Process to Join

If you are interested in joining The Rivers CofE Academy Trust, please contact us.

How does the process of joining work?

The process of joining our trust will be bespoke and shaped together. Once you have contacted us, we will arrange a visit to your school and meet you and your team to explore whether we are the right fit for each other. It might be that we arrange visits to our schools and start to do some informal partnership work together.

Once both parties, including the governing boards, are happy to move forward, the due diligence process will begin.

The due diligence process usually lasts between 4–6 weeks and is a way for both sides to get a sense of each other’s organisation. The process may involve meeting by department e.g. finance to review processes and systems and agree a plan for working together. It is also an opportunity for staff to meet each other.

Following this process, if both parties are still happy to proceed, the application is submitted to the DfE Advisory Board for approval.

Following approval, the transfer process starts. This usually takes 4-6 months, but the legal requirements of this process can make it longer or shorter than this.

How long does the process take?

The whole process from a school making initial contact to transfer into the trust usually takes between 6–12 months.

Your first one-hundred days in the trust

During the first one-hundred days, your school will receive additional support and guidance. You will have a close relationship with the onboarding team who will support your school and add capacity through this process.

A bespoke project plan will be designed and managed by the trust and training will take place for the systems we need to share.

What will change in our school when we join The Rivers C. of E. Academy Trust?

In line with the extraordinary people theme of our 2030 strategy, we believe in empowering schools and staff to be the best they can be. We will not ask for staffing changes and all staff will be welcomed into The Rivers C. of E. Academy Trust.

Each school that joins the trust will adopt our mission, vision and values and incorporate our branding alongside the school logo. Our marketing manager will be there to advise and support you through this process. We will not ask you to change your school uniform.

If you have a local governing board, this will change. Governors will become advocates and will be assigned a link trustee. Usually, we ask schools to appoint five advocates (seven for our church schools) but, if you have more than five governors who wish to become advocates, they will all be welcomed into the governance team. Our governance lead will be there to advise and support you through this process.

What difference will The Rivers C. of E. Academy Trust make to our school?

In line with our 2030 strategy, your school will be part of a trust committed to three key themes:

Extraordinary Education

Extraordinary People

Extraordinary Futures

Your pupils will benefit from exceptional enrichment opportunities and experiences, including collaborative events across the trust.

Your staff will benefit from high-quality collaboration and networks both within the trust and beyond, comprehensive and high-quality continued professional learning and a range of staff benefits.

Our experienced school improvement team will work closely with your school to provide bespoke school development and improvement support to ensure that your pupils receive an extraordinary education. Since September 2024, we have had eight successful Ofsted inspections. Fifteen of our sixteen schools now have a current Ofsted inspection judgement: three schools have a judgement of ‘outstanding’, one is ‘good and improving’ and eleven are judged to be ‘good’.

Your school will be supported by an exceptional central services team offering expertise in finance, IT, safeguarding, attendance, curriculum development, human resources and communications, operations, estates management, governance and marketing.

The Rivers C. of E. Academy Trust