5 - 6 March 2026, The Manchester Deansgate, Manchester
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Registration Desk60 mins
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Main Room10 minsAs the education system continues to evolve, Multi Academy Trusts face growing pressures to deliver improved outcomes, financial sustainability, and operational excellence, all whilst navigating shifting policies and complex system-wide challenges.
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Main Room20 mins
The session will emphasise the importance of a forward-thinking leadership approach to ensure long-term sustainability. Discuss:
– Leadership strategies for future-proofing your MAT.
– Partnerships across institutions for increased student outcomes.
– Developing a cohesive vision for trust-wide growth while addressing local challenges.
– The role of governance in ensuring resilience and sustainability.
– Key leadership traits that will define the future of MAT leadership.
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Main Room45 mins
The disadvantage gap continues to be the most pressing challenge in the UK education system. This session will explore the most effective ways MATs can work to close the disadvantage gap and ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed. Explore:
– The impact of the disadvantage gap on academic performance and future opportunities for students.
– Evidence-based interventions to develop support networks for both students and families.
– The role of personalised learning and practical approaches to effectively differentiate learning.
– The importance of a school culture that sets high expectations for all students and ensures that inclusion and diversity are at the heart of every school’s ethos.
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Main Room20 minsThis session explores how The Woodland Academy Trust has embedded AI-driven mathematics to improve teaching precision, pupil outcomes and staff workload. Through strategic implementation of Magma, the trust has built a scalable approach that uses real-time data to inform planning, enable responsive teaching and strengthen curriculum delivery.
Woodland and Magma will share practical approaches to implementation and professional development, along with new trust-wide data demonstrating significant improvements in SATs results, particularly for disadvantaged and SEND pupils.
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Main Room40 mins
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area75 mins
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Main Room20 minsBeReady is a trusted delivery partner to hundreds of Multi-Academy Trusts, providing fully funded, trust-wide staff development built “by schools, for schools” and directed by subject matter experts.
This session spotlights a fully funded career pathway that enables colleagues without an existing degree to achieve QTS, strengthening recruitment and retention and supporting strategic workforce planning across your trust.
SEND and safeguarding training are embedded throughout BeReady’s programmes, helping MATs build consistent inclusive practice, improve outcomes, and increase capacity to meet rising levels of need.
An invaluable session that will enable you to unlock funding to tackle your trust’s biggest challenges.
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Main Room20 mins
- Case study
Despite decades of interventions, the attainment gap for white working-class pupils remains stubbornly unchanged. This case study shares how one multi-academy trust is approaching the challenge differently, by focusing less on deficit-driven interventions and more on belonging, pride, and ownership in education.
Drawing on practice across schools serving very different communities, the session explores what has worked for other marginalised groups and why those approaches have rarely been applied to white British pupils. It examines how language, aspiration, community identity, and school culture can unintentionally alienate the very children we are trying to support, and what leaders can do differently. -
Breakout Room 120 mins
Explore practical strategies for navigating the complex SEND landscape. Discover how this trust is bridging the gap between mainstream and special schools, creating integrated resources, and using independent provision to meet rising demand, all while maintaining financial health and high educational standards.
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Breakout Room 220 minsExplore how schools can create truly inclusive environments where every child can thrive. Drawing on real-world experience from a pioneering MAT, discover how relational approaches, early intervention in primary schools, and embedding inclusion into school culture, not just policies, can drive both equity and excellence.
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Breakout Room 320 minsExplore how schools can go beyond traditional teaching to address the broader needs of students and their families. Drawing on real-world examples, discover how community hubs in schools are providing vital services, from health checks and vaccinations to nutritious meals and family engagement opportunities. Learn practical strategies for fostering partnerships with local agencies, creating inclusive and supportive school environments.
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Main Room20 minsPhonics to Vocabulary explores playful, inclusive approaches for low literacy learners, inspired by the idea that language shapes thought. Founded in 2015, Mrs Wordsmith began with acclaimed print resources before creating educational video games to close the word gap through fun, purposeful content. Led by education expert Jo Jackson, the team combines classroom experience with research driven design. Their challenge is to unite education and entertainment without compromise, using humour and striking visuals. Grounded in systematic phonics and rich vocabulary development, their predictable, multisensory games feature relatable characters and evidence based digital tools to deepen learning in accessible, low pressure environments. -
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Breakout Room 120 minsThis session will explore how Multi Academy Trusts can strengthen teaching, learning, and student engagement through standardised, robust technology ecosystems. We will demonstrate how consistent platforms reduce complexity, improve staff confidence, and create simplified digital experiences for all learners.
The session will also highlight how to achieve essential cyber security roadmaps that will help to protect data, reduce risk, and ensure continuity across all Trust sites. By adopting unified, secure, and future ready technology, Trusts can drive sustainable improvement, maximise value, reduce costs, and empower educators to focus on what matters most – excellent learning.
