Vision
Founded in 2012, Excalibur Academies Trust has grown from two schools in Marlborough, Wiltshire, to 20 schools reaching from Bristol to Reading along the M4 corridor, providing high quality education to 10,000 children from age 2 to age 18. Our vision is to provide an all-through education in local hubs, with a focus on the best teaching, a broad and exciting curriculum and an outward-facing global perspective. We believe in investing in our staff to ensure we attract and retain talented, dedicated people who are committed to changing children’s lives for the better. With a strong track record of raising the achievement of disadvantaged pupils across the trust, it is our mission to promote social mobility and personal fulfilment through the transformative power of education. Our growth strategy is based on our hub model and building the capacity to provide strong support and opportunities to other schools who share our vision.
Values
Ambitious
High expectations and aspirations for everyone; learning from the best and thinking big; an optimistic outlook
Empowering
Believing and investing in our people; developing talent and potential; celebrating diversity and individuality; working collaboratively and celebrating achievement
Ethical
Doing what is right and challenging what is wrong; showing kindness and compassion; promoting wellbeing and sustainability
Excellence
We aim to provide every child attending an Excalibur academy with an excellent education which enables them to lead happy, fulfilled and successful lives and to contribute positively to our world. So how do we define an excellent education, and how do we deliver it in each of our schools?
An excellent education enables pupils to acquire and develop skills and knowledge across a range of disciplines, and to prepare them well to achieve highly in nationally and internationally recognised qualifications. Through such achievements, our young people are able to compete in an increasingly global employment market, and to have choice over their future careers.
Community
All of our schools share this belief in what makes an excellent education, and together we seek to deliver on this vision for every child. We work collaboratively, sharing approaches to teaching, resources, pedagogical practice and effective assessment. We train our teachers, our leaders and our wider staff to aim for excellence, and we support and challenge every member of the Excalibur family to achieve their best work.
An excellent education is built on a shared understanding of what children should be taught and should know at different stages of their school life. We believe that the best way of achieving this is through an integrated approach which has at its centre the journey a child takes from first entering education at the age of two, through to further or higher education, or apprenticeship, at 18. Our hub model, with a secondary school and its partner primary and pre-schools, is our ideal of how to deliver this.
Individuality
An excellent education is much more than being prepared to succeed in examinations. Education should teach and empower children to think for themselves, to question and be curious, to be creative and ambitious. The skills of working collaboratively, communicating effectively, leading others and being a team player are just as important in building a successful career as formal qualifications. And learning to be self -aware, reflective and self -confident is important for a happy and fulfilled life.
An excellent education is not a one-size-fits-all product. Above all, we recognise that children are individuals with different needs, hopes and dreams. Our biggest challenge is to tailor the education we deliver to fire the imagination, find the key to unlock the talent, developing the knowledge and skills of every individual so that they can thrive, achieve and, most of all, be their very best selves.