Benfield School has been part of the NEAT Academy Trust family of schools since 1 April 2017. We have six schools within the trust: four primary schools and two secondary schools.
NEAT was set up as a multi-academy trust (MAT) in April 2017. A MAT is a charitable organisation that works collaboratively to improve and maintain high educational standards across a number of schools. Each school within a MAT is an academy.
NEAT is a mixed MAT because it includes schools with and without a religious character. We work closely with the Durham and Newcastle Diocesan Education Boards about the governance of the trust and the performance of our Church of England schools.
You can find out more about our trust by watching our Welcome to NEAT video on the NEAT Academy Trust YouTube channel and on the NEAT website.
We are guided by our shared purpose – what is important to us – to nurture, educate, achieve and transform.
We are driven by our values – how we do things – which are: aspirational, collaborative, inclusive, innovative and responsible.
We are firmly rooted in our local communities, which enables us to develop and share effective strategies to enable our pupils to improve their life chances with the support of their families.
Newcastle Research School within our trust is one of only 30 schools across the country that has been awarded this designation by the Education Endowment Foundation. This enables us to engage with schools across the north east region to use and develop evidence-based practice to improve teaching and learning.
We work with partners regionally and nationally including the local authorities and combined authorities where our schools are based. We work with the Newcastle Promise Board to enable “a city where we all share responsibility for providing the best educational opportunities for all our children and young people”.
NEAT’s registered office is at 1 Hedley Court, Orion Business Park, North Shields, NE29 7ST
Telephone: (0191) 228 4090
The Newcastle Promise
The local governing committees of all NEAT schools have signed the Newcastle Promise. The Trust believes that a collaborative approach, as already adopted within NEAT and its teaching school alliance, is the most effective way to support school improvement and effectiveness across Newcastle.
Newcastle Promise Board is a citywide partnership lead by Headteachers to shape the approach to sector-led improvement.
With changes to how schools and local authorities are funded coinciding with changes to how a number of schools are governed, it has long been the desire of Newcastle to create a formal partnership to enable schools to have a unified voice and to support a sector led school system.
The ambition is that the Promise Board will champion all Newcastle young people. Schools will hold each other to account to provide the very best educational opportunities for every young person. The board will create a stronger united voice that will enable schools to influence decisions and articulate the needs of schools, for schools, helping to ensure the broadest view of education across our Newcastle schools.
The Newcastle Promise sets out a clear statement of intent from the Promise Board and will frame and guide the development of models of joint working.
The Newcastle Promise
A city where we all share responsibility for providing the best educational opportunities for all our children and young people
We will:
• Create the sense of belonging in our schools, where children are proud of the present and ambitious for their future
• Support and challenge each other so that no school or child is left behind
• Drive improvement, seeking excellence through equity
• Work creatively, beyond institutional boundaries, to raise standards and maximise the learning opportunities for all
• Build a collaborative learning community, sharing our success, innovation and evidence-based practice
Read more about the Promise Board and the Newcastle Promise.