The Client

The GORSE Academies Trust has a well-known reputation for changing the deal for children and young adults who come from some of the most impoverished parts of the country. Their central mission is to remove the stubborn link between poverty and academic underperformance, proving that where teaching is excellent, leadership inspiring, and behaviour standards exemplary, all children excel regardless of background.

Recognising that isolated school improvement efforts are rarely enough to overcome the effects of deprivation, GORSE has built a network of excellence spanning Leeds, Bradford, Hull, and East Yorkshire. Through academisation, free school sponsorship, and the development of new schools in areas of significant underperformance, the trust actively challenges the status quo. Their work has also attracted already strong and successful schools to join as partners, seeking the advantage of belonging to a wider network of excellence in both leadership and teaching.

Strategy and Implementation

1. Removing the Link Between Poverty and Underperformance Everything GORSE does is driven by a singular focus on disadvantage:

• Exemplary Behaviour Standards: Creating calm, orderly environments where learning can flourish for every child.
• Inspiring Leadership: Developing leaders at all levels who are unapologetically ambitious for disadvantaged pupils.
• Excellent Teaching: A relentless focus on classroom practice as the primary lever for closing attainment gaps.

1. System-Leading Generosity and Collaboration The trust actively agitates the wider education system by sharing what works:

• Regional and National Sharing: GORSE is proud of its generosity in sharing ideas and approaches to teaching and leadership development with partners far beyond its own schools.
• Humble Learning: Taking great enjoyment in learning from others – from the very best practitioners nationally and internationally, but also from those struggling most in their work.
• Seeking Out Brilliance: The belief that all schools contain areas of brilliance, and it is for professionals to seek them out, understand their success, and ensure that their magic is disseminated.

1. A Coherent Career-Long Professional Offer Since being awarded Teaching School Hub status in 2021 (renewed for a further four years in 2024), GORSE has created an unbroken golden thread of development:

• Initial Teacher Training: Through GORSE SCITT, an Ofsted Outstanding provider that has trained over 2,000 trainees.
• Early Career Support: As Leeds Teaching School Hub, supporting professionals from Initial Teacher Training through to Executive Leadership.
• Passion and Love for Education: Nurturing in all professionals a determination to inspire and support young people, regardless of background.

The Result

The GORSE Academies Trust has become a national exemplar in tackling educational disadvantage:

• Closing the Attainment Gap: Students from some of the most impoverished parts of the country consistently achieve outcomes that defy national expectations, proving that poverty need not determine destiny.
• A Growing Network of Excellence: Strong, successful schools now actively seek to convert as new partners, recognising the enormous advantage of belonging to GORSE’s network. The trust continues to develop new schools and sponsor existing ones in areas of significant underperformance.
• System-Wide Influence: Through its Teaching School Hub, SCITT, and generous sharing of practice, GORSE has agitated the system regionally and nationally. Other schools and trusts look to GORSE as a proof point that where teaching is excellent and leadership inspiring, all children excel – regardless of their starting point.