The Bishop’s Stortford Educational Trust (BSET) was established in 2015 to create a co-operative, forward-thinking educational organisation to support provision from Early Years to Post-16 and beyond for the town of Bishop’s Stortford and its surrounding villages.

As a group of Headteachers we have developed a strong working relationship underpinned by honesty, transparency and trust. Whilst each of us values the individual characteristics of our own school we believe that we can create greater opportunities and success for our staff and students through working together.

We value and recognise the importance of collaboration over competition and are establishing networks and communities to encourage conversation and collaboration between our schools.

We are working together on areas such as school admissions, pastoral issues, financial efficiency and FE provision but some further initiatives include:

• The School Centred Initial Teaching Training (SCITT) was re-branded to the BSET SCITT along with the launch of a new dedicated website providing detailed information on opportunities to train to teach within our schools.
• Our SCITT also started working with local primary schools to provide in-school training for School Direct Primary Trainees rather than them having to travel to the University of Hertfordshire.
• We obtained Appropriate Body status from the DofE, and now provide training and support for our NQTs.  The training comprises of three full days training delivered by outstanding practitioners from within our schools.
• Our Subject Leaders meet regularly to discuss opportunities for professional development, collaboration and to share their expertise.

As part of the BSET collaboration we are looking to increase the opportunities for our staff, to network and support each other which we hope in turn will be of benefit to all and increase opportunities for our students.