It Takes a Whole Community to Educate a Child

 

The Aylsham Cluster Trust

In May 2011, nine schools in the Aylsham area took the decision to form a shared Co-operative Trust, The Aylsham Cluster Trust.  We chose to adopt this Trust model because we believe that the greatest energy for change and development comes from within our own communities.  The schools have since been working together to transform education for children and families in the Aylsham area.  The collaboration between our schools is widely regarded as an excellent model, and we are proud of our achievements.

The Aylsham Cluster Trust aims to work in partnership with children, young people, their families and local communities, clubs and societies.  Together we strive to provide an inspiring range of experiences that aim to raise standards and aspirations and improve opportunities for all.  To help us achieve our aims we also work collaboratively with TACT (Families), please see here for more information.

Our vision is outlined below:

• Our vision is for all children to learn in a rich and stimulating partnership that provides additional opportunities for us to work together creatively.
• We endeavour to respect the individuality of the range of schools working within a supportive culture and building on our relationship of trust.
• Our vision is to develop a network of members who both contribute to and benefit from the work of the Trust in order to help our young people, families and ultimately our communities to continue to thrive.  Through working together we can continue to become even better and even stronger by creating a lasting and sustainable partnership.

Our work is underpinned by the co-operative values:

• Self – help- we help people to help themselves
• Self – responsibility- we take responsibility for, and answer to our actions
• Democracy- we give our members a say in the way we run our organisation
• Equality- we are genuinely inclusive and pursue success for everyone
• Equity- we carry out our work in a way that is fair and unbiased
• Solidarity- we share interests and common purposes with our members and other co-operatives

Our ethical values are:

• Openness- nobody’s perfect, and we won’t hide it when we’re not
• Honesty- we are honest about what we do and the way we do it
• Social responsibility- we encourage people to take responsibility for their own community, and work together to improve it
• Caring for others- we are a nurturing community that takes care of each other and we regularly support charities and local community groups