How Hales Valley Trust Builds Sustainable Practice Across a Growing MAT

About Hales Valley Trust

Hales Valley Trust is a growing Multi-Academy Trust currently comprising seven primary schools, having expanded from five schools in 2024. As the Trust grows, maintaining consistency, quality and clarity of direction across schools is a strategic priority.

Trust leaders are focused on ensuring strong foundations in English and Maths, with a particular emphasis on fluency, pre-teaching and addressing misconceptions early. Central to this is building systems that are sustainable and not dependent on individual enthusiasm, but embedded in leadership structures.

Sustainable Practice as a Strategic Priority

For Hales Valley Trust, sustainability means:

• Clear leadership accountability
• Consistent implementation across schools
• Structured professional development
• Intelligent use of data to inform next steps
• Systems that remain strong as the trust grows

Rather than using CENTURY as a classroom add-on, the Trust has embedded it within its school improvement model.

“CENTURY is a significant investment, so we have to maximise its impact. Leaders need to understand what it is, wh

at it does and how to interpret the data so that it can impact on progress and outcomes of our pupils.”  Kate Hall, Director of Education

Leadership-Led Implementation

Sustainable practice begins with leadership.

CENTURY is driven at trust level, not left to individual schools to implement in isolation. Kate Hall personally leads trust-wide conversations about how the platform is being used, ensuring that discussions remain focused on school improvement rather than surface-level engagement.

Professional development is deliberately tiered:

• Executive leaders receive a strategic overview, focusing on trends and accountability
• Assistant Heads and school leaders engage in regular bite-size CPD across the year
• Phase-based “CENTURY Tech advocates” drive day-to-day consistency within schools

This layered approach ensures clarity at every level, from executive strategy through to classroom practice.

Using Data to Sustain Improvement

For Hales Valley Trust, sustainability is underpinned by intelligent data use.

Trust-level reports are shared with Executive Heads and used to compare trends across schools. Leaders review data not just to monitor usage, but to inform:

• Pre-teaching before new content
• Over-teaching to secure retention
• Identification of persistent misconceptions
• Targeted support for specific cohorts

“The value isn’t just in receiving the data, it’s in knowing what to do with it.”

CENTURY supports leaders in moving beyond instinct and towards precise, evidence-informed planning. Academic assessments and diagnostics provide clarity around foundational knowledge, helping schools secure fluency before progressing further.

Embedding Foundational Knowledge at Scale

As the Trust expands, one of the biggest challenges is maintaining strong foundations across multiple schools with varied contexts.

CENTURY allows leaders to:

• Maintain consistent expectations
• Identify knowledge gaps early
• Support staff in delivering focused intervention
• Ensure new schools align quickly with trust standards

By building shared language around data and pedagogy, the Trust ensures that sustainable systems, not individuals, drive success.

Find out more about how CENTURY can support your multi-academy trust.

If you are already a CENTURY customer and would like to know more about maximising your schools’ engagement with the platform, speak to your Account Manager or email support@century.tech.