Children are at the heart of all we do

As a Trust, DEMAT pledges to give our children a high-quality education and the best life chances.

We believe every decision should be taken in the best interests of children

While we have achieved many successes, we are not complacent and have a vision. We will always seek to improve our performance, adapting to the changes and challenges we encounter.


Our vision is for every child to flourish, be introduced to the richness of human experience and understand and question the world around them. As a result, we will have high expectations and seek to exhaust all solutions to support children.


There are many children, often those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, but not precluding the highest-attaining, who require us to do more.


We will support them by having the best curriculum, taught by well-trained education professionals. In short, we will maximise the achievement of every child.


A rich curriculum assures children have life chances and life choices and forms part of our DEMAT entitlement for all children.


We recognise the value of a rounded and holistic education; an education built upon an aspirational curriculum, underpinned by our Christian distinctiveness.

How shall we achieve this?

1.1 Rich curriculum
1.2 Quality in the classroom
1.3 Supporting children
1.4 Raising standards

  • 1.1 Rich Curriculum

    All children should expect and will receive a broad and balanced curriculum.


    They will secure a solid foundation in knowledge and understanding of the world and the vocabulary to describe it.


    We will work across our schools to enhance our existing curriculum. Our curriculum will ignite a love of learning.


    It will rely on our leaders’ ability to promote excellence, explore spirituality, cultivate challenge and encourage all to embrace the struggle and joy inherent in learning.


    Above all, learning must never be too easy or its rewards lose value and its comprehension lacks permanence.


    All DEMAT schools will enhance their English and mathematics provision to ensure all children have this core knowledge.


    This curriculum will be academic, well-sequenced, designed by subject-specialists and delivered by well-trained teachers.

  • 1.2 Quality in the classroom

    Raising achievement rests on what happens in the classroom. Teaching is key to delivering this strategy, led by a carefully crafted curriculum.


    To this end, we will promote and share excellence through the development of subject communities and sharing evidence of effective pedagogy.


    And we will address any unacceptable variability, because all DEMAT children must receive the highest quality of education.


    Our strong leadership of teaching and learning is a key factor in our success. Trust-wide improvement requires that our leaders can accurately recognise any deficits and effectively gauge how to resolve them.


    Teachers will have freedom to be excellent.

    As a result, they will provide regular feedback that enables students to recognise what they can do, what they can’t yet do and how they can improve.

  • 1.3 Supporting children

    We are fully inclusive and welcome all children.


    To build further on this already strong provision, we will establish a DEMAT Inclusion Network.


    It will offer a wide range of additional support including educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and mental health practitioners.


    We will continue to develop our expertise and the monitoring and intervention of all groups of students. And, specifically, for our most vulnerable students.

  • 1.4 Raising standards

    Continuing the improvement of performance and pupil outcomes in all year groups will remain our most important measure.


    This will ensure that, academically, our children are ready to access the secondary curriculum in neighbouring schools.


    We shall ensure we offer the highest levels of pedagogy in reading, writing and mathematics as well as in the broader curriculum.


    We know this is hugely important in developing cultural and personal capital in our pupils.


    As a Trust, we will increase capacity to support headteachers in driving further improvements within their schools.


    And we will work closely with both Diocesan and community schools within our community to raise standards through collaboration.