How Palladian Academy Trust is strengthening school-family relationships by listening deeply
At Palladian Academy Trust, a family of schools rooted in Bath and Wiltshire, leadership is about more than academic excellence—it's about building equitable opportunities for every child by strengthening the relationships that surround them.
Serving communities across two local authorities presents unique challenges, from varied political landscapes to historical barriers in education. Yet, by listening deeply to a wide range of stakeholders from across the schools’ communities, and shifting the focus from perceived problems to community assets, Palladian is fostering a new ecosystem of trust and collaboration.
This work is driven by a core belief: that schools are ‘necessary but not sufficient’ to ensure all children can flourish. The journey hasn't always been straightforward. Initial efforts to connect with pre-school providers, inspired by national C2C models, revealed a mismatch with local reality: many families weren't using those services, or were using ones closer to work than to their future primary school. This prompted a crucial shift in thinking. The trust moved away from the notion that some families are "hard to reach," recognising instead that the education system itself can be difficult for families to access and navigate. This insight became the foundation for their relational work.
The challenge: Building trust across a diverse landscape
Palladian’s schools are geographically connected but serve distinct communities with different needs and histories. To build coherence, the trust first had to overcome a legacy of caution from local authorities and other organisations, some of whom had previous experiences with academy trusts that had operated in a prescriptive or inflexible manner. The leadership team knew that to succeed, they couldn’t simply impose a top-down model. Instead, they needed to act as conveners, creating a shared vision by listening, collaborating, and empowering others.
Palladian Academy Trust is a family of 13 schools located across Bath & Wiltshire (12 primary schools and one secondary)
Listening differently and empowering the community
Palladian’s listening strategy has been multifaceted and intentional. It started with surveys and community days, but soon evolved to be more responsive. The trust recognised that initial feedback lacked depth, not because people didn't care, but because respondents “didn't know what they didn't know". This meant asking better questions and meeting people where they were.
To achieve this, Palladian has:
Empowered governors and trustees: Recognising that local governors are deeply embedded in their communities, the trust tasked them with leading local listening circles and building partnerships, giving them clear roles and responsibilities to drive community engagement from the ground up.
Developed a distributed leadership model: Community Champions—a network including teachers, Family Liaison Officers, catering staff, and teaching assistants—were nominated from each school to lead on community and family engagement. This ensured that initiatives were shaped by colleagues with diverse roles and deep contextual understanding, fostering greater buy-in and sustainability.
Acted on what they heard: A key theme from a 2024 parent survey was the need for better communication and support around learning. This feedback directly led to the development of the Palladian Promise for Families and a Family Engagement Framework, designed to audit and improve how schools connect with families. From September 2025, every academy will use this framework to identify three key focus areas for their school development plan, ensuring the work is tailored to each community’s specific needs.
Building systemic coherence from the ground up
Palladian’s relational work extends beyond its school gates, focusing on building strong, collaborative partnerships that create lasting systemic change. This has been achieved not by leading from the front, but by actively over-communicating, sharing good practice generously, and focusing on solutions.
Key initiatives include:
Co-creating the Wiltshire Disadvantage Charter: Working with the Wiltshire Learning Alliance (which comprises stakeholders from across education, including representatives from the maintained and academy sectors, partner organisations, officers and elected members, to serve all schools across Wiltshire), Palladian co-wrote and launched a charter designed to unite schools around an ambitious framework for supporting learners experiencing disadvantage. By adapting language and co-designing the initiative, the trust helped foster widespread adoption across other trusts and local authority schools.
Driving city-wide collaboration in Bath: Through a volunteer stakeholder network, Bath Education Partnership, the trust is working with other state and independent schools, employers, and charities to create shared opportunities. A major success has been the establishment of a city-wide careers fair, pooling resources to give all young people meaningful interactions with employers.
Pioneering an Affordable Schools Framework: Palladian has implemented a framework to systematically review and reduce financial pressures, as it recognises that the financial cost of attending school and engaging in educational visits and extra-curricular activities can be a significant barrier for some families. This has led to practical changes, such as overhauling expensive, bespoke uniforms and creating trust-wide residential trips abroad to make them accessible and affordable for all pupils, including those from the smallest schools or those seeking asylum.
Why it matters
At Palladian, building relational coherence is not an add-on; it is central to their mission of providing "excellent and equitable opportunities so everyone can flourish". By moving from a "school-centric" to a "family-centric" approach, the trust is breaking down the invisible barriers that can prevent genuine partnership. This work is underpinned by a robust educational offer, including a coherent curriculum spine from EYFS to Year 9 and an evidence-informed professional development model, the “Blueprint for Learning”. These ensure that strong relationships are built on a foundation of high-quality learning for every child.
Palladian’s work shows how a trust can make meaningful progress on cradle-to-career coherence by listening hard, empowering people closest to families, and acting on what they hear.
The emphasis here is deliberately school-and-family centred: clearer roles for governors and staff; a shared Family Engagement Framework; and trust-wide tools that help each school tailor priorities to context. It’s a disciplined move from school-centric to family-centric practice that strengthens relationships and smooths children’s journeys through their institution and beyond.
Palladian’s story is one example of what happens when trusts start by listening and build from there. If you’re developing similar approaches to family and community engagement, connect with Verity Howorth to share learning or find out how the C2C Partnership can support you.
NB: The information included in this post is based on conversations with Palladian Academy Trust in the summer of 2025 and is not indicative of the current progress of the C2C model, school or community context.
by Anna Bosher
Data & Impact Lead
The Reach Foundation
