How we support you...
Practical support. Trusted peers. More capacity to lead.
Joining a Trust should make life easier - not add another layer of pressure.
At Horsham Learning Alliance, we focus on the things that genuinely help day to day: sharing the load, connecting good people and creating the time and space for leaders and staff to focus on education.
We’re still early in our journey and growing deliberately. We’re building things carefully and listening to what will benefit our partners the most.
When leaders and staff feel supported and confident, young people benefit.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
Stronger professional learning across our partners
Professional development works best when it’s rooted in real classrooms and shared between colleagues across a family of schools and colleges.
Rather than each setting working in isolation, we’re beginning to create more regular opportunities for colleagues to learn alongside one another - sharing ideas, solving problems and learning from what’s already working nearby.
Through our developing HLA Campus - our shared approach to Trust-wide professional learning - we’re starting to bring staff together for joint training, collaboration and cross-school networks, shaped by what schools say they need most.
We describe this way of working as Future Learning - a key building block at the foundation of Horsham Learning Alliance. It means staying outward-looking, learning from one another and continually improving our practice together.
Colleagues from our partner schools are beginning to plan shared training, subject networks and joint development opportunities.
As more schools and colleges join HLA, this shared approach will grow with them.
Better experiences and outcomes for young people
Alongside supporting staff and leaders, everything we’re building comes back to our mission: improving the lives of local young people through education.
Rather than starting with big initiatives, we focus on creating the right conditions.
When leaders have time to lead, when staff feel supported and developed and when schools share expertise rather than working alone, the benefits are felt most strongly by pupils.
Early work includes a successful pilot to support Year 6 moving into Year 7, alongside conversations about how careers expertise from Collyer's can be shared more widely with younger students.
As collaboration grows, we’re beginning to explore the following opportunities:
- Smoother transitions between phases
- Shared careers education and enrichment
- Wider access to specialist knowledge and support
- Stronger links with families and the local community
Individually, these are small, practical steps.
Together, they help create a more connected and consistent experience for young people across Horsham.
Broader opportunities and benefits for your staff
Retaining great people and helping them see a future in the profession is a challenge for every school and college.
Being part of a local family of settings opens up possibilities that are harder to create alone or across a national network of academies.
Even short exchanges can spark new thinking and help staff feel part of something bigger than their own site.
Over time, our aim is to create clearer pathways for development and progression across HLA, so talented people can grow their careers locally.
Alongside development opportunities, being part of HLA also gives staff access to a wider range of benefits and wellbeing support than most individual schools can offer alone - from healthcare subsidies and salary sacrifice schemes to an Employee Assistance Programme.
These small but meaningful benefits help attract and retain great people in a challenging recruitment market, reducing the time and cost of recruitment for individual settings.
Working practices that protect wellbeing
We’re just as interested in how people work as what they teach.
School leadership and teaching are demanding, and sustainability matters. So we’re actively exploring ways to reduce unnecessary pressure and create more breathing space.
Through what we call Future Working, our schools are trialling and investigating approaches such as flexible working, smarter shared systems and central support that removes administrative burden where possible.
Alongside this, shared tools - including our brand new intranet, HLA StaffRoom - are being developed to simplify everyday tasks, improve communication across the Trust and help colleagues feel part of a wider professional community.
The goal isn’t to add initiatives - it’s to give leaders and staff more time to focus on education.
Hybrid working is in its second stage of trials and discussions around other flexible ways of working have begun. Trialling and building such initiatives wouldn't have been possible outside Horsham Learning Alliance.
Leadership and strategic direction
Alongside practical support, HLA provides experienced leadership at Trust level, working with school and college leaders to shape direction, respond to local challenges and navigate complexity.
Chief Executive Officer
Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Because the Trust is rooted in Horsham and focused on its partners, this support is close, responsive and shaped by the needs of the organisations it serves. Leaders are not working in isolation, but are able to draw on shared expertise and collective thinking - while retaining the identity and autonomy of their organisation.
Shared professional services that lighten the load
Sharing services and expertise also helps reduce unnecessary operational burdens on leaders, giving them more time to focus on education.
Professional services including HR, finance, marketing and digital are already established at Trust level, helping create greater consistency across HLA and reducing operational pressures on individual settings. As we grow, we also have the longer-term ambition of adding central Estates resource and expertise.
HR Director
Head of Finance
Marketing & Communications Manager
Digital Director
This means fewer operational pressures sitting with individual settings and more consistent, specialist support when it’s needed - freeing leaders to focus on their staff and students.
We believe strong professional services are fundamental to strong schools and colleges. They provide the expertise, consistency and operational support that give leaders the capacity to focus on education.
Governance that gives your local team more time
Director of Governance
We believe local governance should focus on what matters most to your setting - your students, staff and community.
As part of HLA, responsibilities such as finance oversight, statutory policies and quality standards sit with the Trust Board, supported by central governance expertise and coordination. This reduces administrative burden for Local Governing Bodies and creates more time to focus on strategic leadership, challenge and support.
Local Governing Bodies continue to play an important role in understanding their communities, supporting school leadership and helping shape the direction of their organisation.
Governors are supported through induction, ongoing development and access to experienced governance professionals across the Trust.
Rooted in our community
HLA was founded in Horsham, for Horsham.
Our purpose is not just to strengthen individual settings, but to contribute positively to the wider community our young people grow up in.
It’s another way we hope to use the collective strength of our schools and colleges to improve the lives of local young people.
Building this together
HLA is intentionally taking a steady, collaborative approach.
We’re starting small, learning what works and shaping HLA alongside the schools and colleges who join us.
These are first steps rather than finished systems, but they’re laying the foundations for a stronger, more connected local partnership.
And every new partner helps shape what comes next.
Ultimately, it's simple.
When schools and colleges trust each other and share the load:
- Leaders feel less isolated
- Staff feel more supported
- Young people get the time and attention they deserve
That’s what we’re building at HLA.