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Breakout Room 220 minsTrusts are being encouraged to maintain internal scrutiny via an audit that monitors controls such as HR, IT, financial systems and estates. Jenny Fram describes what internal scrutiny has looked like historically, how it has changed recently, and what benefits come from adopting our multi-disciplinary method.
We help institutions make sense of the Handbook by delivering impartial advice, monitoring projects, managing capital spend, and upholding value. Our experience in aligning works to statutory and DfE standards has given us unique knowledge of governmental constraints. As a result, we can help Trusts meet their internal scrutiny obligations prescribed in the Handbook
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Breakout Room 320 minsPayroll isn’t just numbers, it’s people’s livelihoods. With complex contracts, term-time only staff, pensions, and ever-shifting regulations, even small mistakes can damage trust and staff morale. Getting it right, every time, is non-negotiable.
This session explores the options: managing payroll in-house with the right technology or outsourcing to a trusted service partner. We’ll weigh up the pros and cons, share what a smooth transition looks like, and touch on moving away from shrinking LA support. Perfect for leaders who know payroll is too important to get wrong.
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Networking lunchDownstairs40 mins
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Main Room30 mins
- Panel
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Main Room20 minsEnergy should power learning, not drain budgets. In this session, we’ll show how forward-thinking trusts are reclaiming wasted energy spend and redirecting it back into revenue budgets. We’ll explain how eEnergy’s £100m funding facility enables fully funded LED and solar programmes with zero upfront capital, cutting costs from day one while improving light quality, estate resilience and carbon performance. We’ll share practical insights on funding structures, delivery at scale across multi-site portfolios, and how to unlock measurable savings that support both educational outcomes and climate commitments. The opportunity is significant. The model is proven. The impact is immediate. -
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Breakout Room 120 minsIs your Trust’s digital budget vanishing into a “Black Hole”? With DfE scrutiny on financial sustainability reaching new heights, “we think it’s being used” is a multi-thousand-pound gamble you can’t afford to take.
Most MATs have a digital blind spot: paying for software that sits idle while students lose out. This session exposes why Single Sign-On is just the floor—not the ceiling. Discover how ClassLink turns simple, secure access into strategic intel, allowing you to reclaim wasted budgets, prove Value for Money, and bridge the disadvantage gap with surgical precision. Stop guessing. Start leading with clarity! -
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Breakout Room 220 minsFire risk assessment in schools differs significantly from offices, retail, or housing. Yet many trusts assume their arrangements are robust, until expansion exposes inconsistency. Rapid growth, varied building types, and unclear accountability can quietly increase risk across a portfolio.
This session challenges assumptions about fire safety, assessor competency, and trust-wide governance. What should trustees and CEOs seek for real assurance? How can you be confident your FRA is fit for purpose, especially when acquiring a new school?
Drawing on extensive education-sector experience, this session will help you spot variability, strengthen oversight, and treat fire safety as a strategic leadership responsibility, not just compliance.
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Breakout Room 320 minsParentPay Group is the operating system for well run schools, supporting MATs that need connected systems, centralised data and consistent processes across every site. As trusts face disconnected tools, duplicated admin, inconsistent parent comms, finance processes that don’t scale, and increasing cyber risk, our platform brings everything together.
SIMS Next Gen, Engage, Pay and Finance form one secure cloud ecosystem with real time trust wide visibility and seamless writeback between systems. During this session, we’ll take you through our roadmap — showing how these solutions continue to evolve — helping MATs strengthen oversight, reduce complexity and deliver exceptional outcomes across every school.
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Main Room20 minsWhat’s it like to build an AI agent for over 180 MATs? Joe reflects on the experience of building Robin, from the unexpected quirks of LLMs, to the power of small and supercharged teams.
