Become a lift school

Become a Lift school

We believe in the importance of community. Each of our schools has its own local history and context and serves its own community. We want our schools to stay true to their local roots, while also drawing on the phenomenal wealth of expertise and resources that comes with being part of a national network of schools.

Join us

If you want to learn more about joining Lift Schools, drop us a note to arrange an informal chat. This will be conducted in complete confidentiality. After an initial conversation, we’ll work with you to see if your school or trust would fit well in Lift Schools. We will support you throughout the process, helping you to make an informed and confident decision. Contact Elroy Aidouni-Cahill, our head of portfolio and partnerships, to find out more, or express interest in joining our trust.

Express your interest

Why Lift Schools?

Only 30% of schools joining our trust were rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. Now 90% of our schools are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.
We invest in our talent at every level – and we give each of our principals an individual development account of up to £100,000 to spend over five years.
Our five regions provide advice and expertise tailored to your local context – but we also draw on the best talent across the country.

Our trust is made up of 57 primary, secondary and special schools, serving a diverse range of communities across the country. We recognise that every school has its own unique context, and that you bring experience of working within that setting and locality.

We can, however, provide a regional structure that enables you, our teachers and senior leaders, to tap into expertise within other schools in your area. These schools understand the challenges you face – because they're facing them, too.

As we are a national organisation, we draw on talent and expertise from across the country. Our people have the knowledge and experience needed to help improve all our schools – in a way that works for you, in your local context.

What are the benefits of joining our trust?

Comprehensive professional development
‍Maximise potential and achieve excellence through professional-development schemes and instructional coaching for all staff.

‍Opportunities to develop new leaders
‍Nurture – and, importantly, retain – talented teachers with our sector-leading Lift Leadership initiative.

‍Expert curriculum support
‍Our subject teams are national experts in curriculum development and assessment.

‍Extensive SEND support
‍Our special schools and specialist SEND staff ensure that every school in our trust offers the best possible education and support for pupils with SEND.

‍Outstanding teacher training
‍Our schools all have access to our comprehensive ITT programme.

‍Operational support
‍Focus on teaching and learning, safe in the knowledge that operational tasks are being handled by our efficient central team.

‍Regional collaboration
‍Learn from local schools – and share your own expertise – with our mentoring and capacity-building networks.

How we support our schools: a detailed guide

‍As a Lift school, you will have access to sector-leading support in the following areas:

Curriculum

Our dedicated curriculum experts provide strategic and practical support, to ensure that every lesson is as good as it can possibly be.
Our subject network groups share ideas for effective practice with all our schools.
Our high-quality, evidence-based curriculum content can be adapted to your own context and community.

School improvement

We want all our schools to provide their pupils with an excellent education. This means:

early intervention: we identify schools that need high-priority support early on;
rapid action: we intervene quickly and collaboratively, pooling our resources where needed;
bespoke support: we develop an action plan targeted to the school’s specific context and needs;
regular monitoring: we measure improvement against key performance indicators; and
support wherever needed: we are by your side at every step.

Nurturing talent

For our trust to flourish, it’s vital that we recruit, develop and retain exceptional team members. We therefore offer:

instructional coaching: a dialogue-based approach that allows teachers to set their own targets;
career development: support for teachers seeking national professional qualifications;
ECT support: bespoke mentoring to ensure that new teachers feel supported and encouraged;
digital recruitment: expert recruitment support, using digital searches; and
initial teacher training: we provide a highly regarded teacher-training programme.

Developing leaders

We encourage and support existing leaders – and we trust you to know what professional development you most need. Our principals can choose from development opportunities including:

development fund: principals can spend up to £100,000 over five years on individual development;
leadership residentials: these are run twice every year;
experiential learning: hands-on development, including study tours;
executive coaching: principals can access one-to-one coaching;
challenge and support: one of our regional education directors will provide regular support and challenge; and
professional sabbatical: principals can take a sabbatical after five years in the role.

Our national and regional human-resources teams handle all aspects of school life. These include:

induction and orientation for new team members;
absence reporting and tracking;
disciplinary, capability and grievance issues;
pre-employment checks, including DBS;
occupational-health referrals;
retirement owing to ill health; and
support for complaints and investigations.

Finance and procurement

School leaders should be able to focus on what really matters in a school: teaching and learning. Our finance and procurement team therefore offers support with:

school budgets, reviews and plans;
making purchases and managing purchasing cards; ‍
managing staff expenses;
accounting systems and finance training; and
energy-management services.

Estates

Students can only learn, and teachers teach, in a safe and secure environment. We can help with:

appointing contractors;
compliance and inspections;
incidents of student damage;
maintenance of plant and buildings; and
electrical testing.

Join us

We treat all enquiries about joining Lift Schools with complete confidentiality. After an initial conversation, we'll work with you to see if we are a good match. Throughout the process, we'll provide support as you explore your options to make an informed decision.

Express interest in joining our network.

Contact: Elroy Aidouni-Cahill, Head of Portfolio and Partnerships via email at:

eaidounicahill@liftschools.org

News

More news

AET changes its name to Lift Schools

We’re excited to announce that Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) has officially become Lift Schools. This isn’t just a name change—it’s a powerful statement about our future.

KS5 students celebrate another year of excellent results

Our students have worked so hard this year and we are thrilled that their work has paid off in a brilliant set of results.

Primary schools celebrate excellent results

Lift Schools is celebrating excellent results this week, with our primary schools seeing record results in phonics and key stage 2 SATs across our network. Results were particularly promising for disadvantaged children, with those qualifying for pupil premium performing better than non disadvantaged pupils nationally.