Our Principles - The RMAT Way

We aim to help every single student who comes through a RMAT school develop the skills they need to transition into the wider world as confident, capable and resilient young adults.

In addition to fantastic academic learning and support available as part of the Trust’s curriculum, they will also be helped to develop skills such as self-reflection, problem-solving, risk-taking, perseverance, facing competition, and coping with failure. This is all delivered as part of our Resilience curriculum.

These essential life skills ensure that, wherever students go after they leave RMAT, they have the resilience, growth mindset and confidence required to pursue all of their goals.

We are resilient in the way we work too – we’re not afraid to take risks, to fail, and to learn from our mistakes. This resilience has seen us turn around a number of struggling schools, taking them from Special Measures to innovative and successful members of the Trust.

Traditional values of discipline and respect are an essential part of our ethos at RMAT, as we believe these are essential for creating a safe, harmonious and nurturing environment for both staff and students alike. In particular, we take a no-tolerance attitude towards bullying.

However, discipline is not the same thing as punishment, and we make sure our methods of discipline are always fair, considered, caring and positive. Where possible, we prefer to focus on encouragement and rewards, rather than punishment and suspension, in order to build a better community in each school – and across the Trust as a whole.

Our approach to discipline has seen us turn around a number of struggling schools, including a number that were on Special Measures before joining the RMAT family, with exceptional improvements in behaviour, attendance and academic performance coming as a result of the RMAT Ethos.

At RMAT we believe in change and in doing things differently. We pioneer new techniques, take the lead in tackling important issues and use a research-led approach to new areas.

We are incredibly effective at helping schools to perform better, with a proven track record in turning struggling schools around and improving academic results either when they become part of the RMAT family, or as part of our School Improvement work.

We focus on expanding our students’ horizons in every way, transforming behaviour, attendance, self-esteem and life chances.  The same is true for our colleagues, in whom we invest heavily to help them develop their skills and transform their careers.

We’re a dynamic institution, open and responsive to change and dedicated to ensuring that everyone’s experience with RMAT is a transformative one.

Aspiration is an essential part of what we do. Every child who attends one of the academies in RMAT has their life chances transformed. Our Aspire Curriculum places a great emphasis on encouraging our students to raise their aspirations and equipping them to achieve their goals. 

We enable our students to compete with their privately schooled counterparts with confidence and composure, equipping them to hold their own in any setting, amongst any group of people of any background. Wherever our students want to go when they leave us, our goal is to help them get there and to excel when they do.

We also raise the aspiration levels for the staff that work with us, helping them achieve their career goals and learn new skills.

Our goal is also to raise the aspirations of the schools that have become part of our Trust, improving results, introducing innovative new practices and providing a better standard of education for the local area.

Students, staff and schools come to RMAT for a brighter future – and we make sure that such a future is within everyone’s grasp. All of our students deserve – and receive – equal care, attention and support.

Our aim is to provide an education that competes with our private counterparts across the UK, allowing our students to hold their own in the wider world, wherever they may choose to go next.

Our curriculum offers the chance to learn a huge range of skills which even some of Britain’s best schools don’t offer, meaning every child who studies at a RMAT Academy will have the same access to an excellent array of unique educational options.

Equality of opportunity also applies to our schools and our staff. Each school in the RMAT has its own identity, but also receives the same support and enjoys the same excellent standards.

Colleagues are given the freedom to develop their own skills and teaching styles in a leadership structure that is not needlessly hierarchical or authoritarian, allowing teachers and support workers to progress, grow and enjoy new opportunities.

We provide the resources people need to become more successful. For our students, this means excellent facilities – state-of-the-art technologies in every classroom, sports pitches and equipment that allow us to build upon our outstanding athletic performance, and studios for a diverse range of the arts.

The academies that make up RMAT are all within driving distance, allowing our academies to work together and share resources to ensure students across the Trust are receiving equal opportunities and meeting the same high standards.

The RMAT offers the opportunity to train to teach through the School Direct initiative. Working in partnership with Leeds Trinity and Leeds Beckett Universities, we have developed an exciting one-year programme which gives trainee teachers the opportunity to experience schools in a range of contexts, gaining a PGCE at the end of the year.  In ​addition, we support several providers in West and North Yorkshire, such as Huddersfield University and the University of York by providing teaching placements for their trainees.

This is to ensure that our staff receive the very best in professional development, and that we can also support other schools in reaching the same high standards that we have achieved across the RMAT.

The RMAT is dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children who attend our schools, and we work hard to ensure that students feel safe, supported and encouraged to achieve their very best.

Our academies benefit from strong, supportive and caring leadership, with students that are, above all, treated as individuals.

Strong discipline, which focusses on fairness, respect for teachers, colleagues and other students, a harmonious learning environment and a no-tolerance attitude towards bullying is an essential part of our approach. We also prefer to focus on rewards and encouragement, rather than punishment and suspension.

We have a strong moral purpose, with everything we do being for the benefit of everyone that comes together to make up RMAT. Our emphasis is always on co-operation – between different students, between students and teachers, between teachers and senior colleagues, and between different schools within the Trust.

Many large academy trusts operate more like chains, with every school treated exactly the same, taking the same approach regardless of need. At RMAT, we do things a little bit differently.

While every school in the RMAT family enjoys the same excellent standards, resources and quality of education and support, we take a bespoke approach to each individual academy within the Trust to ensure the unique needs of the school, our colleagues and the students are met.

We specialise in transforming under-performing schools, improving and innovating the way they support their students. However, we firmly believe that these changes need to be focused on a true understanding of the community that the school serves, and the community of the school itself.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for providing the best education, and although the academies in RMAT are all within driving distance, each has different needs, has faced different challenges in improving academic results, and has its own unique identity.

We celebrate these differences, while ensuring that the RMAT ethos underpins everything we do – delivering the best possible outcomes to every school.

In Year 8 our students study History, Geography, Religious Studies and Media Studies through the vehicle of Contextual Curriculum.  Every year we assess what the current, domestic and global issues are, and we study them through the lens of these subjects.  Giving our students a vital and relevant insight into what are the underlying causes of current issues and helping them understand the links between history, geopolitics, geography, the role of religion and how these are represented by both mainstream and increasingly social media.  Some examples of what we have studied recently are the situation in Afghanistan, Black Lives Matter and the conflict in Ukraine.