PAG Growth Lab
PAG Growth Lab, the incubator offering Trusts the strategic knowledge and creative tools to support sustainable growth
Within the current national context, the school sector is evolving rapidly with a range of academy trusts of different sizes and makeups successfully growing their provision. For many more trusts however, growth is a tortuous process and pursuing development plans can both challenging and and frustrating. For exactly these reasons, Premier Advisory Group created Growth Lab.
Growth Lab is PAG’s growth management incubator for small to medium sized MATs looking to sustainably develop and grow their Trust.
Through a series of interactive engagements, we will advise you on how to bring your trust from its current position to its ideal or preferred state over an agreed period of time. Our experienced team have a passion for the sector and unrivalled industry insights across a diverse range of clients and through personal experiences working as MAT trustees. In combination with their consulting expertise, PAG will deliver you a series of efficient and tailored sessions that will help you set and achieve your strategic goals, over the short, mid and long term.
Offered as a series or as individual interactive sessions, we offer the following:
Considering Growth?
Our ‘considering growth?’ workshop investigates whether growth is the right thing for you at the current time and what it could look like. We advise that Trusts consider this workshop before committing to our programme. This interactive session will help you explore what your motivators for growth are and ensure that your current strategy is aligned with your expectations. For everyone, this workshop operates to understand your current position, your ambition for growth and aims to assess whether growth is right for you right now. The output of this session will be a universal agreement, within your Trust, whether growth is the right thing to pursue at the present time.
Audience: MAT and SAT Executive Teams, Trustees, Members, Executive Headteachers, FD/CFO
Duration: 3 hours
Growing sustainably
Our sustainability work advises trusts on how to balance growth within a changing policy environment. While most of the attention of trusts is usually focused on growth, it is more challenging and, arguably, more important to ensure the sustainability of the strategy. Growing too quickly and without care usually can lead to wasteful spending and reduction of resources. The due diligence a MAT has to undertake should be carefully planned and executed. This will provide a secure foundation on which the trust’s senior leaders, including trustees can build, in order to identify and implement specific actions which will help the trust grow in a considered and measured manner. This is all the more important as DfE and the offices of the RSCs are increasingly concerned at the performance of trust who are perceived to have pursue reckless plans for growth. We can be further commissioned to write your Trust a Regional School Commissioner’s compliant Growth Plan.
Audience: MAT and SAT Executive Teams, Trustees, Members, Executive Headteachers
Duration: 3 hours
Growth in accordance with your vision
Does your vision match your strategy for growth? It is an absolute necessity for MATs to think deeply about what their overarching vision, values and ethos are, how they implement these at the every-day school level, and how these will carry them forward as they expand to acquire new schools. Your vision gives you direction in the concrete steps you take forward, and through this session PAG will look at how your current vision is guiding your plans for growth. Your team will reflect back on whether your plans require modification in light of the refreshed outlook from the session. The output of this session will be a sharpened vision statement and a report on the local opportunities for growth in your area that align with your vision.
Audience: MAT and SAT Executive Teams, Trustees, Members, Executive Headteachers
Duration: 2 hours
Understanding your potential: 20 key growth factors
PAG has developed an interactive tool where we explore a range of 20 critical factors about your trust situation, including current performance, financial strength and detailed intake profiling. We will invest time to understand the strengths and challenges you face and what bearing these have on your ability to realise your plans. Whether this be the path or more organic growth, acquiring new schools though the Free Schools Programme or via Local Authority run competitions. With these results in hand, trusts will also have a compelling rationale for scrutiny by trustees who may be concerned about the pace and direction of growth. The output of this session will be a technical understanding of how, where and how much you want to grow.
Audience: MAT and SAT Executive Teams, Strategy and/or Growth Committees, Executive Headteachers
Duration: 2-3 hours
Incorporating Converter Schools
In attracting schools to join your Trust, it is vital to understand how to approach different types of schools. We have devised a solid strategy that equips your Trust to communicate and relate in ways that help you meet your growth milestones. This interactive session lays out the necessary considerations to establish new provision, in light of the reasonable sphere of operations within which the RSC would expect the trust. The output of this session will be a deeper understanding of the schools in your area that are on the verge of conversion and the ways to attract them. We can be further commissioned to strategise your plan of action for incorporating them into your Trust.
Audience: MAT and SAT Executive Teams, Trustees, Executive teams, strategy and/or growth committees
Duration: 2-3 hours
Incorporating Sponsor-Led Academies
In the politics of education, academy sponsors are prized in that they are in the vanguard of solving the problems in the system that have sometimes persisted for years. Historically, new sponsors appear to be offered schools that more established sponsors have turned down. The due diligence process alone can be a drain on resources, let alone the work of school improvement and this needs to be considered carefully. In this workshop, we will advise prospective sponsors on how to evidence capacity and capability to improve schools and attracting these specific academies. We will also make suggestions as to how the costs of appropriate due diligence can be offset. The output of this session will be a deeper understanding of the sponsor-led academies in your area and the ways to attract them. We can be further commissioned to strategise your plan of action on how to attract these into your Trust.
Audience: MAT and SAT Executive Teams, Trustees, Executive teams, strategy and/or growth committees
Duration: 2-3 hours
We are continually adding products to the Growth Lab suite, so be sure to check back soon and to stay in touch.