Our 1,500 strong workforce is our greatest asset. Our teachers and support staff all play a pivotal role in enabling our young learners to fulfil their potential in life. Therefore, we recognise the importance of prioritising the wellbeing of all colleagues across our eleven academies and central team. It is only when we are well-supported, content, and capable that we can effectively guide our children and young people towards success.
A talented and aligned workforce is crucial for bringing our strategic priorities to life and ensuring the Trust delivers on its objectives. Continued investment in our workforce will help ensure that we have motivated people, with the right skills, doing the jobs we need them to do for the benefit of the young people in our academies.
We want to embed a culture that champions better work and working lives across the Trust; a framework to support and develop our workforce from ‘hire to retire’. Our staff workload, wellbeing and benefits package demonstrates our commitment to ensure we can:
- Provide a workload that is fair and reasonable.
- Foster an environment where employee health and wellbeing are actively supported and promoted.
- Develop employee’s personal and professional skills & knowledge continuously throughout their careers.
- Provide structured routes for career progression
- Reward people fairly with transparent and appropriate pay and conditions of service alongside additional benefits
Workload, Wellbeing & Benefits at The Challenge Academy Trust
Workload
As part of our endeavours to support staff well-being and manage workloads, we have carefully examined and implemented the recommendations outlined in the DfE Workload Reduction Toolkit across the trust. We are committed to aligning and integrating our approach to workload management, which is crucial, as it ensures that our efforts remain consistent with national guidelines and best practices.
- Commitment to providing a fair and reasonable workload
- Provision of high quality training and CPD opportunities that meets the needs of individuals
- Establishes expectations on communications out of working hours
- Supporting curriculum planning through collaboration and sharing of resources
- Shared behaviour management protocols
- Streamlining data collection points and being more efficient around data management
- Consistent and supporting approach to performance management built on professional growth
- Effective change management, which is planned and well communicated
- Development of wider wellbeing support and initiatives
Wellbeing
Our wellbeing practices are aligned with the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which is a declaration of support for, and a set of commitments, to the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in education.
With commitments from the Department for Education, Ofsted and employers, this is a joint approach from the sector to demonstrate a shared aim of improving and protecting staff wellbeing.
Our employment policies and practices will be continually reviewed and developed to ensure alignment with the Charter, and we already have a number of systems in place, including:
- A Staff Stress Management Policy, which sets out our approach to identifying sources of workplace stress and providing support to employees and their managers in tacking those stressors.
- Development of our ‘line manager passport’ to enable managers to support their direct reports with their wellbeing.
- Development of employment policies in partnership with recognised trade unions.
- Academy and Trust wide staff surveys.
- Access to the ‘Wellbeing Hub’ via TCAT Plus which hosts a number of resources aimed to support our employees with their physical, emotional, professional, financial and social wellbeing.
- Discounted gym membership through Warrington LiveWire Centres
- Discounted Health cash plan though Westfield Health
Benefits
The Challenge Academy Trust has committed to employing staff on the relevant nationally agreed terms and conditions of employment for their sector. This means that staff will benefit from terms that have been fully consulted upon and negotiated at a national level between employer and trade union representatives, with many conditions enhanced over and above statutory provisions. Our rates of pay are also linked to national frameworks increasing at the same rate as that nationally agreed by employers and trade unions.
All employees have access to defined benefit occupational pension schemes though Teachers Pensions and the Local Government Pension Scheme.
We offer a range of additional benefits to our staff, through TCAT Plus, in partnership with Reward Gateway. This includes:
- Savings and earn cashback at hundreds of High Street retailers and big brands.
- SmartTech scheme
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Lease Car scheme
Central vacancies
There are currently no vacancies within the central team.
Academy vacancies
Please click the links below to be directed to each school’s vacancies page.
