With a focus on professional development, collaboration and the Trust's shared vision, this year's conference took a bespoke approach, with six dedicated Conference Hubs offering targeted sessions for different groups of staff.

The hubs brought together colleagues with shared roles and responsibilities, ensuring that the morning was relevant, purposeful and made the best use of everyone's time. Each programme was designed to provide practical ideas, opportunities to share expertise and learning that could have a meaningful impact back in individual schools.

Sessions took place across a number of Trust schools and included primary teachers exploring reading, writing and maths strategies; EYFS colleagues sharing practical approaches to developing language; and Inclusion Base Leads taking part in bespoke professional development supported by Special Schools Outreach.

Secondary teachers from our four schools came together for subject network sessions, while teaching assistants and pupil-facing support staff from primary and secondary schools took part in two focused sessions. These explored supporting the academic achievement of pupils experiencing economic disadvantage, alongside understanding behaviour and effective de-escalation. Administrative colleagues also benefited from a programme of online workshops covering a range of operational areas.

Throughout the day, Cambrian's vision and Trust Goals remained integral to the programme, ensuring that professional development was connected to the shared ambition for all children across the Trust. This includes ensuring every child feels they belong, matter and are valued, can readily access and embrace learning, and experiences a high-quality education that leads to great outcomes for their next steps in life.

The day culminated with all staff returning to their schools for the afternoon to watch a recorded message from CEO Richard Evans, Director of Education Louise Warren and Chair of the Board of Trustees Anthony Cook. The video reflected on highlights and achievements across Trust schools during the last academic year, explored the importance of effective teaching and looked ahead to the Trust's aims and vision for the future. Each school team then spent time reflecting on their key takeaways from the morning sessions and considered how the overarching Trust goals have shaped the individual goals and development plans for their school.

The annual conference provided a valuable opportunity for colleagues to reconnect, share expertise and develop their knowledge and skills, ensuring that the learning and ideas from the day continue to make a difference in classrooms and school communities across Cambrian Learning Trust.

Richard Evans, CEO of Cambrian Learning Trust, said: “Our vision to be a Beacon of Excellence is at the heart of everything we do. Our annual conference is an important opportunity to bring colleagues together, strengthen our shared understanding of what we want to achieve and ensure we are all working towards the same goals. By investing in our people, sharing expertise and continually developing the quality of teaching and learning, we are building strong foundations for success and ensuring every child has the opportunity to thrive. Our values of integrity, kindness, ambition and unity underpin this work and will continue to guide us as we move forward together.”

Feedback from the day included:

This year felt the right balance of going to a morning session and then coming back together to discuss and reflect on our sessions together was really powerful. We don't have the time to do this and the buzz of staff coming together and sharing was a real morale boost.

The atmosphere and collaboration was great and insightful. 

It's been great to have a conference based specifically on Early Years- there was lots of specific information shared and it was great to get all EYFS colleagues together in one space. 

Doing online courses meant that I could use my time efficiently 

I really valued the EYFS hub specifically tailored to our needs especially to be able to work alongside my support staff who often do not have the chance to see the different strategies and resources being demonstrated. 

Please do the Hub model again next year!