Case Study:
Ormiston Academies Trust

Ormiston Academies Trust currently sponsors 40 academies nationwide, comprising of 32 secondary, seven primary schools and one all-through, special school.

The trust purchased The National College’s School membership package in order to provide their pool of governors with a succinct but informative video update service that offered award-winning CPD training.

Jayne Brazier, Governance and Compliance Co-ordinator at Ormiston Academies Trust kindly spoke to us and emphasised just how The National College has supported them in achieving their governors’ CPD aims.

Could you tell us about the background of the trust?

We have 40 academies in our trust, and at present we have 325 governors across those.

Why did you choose The National College?

A lot of the learning materials are video based, so we thought the videos and webinars were more user-friendly and engaging for our governors. They have previously said that they like watching, learning and then undertaking a test, rather than doing large quantities of reading.

How have you found the service from the National College?

Another reason the package was chosen was that we were informed that The National College could develop courses based on our requirements as well.

How much of a benefit have The National College’s resources been?

I would say it’s that ease of access for governors.

How beneficial has our 100% remote learning platform been during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Our governors who have used the online platform, especially throughout this period, have said nice things about it and the quality – so that’s good to hear.

If you could draw one positive from The National College’s resources, what would it be?

It’s easy to follow and, what is important to bear in mind is that most governors are not education professionals – most of them don’t work in the sector. So, even if they don’t understand the education landscape with all of its acronyms straight away, there’s a nice breadth of courses about education, Ofsted and safeguarding etc on The National College, which breaks it down nice and easily for the governors.

How much of a benefit has the ability to undertake courses and training on an online platform, in your own time been?

The courses and videos are far more engaging if you’ve got a slightly lower attention span!