional courage to explore new possibilities, and share knowledge, best practice and expertise.
- The Academy system also offers greater opportunities for staff, who may otherwise move on to other We can ‘grow leadership’ from within and keep great staff within our family of schools.
As well as the above, why Odyssey specifically?
- They are not corporate in any way, shape or form. We would therefore retain our independence – there wouldn’t be any risk to our ethos and we would keep our own governing board.
- Odyssey are a primary only academy based within the city.
- They do not want to grow too large. There are two other junior schools already in the Trust who we could work with specifically on KS2 issues.
- There is a wider approach to well-being, which would support the work we do at Gayton.
What’s in it for Gayton?
- The primary motivator behind this move is to provide Gayton with group strength and an opportunity for us to feel part of something ‘bigger’.
- It is important to note that Gayton would be classified as a ‘converter academy’, that is we have not been forced to convert to academy status and are doing so through Moreover, Odyssey want to work with us.
- The prospect of trust-wide continuing professional development (CPD) for staff is very important for us. This partnership will allow staff to meet and train across schools, and will provide opportunities for staff to progress their careers within the trust, thereby strengthening staff retention.
- The teaching will get even better! Facilitating the sharing of effective practice across a group of schools will enable us to strengthen our own practice, we can learn about any particular approaches that have shown to be effective in one school and then apply it to Gayton, and we have lots more colleagues to act as a ‘critical friend’.
- MAT chief executives tend to be accountable for the whole trust’s performance so we therefore get frequent support and challenge, thereby aiding our self-evaluation and school improvement.
- It opens doors for pupils e.g. collaboration with other school for visits, sports events and discovery days.
We will continue to actively work with all local schools and current partners, particularly Ridgeway ensuring the best of both worlds.