In this session you’ll get the chance to:
– Reflect on your own AI projects and strategy
– Understand common pitfalls and misconceptions around AI adoption
– See the new features coming to Robin, to do even more for your team -
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Breakout Room 120 minsThis session reveals how leading MATs are outmanoeuvring competitors by meeting candidates everywhere they scroll, search, and connect. We’ll expose the multichannel strategies that transform your trust from invisible to unmissable: integrated campaigns that turn passive scrollers into active applicants, strategic employer branding that makes talent choose you, and proactive pipelines that fill roles before they’re even posted. Discover proven frameworks that connect attraction, internal mobility, and retention into one powerful strategy. Walk away with tangible tactics and an exclusive look at real-life campaign results that have saved trusts thousands while delivering the specialists everyone’s competing for. -
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Breakout Room 220 minsJoin Amy Phillips, Senior Finance Consultant with over 10 years of experience in Academy finance spanning secondary, primary and Multi Academy Trust settings and Connor Wilson, Head of Sales at SBS for this fireside chat exploring the do’s and don’ts of budget setting and overcoming the dreaded deficit. -
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Breakout Room 320 minsICT can feel like a minefield, and school leaders are often expected to navigate it all. But ICT goes beyond the basics, it needs strategy, a clear plan and the right people to bring it together. In this panel, trust leaders and Tel Group share what “good IT” really looks like in a multi-school environment and how to achieve it. Through real examples, we’ll explore the challenges trusts face when inheriting inconsistent systems, unclear priorities and reactive support. We’ll discuss turning DfE standards into a practical roadmap, strengthening cyber foundations and why strategic IT support is essential
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area75 mins
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Main Room20 minsReading and writing underpin every student outcome in your trust—yet most leaders still lack precise, actionable insight into what every pupil can and cannot yet do. In this session from former teacher and Director of Education, now founder of 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐮𝐬 Dominic Bristow shares how their DfE-backed programme is turning English into a truly granular, mastery-enabled discipline, using AI as a rigorous second marker rather than a shortcut to generic “AI slop” inevitable from ChatGPT. He will explore what reliable, continually teacher-improved automation makes possible for moderation, CPD and targeted intervention—and invite you to help shape the next phase of the programme, and the future of improving writing.
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Main Room30 mins
- Panel
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Main Room5 mins
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90 mins
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Drinks reception and networking dinnerDownstairs135 mins
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Main Room5 mins
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Main Room30 mins
- Fireside debate
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Main Room20 minsLucien Bowater, CEO of Olex.AI will show real-world impact studies of how AI is re-shaping Assessment and Progress Monitoring at Trusts across the UK. This will include case studies which won Olex the Bett 2026 Award for “Assessment Planning & Progress Monitoring”.
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Main Room20 minsThis session explores how centralised admissions infrastructure gives MATs instant visibility into student recruitment across schools. Attendees will see how trusts can use unified dashboards to access real-time pipeline data, streamline admissions processes, improve financial forecasting, and transform operational information into a strategic asset for confident, proactive decision-making at the board level. -
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Breakout Room 120 minsThe Five Pillar approach to managing a sustainable estate in schools provides a practical framework for creating safe, efficient, and future-ready learning environments. The pillars typically include environmental responsibility, effective resource management, strong governance, community engagement, and financial sustainability. Together, they help schools reduce carbon emissions, improve energy and water efficiency, enhance biodiversity, and maintain safe, compliant buildings.
A core principle is that data is treasure: you can only manage what you measure. By collecting and analysing data on energy use, water consumption, maintenance, space utilisation, and carbon emissions, schools can identify inefficiencies, set realistic targets, track progress, and make informed investment decisions that deliver measurable impact and long-term value. -
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Breakout Room 220 minsThe National College Advanced for Groups Package gives MAT leaders trust-wide oversight of essential management processes to drive improvement.
Use one, trusted platform for all your CPD, compliance and appraisal needs:
✓ maintain visibility at trust, school and individual level
✓ ensure trust-wide consistency of systems, processes, and expectations
✓ gain strategic insights to guide short-term action and long-term planning
✓ evidence robust governance
✓ deliver assurance for all stakeholdersYou can tailor our platform and content to meet the specific needs of your group structure and schools, and take full control of essential, trust-wide processes.
Join us to find out more.
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Breakout Room 320 minsOver the past year, Top Marks AI have been helping MATs with their marking burden. And we’ve seen what really matters to schools and educators: accuracy, scale, and pedagogical quality.
We will discuss how we’ve:
> led the way in not only delivering accurate marking, but in evidencing our accuracy against exam board benchmarks (routinely hitting 90%+ correlation with chief examiners).
> have enabled schools to mark entire handwritten scripts, at scale, across a broad range of subjects – saving teachers thousands of hours.
> have set a benchmark for pedagogical quality, with ex-teachers and domain experts baking in quality.
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Main Room20 mins
- Case study
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Breakout Room 120 minsNow 1 year in as CEO of Consilium Academies, Michael will explore how school trusts can drive rapid improvement without leaving disadvantaged students behind. Focusing on a values-driven, people-first approach, he’ll discuss strategies to raise standards, improve attendance, and achieve strong outcomes, all while ensuring that every child, including those who have struggled elsewhere, is supported and included.
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Breakout Room 220 minsExplore practical strategies for keeping talented staff engaged and motivated in today’s demanding education landscape. Learn how to build a supportive culture, invest in professional development, and implement retention-focused initiatives that reduce turnover while sustaining school performance.
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Breakout Room 320 minsThis session highlights practical strategies, real-world examples, and lessons learned from successful partnerships that improve student outcomes and strengthen community ties.
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area60 mins
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Main Room60 mins
- Roundtables
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Main Room20 mins
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Networking lunchDownstairs45 mins