Join DMAT

When you join DMAT you become so much more than a part of a Multi-Academy Trust. You are joining a family of professionals who enjoy working together and  are committed to using the best available research evidence, to transform the life chances of all children.

We are excited about the work that we do and are committed to ongoing professional growth and development.  At DMAT, ‘getting better never stops’.

At DMAT  we have worked hard to grow a culture in our schools where all staff are looked after, supported and professionally enriched.  In an ever-changing educational landscape, we have kept our focus on three very clear priorities:

  • Ensuring all staff are able to have a sensible work/life balance – this means that we constantly review what we do, so all staff are able to thrive and focus on their core purpose.
  • A strong focus on evidence informed CPD – professional growth and development is a high priority for us.  We use the research evidence around effective professional development to ensure all staff are enriched.
  • Developing and growing our own excellent leaders, who in turn are able to grow and develop their own high-performing teams.

Alongside this, we care deeply about staff well-being.  To support this, all DMAT staff have access to leaders in their school, SCITT and Trust team to whom they can go to for support.  DMAT staff also have free access to our ‘Employment Assistance Programme’.  This provides a range of personal, medical and well-being support and benefits..

Teaching at DMAT

Let us know you are interested in working with us by joining our Talent Pool

Our Culture

At DMAT work hard to maintain culture in our schools where all staff are looked after, supported and professionally enriched. We would love to hear from you if you think that you might want to play a part in the exciting DMAT journey! In an ever-changing educational landscape, we focus on clear priorities:

  • Ensuring all staff are able to have a sensible work/life balance – this means that we constantly review what we do, so teachers and leaders are able to focus on their core purpose.
  • An evidence informed approach to teaching and CPD – we don’t want our teachers wasting their time on low-impact, gimmicky approaches to teaching. We want them to shape their teaching around what research evidence says is most likely to work.
  • Developing and growing our own excellent leaders, who in turn are able to nurture their own high-performing teams.
  • Appointing external candidates with shared values, who will thrive in our schools.

Departments

Teaching

At DMAT, we moved away years ago from a ‘tick-box’ approach to teaching and have embraced a ‘tight but loose’ approach. We want teaching to be tight, in terms of focusing on sound , evidence-informed pedagogical principles resulting in strong outcomes for our pupils, but loose in terms of how this is interpreted in classrooms. We do not talk about ‘outstanding’ teaching and we do not grade lessons; instead we talk about great teaching and how all teachers can get that little bit better. Outstanding teaching is formulaic; great teaching accepts that successful teaching looks different in different contexts – great teachers are great at teaching their subject.


We have distilled our approach to great teaching down to six pedagogical principles:

  • Challenge
  • Explanation
  • Modelling
  • Practice
  • Questioning
  • Feedback

We believe that when teachers implement these principles effectively, students learn well, have high aspirations of what they can achieve and so develop into confident and resilient learners.

We allow Teachers to Focus on Their Core Purpose
We understand the importance of constantly reviewing our practices so that teachers are allowed to focus their energies on the main thing – planning and delivering great lessons. We do this by focusing on a number of key areas:

  • The culture of our schools is critical to ensuring we have an enjoyable, rewarding working environment in which all colleagues believe the demands of them in their role are reasonable and manageable.
  • We use INSET days and meeting times to support the idea of collaborative planning.
  • There is no trust wide approach to marking and feedback. There is also no centrally prescribed frequency of written feedback. Schools think carefully about evidence informed ‘feedback principles’ and contextualise these to their setting.
  • We use the research evidence to identify practices that are most likely to improve student outcomes – so teachers and leaders don’t waste their time on ineffective approaches.
  • All data analysis is carried out centrally for teachers and we continue to look at how we can make all processes and sharing of data as streamlined and relevant as possible.
  • There is no expectation that staff respond to emails in the evening or at weekends. We want all staff to be able to achieve a healthy work-life balance and we trust the professional judgement of our staff to make decisions about when they work outside school hours
  • We have worked hard to keep the contact time for teachers below local and national averages. Our class sizes are below national averages.
  • Our schools have well established systems and sanctions to support disruption free learning in lessons.
  • Any approach we take within our schools is fully reviewed. If it’s not working, we won’t continue with it for the sake of it. We will either ditch it or adapt it – or try something new.

Support Colleagues

At DMAT we understand that associate staff are an integral part of our success.  In the same way that we nurture and develop our teaching staff, we do the same for our associate staff.  Here are some of the ways in which we achieve this:


  • There are a number of leadership roles for associate staff, which involve leading teams across our schools.

  • We are really keen to identify talent within our associate staff and provide career progression pathways for them.  For example, a number of our teaching assistants have trained to teach through our SCITT.

  • Our INSET programmes are designed to include bespoke training for associate staff.  All too often, in the past INSET days were focused on teaching staff. 

  • Our appraisal process for associate staff means that time is given to understanding individual developmental needs, and supporting associate staff to meet these individual goals.

  • We have access to bespoke online training to support self-directed study, tailored to the individual needs of the range of associate staff roles within DMAT.

  • As our trust grows, there will be the opportunity for associate staff to work collaboratively across DMAT schools.


Support Colleagues

Our Trust

Durrington High School

The Laurels Primary School

Southdowns SCITT

Durrington Research School

Our People

Chris Woodcock

Co-Headteacher

Durrington High School

Shaun Allison

Co-Headteacher

Durrington High School

Charlotte Bull

Headteacher

The Laurels Primary School

Sue Marooney MBE

CEO

Durrington Multi Academy Trust

Pauline Montalto

Deputy CEO

Durrington Multi Academy Trust

Neil Feist

SCITT Programme Leader

The Southdowns SCITT

Chris Runeckles

Director of Research

Durrington Research School