West Midlands Academy Trust

Welcome to the West Midlands Academy Trust

Founded in January 2025, West Midlands Academy Trust (WMAT) was established through the collaboration of Hall Green School, Kings Norton Girls’ School, and Swanshurst School. At the heart of our Trust is our vision: “Achieving more together.” This vision drives everything we do, as we work to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to thrive academically, socially, and personally — not only during their time in school, but also in the workplace and in life.

Our approach to “achieving more together” is realised through:
• A relentless focus on delivering an excellent Quality of Education across all our academies, ensuring strong progress and attainment for all students.
• A commitment to personal development and well-being for both staff and students.

At WMAT, we cultivate a culture of:

• Genuine collaboration between academies, where sharing expertise and providing mutual support is fundamental.
• Collective responsibility, ambition, and high expectations for all staff and students across the Trust.
• Supported accountability, driven by a collaborative, reciprocal and robust Trust Quality Assurance programme, to ensure we achieve our goals together.
• High-quality, tailored staff professional development to support continuous growth.
• A staff-focused culture, where the role of leaders is to facilitate exceptional provision, enabling staff to perform at their best for the benefit of our students.

We also understand the importance of respecting individual school identities, whether through their names, logos, uniforms, timetables or curricula. While we adopt a strategic approach that is responsive to the needs of each school, we recognise that one size does not fit all as we look towards future opportunities.

Our operational model focuses on:

• Earned autonomy with accountability, offering schools variable delegations and freedoms based on performance and need.
• Central services that maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance school leadership capacity to prioritize educational provision.
• Central policies designed to foster collaboration, ensure compliance, and ease workload pressures. School led polices such as Behaviour for Learning, reflect the individual needs of the school.
• Financial sustainability is also a key priority for us.
• School led budgeting with a focus on each school being financially self-sufficient, ensuring resources are allocated effectively to teaching and learning, and pupil support alongside strategic estates and resource management.
• We prioritize “good growth“, expanding the Trust thoughtfully to ensure the right schools join at the right time.
• A conducive physical environment that sets high expectations for learning and work, supported by an efficient central team and infrastructure

At WMAT, we believe in “achieving more together” through shared commitment, strong leadership, and a focus on continuous improvement — creating a brighter future for every student.

Nicola Raggett — CEO