National hubs for the development of outstanding leadership development and succession planning strategies.

Colyton Grammar School leads a partnership of eight schools, four in East Devon and the rest spread across the South West. 

The partnership consists of The Axe Valley Community School. The King’s School, Ottery St. Mary, Sidmouth College and the five (soon to be seven) schools of the South West Academic Trust.

Our current partners in the South West Academic Trust are Bournemouth School, Torquay Boys’ and Torquay Girls’ Grammar Schools, Poole Grammar School, South Wilts Grammar School and the University of Exeter - see www.exeter.ac.uk/SWAT

Although we vary in experience, we share the challenges of developing our leadership teams and preparing for changes in our work force in the years to come.

As the SWAT expands, new members will be ‘associate members’ of this Partnership, sharing the experiences but not being direct financial beneficiaries of the LPS funding.

Collaboratively we can support each other to develop coherent programmes for our schools and support the development of our own leadership capabilities. Given the geographical spread, the partnership will work at a ‘local’ (East Devon Schools) and ‘wider’ (SWAT Schools) level.

We would expect to work closely with all our partners to enable leaders to develop and broaden their experience in a wider range of contexts. We hope to draw upon the skills of the University of Exeter School of Education.

In due course we will seek to disseminate our experiences more widely via Devon, Bournemouth and Wiltshire LA s. 

We would also expect to work closely with the NCSL, YST and other Leadership Partner Schools to share and develop our provision for succession planning and leadership development.