Top education award win for Gosport and Fareham schools group as staff say they are 'overwhelmed' by community engagement recognition

The Gosport and Fareham Multi-Academy Trust (GFM) won the Community Engagement Initiative of the Year award at the Tes Schools Awards on June 17.

Stuart Parker-Tyreman, the trust’s executive director for extended services, said: ‘We’re quite overwhelmed. This is recognition for the whole team and what they’ve achieved.’

In 2020, the Gosport and Fareham Multi-Academy Trust responded proactively to the challenges of the pandemic by focusing its attention on improving the logistics of remote learning, and by providing comprehensive full-time holiday activities, food parcels and targeted interventions.

Judge Sir Tim Brighouse said: ‘They demonstrated all sorts of data showing that they were bothering to see not only what they did but whether it had an impact.’

Of the £295,120 the GFM received from the government for the Covid premium, nearly 100 per cent was spent on focused activities in direct response to the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

Highlights included small group and remote tutoring across all schools in the trust, upskilling the workforce to respond to remote learning, access to specialist and therapeutic services for individuals and families, mental health support, holiday provisions and evening tutoring, with more than 300 pupils benefitting from these bespoke interventions.

Jon Severs, chief judge of the Tes Schools Awards and editor of Tes magazine, said: ‘The Tes Schools Awards are the Oscars of education, recognising and celebrating everything that’s great about our schools and school staff.

‘Congratulations to the winning schools and thank you to all school staff who do such vital work every day.’