About the Trust

To read a Message from the Academies Director, click here.

Leigh Academies Trust (LAT) is one of the largest and most successful school groups in England. Starting in 2008 in Dartford, the Trust is now responsible for 33 academies of all types, educating over 24,000 pupils, employing almost 4,000 talented staff and with access to an annual income of over £250m. Our Ofsted track record is impressive. Currently, 56% of our academies are considered to be “Outstanding” whilst inspected as part of the Trust.

LAT has remained local with all of its academies located in the South East (Kent, Medway, Bexley and Greenwich), within a one hour drive across the South Thames Corridor. This helps us to share resources and expertise much more easily and offer abundant training and progression opportunities to staff. We invest heavily in our workforce and enjoy strong retention across all job roles. The Trust has embedded various advantages which mean that LAT is an excellent place to develop a career in education. This includes being a highly inclusive employer which celebrates the diversity of its workforce.

Our scale and experience means we have been able to develop several well-chosen approaches to running schools which we know work well. These include:

• A small school approach to education where larger academies are organised into colleges. This ensures high quality pastoral care for pupils.
• A world class digital strategy where all staff and pupils have their own device making teaching, learning and operations efficient and highly impactful.
• Disruption free learning and a “warm strict” approach to behaviour management so that teachers can teach and pupils can learn.
• An all-through International Baccalaureate curriculum equivalent in quality to some of the best fee-paying schools and grammar schools in the UK and further afield.

In addition, The Leigh Institute - which is part of LAT - is responsible for Kent and Medway Training, one of the region’s biggest initial teacher training organisations, a large teaching school hub called Thames Gateway and an accredited apprenticeship provider. This powerful organisation trains, develops and supports 1,000s of teachers, support staff and leadership teams across the region each year.

Our future plans are found in our Vision 2030, available on our website.